Subject: New here... Looking for PDP 11 / RSTS help

From: Mark Firestone <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 08:40:00 2003

I'm new to this fine place, but not so new to retrocomputing... I had a 
question... I wonder if any of you know the answer...

I'm trying to relive my misspent youth, spent hacking into the RSTS/E 
system at Arizona State Univerisity.  I'm trying to set up a system with 
RSTS/E v9 and the version of Simh that supports DZ0: (DZ11) devices.  (on 
http://elvira.stacken.kth.se)

I have no problem building the system from the tapes (images)... that' s 
all fine.  When you look at the HARDWR LIST (when you don't start 
timesharing) it sees the device (DZ0:) --but--

when I try to connect via telnet, I just get

"welcome to the PDP simulator" and then nothing.

I'm assuming that you have to set something, somewhere else, to enable the 
device.  I've been though loads of RSTS/E manuals, and I can't figure it out.

In my defense, when I was messing about with RSTS/E (and learning to 
program and such) I was 12 years old, and didn't have access to the 
hardware.  I am the proud *owner* of a PDP 11/23, but my evil wife wouldn't 
let me transport it to England from Arizona, so it is in the custody of my 
friend in Phoenix....

Please help, if you can.  I'm starting to lose sleep over this one.  Oh 
yes, my wife did fill boxes with all sorts of stuff, like toilet roll and 
suave shampoo, so why my precious PDP 11/23 (and my TRS-80 Model II) had to 
be left behind I don't know.  Women!

Take Care,

Mark Firestone

---

From: "Zane H. Healy" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 09:04:00 2003

>I'm new to this fine place, but not so new to retrocomputing... I had a question... I wonder if any of you know the answer...

You might actually want to try posting these questions to USENET, I'm not sure how strong the RSTS/E experience is here...

>I'm trying to relive my misspent youth, spent hacking into the RSTS/E system at Arizona State Univerisity.  I'm trying to set up a system with RSTS/E v9 and the version of Simh that supports DZ0: (DZ11) devices.  (on http://elvira.stacken.kth.se)

Am I to understand that you're using a hacked version of SIMH V2.3?  Go get a copy of the real thing, that will hopefully solve your problem.
http://simh.trailing-edge.com/

Bob, just released V3.0, V2.3 is *very* old.

>I have no problem building the system from the tapes (images)... that' s all fine.  When you look at the HARDWR LIST (when you don't start timesharing) it sees the device (DZ0:) --but--
>
>I'm assuming that you have to set something, somewhere else, to enable the device.  I've been though loads of RSTS/E manuals, and I can't figure it out.

I know I've had this working with SIMH under V10.1, and I think I've had it working with V9.something.  That would have been using something like SIMH V2.9 or V2.10.  Basically I just did a simple install following the instructions in my install manual.

You might be interested in the following webpage as well, it's part of my DEC Emulation website.
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/pdp11emu.html

Overall, I find running RSTS/E under emulation to be preferable to running it on my PDP-11/73.  My only problem has been that I can't get DECnet installed on either SIMH, E11, or the PDP-11/73.  I can get the furthest on E11.

Thought for the day, installing RSTS/E by the book on a 2GB drive on a PDP-11/73 is "fun", it takes forever to do the three checks of the drive!  As I recall, just one pass took over 12 hours.  On an emulator, it's very fast.

			Zane

-- 
--
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| [email-masked] (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
|                                  | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|          PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum.         |
|                http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/               |

---

From: "Rick Bensene" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 09:22:00 2003

Is it possible to take a .tap image of a RSTS/E installation (e.g. 9.2)
and convert
it to a disk image (e.g., RL02)?  The tape image is bootable, and the
standalone system
has means to initialize a disk and copy a minimal system to the disk,
which when booted
from, starts the SYSGEN process, and reads the rest of the tape (after
the boot) to
restore the various system files and packages.

What I'd like to do is convert the tape image I have into a bootable
disk image that would perform
the same function.  Or, alternatively, does anyone have a bootable
installation disk image
for RL02 for RSTS 9.x?  My understanding is that the installation RL02
for 9.2 took two
RL02 packs.

My 11/34A doesn't have a tape drive, but I've got two RL02's, an RL01,
and a couple of RK05's, and
plenty of spare packs.  I'd like to try to install 9.2 (I know, it'll be
SLOW) on it, but the .tap images I've got aren't usable for lack of a
tape drive.

Thanks,

Rick

---

From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Jun 30 03:32:00 2003

> "welcome to the PDP simulator" and then nothing.
Hmm, wasnt there a switch ("att -m dz0" comes to mind) you had to use
to change SimH's default behavior w.r.t. carrier detection?  Basically,
although the connection works (you got the Telnet banner), the DZ11
does not report a valid carrier-detect signal to RSTS, meaning it
wont fire up a new terminal session.

I had the same problem in Ultrix-11 when this feature was first
present in SimH.

> be left behind I don't know.  Women!
Next time, leave the wife in Phx.  :)

--f

---

From: Mark Firestone <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Jun 30 05:34:00 2003

Cool!  Thanks for your advice, it works great now!

Now the problem I have is trying to set up Dungeo  (and adventure and such 
like...) on this machine.  The only source I can find is for VMS (off the 
trailing edge website)... I've experimented with using a rt11 .sav file, 
but so far no dice.

Does anyone have .sav versions of these old games for RSTS/E?  Or the 
fortran sources for RSTS?

Wow.  12 hours to test a disk.  Ah, the good old days.  I thought it was 
slow (at about 10 minutes) on my 366 laptop... (;

I'm working out an idea in my head to interface the whole thing though my 
(homebrew) Ruby BBS.  Might mean creating a couple
hundred accounts, though...

Thanks for all your help.  This is a great group.  I think you guys are 
stuck with me now.

Take Care,

Mark

At 07:00 27/06/2003 -0700, you wrote:

>Am I to understand that you're using a hacked version of SIMH V2.3?  Go 
>get a copy of the real thing, that will hopefully solve your problem.
>Thought for the day, installing RSTS/E by the book on a 2GB drive on a 
>PDP-11/73 is "fun", it takes forever to do the three checks of the 
>drive!  As I recall, just one pass took over 12 hours.  On an emulator, 
>it's very fast.
>
>                         Zane

[---------]
"Homer, we don't have to have sex."
"Yes we do, the cookie told me so."
"Deserts aren't always right Homer."
"But they're so delicious."

Website:      retrobbs.org
BBS:           telnet bbs.retrobbs.org 2323
Tradewars:   telnet tradewars.retrobbs.org
[---------]

---

From: Mark Firestone <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Jun 30 05:52:00 2003

Thanks for the info.  I think this also has to do with what Thord said in 
an email to me... about setting the lines to dialup.  Right now, on my 
setup, you have to hit the return key a few times before the simulator 
notices you are there.  I'll have a play with it when (a) I get home or (b) 
by boss isn't watching... (;

Oh ya, I had to take the wife... it was her idea.  She's from England, and 
didn't like Phoenix.  So, I am stuck here now...  for the duration...

take care,

Mark

[---------]

Website:      retrobbs.org