Re: [Simh] Idea for a Simh guide

[Paul Koning]

Ray,

Great idea!  I'll offer help on the subject of RSTS-11 and RSTS/E.  

Come to think of it, I need to gather up some notes about some work I've done 
on old versions: (1) building RSTS-11 V4A from a kit (tricky, because it really 
wants to be done with DOS 4 and not later versions, and DOS 4 is a bit 
difficult to find and has bizarre installation procedures of its own).  And (2) 
try to run the V3A and V3C images on Bitsavers.  (I had success with V3C; the 
V3A image seems to be missing a valid boot block so that requires more work.  
Also, V3 manuals appear to be utterly nonexistent.)

paul

> On May 8, 2017, at 9:04 PM, Ray Jewhurst  wrote:
> 
> With all of the questions I have asked lately, I have had an idea. First a 
> little bit of background. I am 45 years old and have really only had exposure 
> to PCs and Macs. Although I briefly ran backups on an IBM mainframe and a HP 
> HP/UX machine of some kind, I really didn't learn much since I simply 
> followed a script. Then about 10 years ago I discovered Simh. I have always 
> been intrigued by minis but I knew nothing about them. I did stuff like 
> booted RT- 11 and running Unix but I just flirted with it on and off. Then 
> about a year ago I got really interested and for a short time I contributed 
> to the "show dev" descriptions but I hate C so I decided to immerse myself 
> into various configurations of systems and whatnot. Now I am totally 
> infatuated almost obsessed with the PDP- 11 and the VAX although I have only 
> seen photos of these systems. 
> 
> I want to share my love of these oldies but goodies to a new generation of 
> computer aficionados. That is where I hope you all come in. I would like to 
> make a guide and maybe a blog introducing people to the various machines 
> simulated. I would like to make easy to understand instructions in plain 
> English-speaking and advice on how to use the available resources online 
> especially Bitsavers. One of my favorite bands say, "Energy is contagious, 
> enthusiasm spreads."-Rush, Chain Lightning. That is what I hope to do. What 
> do you guys think? Would any of you be willing to contribute? The approach I 
> would like to take is as I learn my readers learn. 
> 
> Thanks 
> Ray  
> ___
> Simh mailing list
> Simh@trailing-edge.com
> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian

[Mark Pizzolato]

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:16 AM, Alan Perry wrote:
> -Original Message-
> From: Simh [mailto:simh-boun...@trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Alan
> Perry
> Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 11:16 AM
> To: Mark Pizzolato ; simh@trailing-edge.com
> Subject: Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and
> Raspbian
> > On 5/9/17 10:42 AM, Mark Pizzolato wrote:
> > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote:
> >> I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750
> >> on a Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project
> >> lead
> >> (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions
> >> for configuring it.
> >>
> >> It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with
> >> a remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to
> >> make this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated
> >> VAX. But when I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no
> >> corresponding activity on my network.
> >>
> >> Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing
> >> is going out to the network?
> > To start understanding what is going on, please provide:
> > 1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your
> simulator.
> > 2) the same for the remote simulator.
> > 3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators
> >
> > - Mark
> Other that the IP address and port, I don't have info on the other remote
> simulator.

The first Info you'll need is confirmation that others are, in fact, able 
to successfully connect to the particular remote system you're trying to 
reach. 

> My SHOW VERSION output is:
> VAX 11/750 simulator V4.0-0 Beta
>  Simulator Framework Capabilities:
>  64b data
>  64b addresses
>  Threaded Ethernet Packet transports:PCAP:TAP:VBE:NAT:UDP
>  Idle/Throttling support is available
>  Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) support
>  RAW disk and CD/DVD ROM support
>  Asynchronous I/O support (Lock free asynchronous event queue)
>  Asynchronous Clock support
>  FrontPanel API Version 4
>  Host Platform:
>  Compiler: GCC 4.9.2
>  Simulator Compiled as C arch: ARM (Release Build) on Apr 29 2017 at 
> 01:13:50
>  Memory Access: Little Endian
>  Memory Pointer Size: 32 bits
>  Large File (>2GB) support
>  SDL Video support: No Video Support
>  PCRE RegEx support for EXPECT commands
>  OS clock resolution: 1ms
>  Time taken by msleep(1): 1ms
>  OS: Linux nmtvax 4.9.24-v7+ #993 SMP Wed Apr 26 18:01:23 BST 2017 
> armv7l GNU/Linux
>  git commit id: 7a46fcf1
> 
> My simulator's .ini file:
>  set dz lines=0

This line MUST produce an error message.

>  set dz 8b

This line doesn't change anything since 8b is the default

>  # Connect some lines to remote servers
>  # Connect the remaining lines to listen on port 5000
>  attach dz -m -a line=0,Connect= simulator>:
>  att dz -m -a 5000
>  set xu enable
>  att xu nat:
>  set rq0 ra81
>  att rq0 nmtvax.dsk
>  att ts nmtvax.tap
>  ...
> 
> Do you need more of it than this?
> 
> The boot disk image, .tap image, and .ini file are generated by a script that 
> is
> part of the UUCP project.
> 
> Again, I am not asking anyone to fix this for me. Just asking for suggestions 
> on
> where to look for what could be going wrong.

There are many potential points of failure when you're trying to reach directly 
between what I'm guessing here are two independent consumer class networks, 
probably with various firewall pieces at several steps along the way.  
Addressing all of these issues is completely your problem.

Since you're using system configurations provided by the UUCP project, it would 
seem most useful to ask them for help troubleshooting problems with their stuff.

Knowing nothing else, all I can offer is that you can play with simh debugging, 
by adding different forms of these line to the beginning of your configuration 
file:
sim> set debug -t debug.file
or for ALL available debug output:
sim> set DZ debug
or specific debug details try:
sim> help dz set
and then pick the different debug details you may want to have reported.

Good Luck.

- Mark
___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian

[Alan Perry]

On 5/9/17 10:42 AM, Mark Pizzolato wrote:

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote:

I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on a
Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead
(Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions for
configuring it.

It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a
remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make
this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But when
I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding activity on
my network.

Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is going
out to the network?

To start understanding what is going on, please provide:
1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your simulator.
2) the same for the remote simulator.
3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators

- Mark
Other that the IP address and port, I don't have info on the other 
remote simulator.


My SHOW VERSION output is:
VAX 11/750 simulator V4.0-0 Beta
Simulator Framework Capabilities:
64b data
64b addresses
Threaded Ethernet Packet transports:PCAP:TAP:VBE:NAT:UDP
Idle/Throttling support is available
Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) support
RAW disk and CD/DVD ROM support
Asynchronous I/O support (Lock free asynchronous event queue)
Asynchronous Clock support
FrontPanel API Version 4
Host Platform:
Compiler: GCC 4.9.2
Simulator Compiled as C arch: ARM (Release Build) on Apr 29 
2017 at 01:13:50

Memory Access: Little Endian
Memory Pointer Size: 32 bits
Large File (>2GB) support
SDL Video support: No Video Support
PCRE RegEx support for EXPECT commands
OS clock resolution: 1ms
Time taken by msleep(1): 1ms
OS: Linux nmtvax 4.9.24-v7+ #993 SMP Wed Apr 26 18:01:23 BST 
2017 armv7l GNU/Linux

git commit id: 7a46fcf1

My simulator's .ini file:
set dz lines=0
set dz 8b
# Connect some lines to remote servers
# Connect the remaining lines to listen on port 5000
attach dz -m -a line=0,Connect=simulator>:

att dz -m -a 5000
set xu enable
att xu nat:
set rq0 ra81
att rq0 nmtvax.dsk
att ts nmtvax.tap
...

Do you need more of it than this?

The boot disk image, .tap image, and .ini file are generated by a script 
that is part of the UUCP project.


Again, I am not asking anyone to fix this for me. Just asking for 
suggestions on where to look for what could be going wrong.


alan

___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian

[Mark Pizzolato]

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote:
> I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on a
> Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead
> (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions for
> configuring it.
> 
> It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a
> remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make
> this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But when
> I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding activity on
> my network.
> 
> Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is going
> out to the network?

To start understanding what is going on, please provide:
1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your simulator.
2) the same for the remote simulator.
3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators

- Mark
___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Re: [Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD

[Anders Magnusson]

4.3BSD has its partition tables compiled into the driver.  You can 
generate the C code for the disk drivers using diskpart based on disktab.


Note that you must use the same entry in the device driver that you 
later use for newfs (which reads the disk partition stuff from disktab).


-- R

Den 2017-05-09 kl. 18:57, skrev Alan Perry:
What are the steps for adding storage to a SIMH vax (vax750, to be 
specific) running 4.3BSD? I created disk image files on the host OS of 
the proper size (for RA82s) and attached them through the .ini file. 
However, they don't have partition tables and this version of BSD 
doesn't seem to have a tool for creating them. So, how do I put 
partition tables on the ra82 disk images?


Thanks,

alan

___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh


___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Re: [Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD

[Alan Perry]

I added the partition info for ra82 to /etc/disktab and indicate ra82 
when I run newfs, but newfs reports "Don't have a parition table for a 
DU RA 82".


On 5/9/17 10:03 AM, Rhialto wrote:
I'm not sure if 4.3 already has disklabels. In any case, before 
disklabels, partitions were compiled into the kernel, with several 
combinations presupplied. Maybe /etc/disktab has some hints.

--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 . Please excuse my brevity.


___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh


___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

[Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian

[Alan Perry]

I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on 
a Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead 
(Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions 
for configuring it.


It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a 
remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make 
this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But 
when I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding 
activity on my network.


Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is 
going out to the network?


alan

___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

[Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD

[Alan Perry]

What are the steps for adding storage to a SIMH vax (vax750, to be 
specific) running 4.3BSD? I created disk image files on the host OS of 
the proper size (for RA82s) and attached them through the .ini file. 
However, they don't have partition tables and this version of BSD 
doesn't seem to have a tool for creating them. So, how do I put 
partition tables on the ra82 disk images?


Thanks,

alan

___
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh