On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 11:06 PM, Noel Chiappa <j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> > From: Allison > > > for laughs I wandered over to: > > http://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/mirrors/minnie.tuhs.org/PDP- > 11/Boot_Images/ > > To see if the copy of V6 on RL02 is still there.... yep it is. and > it > > runs on a 11/23 just fine > > Yes, that's another copy of the Shoppa disk. > > So, I looked at that system, to see how it dealt with the clock issue on an > 11/23 (in /sys/ken/main.c, if anyone else is interested). While looking, I > noticed something that made it extremely unlikely that it would boot on an > 11/40. Sure enough, attempting to boot the /unix on it on a (simulated) > -11/40 > blows out. > > There are a couple of other unix loads on that pack image (oldunix, > unix.tmp, > etc), but all the ones I looked at had the same issue (only tried booting > the > 'unix' one, though); they're probably all for the same machine, so have the > same configuration issue. > > > V6 Unix was pretty persnickety about the hardware configuration it ran on; > while it was possible to create builds that would run on almost any > configuration, on 'vanilla' V6 that really only applies to the /40/45/70 > era. And even then you still had to re-build the system to match your > actual > hardware configuration, almost all the time. > > The advent of the /23 (with no CSW, and no KW11-L/P), made things more > complicated. (The clock is pretty key - Unix needs one - several things, > e.g. parts of the teletype drivers, require real-time delays provided by > the > clock. I've never tried to run Unix without a working clock, I'm not sure > if > it would run without slowly grinding to a halt as stuff waited for clocks > delays that never happened.( > > With a little work, a suite of 'universal boot' versions (one for each > type of > disk controller - RK05/RL02/RX02 etc) could have been created that would > boot > and run on any pretty much CPU/etc configuration - at least, well enough to > build one that did exactly match the hardware configuration at hand. (The > one > on the Shoppa disk is close, from what I could see.) > > I don't think anyone ever bothered, though (in part because it was much > more > of a PITA to test them all, BITD, with only real hardware). > > Noel > Well I must say my focus has been on just getting an 11/40 hardware working enough to be a candidate for any flavor of UNIX, then figure out the details, but this thread has been an education. I suppose I should be happy with RT-11 given my circumstances. Too bad I have not been able to get my EIS running. I tried a number of things so far. I may have to shot gun approach the caps and such in an effort to repair. It's not possible with the 3 over the back cables to put the 7238 on a riser card to probe signals as easily. I have downloaded the docs associated with this card. Also, following your directions I had no issues getting V5 and V7 running in simH. I am curious to see what OS's run on an 11/40 without the EIS card other than RT-11. I am researching this. I have always wanted to learn more about batch-11. b
