[Simh] Simh Digest, Vol 24, Issue 1

[Galen Tackett]

Dr. Robert Young wrote:

> In the SIMH setup (vax.ini), the "CDROM" drive is mapped to the image 
> file. Is there anyway to map it to the actual CDROM drive on the 
> underlying host (be in Mac or PC or ?) so one does not have to make an 
> image file of each and every CD being used?
>
> Can one map it to an image file of a DVD ?
>
On my Mac OS X 10.3.9 system I have an LG Super Multi Format DVD drive 
that handles all the major formats and even DVD-RAM. I'm able to map 
the simh CD drive to the DVD-RAM, do a VMS image-mode backup to it from 
my VMS "system disk" , and then boot VMS from the DVD-RAM.

It wasn't simple. I couldn't get simh v3.5-1 to handle a full-size 4.7 
GB DVD RAM drive, although I thought the code was there for large file 
support on OS X. It was also a bit tricky figuring out what RAUSER size 
to use, and in what units, for the 600 MB or so partition that I wound 
up putting on the DVD-RAM for VMS. Then I had to figure out whether the 
partition needed to be mounted or not.

I don't remember the details and only did this once, rather on the fly. 
I've been meaning to get back to it but haven't succeeded yet.

I've spent a bit more time trying to get simh's Ethernet emulation (and 
OS X) set up to use my Mac's extra LAN adapter. I've had partial 
success but for some reason can't ping either of my other two home 
computers (the Mac itself being one of them.) I also can't get DNS on 
the VMS system to work with any outside DNS servers, although I can 
ping them. At least I can ftp and telnet to other internet addresses 
outside my house.

Galen