[Simh] RSTS/E 10.1-L and Paper tape

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 5 January 2016 at 20:14, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
> Yes, RSTS does support those.  I don't know why Sysgen doesn't ask.  It doesn't ask about DECtape, either.  Perhaps they are no longer officially supported, but the software should be there and it should work.
>
> After running sysgen but before running the resulting sysgen.com script, edit config.mac.  Look for the line that mentions PR11 and change the 0 to 1, then the next line (PP11) also 0 change to 1.  While you're there, if you want DECtape, change TC11 (just above PR11) to be the number of DECtape drives.  Typically that's an even number because a TU56 has two DECtape drives in it.
>
For those curious of the process:


Right after the configuring jobs section (where it asks the number of
jobs, number of small buffers, and if you want EMT logging) and before
loading the system software from tape is the best point I've found.
When it asks if you want to proceed answer "no".

EDT is in [0,12] so to edit CONFIG.MAC at this point:
$ run [0,12]EDT
EDT>config.mac
The actual CONFIG.MAC file is relatively straightforward and pretty
self-explanatory.

If you're doing the SYSGEN with an 8B/8B TTI/TTO device with either a
telnet attached console, or on a platform that actually likes escape
characters you can enter "ch" at the '*' prompt to get full screen EDT
(much easier to work with than line editing). F1 is the Gold key, F2
is Help.

After you finish editing CONFIG.MAC, run the BUFCHK program, also in
[0,12] (if you don't at the actual point of building the system for
some reason you get negative small buffers...).
$ run [0,12]BUFCHK

Then continue the sysgen by entering "proceed" at the DCL prompt.



On 5 January 2016 at 20:29, Mark Pizzolato <Mark at infocomm.com> wrote:
> By the way, I'm looking for folks to test the TU58 device (TDC) on the various
> PDP11 operating systems.  I've tested it on VMS and things work well.
>
RSTS/E supports the DECtape II, I'd test it, but please see my gripe...

The current implementation of the TDC and DLI devices is not that
great. With TDC enabled, you can't setup DLI, and vice versa. This is
because TDC takes the address and vector of the first DL11/DLV11
serial line (because, naturally, the TU58 attached to said first
serial line), and you can't change the address and vector settings on
DLI to "shift" it to the next serial line.

Would it be possible to add the ability to change the base address and
vector of the DLI device? Otherwise a realistic configuration like the
VT-103 I own is not possible to do. What I mean by that realistic
configuration is that the VT-103 in my possession has been upgraded
slightly, with a PDP-11/23 processor card (KDF11-A), and has a DLV11-J
for serial; which provides four SLUs, SLU3 is setup as the system
console, SLU0 is connected to a TU58 emulator, SLU1 and SLU2 are
"free" (only other cards in the VT-103 are a 256KB RAM card, and a
BDV11 diagnostic/bootstrap ROM and bus terminator board).

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.