[Simh] tty magic(?) for talking to bootloaders?

[Tom Perrine]

Thanks!  That's the boost I needed. It didn't help that I am running SIMH
4.0 but was using the SIMH 3.20 manual.  DOH!

I can now boot the kernel, do the initial configuration and I'm working on
generating scripts inside the UNIX system using SEND and friends.
If I can get to the point where TELNET is live, it might be easier to
script on the local host, then execute the commands down the telnet channel.

I'm working on automating the entire process for getting from a cold boot
to a new built kernel, etc. I'm following the directions at
http://gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_Unix_v6_(PDP-11)_on_SIMH

Thanks again!

(I will be going through my garage in the next few weeks. I think I still
have some original manuals left over from when I worked at DEC and
Honeywell in the late 70s and early 80s.  A lot of it was binned in the
37(?) years since I was there, but there may be some processor manuals for
PDP-11, VAX and DPS8/Multics)

--tep



On Sat, Sep 21, 2019 at 5:24 PM Mark Pizzolato <Mark at infocomm.com> wrote:

> On Saturday, September 21, 2019 at 4:03 PM, Tom Perrine wrote:
> > So far I've got Multics, V7 and BSD4 running on SIMH in Google Cloud
> > Platform (GCP). I'm packaging some of these up into more turnkey images
> > and scripts so that more people can easily play with these Grand Olde
> > Operating Systemes.
> >
> > My end goal is a script that can be run on your local computer that
> > creates the cloud instance, installs and upgrades the OS, compiles
> > SIMH for the target HW, and boots the guest OS, all without any
> > needed input. I've got everything EXCEPT how to kick the OS boot in
> > the OS bootloader(s).
> >
> > My problem is that I probably haven't spent enough time with the docs
> > to figure out how to feed scripts "past" SIMH and into the bootloaders.
> >
> > I'd also love to be able to inject commands into the SIMH process
> > through the API, but that's a different story.
> >
> > For example, the PDP-11 V6 boot looks like this:
> >
> > test-pdp11:~$ !80simh-master/BIN/pdp11 dboot.ini
> > PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Current        git commit id: d40268d1
> > Disabling XQ@
> >
> > Now how do I get scripted input into the simulator so that I can give
> the
> > bootloader the "unix" filename at the @ prompt?  I have the same problem
> > with the Multics bootloader, too.
>
> Put the following command in your dboot.ini file just before you start
> instruction execution with a BOOT, RUN, GO or other similar command:
>
>         EXPECT "@" SEND "unix\r"; CONTINUE
>
> If the prompt is really "@ ", then adjust accordingly.
>
> See HELP EXPECT and/or HELP SEND for more details.
>
> - Mark
>
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