[Simh] Tops-20 4.1 on simh PDP-10: trouble during install

[Quentin North]

Hi Tom

I have TOPS-10 monitor 7.04 running quite happily on simh.

One of things I found was that set cpu idle may not always be ok, but is fine when you have a working o/s.

Also I set cpu tops10 - I’m not sure what this does but it means it works. Here is my tops 10 startup script:

set cpu tops10
set cpu idle
set tim y2k
att rp0 disks/t10b.dsk
att lp20 printer.out
set lp20 enable
set dz 8b
set dz lines=8
att -a -m dz 2020
;att -a -m dz 23
boot rp0


> On 25 Jan 2020, at 01:20, Tom Russo <russo at bogodyn.org> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 08:17:09PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <rich at sky-visions.com <mailto:rich at sky-visions.com>> flavor, containing:
>> Hi Tom,
>> 
>>  While I have not tried Tops-20 on the KS10, I do have versions 2
>>  through 7 running on my unreleased KL10 simulator. I am still
>>  resolving issues, I should be releasing it in a month or two.
> 
> That should be pretty cool.  I look forward to it.
> 
>>   I think you need to hit ^C after the NO SYSJOB. 
> 
> I never get to a NO SYSJOB anywhere.  It hangs right at 
> "System restarting, wait..."
> 
> ^C does nothing at that stage.
> 
> 
>> Rich
>> 
>>> I'm a new simh user, and have mostly been using it to relive my youth
>>> on PDP-11s.  But I also had played with TOPS-20 back in those misspent
>>> days, and wanted to see if I could have my own, fully realizing that
>>> SIMH can't run later versions of TOPS-20 because it simulates a
>>> KS10. Still, I am having trouble getting past the first few steps of
>>> the install.
>>> 
>>> I am starting from the install document at 
>>> http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/dec/pdp10/TOPS20/V4.1_Feb83/AA-P346A-TM_KS_Install_4.1_Feb83.pdf
>>> 
>>> I have downloaded the install tape from 
>>> http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/tapes/bb-d867e-bm_tops20_v41_2020_instl.tap.bz2
>>> 
>>> I use this "install.ini" file (cribbed from
>>> https://gunkies.org/wiki/Running_TOPS-20_V4.1_under_SIMH):
>>> 
>>> set cpu tops-20
>>> d wru 006 
>>> att tu  bb-d867e-bm_tops20_v41_2020_instl.tap
>>> set rp rp06
>>> att rp t20.dsk
>>> boot tu
>>> 
>>> at which point I'm greeted with the expected MTBOOT> prompt.  I then
>>> do:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> MTBOOT> /L
>>> MTBOOT> /G143  
>>> 
>>> and basically say Y to all the questions:
>>> [FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TYPE "?" TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING
>>> QUESTIONS.]
>>> 
>>> DO YOU WANT TO REPLACE THE FILE SYSTEM ON THE PUBLIC STRUCTURE? Y
>>> 
>>> DO YOU WANT TO DEFINE THE PUBLIC STRUCTURE? Y
>>> 
>>> HOW MANY PACKS ARE IN THIS STRUCTURE: 1
>>> 
>>> ON WHICH "CHANNEL,UNIT" IS LOGICAL PACK # 0 MOUNTED: 0,0
>>> 
>>> DO YOU WANT THE DEFAULT SWAPPING SPACE? Y
>>> 
>>> DO YOU WANT THE DEFAULT SIZE FRONT END FILE SYSTEM? Y
>>> 
>>> DO YOU WANT THE DEFAULT SIZE BOOTSTRAP AREA? Y
>>> 
>>> [STRUCTURE "PS" SUCCESSFULLY DEFINED]
>>> 
>>> [PS MOUNTED]
>>> ?PS UNIT 0 HAS NO BAT BLOCKS.
>>> DO YOU WANT TO WRITE A SET OF PROTOTYPE BAT BLOCKS? Y
>>> 
>>> %%NO SETSPD
>>> 
>>> System restarting, wait...
>>> 
>>> 
>>> At this point, the simulator just sits there for hours, never giving
>>> the date/time question the installation guide says I should get
>>> next.  It does seem that the install process has at least initialized
>>> the disk image, and if I reboot and tell it to skip all of those
>>> filesystem initialization steps, it blasts right to the %%NO SETSPD
>>> and "System restarting" steps, whereupon it hangs again.
>>> 
>>> I'm running simh off of today's current git master branch.  I have
>>> compiled it both on FreeBSD and on Ubuntu 16.04 with identical
>>> results (so I am not assuming it's just a FreeBSD incompatibility
>>> issue).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I see plenty of old references to running TOPS-20 4.1 on SIMH, and no 
>>> such references to this apparent hanging of the simulator at a very 
>>> early stage in installation.  Has anybody got this running?  Am I
>>> missing something blindingly obvious somewhere?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> ==========================================================================
>> Richard Cornwell
>> rich at sky-visions.com
>> http://sky-visions.com
>> LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-cornwell-991076107
>> ==========================================================================
> 
> -- 
> Tom Russo    KM5VY
> Tijeras, NM  
> 
> echo "prpv_a'rfg_cnf_har_cvcr" | sed -e 's/_/ /g' | tr [a-m][n-z] [n-z][a-m]
> 
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