Fwd: RSTS and big MSC disks - cctalk

10 Oct 2024

I meant to reply-all for this.

	paul

...
  Begin forwarded message:

  On Oct 9, 2024, at 5:27 PM, Zane Healy
&lt;healyzh(a)avanthar.com&gt; wrote:

 On Oct 9, 2024, at 10:22 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

 Earlier there was a question about MSCP disk sizes.  I did some checking.

 RSTS understands all the devices known by name in SIMH, including the "giant"
RF73.  As of the "big disk" support, which is in V10.1 and I think a few earlier
versions, it can handle something that big.  It draws the line at 4096 MB; bigger than
that and it will tell you the disk is too big when you try to initialize it.  I thought it
might use only the part it can handle, but no, it simply refuses entirely.

 	Paul  

 I hate to think what setting up a 4GB drive would look like.  I have a 1GB SCSI HD for my
PDP-11/73 (assuming the drive isn’t dead).  I still remember just how long it took the
RSTS/E 10.1 install to prepare that drive (so long I only did a single pass on the drive
test).

 On a related note, Paul, do you have any idea if RSTS/E can be installed from a CD-ROM? 
I’ve done installs of RT-11 and RSX-11M+ from CD, but couldn’t figure out how to do a
RSTS/E install from CD.  I can’t remember if I was able to use 4mm DAT, or if I had to use
a TK50 (it’s been a *LONG* time since I did any installs).  
 I have never seen a RSTS kit on CD-ROM, but it should work just fine.  At one time I
worked with Fred Knight to help create a "combined kits" CDROM -- one that would
hold RSTS plus all the layered products on a bootable CD, including at least a dummy
standard CDROM file system so you could recognize it.  That required placing two file
systems on one device, which turns out to be possible because the starting points
("superblock") of the two are in different blocks.  My RSTSFLX V2.x supports
creating such a thing.

 While I knew of the plans, I don't think they were ever completed; I certainly never
saw any actual delivery.

 So anyway, if you were to create a RSTS disk image file with kits on it and an MSCP
bootstrap, and burn that to CDROM, I would think it would be bootable and useable.  You
might give it a try!

 	paul 