23 Nov
2003
23 Nov
'03
7:46 p.m.
On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, Ian Primus wrote:
connectors were rotated 180 degrees. I swapped them,
and typed in the
program again. I the typed 2000g, and the tape drive started to whir!
It seeked back and forth in tiny and equal increments. Then, the drive
stopped and 012710 was displayed, then the @ prompt. I typed g, and got
: *** THIS VOLUME DOES NOT CONTAIN A HARDWARE BOOTABLE SYSTEM ***. It
still didn't boot, but at least it's doing something! (Lesson for
today, never connect hardware while tired, and always use a flashlight
to see behind racks.)
OK, this means (a) the tape boot works, (b) the machine is
basically
OK, and (c) the tape connection is OK (now). Progress!
Since the "*** THIS VOLUME" ... comes from the boot loader (it is not
in the bootstrap program...) on tape, we *did* load something from it.
Dunno which tape you are using, but: the address the boot loader uses
is that of the TM11/TS11. The instruction (100001) it sends to the
controller doesn't match that of the TM11, so it must be the TS11 it
thinks it has- and this is quite often the case with Emulex and Dilog
controllers.
Even though we were able to load the secondary bootstrap off tape (which
is blocks 0 and/or 1 on tape), we **ALSO** need to have that code know
what we're loading from.
Suppose... we load the secondary boot. But: that thinks we're using a
TM11 controller. It then tries to load the rest off tape... but barfs,
because the TM11 doesnt respond (since it's really a TS11.) ... error..
> It might be instructive to clear low memory
first, then run the above
> code, and see if low memory has changed.
I bet you'll find the above
message in there, since that was loaded
to PC=0. Either the tape is a "ANSI standard" tape of some kind (with
valid boot blocks, but no bootable system) or it is a regular bootable
tape, but with a boot block for TM11 controllers...
I might end up doing that, I can write down the
output, and email it to
you.
Use a terminal program on a PC or other system, and just log the
sessions. Much easier :)
I have two blank tapes, as well as the SCSI nine track
tape drive that
goes with my Prime. I should be able to connect the other tape drive to
a PC, and dd a tape image to a real tape. Is there a known working,
bootable tape image out there on the 'net that I could use to test?
Sure,
whatcha want? I can send you the Ultrix-11 mini root, which is
very small, and which will tell you whether things work or not..
Fred
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA