30 Dec
2018
30 Dec
'18
5:55 p.m.
Hi all,
Some here may know I?ve been working on an 11/45 restoration off and on for some time now.
My ?45 currently has floating point, KT11-C mem mgmt, 124 kword MS11-L, and an RK11-C with
one restored RK05 drive.
Last week I decided to see if I could bring up RSTS/E on the machine. I managed to sysgen
a minimal V06C system that can run off a single RK05 pack under simh, but when I transfer
that image to the real hardware using pdp11gui it does not seem to completely/successfully
boot.
The ?Option:? boot loader comes up and sub-commands there seem to be working (in
particular, the ?HARDWARE? sub command shows correctly detected hardware and options).
When booting RSTS/E, after supplying date and time, the idle pattern starts on the front
panel (but just the bottom part, on the data lights). When console is in display register
mode, it shows an increasing count. Console input is echo?d, but the INIT banner and
subsequent prompts are never printed and the read light on the RK05 flickers continuously
as if the system is trying to read the same sector over and over.
Figured I?d ping here in case this is a known failure mode to folks more familiar with
RSTS/E? Also posted over on the vcfed DEC forum. FWIW, the machine is passing all MAINDEC
CPU, MMU, FP, KW11, and RK11 diagnostics.
Cheers,
?-FritzM.
31 Dec
31 Dec
1:54 p.m.
On Dec 30, 2018, at 8:55 PM, Fritz Mueller via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Some here may know I?ve been working on an 11/45 restoration off and on for some time
now. My ?45 currently has floating point, KT11-C mem mgmt, 124 kword MS11-L, and an RK11-C
with one restored RK05 drive.
Last week I decided to see if I could bring up RSTS/E on the machine. I managed to sysgen
a minimal V06C system that can run off a single RK05 pack under simh, but when I transfer
that image to the real hardware using pdp11gui it does not seem to completely/successfully
boot.
The ?Option:? boot loader comes up and sub-commands there seem to be working (in
particular, the ?HARDWARE? sub command shows correctly detected hardware and options).
When booting RSTS/E, after supplying date and time, the idle pattern starts on the front
panel (but just the bottom part, on the data lights). When console is in display register
mode, it shows an increasing count. Console input is echo?d, but the INIT banner and
subsequent prompts are never printed and the read light on the RK05 flickers continuously
as if the system is trying to read the same sector over and over.
Figured I?d ping here in case this is a known failure mode to folks more familiar with
RSTS/E? Also posted over on the vcfed DEC forum. FWIW, the machine is passing all MAINDEC
CPU, MMU, FP, KW11, and RK11 diagnostics.
Cheers,
?-FritzM.
The standard idle pattern is in the data lights. I don't remember if the
"fancy" pattern appeared in V7.0 or earlier, but in any case it's an
undocumented SYSGEN option.
In RSTS/E, the display register shows the system error count. That's from I/O errors
reported by the various drivers.
Do you have a second disk pack? If so, you could use the DSKINT option in INIT to
initialize a pack, with pattern tests. That would show what the RSTS disk driver thinks
of your RK05.
Something else you might try: when you start the system, don't enter line-feed for the
quick start, but the START command. That is a more verbose version which will display
some additional messages. If anything is getting disabled, it would show there.
paul
2:47 p.m.
On Dec 31, 2018, at 1:54 PM, Paul Koning
<paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
The standard idle pattern is in the data lights. I don't remember if the
"fancy" pattern appeared in V7.0 or earlier, but in any case it's an
undocumented SYSGEN option.
In RSTS/E, the display register shows the system error count. That's from I/O errors
reported by the various drivers.
Do you have a second disk pack? If so, you could use the DSKINT option in INIT to
initialize a pack, with pattern tests. That would show what the RSTS disk driver thinks
of your RK05.
Something else you might try: when you start the system, don't enter line-feed for
the quick start, but the START command. That is a more verbose version which will display
some additional messages. If anything is getting disabled, it would show there.
Thanks, Paul ? that?s a bunch of helpful info!
I have done some long-form starts, but no complaints are printed to the console.
I do have an additional as-yet-untried pack that I got in a recent eBay option. I?ll give
it an inspection and if its good to go I?ll give the pattern DSKINT a try. I only have
one RK05 drive working at the moment, but I suppose I can swap after issuing ?DS? to the
?Option:? prompt?
I?m also gearing up to throw the logic analyzer on the RK11 and see what sector(s) it is
trying to read and what error/interrupt signaling may actually be happening.
Last, any more info on that fancy light sysgen option, for future reference in case I ever
get on to a later version?
cheers,
--FritzM.
3:32 p.m.
Fritz,
One thought crossed my mind, probably not an issue, but you never know.
You mentioned that you have an RK11-C, *not* RK11-D.
There are one or two bits in a register of the RK11 that have a different
meaning/function, depending on the controller being a -C or -D. The RK11-C was quickly
replaced by the RK11-D, but I guess RSTS would know the difference. Other guys here will
be able to give a lot better light on this than me (Paul?)
A Healthy 2019!
Henk, PD8PDP
________________________________
Van: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> namens Fritz Mueller via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Verzonden: Monday, December 31, 2018 11:47:23 PM
Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Onderwerp: Re: PDP-11/45 RSTS/E boot problem
On Dec 31, 2018, at 1:54 PM, Paul Koning
<paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
The standard idle pattern is in the data lights. I don't remember if the
"fancy" pattern appeared in V7.0 or earlier, but in any case it's an
undocumented SYSGEN option.
In RSTS/E, the display register shows the system error count. That's from I/O errors
reported by the various drivers.
Do you have a second disk pack? If so, you could use the DSKINT option in INIT to
initialize a pack, with pattern tests. That would show what the RSTS disk driver thinks
of your RK05.
Something else you might try: when you start the system, don't enter line-feed for
the quick start, but the START command. That is a more verbose version which will display
some additional messages. If anything is getting disabled, it would show there.
Thanks, Paul ? that?s a bunch of helpful info!
I have done some long-form starts, but no complaints are printed to the console.
I do have an additional as-yet-untried pack that I got in a recent eBay option. I?ll give
it an inspection and if its good to go I?ll give the pattern DSKINT a try. I only have
one RK05 drive working at the moment, but I suppose I can swap after issuing ?DS? to the
?Option:? prompt?
I?m also gearing up to throw the logic analyzer on the RK11 and see what sector(s) it is
trying to read and what error/interrupt signaling may actually be happening.
Last, any more info on that fancy light sysgen option, for future reference in case I ever
get on to a later version?
cheers,
--FritzM.
3:38 p.m.
On Mon, Dec 31, 2018 at 6:32 PM Henk Gooijen via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
One thought crossed my mind, probably not an issue,
but you never know.
You mentioned that you have an RK11-C, *not* RK11-D.
There are one or two bits in a register of the RK11 that have a different
meaning/function, depending on the controller being a -C or -D. The RK11-C was quickly
replaced by the RK11-D,
That is good to know. I have only used the RK11-D, but I have an
RK11-C in need of cleaning and testing that I've never used. My goal
is to eventually reunite it with the PDP-11/20 it came with (sadly,
the RK05-F that was part of the set was tossed 35 years ago, but I do
have more than one RK05-J, and an abundance of 12-sector packs).
-ethan
5:15 p.m.
On Dec 31, 2018, at 6:32 PM, Henk Gooijen via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Fritz,
One thought crossed my mind, probably not an issue, but you never know.
You mentioned that you have an RK11-C, *not* RK11-D.
There are one or two bits in a register of the RK11 that have a different
meaning/function, depending on the controller being a -C or -D. The RK11-C was quickly
replaced by the RK11-D, but I guess RSTS would know the difference. Other guys here will
be able to give a lot better light on this than me (Paul?)
A Healthy 2019!
Henk, PD8PDP
I did not know that. If someone can point me to the description of the differences I
should be able to say what RSTS will do with them.
If this matters it might be possible to patch the code.
Did you specify overlapped seek in SYSGEN? I don't remember if that exists for the RK
driver, but if yes, that would control which of two somewhat different drivers is in the
system. Come to think of it, if the answer is "yes" it might be worth trying
the experiment with "no" -- since INIT seems to work and that uses the
non-overlapped drivers.
paul
8:05 p.m.
On Dec 31, 2018, at 5:15 PM, Paul Koning
<paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
Oh, I didn?t know that either!
On Dec 31, 2018, at 6:32 PM, Henk Gooijen via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
There are one or two bits in a register of the RK11 that have a different
meaning/function, depending on the controller being a -C or -D. The RK11-C was quickly
replaced by the RK11-D, but I guess RSTS would know the difference. Other guys here will
be able to give a lot better light on this than me (Paul?)
I did not know that. If someone can point me to the description of the differences I
should be able to say what RSTS will do with them. Did you specify overlapped seek in SYSGEN?
Yes, I did enable overlapped seek during SYSGEN, and I did just have some trouble with
overlapped seeks on my RK11-C (though I repaired that well enough to pass the associated
MAINDEC before trying RSTS).
I?ll try a non-overlap SYSGEN soon/next -- right now it takes me a little over two hours
to image a pack using PDP11GUI and a DL11 at 9600 baud, which is a bit painful. So I?d
like to capture some logic analyzer traces off the RK11-C while I have this repro case
before I write over my current pack. If there is something still up with my overlapped
seeks, I?d like to characterize and fix it anyway.
cheers,
--FritzM.
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days inactive
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6 comments
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participants (4)
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ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
fritzm＠fritzm.org -
henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com -
paulkoning＠comcast.net