Thanks Jim and Jay - I've combined into one response...
when you have the Time prompt, try hitting a
"break" (async break is 10
or more
bit times of space) and see if you get a prompt like
I 6.123
!
Will do. My ADM-3A asserts break for as long as I hold the key so this
should not be a problem.
if you do try typing END. if that happens then let
either Jay or I know
and we'll
walk you thru resetting the SYSPROG password, and other chores. You need
a good tape for the tape drive to try to generate a backup before doing much
more, and you may well have a good system. If you already have
tried poking at the system (like the "F" above) you may already be in
trouble.
No - I only used 'X' because I mentioned it in the installation manual.
I have not tried any other options. The system still boots OK.
For what it's worth, the system is probably an all
caps system at least
at the
command line, so try everything you do with the cap lock on.
Already figured that out - the user names have to be in upper case
to be recognized.
OPTIONS
[X,F,NX]=
Careful... do NOT hit the "F" option, unless you have a full
backup tape
that includes monitor and abs sections. You'll be sorry. F option kills off
the files from disk, then expects to load all from tape!.
Thanks to both of you for the heads-up.
1) Does anyone
know of a way to bypass the SYSPROG
password?
Yup, but it isn't easy (unless you're well up on the system
debugger). I'll
go through it off-list if no one answers.
Found another manual - "system operations" manual. Had a hand-written note
on the page telling you to login as SYSPROG of "password: xxxx", however the
password noted is NOT the right one... Sigh!
2) Is there
any way to make the system boot without waiting
for the power-on tests to complete. I can get to the monitor
command prompt, and I can run various tests from there,
but I have not found a way to boot the system other than to
power-off, power-on and wait for the tests to complete.
I am not that familiar
with the ADDS pick implementation, but I would
suspect this is a jumper on the cpu board.
I did find this in the operations manual .. the monitor command "E T"
boots from tape, and "E D" boots from disk - so I can hit ESC to exit
the 15-minite test, then "E D" to boot the disk... and that works.
3) Anyone know
exactly what type of tapes this machines
uses (If I take it apart and get the drive model number, this
might give us a clue). I found a function in the monitor which
apparently backs up the hard drive to tape ...
Different for many vendors, but
the most common were DC6150, DC6250, and
DC6525. The backup in the monitor will be a binary image backup, not a
formatted pick backup (ie, you can't use that backup at the F option).
I've got some of each of those ... but I have no idea if the monitor command
requires the tape to be preformatted ...
I did find in the operations manual the details on how to create a new sysgen
tape from the running system ... but I have to get logged into SYSPROG first.
4) Anyone know
of a way to "break out" of a program launched
at login to a command shell (the docs says it's called TCL
for Terminal Command Language).
Break key, unless it's disabled.
Hitting BREAK cased the machine to lock-up tight... No more response
of any kind, not even newlines....
5) Anyone know
what the "F" or "NX" commands do in response
to OPTIONS [X,F,NX]=
Do any of these options let me reinit the system, reset the SYSPROG
password ?
F is "erase all files on disk, and then reload this tape here I
have as the
only files on the system". NX is probably something to return to the
firmware diags that you were in before you got the pick "options' prompt.
Thanks - I think I'll pass on both of these until I learn more.
6) If I answer
"Yes" to "Did you just reload from tape", what exactly will
this do? ... Will it let me re-init the system/reset the SYSPROG
password?
This is familiar, but for some reason I'm totally drawing a blank
on what
this is for.
Apparently you can also enter "RECOVER" at the TIME= prompt, but as
far as I can tell, this too needs a backup tape of some sort.
6) Any other
info, esp. about the "Diagnostic Assurance Monitor"
commands etc. Would be most useful... ?
Nah, the diagnostics were absolutely
completely different on each machine,
as they were not part of Pick at all. So, this is something very adds2000
specific. Need a manual for it. Often many of the diag functions required
raw controller byte fields to be input, so the function was useless without
the docs.
Ok - I've learned a bit - how to boot from tape or disk, how to shutdown/park
the drives, how to re-run various tests.
I've contacted the guy I got it from to see if he can find any more docs, or
recall passwords etc. (or find any tapes) - he hasn't used the system is a long
time, and I got the impression that what he gave me was going to be "it"...
Regards,
Dave
--
dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools:
www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html