17 Nov
2005
17 Nov
'05
8:42 p.m.
Subject: Re: Minix
From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:15:33 +0000
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Got an RX50, not got any (known-good) RX50 media. I seem to recall that
normal 5.25" DD floppies are a no-no, but I can't remember why.
The regular brown media works fine, the problem is 10 512byte sectors per
track and 80 tracks. Not a normal PC format, though it can do it. John Wilsons
putr does it if memory is working today. If you format them on an -11 you
need XXDP as RT-11 doesnt.
If the uVAX2000 has RX50 or RX33 it can format floppies as well as
RQDX3 Compatable hard disks. All from the console test software
So a minimal uVAX2000 (without any OS) can be a useful applience.
I keep one around with longer cables for that reason.
The hard disk
is st412(10mb), ST225(20mb), st250(40mb), Quantum D540 (30mb).
However they must be formatted with either xxdp or deom a system that can
such as uVAX2000 (for RQDX3 only).
Yes, I've been reading up on this. Apparently you can modify XXDP to
handle different formats, too. I *think* I might have an ST225. 
17 Nov
17 Nov
9:12 p.m.
Do you know if a PC controller for an MFM drive can format an ST225
sufficiently that RT-11 can use it? I figure it would get the high
level format wrong but wouldn't the low level format be okay? Can't
RT-11 handle the high level formatting?
9:24 p.m.
David Betz wrote:
Do you know if a PC controller for an MFM drive can
format an ST225
sufficiently that RT-11 can use it? I figure it would get the high
level format wrong but wouldn't the low level format be okay? Can't
RT-11 handle the high level formatting?
Much easier, in my opinion, just to do it in XXDP. I have the
Winchester standalone (zrqch0?) from XXDP modified** to boot from
VTserver v2.x. If you want to try that, check out the system
requirements for VTserver and remind me next week and I'll send you the
fixed standalone utility. I've used it on ST225, ST251, RD53 and RD54
disks.
Doc
** according to J. Engdahl's excellent instructions
9:31 p.m.
Wow! That's great. I hadn't thought of using VTserver. I'll download
it and see if I can get it working. I guess that means I'll have to
switch my MXV11 over to TU58 boot though.
On Nov 17, 2005, at 4:24 PM, Doc Shipley wrote:
David Betz wrote:
Do you know if a PC controller for an MFM drive
can format an
ST225 sufficiently that RT-11 can use it? I figure it would get
the high level format wrong but wouldn't the low level format be
okay? Can't RT-11 handle the high level formatting?
Much easier, in my opinion, just to do it in XXDP. I have the
Winchester standalone (zrqch0?) from XXDP modified** to boot from
VTserver v2.x. If you want to try that, check out the system
requirements for VTserver and remind me next week and I'll send you
the fixed standalone utility. I've used it on ST225, ST251, RD53
and RD54 disks.
Doc
** according to J. Engdahl's excellent instructions
9:40 p.m.
David Betz wrote:
Wow! That's great. I hadn't thought of using
VTserver. I'll download it
and see if I can get it working. I guess that means I'll have to switch
my MXV11 over to TU58 boot though.
Here's the link to Mr. Engdahl's instructions:
http://home.alltel.net/engdahl//xxdp.htm
The files he links to on his site aren't there, and IIRC, I had to
twiddle some of the memory addresses in Ersatz-11 to make it work, but
the basic info there is correct.
As I said, I have both the fixed utility and the VTserver config I
used, but they're on a laptop in Texas and I'm on a laptop in Grorgia
right now. :)
Doc
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