Any word on the Multics revival front?

[Charles Anthony]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 6:22 AM, Kevin Monceaux <Kevin at rawfeddogs.net>
wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 01:44:50PM -0500, Michael Kerpan wrote:
>
> > When Multics was officially released as free software a couple of
> > years ago, there was a flurry of activity aimed at getting some sort
> > of emulator up and running to run it. Did anything ever come of that
> > or did folks just lose interest (or find out that the needed
> > GE/Honeywell hardware was too poorly-documented to write an emulator
> > of)
>
> I hadn't checked on Multics progress in quite a while.  Yesterday I
> discovered that the DPS-8/M emulator at:
>
>     https://SourceForge.net/projects/dps8m/
>
> is far enough along to boot Multics.  I thought some folks on this list
> might be interested in it.
>
> Using the files from the QuickStart_MR12.6d.zip archive I managed to boot
> Multics yesterday.  The README file in that archive describes how to boot
> the system and sign on as Repair.SysAdmin, but not much else.  I'd never
> touched a Multics system before, and didn't have time yesterday to get to
> know the system.  Does anyone know of any Multics How-Tos, especially how
> to
> shut Multics down properly?
>
>
> On the console:

    ESC   (The ATTN key)
    logout * *    (SHuts down the daemons)

When it prompts (->) again, hit ESC to release the console.
You should 6 or so messages about daemons logging out.
When the messages stop:

    ESC
    shut

If it asks if it's okay to shut down:

    y

You should see messages, ending with 'bce>'  (Boot Command Environment, the
long lost ancestor of GRUB).

    ESC
    die
    y

Depending on the startup script, you may then see the simh prompt 'simh>'

   q

Multics today: http://ringzero.wikidot.com/

Multics FAQ <http://ringzero.wikidot.com/wiki:multics-faq>

Multics Cheat Sheet <http://ringzero.wikidot.com/wiki:multics-cheat-sheet>

Multicians <http://www.multicians.org/>

-- Charles


>