PDP-11 disk image question

[Lyle Bickley]

Bill,

On Sat, 16 Feb 2019 13:55:10 +0000
Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> So, I used SIMH to do an install of a complete OS on
> an RA81 disk.  I would like to  move this to a real disk
> and try it on a real PDP-11.  Is there a way to do this
> using dd on a BSD machine?  I tried but it created a
> non bootable system.  Well, actually, it starts to boot
> but then fails very early in the startup process.  I used
> "dd if=filename of=raw-device bs=1024".  Could it be that
> the block size needs to be something else?
> 
> I know that VTServer and PDPGUI can move disk images but
> it would take a week at 9600 baud and I think very little
> likelihood of it ever completing successfully.
> 
> bill

In order to do this easily, I have SCSI controllers (and disks) on my
two primary PDP-11 systems (11/34 and 11/83).

1. I copy the image file I want on a "native" drive using a PC w/SCSI
and Linux to a SCSI disk (or removable media) using "dd".

2. I move that drive/media to the SCSI "chain" on a PDP-11.

3. I use RT-11 to move the image from the SCSI drive/media to the
"native" HDD.

Its a bit cumbersome, but I used this method for years and it hasn't
failed me yet ;)

Cheers,
Lyle
-- 
73   NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com

"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"