DEC Pro operating systems and MFM emulator

[Paul Koning]

> On Jan 23, 2021, at 1:54 PM, Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 11:47 AM Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> The question was asked (I misplaced the note) if the OS images that are on the Xhomer website work with David Gesswein's MFM emulator on real hardware.
> 
> You can turn these into emulator data files, provided you have the latest ext2emu tool that's part of David's software (as of 1/19/2021).  The format needed is "Elektronika_85" which is the Pro format, called that because it was first added to the emulator as the format found on the Russian bootleg copy of the Pro of that name.
> 
> Results, on my Pro 380:
> 
> 1. P/OS 3.2: works.
> 2. Venix: panic at boot, "Bad access number".  That doesn't mean anything to me.  I wonder if the issue is that Venix doesn't support the 380.
> 
> The Venix image is special. Venix doesn't support more than 16 sectors per track. You may need to put it on a disk whose geometry is 16spt. Maybe that is why? Venix should support both the 350 and 380.

That doesn't explain it, because all hard drives on the Pro by definition have 16 sectors per track.

	paul