TUHS December 2015

tuhs@tuhs.org

53 participants
90 discussions

Installing and Using Research Unix Version 7 in SimH PDP-11/45 Emulator

by Will Senn

All, In the same vein as my prior note, I have made a note available on the process of getting up and running on Unix Seventh Edition in a SimH PDP-11 environment. The text is located at: http://decuser.blogspot.com/2015/12/installing-and-using-research-unix.html I welcome comments, suggestions, and even criticisms. While I have learned a lot since my last blog entry (many thanks to Hellwig Geisse, Nelson Beebe, Noel Chiappa, Clement Cole and several others), I am still learning about these environments. I originally invested time in getting v7 running so that I could more easily work with v6, after having gone there, I believe that it was time very well spent. I know a lot more about special devices, tape formats, and so on than I did before as a result of taking the fork in the road. Thanks for everyone's help. Oh, and by the way, there appears to be quite a bit of active interest in this topic - the blog post has been viewed several thousand times since I posted it, two weeks ago. Kind regards, Will

8 years, 4 months

Adding an RP06 disk to a running V7 instance

by Will Senn

I have set up v7 following [1] and I would like to better understand the process of adding a disk to the environment. Here is what I know: The system has one RP06 with two partitions rp0 and rp3 which correspond to the two block devices rp0, rp3, and the two character devices rrp0, and rrp3. The special files look like so: brw-r--r-- 1 root 6, 0 Dec 31 19:05 /dev/rp0 brw-r--r-- 1 root 6, 7 Dec 31 19:04 /dev/rp3 crw-r--r-- 1 root 14, 0 Dec 31 19:01 /dev/rrp0 crw-r--r-- 1 root 14, 7 Dec 31 19:01 /dev/rrp3 This meshes with the device classes switches in c.c: The block device switch: struct bdevsw bdevsw[] = { ... nulldev, nulldev, hpstrategy, &hptab, /* hp = 6 */ ... } The character device switch: struct cdevsw cdevsw[] = { ... nulldev, nulldev, hpread, hpwrite, nodev, nulldev, 0, /* hp = 14 */ ... } I would like to add another RP disk to the environment. After I attach an RP04/05/06 to the system, what should I use as the major/minor device numbers? To put it differently, it doesn't seem correct to me to use 6,1 for the block device or 14,1 for the character device on the new drive as it's a completely different disk from rp0 and rp3 which are just partitions on the first drive and have 6,0, 6,7, and 14,0, 14,7. If each RP can have 8 partitions and there can be 8 drives, what is the correct major, minor numbers to use with v7 for multiple devices? c.c only lists one vector each for the hp device (one block vector where hp = 6, and one char vector where hp = 15). Thanks, Will [1] Haley, C. B. & Ritchie, D. M. (1979). Setting Up Unix – Seventh Edition (pp. 497-505) in UNIX programmer's manual, Vol. 2, Revised and Expanded Version. Bell Laboratories: NY.

8 years, 4 months

boot block in v7 bootable on rp06 in simh

by Will Senn

In exploring v6, I have found some uses for having a running v7 instance... When I try to install the RP bootblock during the installation procedure for installing Version 7 Unix following the original documentation: ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/tuhs/PDP-11/Documentation/v7_setup.html I am unable to boot from the RP06 disk that I installed into the boot block onto via: dd if=/usr/mdec/hpuboot of=/dev/rp0 count=1 No error, it just hangs. I compared hpuboot to the bootblock at it matches byte for byte. I also compared it to the hpuboot file in Henry Spencer's tape image (I am using Keith Bostic's tape) and it matches that as well. I am asking this list because I thought y'all might know if there was a problem with: 1) the hpuboot binary on the tapes 2) v7 using RP06 3) something else helpful :) (maybe it's not supposed to be loaded to byte 0 on the disk image, although that's how it works with v6?) I am aware that the system can be booted from tape, but that seems hokey (obviously it works, since that's how the installation process works in the first place, but I think it is reasonable to expect to be able to boot from the RP06). Interestingly, there are and RL02 and RK05 v7 images that boot from disk available, but not RP. I will ask on the SimH list, if y'all don't think it's appropriately directed. Thoughts? Thanks, Will

8 years, 4 months

Some notes on running UNIX v6 in 2015, using SimH and a healthy dose of documentation

by Will Senn

All, I am studying Unix v6 using SimH and I am documenting the process, as I go, as part of my own learning process. I have much to learn about Unix, Unix v6 in particular, the PDP architecture and its relationship with v6, and SimH's emulation of the PDP, so, I am taking notes... I thought that I would share the notes in raw form as occasional blog posts in the hope that the knowledge that I work to obtain, might be made available and useful to others. I also believe that these forms of communication, as insignificant as they may seem individually are part of helping to preserve the knowledge of our computing history, in the aggregate. Here is a link to the first post, a run at an installation walk-through: http://decuser.blogspot.com/2015/11/installing-and-using-research-unix.html I am open to feedback and criticism, but please keep in mind that I am a relative newbie to v6 and PDP land, some of my assumptions are probably/undoubtedly wrong, but definitely fixable :). Regards, Will

8 years, 4 months

Re: [TUHS] Some notes on running UNIX v6 in 2015, using SimH and a healthy dose of documentation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> > a deeper read will require the reader to have knowledge beyond what is > required of most modern software developers (PDP-11 architecture, > assembly language, and UNIX are prerequisite). Well, for pretty much any _operating system_ (as opposed to applications), one will need to know something about the details of the machine it is intended to run on; depending on which part of the OS one is looking at, it will be more or less. E.g. switching processes probably requires a fair amount, since one needs to know about internal CPU registers, etc; whereas working on the file system, one probably doesn't need to know very much about the machine. > It will also require access to a lab where the ideas covered can be > experimented with. Actually, Lions/V6 was used in operating systems courses using simulated machines; one at MIT, 6.828 "Operating Systems Engineering": https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/ used it for a while before the students started complaining about being forced to learn an obsolete machine. They thereupon wrote a V6 clone for the x86 architecture, 'XV6' (see the top of that page), which is apparently now used for similar courses at quite a few other universities. > The v6 kernel ... packs in features that were either unavailable in > larger more established systems or may have been present in some form, > but were orders of magnitude more lines of code and attendant > complexity. It was and remains an amazing operating system and worthy > of contemporary study. I don't think you will find too many people here who disagree! ;-) > So, I was thinking that next up, I would write up notes to help the > modern reader engage with v6 more easily in order to follow works like > Lyons. Check around online to see what exists, first; there has been stuff written since Lions! ;-) Noel

8 years, 4 months

Re: [TUHS] Some notes on running UNIX v6 in 2015, using SimH and a healthy dose of documentation

by SZIGETI Szabolcs

Hi, Don't forget the Zuse machines, which were later proven to be Turing complete. It is certainly fascinating to see handling binary floating point numbers in a purely mechanical device (check it out if you happen to be in Berlin). Later machines were electromechanical and electronics. Regards, Szabolcs > > 2015.12.04. 15:52 ezt írta ("John Cowan" <cowan(a)mercury.ccil.org>): >> >> Greg 'groggy' Lehey scripsit: >> >> > Take a look at CSIRAC in the Melbourne museum, the oldest computer in >> > the world. It's worth it, even if they don't have it running. >> >> Well, there's the Antikythera mechanism. >> >> -- >> John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan(a)ccil.org >> In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side >> with the giants on whose shoulders we stand. --Gerald Holton >> _______________________________________________ >> TUHS mailing list >> TUHS(a)minnie.tuhs.org >> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs

8 years, 4 months

Re: [TUHS] Installing a large set of files into v6 from a modern host

by Clem Cole

below On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 12:02 AM, Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> wrote: > 1. a utility on the host that is capable of copying a directory and its > contents, recursively, onto a blank magtape/dectape/rk image that is then > readable in the v6 environment > Right - you want a common archive format between the two systems that talk to the tape device. You can either create your own or better take on the old ones that exist. > 2. a tar and unzip binary for v6 that is capable of dealing with the > tarball (but isn't the tarball going to exceed the max file size anyway, if > so this won't work) > I think you have a many to chose from off the top of my head I can think of each with different advantages (more in a minute): - tar - cpio - tp/stp - ar (new format) You seem to also want a compression tool, but you might try compressing on the modern system - but there are solution here also. - pack/unpack was the old v5/v6 compression tool - I've forgotten where it was sourced check the first USENIX tape in 77 - porting a modern zip/gzip/bzip > 3. an alternative archiver that runs on FreeBSD or Mac OS X, that can > create a single file archive from a subdirectory's contents on the host > (the resultant file would need to be extractable on v6, and if file size is > too limited, won't work either). > That is a lot of work and unless this is going to be a very long term thing, I'm not so sure it's worth it. Basically you want a virtual FS on the v6 system and the simulator. If you are going to do this alot, then its worth it. Think the VFS that vmware and like offer. > 4. some kind of directory transfer utility that works over telnet that can > be executed from a FreeBSD or Mac OS X host and that can be executed on the > v6 system as well. > the original unix kermit will compile using the v6 compiler (maybe the v5) compiler. You have to dig in the archives, but you want a version from Columbia circa 1977 and you be fine. The latest version will use things in the language first described in the white book - aka Typersetter C (Dennis was wrote the book starting with v6, but's not published until v7). If you a later compiler running on v6 you'll be fine. > 5. a utility capable of creating an empty magtape/dectape/rk image and > another capable of making a filesystem on the image and another of > populating the image (analogous to fdisk rkimage; mkfs rkimage; rkcopy dir > rkimage) > You could move the file system creation tools and set of a virtual v6 FS. It's a lot of work and unless this is going to be a very long term thing, I'm not so sure it's worth it. As for the archivers which in the short term is likely to be your best bet: 1. tar - there a couple of versions of tar for v6 including binaries. I personally would start there. 2. cpio was written for PWB 1.0 which is v6 kernel based. That binary should run. But IIRC correctly the original cpio was only binary headers (the -c/ascii headers was added later). So you'll need to be careful on the modern computer and make sure you set the switches so that he created the proper endian/byte swapping -- ness in the header 3. tp/stp - on the original USENIX tape is a "super tp" that replaced the original one. The binary should run as is. The code for it is pre-K&R so compiling it with a modern compiler will be a little bit of work. Also, IIRC the "directory" which is on the front of the tape is binary, so you'll need to make sure you write everything in PDP-11 format. 4. ar - was updated by the community. Eventually, V7 took the "new ar" from original USENIX tape. Again that binary should just run fine. Although I don't think its directory is recursive so it may fail that requirement for you Clem

8 years, 4 months

Installing a large set of files into v6 from a modern host

by Will Senn

All, I am trying to figure out how to get parts of 1BSD added into a pristine v6 install, but the question I have relates to moving more than a handful of files from a host system into v6, which lacks several capabilities that are taken for granted from v7 onward (tar, unzip, and so on). For background, in looking at the 1bsd tarball, exploded out, I saw that ex was available on the tape in a binary form that is suitable for a PDP-11/40 and I thought it would make life easier in v6 to have ex. So, I used dd to move the a.outNOID file onto a file, which can be used as a raw RK image and then off the RK image loaded in the PDP-11 into the v6 system as the executable file ex, and that worked. I was able to run ex (well, sort of, I get the colon prompt anyway... I haven't figured out how it actually works yet). Yeeha! Having had success of a sort with a single executable from the 1BSD tape, I would like to see if other parts of 1BSD will work in the environment and if I can properly install those parts. Individually moving files using dd is tedious in the extreme (there are many files in the tarball). I know there has to be a better way. Since v6 doesn't have tar, or unzip, it doesn't seem likely that using dd to move the tarball into v6 will be help matters. But, if there was a way to dd a subdirectory and its contents onto an RK image and get them off again into a useable v6 file system, that would work. My question for the group is based on the preceding discussion and the following assumption: 1. given a tarball such as 1bsd.tar.gz from the TUHS archive located at: /PDP-11/Distributions/ucb 2. with a running SimH PDP-11/40 instance with a virtual TU10 magtape with a virtual TU56 dectape with a virtual RK05 hard drive 3. running v6 as the operating system What is an efficient method of moving the files of the 1bsd distribution, or any other set of files and directories, into the v6 operating environment? Here are some approaches that seem reasonable, but that I haven't been able to figure out, if you know better, please do tell: 1. a utility on the host that is capable of copying a directory and its contents, recursively, onto a blank magtape/dectape/rk image that is then readable in the v6 environment 2. a tar and unzip binary for v6 that is capable of dealing with the tarball (but isn't the tarball going to exceed the max file size anyway, if so this won't work) 3. an alternative archiver that runs on FreeBSD or Mac OS X, that can create a single file archive from a subdirectory's contents on the host (the resultant file would need to be extractable on v6, and if file size is too limited, won't work either). 4. some kind of directory transfer utility that works over telnet that can be executed from a FreeBSD or Mac OS X host and that can be executed on the v6 system as well. 5. a utility capable of creating an empty magtape/dectape/rk image and another capable of making a filesystem on the image and another of populating the image (analogous to fdisk rkimage; mkfs rkimage; rkcopy dir rkimage) If I am asking the wrong questions, or thinking badly, I would appreciate a steer in the right direction. Regards, Will

8 years, 4 months

Re: [TUHS] Some notes on running UNIX v6 in 2015, using SimH and a healthy dose of documentation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> > I am studying Unix v6 using SimH and I am documenting the process I did a very similar exercise using the Ersatz11 simulator; I have a lot of stuff about the process here: http://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/V6Unix.html It contains a number of items that you might find useful, e.g.: "V6 as distributed is strictly a 20th Century operating system. Literally. You can't set the date to anytime in the 21st century, for two reasons. First, the 'date' command only take a 2-digit year number. Second, even if you fix that, the ctime() library routine has a bug in it that makes it stop working in the closing months of 1999." > the PDP architecture Technically, a PDP-11 - there were a number of different PDP architectures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_Data_Processor is a decent listing of them; several (PDP-8, PDP-10, etc) were very popular and successful. A few things I noted in your first post: > I am using the Ken Wellsch tape because it boots and is stated to be > identical to Dennis Ritchie's tape other than being bootable and having > a different timestamp on root. The only differences I could discover between the two are that in the Wellsch versions i) a Western Electric rights notice (which prints on booting) has been added to ken/main.c, and the Unix bootable images; and ii) the RK pack images do have, as you noted, the bootstrap in block 0. > Note: sh is critically important, don't muck it up :). The issue is > that if you do, there really isn't an easy way to recover. One should _never_ install a new shell version as '/bin/sh' until it has been run and tested for a while (for the exact reason you mention). Happily, in Unix, as far as the OS is concerned, the command interpreter is just another program, so it's trivial to name a new binary of the shell 'nsh' or something, and run that for a while to make sure it's working OK, before installing it as '/bin/sh'. > a special file (whatever that is) Special files are UNIXisms for 'devices'. _All_ devices in Unix appear as 'special files' in the file system, usually (but not necessarily) in /dev - that location is a convention, not a requirment of the OS. Noel

8 years, 4 months

Re: [TUHS] Scan of "Edition 0" manual

by Warren Toomey

On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 08:55:23PM -0800, Paul McJones wrote: > Thanks very much for making the original and the OCR-enhanced versions > of Doug’s scan of the “UnixEditionZero” document available > on tuhs.org. I notice that even with Nelson’s enhanced version, > the file size is still large for a scanned text document, apparently > because it was originally scanned in RGB mode, 24 bits/pixel. The > attached version is 2.5MB, and to my eye is identical looks identical > to UnixEditionZero-OCR.pdf. Paul, I've added your version into the same directory. Thanks! Warren

8 years, 4 months

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TUHS December 2015