SCO Free OpenServer and UnixWare

Hi, sorry if this is off topic, but... have anyone ordered/tested the Free versions of SCO OpenServer and/or UnixWare? Are them interesting enough? (I'm currently playing with both Linux and FreeBSD, and since we are talking about the UNIX PDP source license from a lot of time, i wish to know if these Free UNIX versions contain some interesting/useful UNIX source code...) Regards, Sandro Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id NAA07133 for pups-liszt; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 13:48:12 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA07127 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 13:48:07 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id NAA11909 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 13:48:37 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199711240248.NAA11909(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: PDP-11 Unix Source Licenses - Status To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 13:48:36 +1100 (EST) Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk Hi all, We've had a number of new subscribers to the PDP-11 UNIX mailing list, so I'd like to welcome them to the list, and say that questions about these old systems (and the hardware) are always welcome here, so fire away! I mailed Dion Johnson at SCO again re the license issue, with no reply. I tried some other SCO contacts, and got this back from Peter Laytham: Unfortunately this is always a busy time for SCO folk - September is our end of financial year, which means October and November are given over to planning and regional kick-off events including training (which Dion gets involved in). If you can bear with us, we are both submitting your case to the powers that be within SCO. However SCO has a fair bit of other work to cope with keeping the evil empire at bay and rolling out some significant new technologies (SVr5, Tarantella and two clustering products - reliantHA and Non-stop for UnixWare) which is slowing down non critical decisions such as this one. Cheers Peter So it looks like we're in for some more waiting. Sorry for the lack of change in status, Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA07224 for pups-liszt; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:20:21 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA07219 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:20:17 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA12125 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:20:47 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199711240320.OAA12125(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: PDP-11/04 serial pinout (fwd) To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:20:46 +1100 (EST) Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk ----- Forwarded message from Nickolai Zeldovich ----- [Nickolai, a message posted to the vmsnet.pdp-11 and alt.sys.pdp11 newsgroups should also get some answers for you! -- Warren] From: Nickolai Zeldovich &lt;kolya(a)zepa.net&gt; Hi, I was wondering if you could answer a simple (or maybe not, I'm not all that sure) question about PDP machines for me. I managed to get a PDP-11/04, I believe, but it had no console with it. All it has on the back is a RS232-looking plug with some unknown to me pinout. Would you be so kind as to give me some information or pointers how to hook up any sort of an input/output device to it? -Thank You. Nickolai Zeldovich. -- +-------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+ | Nickolai Zeldovich | ZEPANET | UCF Math Department | | http://kolya.zepa.net/ | http://www.zepa.net/ | http://www.math.ucf.edu/ | | nickolai(a)kolya.zepa.net | nickolai(a)zepa.net | nickolai(a)math.ucf.edu | +-------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+ ----- End of forwarded message from Nickolai Zeldovich ----- Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA09962 for pups-liszt; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:36:30 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA09957 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:36:25 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA23316 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:37:00 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199711242237.JAA23316(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: Last Email from SCO - new license wording To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:37:00 +1100 (EST) Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk All, I've just received some email from Dion Johnson at SCO re the PDP-11 UNIX source licenses. Apparently he's been away from work (holidays?). He says: I have a new cut of the proposed license from our NJ Legal folks. I compare with past versions and see what it has. I know the 32V was added to the list of licensed versions (good). Not sure if the other problems were fixed. I will get back to you before the holiday weekend coming. As always, I'll let you know things as I receive them. Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA11991 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:06:55 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA11986 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:06:50 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA04976 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:06:53 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199712042206.JAA04976(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: PDP 11 Discs - UK readers please To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:06:53 +1100 (EST) Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk Can any of our UK PDP-11 people help this guy out? I don't know if the disks contain Unix or other stuff. Warren ----- Forwarded message from Roger Chan ----- Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 10:31:07 +0000 To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au From: Roger Chan &lt;roger.chan(a)ucl.ac.uk&gt; Subject: PDP 11 Discs Dear Warren, I was hoping you might be able to help me regarding some PDP 11 discs which we have here, and wish to extract data from. The discs are labelled: 2315 Disc cartridge 12 Sector DRI Part number 592 We have a number of these discs containg data which we would like to have converted into a format which can easily be read by a PC (ASCII, or whatever.) However, as you can tell by my e mail address, I'm in the UK and I was wondering if you knew of anyone/ any group in Britain who could help me with this task. If you do, I would be very grateful if you forwarded this message on to them. Thank you very much, Roger Chan Dept. of Visual Science Institute of Ophthalmology University College London London EC1V 9EL UK ----- End of forwarded message from Roger Chan ----- Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA12017 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:08:47 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA12012 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:08:44 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA05009 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 09:08:47 +1100 (EST) Received: from csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.20.6]) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id XAA04692 for &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 23:03:18 +1100 (EST) Received: from skalman.educ.goteborg.se (skalman.educ.goteborg.se [194.17.166.40]) by csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA12211 for &lt;wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 23:03:13 +1100 (EST) Received: from ta6.ped.kortedala.educ.goteborg.se (ta6.ped.kortedala.educ.goteborg.se [194.218.185.54]) by skalman.educ.goteborg.se (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id NAA24590 for &lt;wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Thu, 4 Dec 1997 13:03:05 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: &lt;34871ACD.4ACC(a)usa.net&gt; Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 13:04:13 -0800 From: uko(a)kortedala.educ.goteborg.se Reply-To: uko(a)kortedala.educ.goteborg.se Organization: kortedalagymnasiet X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win16; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au Subject: PUPS Membership Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk I just bought an 11/23 with RL02 and i have litle problems setting it up If anybody feels for helping please mail me at mario.jelica(a)usa.net Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id NAA12653 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:26:00 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA12647 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:25:56 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id NAA05350; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:25:55 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199712050225.NAA05350(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: Re: PDP-11 Unix v5 To: zomad(a)rio.com (Erin Corliss) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:25:54 +1100 (EST) Cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) In-Reply-To: &lt;Pine.SOL.3.95.971204172645.25398B-100000(a)rio.com&gt; from Erin Corliss at "Dec 4, 97 05:35:12 pm" Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk In article by Erin Corliss: Eric, I don't think this is going to work. The RK05 driver is in the kernel, and it plays with the RK05 hardware registers. You aren't going to be able to emulate these, as far as I can tell. If you tell us where you live, perhaps someone on the list might be able to help you find an appropriate drive and disks for your 11/23+. I do have some old ('74) spec sheets for the RK05 drives. Does anybody else have other suggestions??? Best wishes, Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA12793 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 14:30:28 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA12781 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 14:30:21 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA05624; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 14:30:02 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199712050330.OAA05624(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: Re: PDP-11 Unix v5 To: zomad(a)rio.com (Erin Corliss) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 14:30:01 +1100 (EST) Cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) In-Reply-To: &lt;Pine.SOL.3.95.971204185633.27884A-100000(a)rio.com&gt; from Erin Corliss at "Dec 4, 97 07:14:18 pm" Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk In article by Erin Corliss: Eric, I'll put you on the PUPS mailing list so you'll get any replies from the other members. I'll try and scan in the RK05 docs and put them up via ftp for you. Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA13010 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:37:27 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA13005 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:37:22 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA05757; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:33:38 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199712050433.PAA05757(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: Re: PDP-11 Unix v5 To: Bob.Supnik(a)digital.com (Bob Supnik) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:33:37 +1100 (EST) Cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) In-Reply-To: &lt;6B84B1FF221BD011B0AC08002BE6920656D2F5(a)excmso.mso.dec.com&gt; from Bob Supnik at "Dec 4, 97 11:26:15 pm" Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk In article by Bob Supnik: Yes, I hadn't thought of that. Other places are the Lions commentary, and the Unix source of course. Thanks for the reply Bob. Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA13050 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:49:12 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (henry.cs.adfa.oz.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA13045 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:49:09 +1100 (EST) Received: (from wkt@localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA05787 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:49:14 +1100 (EST) From: Warren Toomey &lt;wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Message-Id: &lt;199712050449.PAA05787(a)henry.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt; Subject: PDP-11: Disk over Serial proposal To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (PDP Unix Preservation) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:49:13 +1100 (EST) Reply-To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk Ok, it would be nice to have a way of installing Unix onto a PDP-11 without a tape drive. Here's a proposal: please comment on it (i.e shoot it down!). I actually wrote a very similar system to move files off my Apple ][ once. The PDP-11 is connected serially to another computer, using a DL11 port. The other computer will simulate one or more disk drives which are acessible by commands sent over the serial line. The idea is that a person can hand-enter the boot code to retrieve the `boot block' from the simulated disk drive. From there, the bootstrap can retrieve the Unix kernel, which can then use the simulated drive as the root filesystem. The user can then log in, use mkfs to build a filesystem on a real disk drive, and install a suitable Unix kernel without requiring a tape drive. The protocol used must be simple enough that bootstraps can be entered manually - at least to get the boot block from the second computer. Minimalist Protocol ------------------- 4-byte commands are sent from the PDP-11 to the other computer. The command structure is: Byte 0: What command to perform Byte 1: On which remote drive to perform the command Byte 2: Low-order bits of block number Byte 3: High-order bits of block number Blocks are 512 bytes. The commands allow access to 65,536 blocks (32Megs) on 256 virtual disk drives. Of course, an alternate view could be 65,536 on 256 platters, giving 8G of disk space. Commands are: 0x00 NOP Do nothing 0x01 READ Read specified block 0x02 WRITE Write specified block NOP: The second computer does nothing in response. However, this can be used to determine if the PDP-11 is actually sending commands. READ: The second computer returns 512 bytes which contains the requested block. There is no checksum, framing bytes or block# details. WRITE: The PDP-11 sends 512 bytes which contains the requested block. There is no checksum, framing bytes or block# details. The second computer does nothing in response. Drawbacks: Line noise is gonna really cause havoc. Only one command can be pending, as the PDP-11 has no idea what block is what when it comes back from the second computer. Advantages: Should be easy to write bootstrap and /usr/mdec software, and a kernel-level device driver should be very easy. Altering v5, v6, v7 2.9BSD and 2.11BSD should be straight-forward. Do we need a more sophisticated protocol with checksums, multiple outstanding commands, acknowledgments, framing bytes etc.? Cheers all, Warren Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA13490 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 18:42:05 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from mb1.mailbank.com (mb1.mailbank.com [204.244.193.15]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA13485 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 18:42:00 +1100 (EST) Received: from p10.t0.rio.com [206.96.130.110] (HELO corliss.com) by mb1.mailbank.com (AltaVista Mail V2.0H/2.0H BL25H listener) id 0000_006a_3487_b02c_08a3; Thu, 04 Dec 1997 23:41:32 -0800 Message-ID: &lt;34874091.3F778FE9(a)corliss.com&gt; Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 23:45:21 +0000 From: Erin Corliss &lt;erin(a)corliss.com&gt; Reply-To: erin(a)corliss.com Organization: GTA X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (WinNT; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Subject: PDP-11: Disk over Serial proposal Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk port. The acessible by Does the DL11 port have an interrupt that is driven when data is received, or do processes have to constantly poll it to receive data? Is the information stored on a PDP-11 disk in 8 or 9 bit words? How many bits per word are transmitted/received by the DL11? Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA13703 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 20:04:04 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f Received: from post.mail.demon.net (post-10.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.154]) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id UAA13698 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;au>; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 20:03:58 +1100 (EST) Received: from falstaf.demon.co.uk ([158.152.152.109]) by post.mail.demon.net id aa1025285; 5 Dec 97 8:53 GMT Message-ID: &lt;57g$OAAVC8h0Ewlc(a)falstaf.demon.co.uk&gt; Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 08:51:33 +0000 To: erin(a)corliss.com Cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au From: Robin Birch &lt;robin(a)falstaf.demon.co.uk&gt; Subject: Re: PDP-11: Disk over Serial proposal In-Reply-To: &lt;34874091.3F778FE9(a)corliss.com&gt; MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Turnpike Version 3.03b <YSkKJATYm0AxAbv6xwlBrCeVCW> Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au Precedence: bulk This shouldn't be a problem. Thinking from a 2.11 point of view, if something that could load the standalone kernel was written and an additional deveice driver included that would talk over the serial line once the standalone stuff was up you could treat the PC, or whatever, as a tape drive. Whilst this doesn't give all the frills of full disc access it has a couple of good thigs to it: 1) The only stuff that has to be loaded over the serial line without the benefit of lots of code that can do error checking is the initial standalone loader. 2) The standalone loader can then treat the serial port as a tape drive which is a relatively simple process as far as the loader is concerned and so you would only need a driver that looked like a TS11 (say) but talked to a serial port. 3) The PC end would then just have a simple prog that would treat the files on the PC as tape files which would make shipping stuff around easy as we could then do this as dump or tar forms which could be just ftp'd etc from archives. It would be slow but it would get things going quite simply. Ideas + comments please? Robin Robin Birch robin(a)falstaf.demon.co.uk M1ASU Old computers and radios always welcome Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id VAA14046 for pups-liszt; Fri, 5 Dec 1997 21:59:38 +1100 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f