23 Apr
2018
23 Apr
'18
6:41 p.m.
From: "Ron Natalie"
I'm pretty sure that swapping in V6 took place to
a major/minor number
configured at kernel build time.
Yup, in c.c, along with the block/character device switches (which converted
major device numbers to routines).
You could create a dev node for the swap device, but
it wasn't used for
the actual swapping.
Yes.
We actually dedicated a full 1024 block RF11 fixed
head to the system in
the early days
Speaking of fixed-head disks, one of the Bell systems used (IIRC) an RS04
fixed-head disk for the root. DEC apparently only used that disk for swapping
in their OS's... So the DEC diagnsotics felt free to scribble on the disk.
So, Field Circus comes in to work on the machine... Ooops!
Noel
23 Apr
23 Apr
7:09 p.m.
New subject: /dev/drum
On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 2:41 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
Speaking of fixed-head disks, one of the Bell
systems used (IIRC) an RS04
fixed-head disk for the root. DEC apparently only used that disk for
swapping
in their OS's... So the DEC diagnsotics felt free to scribble on the disk.
So, Field Circus comes in to work on the machine... Ooops!
teklabs 11/70 the RS04 was /tmp not quite an dangerous as root, but
since the fs got wiped out the system would not boot - as it would fail
trying to mount /tmp.
IIRC the it was the field exerciser that did that by default. I seem to
remember that you could configure it to use something else like the field
service pack itself or may be not disk at all, but if I remember right if
the exerciser found an RS04 it thought it was available by default. So, I
had a big sticker on the FS pack that said see me before you loaded it
after the first time the service guys took out /tmp.
ᐧ
11:01 p.m.
New subject: /dev/drum
On Mon, 23 Apr 2018, Noel Chiappa wrote:
Speaking of fixed-head disks, one of the Bell systems
used (IIRC) an
RS04 fixed-head disk for the root. DEC apparently only used that disk
for swapping in their OS's... So the DEC diagnsotics felt free to
scribble on the disk. So, Field Circus comes in to work on the
machine... Ooops!
Giggle... We were probably the only site in Oz with two tape drives on
our 11/40 at UNSW; the X-ray crystallographers (or was it the molecular
biologists? They're all the same to me) used to produce a tape of their
results on the 360/50, to be read under RSX-11 to go to another tape,
thence to be plotted on our LV-11 Versatec (and probably the only one in
the country).
Well, this would never do, of course, as it required us to take down our
Unix box (one of the first in Oz) to run RSX, so my then-boss wrote a
program (in FORTRAN) so we could do it under Unix; said LV-11 actually
spent most of its time plotting biorhythm charts with a program written by
said boss (who also gave me my first taste of grass, and I hated it).
Anyway...
Elec Eng (our foe for some weird reason, as the CSU was regarded as "The
Man") left a "valuable" tape online, after using our plotter for some
unrelated reason.
DEC Field Circus then took the box, as they were waiting for the monthly
PM.
Can you guess the rest?
Let's just say that Elec Eng quickly learned what the "write ring" did...
Hey, is Peter Ivanov on this list? He was the one who moaned to me about
us writing over an unlabelled write-enabled tape...
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will
suffer."
11:49 p.m.
New subject: /dev/drum
On Tue, 24 Apr 2018, Dave Horsfall wrote:
Well, this would never do, of course, as it required
us to take down our
Unix box (one of the first in Oz) to run RSX, so my then-boss wrote a
program (in FORTRAN) so we could do it under Unix; said LV-11 actually
spent most of its time plotting biorhythm charts with a program written
by said boss (who also gave me my first taste of grass, and I hated it).
One minor detail that I forgot: it was the (mostly male) computer
operators who asked us to plot both their biorhythms of their (mostly
female) partners, and themselves, to see if they were compatible...
I think we (not me) began charging their department per plot, as that
thermal paper was pretty pricey... Hey, it was all funny money, after
all!
This was the 70s/80s, man...
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will
suffer."
24 Apr
24 Apr
12:26 a.m.
New subject: /dev/drum
We never had to worry about DEC CEs. However, when we got to the VAX where we had a
built in time of day clock, anytime anybody ran diagnostics or any DEC OS where they set
the clock, it would get changed to localtime (what DEC used) rather than the Zulu time
UNIX used.
2187
days inactive
2188
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4 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Clem Cole -
Dave Horsfall -
jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu -
Ronald Natalie