PDP-11/73 problems

[Tim Shoppa]

>I have connected it to my PC and I am able to either boot it up from the
>hard drive or start up into the ROM monitor.  Unfortunately, at this point
>I can't continue because the PDP won't receive anything through the
>console serial port.

Am I correct in assuming that up until RSTS/E is started, the console
serial port seems to work fine?   i.e. you can talk to ODT?

>Does anybody know if there are any quirks about the serial port on this
>machine that would cause this (if, for instance, the PDP-11 required some
>sort of handshaking that my PC doesn't do).

RSTS/E might be picky about parity bits in some cases.  (Heaven knows
that it's incredibly picky about some other things!)

On the other hand, your PC might not be seeing the RTS/CTS (I forget
which one it'll actually be looking for) and this is the reason your
keystrokes never go out.  Or it might not be seeing DSR and refusing
to send keystrokes because of this.  Have you configured your comm 
software for XON/XOFF and *not* hardware flow control?

>  Also, there is a block of dip
>switches on the CPU card that appear to affect booting and serial port
>stuff.  Does anyone know where there is a list of what these switches
>control?

>From a list that John Wilson supplied to me once:

        dip switch near handle

        1       on      disables console terminal (factory use only)
        2-4     off off off     boot auto according to the dialog mode settings
                off off on      boot dev. # 1 in dialog mode settings.
                off on  off     "    "      2 "
                off on  on      "    "      3 "
                on  off off     "    "      4 "
                on  off on      "    "      5 "
                on  on  off     "    "      6 "
                on  on  on      if sw. 1 off, power up into ODT
                                if sw. 1 on , run self-test disg. in a cont loop
        5       off     enters dialog mode on power up
        6-8     on  on  on      38400 baud rate console.
                on  on  off     19200
                on  off on      9600
                on  off off     4800
                off on  on      2400
                off on  off     1200
                off off on      600
                off off off     300

        All of these s/b turned OFF if you have the console patch panel rotary
        switch connected to the cpu.

        rotary switch positions definitions.
        switch pos.s    v               v
        baud rate       auto boot       dialog mode
        38400           0               8
        19200           1               9
        9600            2               10
        4800            3               11
        2400            4               12
        1200            5               13
        600             6               14
        300             7               15

>  Furthermore....  Between the cryptically labeled switch that
>chooses monitor or boot mode and the knob that changes the baud rate is a
>knob with three settings labeled with an arrow, a talking head, and an
>uppercase T with an arrow orbiting it.  What does this knob do?  

It selects power-on mode.  I think arrow means to boot straight from the
default device, talking head means to go to interactive console dialog,
and the T with the circle around it means infinite test loop.

>Finally, assuming that the UART on the CPU board is fried and the entire
>CPU board needs to be replaced before it will work again, what are the
>chances I could get someone who has the Unix source code to compile me a
>kernel that uses one of the other serial ports as the console?

I'm sure it can be done, but I don't know of any that are easily persuaded
to do this!  It'd be far easier to disable your CPU board's console
port and drop in a separate DLV11-type interface.

-- 
 Tim Shoppa                        Email: shoppa at trailing-edge.com
 Trailing Edge Technology          WWW:   http://www.trailing-edge.com/
 7328 Bradley Blvd		   Voice: 301-767-5917
 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817           Fax:   301-767-5927

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