[pups] bootstrapping an RT-11 image via VTserver

Tim Shoppa shoppa at trailing-edge.com
Thu Feb 7 21:23:46 AEST 2002


> One assumption is that the utility only uses memory and TT: system calls --
> no disk accesses or swapping. Is it possible to abuse RT-11 in this manner?

RT-11 does support magtape installation via a special version of DUP
called MDUP.  If you look on a full RT-11 V5.x distribution, you will
find "MDUP.MT", "MDUP.MS", and (depending on version number) "MDUP.AI"
and "MDUP.MU".  These are "snapshots" of RT-11 systems with a single
tape driver (MT, MS, or MU) and a number of different disk drivers
installed (so they don't have to be FETCHed) and running the special
install-only build of DUP.

I think there is some MDUP info in the doc set, though it is
heavily oriented (of course) towards magtape installtion, not
serial port installation.  But the idea is sound.

> I wonder if it would be possible to bootstrap a VM0: image into high RAM and
> boot from it?

Yes, this works, and is even officially supported in the later 5.x
releases (where it is used as part of the AI installation procedure.)

Tim.



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