[TUHS] Re: 4.3 BSD version in the Unix Archive

[Michael Sokolov]

Markus Weber <jmbw at nather.com> wrote:

> Clearly, stand boots. I'm hopeful that 4.3-Quasijarus0a will indeed run on
> simh.

Just be warned that I have heard from others that the kernel won't boot on SIMH
due to sucky emulation.

> For some follow-up questions... Standalone format supports hp and up disks,
> but simh only emulates RL and RQ controllers - which means that the Ultrix
> utilities to label a cold disk must be ported or recreated to the simh host
> platform. Of course, it may well be that applying a hex editor to the disk
> image will suffice.

Arghh, why don't people just f-ing get it!  Standalone format is what is known
as low-level format in the PeeCee world (magnetic level stuff, certainly not
needed on an emulator), and it has absolutely nothing to do with disk labeling.
4.3BSD-Quasijarus0[a] does not have standalone disklabel, but RA82 is known to
the compiled-in tables and thus will work unlabeled.  Also Ultrix' disk labels
are not useful for 4.3BSD-Tahoe/Quasijarus, since the labels are stored in a
different place in a different format.  (Berkeley and DEC developed pack labels
independently.  BSD stores them in the boot block, Ultrix stores them in the
root fs superblock, which has the disadvantage of requiring you to create some
dummy root fs before you can write a label, even if you want a root fs of
different size.)

> Am I correct that Quasijarus supports RA82 disks (using the ra type) and the
> TK50 tape (as a tms)?

Yes.

MS