[TUHS] Possible Assembly UNIX Kernel Images (s1-bits cunix/wunix)?

segaloco via TUHS tuhs at tuhs.org
Sat Jan 17 08:06:54 AEST 2026


Hello everyone, I've been picking back up on some of my V2/V3 era
reverse engineering efforts, picking through stuff from the Dennis_Tapes
archive, and I came across something I don't think I've seen discussed.

On the s1 tape, which we've yoinked a lot of V3 userland sources from,
there are files cunix and wunix.  Upon some disassembly and inspection,
I believe these may be assembly UNIX kernels, although I haven't dug
around too much to see what version they match most closely.  Here are
some findings that support my suspicions:

- Both files begin with a 407 magic number, making them V2 a.out
binaries.
- Both begin with a branch that jumps over a few things then calls a
subroutine.  That subroutine matches "copyz" from u3.s in the scanned
V1 kernel description from BTL.  Indeed this jump in that kernel is also
to copyz.

Of course, this is only the first few bits executed, but I would be
surprised to find such a close match elsewhere in the system.  I do this
sort of analysis on old video game code all the time, so I feel pretty
confident in identifying these as possible assembly-era kernels.

Anyone dug around in these before?  These should be PDP-11/20 kernels as
I'm finding plenty of EAE references, just like the s2-bits V2 binaries.
What I'm hoping to find here are bits that might indicate KS11 support,
what with the recent chit chat about KS11 in the V2 kernel.

- Matt G.


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