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Simh scripts to configure and sysgen a simulated PDP-11 to run RSTS/E.

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Project RSTS

A project to track my experiments with a PDP-11 emulator running RSTS/E.

The *.do files are simh Simulator Control Protocol (SCP) scripts. They are not, as Git Hub claims, stata source files. The scripts should be host OS independent, but I've only tested on Windows.

The sysgen scripts, SysgenV8.do and SysgenV9.do, are used to build to corresponding RSTS/E versions from a tape distribution kit. (I use the ones from rsts.org). The target system is configured using the following scripts in the common/ folder:

  • MicroControllers.do
  • SerialCards.do
  • SlowMedia.do
  • TerminalOptions.do

This makes it easy to build multiple RSTS systems, with differing hardware support, relatively quickly. The main build files call out to other scripts to do the bulk of their work. This allows you to comment out parts, to create a custom build. e.g. you could build up to the point where the sysgen SIL is installed then make several copies of the system disk image. Then run just the remaining steps on each copy, with different target configuration files.

The V8 and V9 script create 80 MB RM03 disk images for the system disk. The V8 script also creates a 28 MB RK07 disk image, that's used as a scratch disk. The scratch disk is not required once the system is fully built, and can be safely deleted.

RSTS/E V8.0

The SysgenV8.do script will build a system from scratch, using a tape image of the V8 distribution kit. It works around the flaws in the only V8 tape I've found, the one from rsts.org. This tape has the files in the wrong order. Why does this matter? because the build control files on the tape use /mode:2 to prevent the tape from being rewound. I work around this by copying the files to a scratch disk, a 28 MB RK07, and building from disk.

This script takes about 13 minutes to run, on a 10 year old 32-bit Windows 7 laptop. It creates two log files, one of the simulator's debug output and a second using PuTTY to log all interaction with RSTS.

At script completion you have a working system with a minimal set of system programs. You'll be logged into [1,2], the system library account. If that's good enough then run init, to make the standard commands available, and you'll be good to go. I'll be adding the remaining steps, to build all available system programs, in the near future.

Prerequisites

  • PDP11.exe from the simh distribution. I'm using V4.0-0.

  • PuTTY is assumed to be on the path, and used for logging only. You can comment out the PuTTY setup to disable this, but that would make problem diagnoses a lot harder.

RSTS/E V9.5

The SysgenV9.do script will build a RSTS V9.5 system from scratch. Why V9.5 and not V9.7? because the V9.7 tape, on rsts.org, has known errors in two files.

NOTE: Since creating this script I've made changes to modules that it depends on, in order to get the V8 build working. I haven't, yet, re-tested the V9.5 build.

Prerequisites

  • PDP11.exe from the simh distribution. I'm using V4.0-0.
  • V95BOOT.TAP - The V9.5 boot tape image
  • V95ANSI.TAP - The V9.5 ANSI tape image
  • V9LIB.TAP - The V9 library tape image

All the above tapes are available in the distros/RSTS_tapes/ folder at rsts.org.

Optional extras

This build does not require PuTTY, but you'll probably want to install it anyway.

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Simh scripts to configure and sysgen a simulated PDP-11 to run RSTS/E.

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