Installing 4.1 BSD on SIMH
This is the procedure is loosely inspired from Naoki Hamada to install 4.0 BSD onto SIMH's VAX 11/780 emulator. I can't get the standalone programs to run on SIMH, so instead I'm using the 4.0 standalone to bootstrap 4.1. So the ini files, and initial disk prep is the same.
Contents
Requirements
- You will need a working copy of SIMH's vax780.exe for your platform.
- A modified 4.1 BSD install tape. You can download one from sourceforge
- The 4.0 standalone boot program, avilable on sourceforge
- A copy of 7zip to decompress the tape image
Preparing for installation
The first step is to decompress the tape image with 7zip. This should be very straightforward:
7zip x 4.1_BSD_19810710-modified.7z
You will need to create two ini files, one for the tape boot, and the other for the disk boot.
tboot.ini
set tto 7b set rq dis set lpt dis set rl dis set hk dis set rq dis set rqb dis set rqc dis set rqd dis set ry dis set ts dis set tq dis set dz lines=8 set rp0 rp06 at rp0 rp06.disk set tu0 te16 at tu0 4.1_BSD_19810710-modified.tap D 50000 20009FDE D 50004 D0512001 D 50008 3204A101 D 5000C C113C08F D 50010 A1D40424 D 50014 008FD00C D 50018 C1800000 D 5001C 8F320800 D 50020 10A1FE00 D 50024 00C139D0 D 50028 04c1d004 D 5002C 07e15004 D 50030 0000f750 run 50000 run 0
dboot.ini
set tto 7b set rq dis set lpt dis set rl dis set hk dis set rq dis set rqb dis set rqc dis set rqd dis set ry dis set ts dis set tq dis set dz lines=8 set rp0 rp06 at rp0 rp06.disk set tu0 te16 load -o boot 0 run 2
You will also need to extract the boot program. You can download it from sourceforge, or uudecode the following boot program that is injected into SIMH's memory.
Booting from tape
Simply boot up from tape by invoking SIMH's VAX 11/780 with the tape boot ini as follows:
C:\bsd40>vax780.exe tboot.ini VAX780 simulator V3.8-1 RP: creating new file Overwrite last track? [N] y HALT instruction, PC: 00050033 (HALT) =
This will get you to the bootloader which we can then use to invoke the mkfs/restore commands. There isn't any need to lowlevel format in the emulator.
=mkfs file sys size: 7942 file system: hp(0,0) isize = 5072 m/n = 3 500 =
Now to restore the root/boot partition:
=restor Tape? ht(0,1) Disk? hp(0,0) Last chance before scribbling on disk. End of tape =
Hit enter when prompted "Last chance before scribbling on disk.".
Now we can invoke the boot program to load up the kernel so we can continue the install.
=boot Boot :
Now we can specify the disk & kernel, as follows:
: hp(0,0)vmunix 123060+27528+24628 start 0xF5C Berkeley VAX/UNIX Version 4.9 Wed Feb 17 15:27:46 PST 1982 real mem = 8322048 avail mem = 7738368 mcr0 at tr1 mcr1 at tr2 uba0 at tr3 dz0 at uba0 csr 160100 vec 300, ipl 15 mba0 at tr8 hp0 at mba0 drive 0 hp1 at mba0 drive 1 hp2 at mba0 drive 2 hp3 at mba0 drive 3 mba1 at tr9 ht0 at mba1 drive 0 tu0 at ht0 slave 0 tu1 at ht0 slave 1 root device?
And we will be prompted for the root device, in this case it's hp0
root device? hp0 WARNING: preposterous time in file system -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE! WARNING: should run interleaved swap with >= 2Mb erase ^?, kill ^U, intr ^C #
It is recommended that you run fsck to ensure that the 'a' partition is in good health. Run fsck as follows:
# fsck /dev/rhp0a /dev/rhp0a File System: ** Checking /dev/rhp0a ** Phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes ** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames ** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity ** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts ** Phase 5 - Check Free List 663 files 4277 blocks 3346 free #
Now we format the 'g' partition which we will then mount under /usr and restore from tape. Take note that we specify the size as that isn't detected, and that mkfs lives in /etc!
# mkfs /dev/hp0g 145673 isize = 65488 m/n = 3 500
Next we link the tape device to rmt:
cd /dev MAKE ht0 cd /
Now we mount the partition, advance the tape, and restore.
# /etc/mount /dev/hp0g /usr # cd /usr # mt rew # mt fsf 2 # tar xpb 20 #
This will take about a minute to complete.
Next we'll install a bootblock.
# dd if=/usr/mdec/uboot of=/dev/rhp0a bs=1b count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out #
No create the fstab by copying the example rp file
cp /etc/fstab.rp06 /etc/fstab
And you can test that its working with a 'df'
# df Filesystem Mounted on kbytes used free % used /dev/hp0a / 7623 4278 3345 56% /dev/hp0g /usr 141578 9198 132380 6%
Then we fix some mount permissions, and shutdown the system.
# cd / # chmod 755 / /usr # sync # sync # sync # sync # ^E Simulation stopped, PC: 80000963 (MTPR #0,#12) sim> q Goodbye C:\bsd40>
The operating system is now installed.
Booting from disk
This part relies on you having extracted the 4.0 BSD boot program, as there is no console floppy in SIMH. Or I haven't figured out how to create one, so it is injected into memory and executed. Load the simulator as follows and it'll boot up to the login prompt.
C:\bsd40>vax780.exe dboot.ini VAX780 simulator V3.8-1 Boot : hp(0,0)vmunix 123060+27528+24628 start 0xF5C Berkeley VAX/UNIX Version 4.9 Wed Feb 17 15:27:46 PST 1982 real mem = 8322048 avail mem = 7738368 mcr0 at tr1 mcr1 at tr2 uba0 at tr3 dz0 at uba0 csr 160100 vec 300, ipl 15 mba0 at tr8 hp0 at mba0 drive 0 hp1 at mba0 drive 1 hp2 at mba0 drive 2 hp3 at mba0 drive 3 mba1 at tr9 ht0 at mba1 drive 0 tu0 at ht0 slave 0 tu1 at ht0 slave 1 root on hp0 WARNING: clock lost 152 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE! WARNING: should run interleaved swap with >= 2Mb Automatic reboot in progress... Mon Feb 2 13:31:59 GMT 1976 /dev/hp0a: 676 files 4278 blocks 3345 free /dev/rhp0g: 1333 files 9198 blocks 132380 free Mon Feb 2 13:31:59 GMT 1976 Mounted /usr on /dev/hp0g preserving editor files clearing /tmp starting daemons: update Mon Feb 2 13:31:59 GMT 1976 cron accounting network mail printer. Mon Feb 2 13:31:59 GMT 1976 Berkeley 4.1 VAX/UNIX (Amnesia-Vax) login:
Now you can follow the `Taking the system up and down' Section of setup document.
