Installing RT-11 5.3 on SIMH
From Computer History Wiki
The installation manuals for RT-11 on bitsavers can be a bit scary and longwinding, but installing RT-11 can be done quickly in emulation nowadays.
Pre install
- Get simh working (out of scope)
- Get an empty RL02 disk image where your installation will live.
wget http://www.dbit.com/pub/pdp11/empty/rl02.dsk.gz gunzip rl02.dsk.gz cp rl02.dsk rl0.dsk
- Get the Mentec software kit distributed as RL02 image
wget http://simh.trailing-edge.com/kits/rtv53swre.tar.Z uncompress rtv53swre.tar.Z cat rtv53swre.tar |tar -xvf - cp Disks/rtv53_rl.dsk rl1.dsk
- To get text out of your installation without having to set up KERMIT provide an entry point for simh to print to
touch lpt.txt
- Configure a small PDP-11 with 2 disks and a line printer
cat >inst.ini <<__EOF set cpu 11/23+ 256K attach LPT lpt.txt set rl1 writeenabled set rl1 rl02 attach rl1 rl1.dsk set rl0 writeenabled set rl0 rl02 attach rl0 rl0.dsk set rl0 badblock boot rl1 quit __EOF
In case something goes wrong beyond this point you should be able to restart quickly with
cp Disks/rtv53_rl.dsk rl1.dsk; cp rl02.dsk rl0.dsk
Installation
With a `pdp11 run.ini' you boot the installation media. If you follow the installation log below you end up with a freshly installed RT-11 in rl0.dsk.
PDP-11 simulator V3.8-1
Disabling CR
Overwrite last track? [N] y
ZA[c\
Welcome to RT-11 V5.3
You have bootstrapped the RT-11 Distribution Disk. Use this disk to
install your RT-11 system, then store it in a safe place.
RT-11 V5.3 provides an automatic installation procedure which will
back up your distribution disk and build a working system disk which
should be used for your work with RT-11.
This working system disk will only contain the RT-11 operating
system. After the RT-11 installation is complete, follow the
installation instructions packaged with any optional languages or
utility software which you will be using.
Press the "RETURN" key when ready to continue.
You can choose to install RT-11 manually. This procedure is
described in the RT-11 Installation Guide.
If you are a new user of RT-11, DIGITAL highly recommends that you
use the automatic installation procedure.
Do you want to use the automatic installation procedure?
(Type YES or NO and press the "RETURN" key): y
You will be guided through the installation process by a series of
instructions and questions; you have an interactive dialog with the
RT-11 installation program. All you need to do is follow the
instructions carefully. When the instructions ask you to mount a
disk in a specified drive, find the disk with the correct label and
mount it in the drive, as shown in your installation booklet.
Do not remove any disk until specifically instructed to do so.
Once a disk is mounted in a drive, it must remain in the drive
until a message appears asking you to remove the disk.
Press the "RETURN" key when ready to continue.
Please enter today's date in the following format:
DD-MMM-YY
where DD is the day of the month
MMM is the first 3 letters in the name of the month
YY is the last two numbers of the year
For example: September 19, 1984 is 19-SEP-84
Type in the date, then press the "RETURN" key.
16-oct-94
A backup copy of the distribution disk will now be built.
Mount a blank disk in DL0 (Drive 0).
See the Automatic Installation Booklet for mounting instructions.
(Remember that the disk is not mounted until you have pressed the LOAD
button and the READY indicator light is on).
Press the "RETURN" key when you have mounted the disk.
Before a blank disk can be used it must be prepared so that the
software can write data to it. This preparation is called initiali-
zation.
The disk in DL0 is now being initialized.
The following procedure should produce informational messages
in the form ?FORMAT-I-Message, or ?DUP-I-Message. No action
is required as a result of these messages. If BAD blocks are
detected, the block number will be provided. This information
should be noted for future reference.
This can take approximately fifteen minutes. Please wait...
?DUP-I-No bad blocks detected DL0:
Now copying the distribution disk from DL1 (Drive 1) to DL0 (Drive 0).
This may take up to five minutes. Please wait...
Your backup copy of the distribution disk is in DL0 (Drive 0).
Please remove this disk from DL0 and label it
"RT-11 V5.3 BIN RL02 BACKUP".
Refer to Appendix B of your installation booklet for instructions
for dismounting a disk.
Press the "RETURN" key when you have removed the disk.
Your working system disk will now be built automatically. This disk
will contain the RT-11 Operating System.
Select a blank disk and label it: "RT-11 V5.3 BIN RL02 WORKING"
and mount it in DL0 (Drive 0).
Press the "RETURN" key when you have mounted the disk.
The disk you mounted in DL0 (Drive 0) is an original distribution
or backup disk.
The next procedure initializes DL0. As a result, any files
that currently reside on DL0 will be permanently lost. If you
would like to retain any files, EXIT from Automatic Installation
Procedure and copy them to another volume.
Do you want to EXIT from Automatic Installation (Y)? n
The disk in DL0 is now being initialized.
The following procedure should produce informational messages
in the form ?FORMAT-I-Message, or ?DUP-I-Message. No action
is required as a result of these messages. If BAD blocks are
detected, the block number will be provided. This information
should be noted for future reference.
This can take approximately fifteen minutes. Please wait...
?DUP-I-No bad blocks detected DL0:
Now copying RT-11 from DL1 (Drive 1) to DL0 (Drive 0).
This can take approximately two minutes. Please wait...
Your working system disk will now be bootstrapped.
Press the "RETURN" key when ready to continue.
RT-11FB V05.03
.TYPE V5USER.TXT
RT-11 V5.3
Installation of RT-11 Version 5.3 is complete and you are now
executing from the working volume (provided you have used the
automatic installation procedure). DIGITAL recommends you verify
the correct operation of your system's software using the
verification procedure. To do this, enter the command:
IND VERIFY
Note that VERIFY should be performed only after the distri-
bution media have been backed up. This was accomplished as part
of automatic installation on all RL02, RX02, TK50, and RX50
based systems, including the MicroPDP-11 and the Professional
300. If you have not completed automatic installation, you must
perform a manual backup before using VERIFY. Note also, VERIFY
is NOT supported on RX01 diskettes, DECtape I or II, or the
Professional 325.
DIGITAL also recommends you read the file V5NOTE.TXT, which
contains information formalized too late to be included in the
Release Notes. V5NOTE.TXT can be TYPED or PRINTED.
.
You can play around if you want now. There is no sync or shutdown in RT-11, just drop out of the emulator w/ ctrl-e when you are done.
Post install
Configure simh to run your installation..
cat >run.ini <<__EOF set cpu 11/23+ 256K attach LPT lpt.txt set rl0 writeenabled set rl0 rl02 attach rl0 rl0.dsk set rl0 badblock boot rl0 quit __EOF
..and run it w/ `pdp11 run.ini'
