RT-11 - An Open letter to Mentec?

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_idirect.com>
Date: Tue Apr 17 22:20:04 2001

>Daniel T. Burrows wrote:

> At the moment things are basically under control. I had a system in my van
> that was to heavy to unload by myself and I had 5 pallets of equipment
> waiting to be picked up at a local friends place that has a nice loading
> dock. Thankfully the kids are all grown and moved out of the house so I
> have taken over half the house while the mess gets cleaned up and a steel
> building put up.

Jerome Fine replies:

It sounds simple, but I understand what a mess you are probably in - good luck.

> There are many different distributions and IIRC some layered products. I
> have not looked closely at the RT11 stuff for a while. ( My background is
> RSX11M+)

This sounds like you have at least one version of RT-11 that is from V5.0x.
If so and it is equal or later than the V5.03 that is on the internet, this is great
news. If not, then at least is sounds like real PDP-11 hardware will be allowed.

One question - if a later version that is not on the CD is available to that hobby
user, will it be legal to use it was well? i.e. is the CD the last word on which
versions are acceptable? Or is it just a sample of what is allowed and the
CD will be available so Mentec will not be bothered by hobby users looking
for the latest distribution?

> >Also, will the CD be set up as Tim Shoppa set up the RT-11 Freeware CD
> >with DOS/W95/W98 files at the beginning and RT-11 partitions with
> >duplicates at the end? Or all DOS or all RT-11. Note that for DOS,
> >the first 64 blocks of partition zero in RT-11 are not available with the
> >raw SCSI media. With the RT-11 Freeware CD from Tim Shoppa,
> >this is not a problem, but could be if ONLY RT-11 partitions are
> >on the CD. For example, PUTR from John Wilson probably can't
> >read the first 64 blocks of partition zero under DOS if it had been
> >an RT-11 partition. Note that there are a number of ways around
> >this problem under DOS, but they are unnecessary if RT-11 partition
> >zero is devoted to DOS files.
> I have had several thoughts on that and it will depend on time. It will be
> DOS, etc. readable.

If you look at what Tim Shoppa did with the RT-11 Freeware CD, that
seems like a good model. The files were duplicated in both the DOS
and RT-11 portions. The RT-11 portions were set up as RT-11 partitions
which can be read on a PC, along with the DOS files. I don't have a
CDROM on the real PDP-11 hardware that is compatible with the
Qbus host adapter, so I can't comment on what a real PDP-11 sees, but
I presume that others have done so.

> >Hopefully, this was not the trickle situation and these posts on classiccmp
> >are the best way and do not involve Mentec in any manner.
> I only jumped in because I did not want a bunch of people calling Mentec
> about it now. I am waiting for something and hope it will be here before I
> get tied up on service calls for the next 2 weeks.

If 2 weeks is the current target to release some more news, we can certainly
wait until the end of April!!!!!!!!!

> >Can you use any help? Have you a new target date at this point? Any
> >information would be helpful since probably most of us were not aware
> >it was even being considered. In fact, can you take a few minutes and
> >describe what is being considered?
> It is basically finalized but I don't want to have people rock the boat and
> be calling wanting this and that added. It has been enough trouble to get
> it to this point and everyone agreeable on its current contents. I have
> wanted to include things but it will not be another DECUS type distribution.
> The goodies like Al Baldwin's TCP package will not be on it. ( I tried but
> things were to cast in stone when I got involved)

All this is very interesting. Hopefully, you will be able to tell us how everything
was put together.

> Thanks but I have already gotten up 2)11/73's, an 11/84, M11, all with SCSI
> disk and tape. I have a couple 11/84's, 11/44's that will be up when time
> permits. These are all also on the network with the PC's and a 4100.
> Remember I make a large part of my living supporting customers that are
> running this hardware.

That part I understand. Perhaps when you have some time, you could provide
some help and advise us on how to transfer a SCSI hard drive that has ONLY
RT-11 partitions to a CDROM which can then be read on both a PC (except
for the first 64 blocks on partition zero) and a real PDP-11. I would like to
create an archive that is both inexpensive and long lasting.

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
Received on Tue Apr 17 2001 - 22:20:04 BST