Ian,
The message is - to my knowledge - contained in boot blocks of RSX
volumes that are not meant to be bootable. There is a simple routine
instead of the secondary bootstrap that only outputs the string and then
halts. It's kind of a grounding wire to make sure you won't boot off a
tape that contains just user data in place of system files, and hence
might produce unpredictable results. Nevertheless, this is proof that
you managed to read the tape.
You may want to look for a tape that is labelled "Standalone BRU" or
"BRU64K": it should contain a variant of the "Backup / Restore Utility"
that works independently of the operating system and is bootable on its
own (actually, a specialized RSX system with pre-loaded BRU task). You
boot this tape, unload, then mount the actual data tape (one of those
you tried), and do the actual restore. This is how you would start a
SYSGEN (SYStem GENeration) after receiving a tape kit from Digital.
If you have a lot of time to wait, I might provide a Standalone BRU tape
(1600bpi only, I use a TS05!), but I'm afraid I'll have no time for my
PDP-11 before Christmas. Certainly, other list members can also do so.
But then, where will you copy the contents of the tape if your disk is
not yet connected? - Maybe trying to boot off disk is a better next step?
Regards,
Andreas
der Mouse wrote:
>>>[...], and the tape drive started to whir! It seeked back and forth
>>>in tiny and equal increments. Then, the drive stopped and 012710
>>>was displayed, then the _at_ prompt. I typed g, and got:
>>>*** THIS VOLUME DOES NOT CONTAIN A HARDWARE BOOTABLE SYSTEM ***.
>>
>>OK, this means (a) the tape boot works, (b) the machine is basically
>>OK, and (c) the tape connection is OK (now). Progress!
>
>
> Yes! This is very encouraging.
>
>
>>Since the "*** THIS VOLUME" ... comes from the boot loader (it is not
>>in the bootstrap program...) on tape, we *did* load something from
>>it.
>
>
> Not quite. It comes from the boot loader obtained somehow from the
> tape interface. We do not know whether the controller got it from ROM
> on the controller, from ROM on the drive, or from stuff read off the
> tape. My guess would be it's part of the code DMAed into low memory
> (from ROM somewhere), not part of something read from the tape, simply
> because it makes sense for there to be a complaint in case someone
> tries to boot from a totally garbage tape, and this message looks very
> much like what I'd expect that complaint to be.
>
>
>>Even though we were able to load the secondary bootstrap off tape
>>(which is blocks 0 and/or 1 on tape), we **ALSO** need to have that
>>code know what we're loading from.
>
>
> Yes...except that we don't actually know we loaded anything off the
> tape (see above).
>
>
>>Either the tape is a "ANSI standard" tape of some kind (with valid
>>boot blocks, but no bootable system) or it is a regular bootable
>>tape, but with a boot block for TM11 controllers...
>
>
> Or it's a nonbootable tape, and the message came from the ROMed boot
> code DMAed into low core.
>
> /~\ The ASCII der Mouse
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--
Andreas Freiherr
Vishay Semiconductor GmbH, Heilbronn, Germany
http://www.vishay.com
Received on Mon Nov 24 2003 - 11:26:51 GMT