In case someone is using RPM on HECnet, and using DECnet as the
transport protocol, you need to update your configuration of RPM.
The reason is because I moved the RPM repository directory to a new
place. In order to avoid any similar problem in the future, please use
RPM$DIR: instead of LB:[RPM] which was previously the suggested default
when accessing MIM::
You can change your configuration using RPM CONFIG, or edit CONFIG.CMD
in your RPM directory. If you edit the file directly, it is the USER
variable that should be changed.
If people are using RPM with TCP/IP as transport, no changes are needed,
and all should work without any disruption.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
I just finished making the July 1989 CONOLD CD-ROM available for reading using VTB on PDXVAX. If you wish to access it, you can simply log in with the Guest Account, and type ?VTB".
I also have MGBOOK installed, but it fails horribly on the files (though it?s able to read the basic DECW$BOOKREADER documentation). I like its interface, but even on the DECW$BOOKREADER documentation, it doesn?t seem to do as well displaying the books.
Zane
Is anyone using Multinet that I can setup a link to? I?m using Johnny?s tool with a link to MIM, but I?d like to get a Multinet link going to someone in the US again. The latency to systems in the US is frightful. :-)
Thanks,
Zane
Hi, all.
If you are running an RSX system on HECnet, and you'd like a simple
command line tool to check some information about other nodes, as it is
registered in the Datatrieve database I keep on MIM, I've written one now.
It does require that you have the PDP-11 C runtime libraries installed
(they are installed as a part of BQTCP, and also exists as a component
in RPM).
Just grab MIM::HECNET:DDB.TSK, install it, and off you go.
If you want the sources (it's really simple) they can be found at
MIM::HECNET:DDB.C and you also have a Makefile there that compiles it
for you, in case you want to experiment some.
Example run:
.ddb mim
Node: MIM
Address: 1.13
Owner: Johnny Billquist
OS: RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6
CPU: PDP-11/74 (e11)
Created: 12 Nov 2011 12:00:00
Modified: 02 May 2020 19:45:49
Loc: Uppsala, Sweden
Coord: 59.858612,17.638744
.
I just thought it could be useful to have sometimes, and it's also a
good exercise in interfacing between Datatrieve and PDP-11 C.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Has anybody ever seen SETNOD fail to insert the entire node list?? I
just did.
Shortly after I put my 20's up on HECnet, I wrote a reoccurring batch
job that fires once a week on Sundays to pull the latest node list
(T20.FIX) from MIM::.? I use the highly venerable FILCOM program to do a
difference of it with the previous week's list.? I don't do anything in
particular with the output except save it in case I feel like looking at
it for some reason.
The batch job always inserts the entire list, rewriting whatever might
be in the monitor's data base.? I have always been unsatisfied with
doing things that way because it seemed to me to be inefficient as the
node list grew.?? The HECnet node list count was 716 on 9-Jun-19 and
it's now up to 884 as of the latest version that I've pulled,
30-Apr-21.? The other problem is the microscopic possibility that a node
is in Tops-20's monitor database (a hash table) that isn't in the HECnet
node list.
Nodes can get removed, although I think that infrequent.? Nodes could
get inserted outside of the batch job, but I think that most unlikely in
my situation.? Nodes can get renamed, as evidenced by 2.299 below, which
went from THEPIT to THEARK.? None of this should or has broken anything.
However, it's been in the back of my mind to do two enhancements, one to
Tops-20 and one to SETNOD. The NODE% JSYS should have an additional
feature to return the current monitor data base.? The SETNOD program
should be enhanced to take that to compute the set difference with the
new list.? This would show additions, renames and deletions. That would
bring the update operation down from some hundred items to less than
ten, on average.? This would obviously make more of a difference on huge
DECnet's in the tens of thousands of nodes. Another NODE% feature should
probably be to whack the entire monitor database except for the local
node, which would be useful for trouble shooting.
Last Sunday, the batch job failed with the following error:
18:33:40 USER?? SETNOD>*TAKE SYSTEM:NODE-DATA.TXT.0
18:33:40 USER
18:33:40 USER?? [Fork SETNOD opening <SYSTEM>NODE-DATA.TXT.1 for reading]
18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD>*SAVE
18:33:41 USER
18:33:41 USER?? [Fork SETNOD opening <SYSTEM>NODE-DATA.BIN.74 for
reading, writing]
18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD>*INSERT
18:33:41 USER
18:33:41 USER *?SETNOD: Failed at node REACH*
18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD>
I had a look at the SETNOD source and the HECnet node list and have
discovered and concluded a few things.? First, there doesn't seem to be
anything syntactically wrong with REACH::'s definition: "set nod 2.298
name REACH". Second, there don't appear to be any semantic issues.?
2.298 wasn't in use and it shouldn't matter if it was.
In the case of INSERT, there are two kinds of errors from NODE%, a
general failure of the JSYS and an incomplete insertion.?? The error is
from the second case.? Unfortunately, SETNOD isn't reporting enough
information about the error, so I have to make some changes there.? It's
also possible that SETNOD is building an inconsistent database for the
monitor to swallow; at least the LIST command is giving me some odd
results, viz:
SETNOD>list arEA 2
[AREA 2]
A2RTR
TOTAL NODES FOUND: 1
SETNOD>
That's clearly wrong, viz:
!i dec
?Local DECNET node: VENTI2.? Nodes reachable: 7.
?Accessible DECNET nodes are:??? A2RTR??? BOINGO LEGATO???
TOMMYT??? VENTI2??? VENTI??? ZITI
The Exec output should probably be changed to say, "Nodes reachable in
local area" and "Online nodes in area are:"
Anybody have any ideas?? Hunches?? Clues?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
File 1) OLDF:[4,120]??? created: 1241 15-Apr-21
File 2) NEWF:[1,1]????? created: 0102 30-Apr-21
1)1???? set nod 44.9 name OSMIUM
****
2)1???? set nod 2.292 name OSIRIS
2)????? set nod 44.9 name OSMIUM
**************
1)1???? set nod 13.3 name RED
****
2)1 *set nod 2.298 name REACH *
2)????? set nod 13.3 name RED
**************
1)1???? set nod 2.298 name RSX11M
1)????? set nod 1.306 name RSX124
****
2)1???? set nod 1.306 name RSX124
**************
1)1???? set nod 42.5 name SPARKY
****
2)1???? set nod 2.291 name SPARK
2)????? set nod 42.5 name SPARKY
**************
1)1???? set nod 2.299 name THEPIT
1)????? set nod 35.70 name THOMAS
****
2)1???? set nod 2.299 name THEARK
2)????? set nod 35.70 name THOMAS
**************
I don?t know if Jon Newton is in this group, but he pointed me to this t-shirt that may be of interest.
https://curiousmarcs-store.creator-spring.com/listing/VAXinated?product=211
---
Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
> On Apr 22, 2021, at 5:31 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
>
> ?On 4/22/21 4:42 PM, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>>> Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
>>> .... schmutz in the slots.
>>
>> That's what you get for jimmying the cover interlock :)
>
> Heh. :) But, ah, no. We have everything as close to "as-shipped
> perfect" as possible at the museum, and even in a personal setting I'm
> WAY too anal to run a machine without proper covers.
>
> But when a BA32 sits in a dirty warehouse for twenty years, dust and
> crap gets into those slots, top covers or not.
>
>> The ZIF slots, "no cables attached to the cards" and the "identical POST pass/fail LEDs on every card" features of BI are nice for working on, but it's a real problem for restoration. Anything that attached to some peripheral (DEBNT, KLESI-B, KDB50, DMB32, etc) required a special "transition header" that adapted the backplane to the cable set for that particular device. Spare BI cards are fairly easy to come by, but everybody has thrown away the transition headers and the cards are pretty much useless without them.
>
> Yes, it's awful. I have countless BI and XMI boards with no cab kits.
>
> DEC was clearly not planning properly for the surplus and aftermarket
> for their machines. ;)
>
> -Dave
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA
Is there a Windows utility that will read and write RT11 files from TU58,
RX01/2 or RL01/2 images? A Linux utility would be OK too.
I know about PUTR, but it doesn't appear that it can run under any recent
(e.g. 64 bit) version of Windows..
And EXCHANGE on VMS works fine, but getting the image files on VMS in the
first place is a hassle.
Thanks,
Bob
With what was going on about RT11, I showed a much younger colleague some of the conversations on this list.
Let?s just say that I fear for the future of the human race.
Keith
For anyone running PyDECnet, I would recommend you update to the latest
version (582), since that removes a behavior that triggered BQTCP to
sometimes automatically block PyDECnet hosts.
And of course, it you're running something way older, there are probably
other improvements you'll also benefit from.
And thanks to Paul Koning, who wrote this nice piece of software.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Ok, this is a bit of an off the wall question, but - can Task Builder (aka
TKB) build paper tape images in absolute loader format? Can anybody clue me
in as to the magic switch(es) to do this?
Thanks,
Bob
