[pups] PDP11/73, RD53, RX50... What are my options?

[pino@dohd.org (Martijn van Buul)]

Tobias Russell wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a micro PDP11/73 equipped with an RD53, RX50 and a Cipher mag tape
> drive (untested). The machine currently boots into TSX (although I don't
> have usernames/passwords so no shell access).
> 
> I'd like to get BSD2.11 onto the machine. What is going to be the best
> route? I assume that my chances of breaking through TSX security (so I can
> use kermit) are small, so is vtserver going to be the easiest method?

If you have an RD53 and an RX50, I take it you have an RQDX3 disk
controller. These things will also swallow IBM PC 5.25" HD diskdrives
(at least some of them), which will be recognized as RX33's.

If you *also* have a PC equipped with a HD 5.25" diskdrive (which may be
a hard thing..), and access to 5.25" HD diskettes, you could set up 2.11BSD
using this method. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

I should have:

1) an XXDP bootdisk + RQDX3 formatter (if you want to re-format your
   RD53, which may be a wise idea)
2) A 2.11BSD boot diskette, containing kernel, part, mkfs and restor
3) A dump of ROOT, devided over RX33 disks.

Once you have unpacked the root fs, you should be able to sneakernet the
remaining distribution files over - although I think you might need to
snip a bit, it's probably not going to fit on your RD53.

It can be done. I've done it twice. It's a slow process, but that also
applies to vtserver. On the other hand, using vtserver, you can leave
the whole process unattended. Using floppies, you'll need to be physically
present :-/

-- 
    Martijn van Buul -  Pino at dohd.org - http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/
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