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* [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration
@ 2021-10-04 17:22 Henry Bent
  2021-10-04 17:41 ` Will Senn
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Henry Bent @ 2021-10-04 17:22 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

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Hello All,

I am attempting to restore 4.3BSD-Tahoe to a usable state on the VAX.  It
appears, based on the work that I have done already, that this is
possible.  Starting with stock 4.3BSD I got a source tree into /usr/tahoe
and using it I replaced all of /usr/include and /sys, recompiled and
replaced /bin, /lib, and /etc, recompiled a GENERIC kernel, and from there
I was able to successfully reboot using the new kernel.  As far as I can
tell (fingers crossed!) the hardest part is over and I'm in the process of
working on /usr.

My question is: how was this sort of thing done in the real world?  If I
was a site running stock 4.3BSD, would I have received (or been able to
request) updated tapes at regular intervals?  The replacement process that
I have been using is fairly labor intensive and on a real VAX would have
been very time intensive too.  Fortunately two to three years' worth of
changes were not so drastic that I ever found myself in a position where
the existing tools were not able to compile pieces of Tahoe that I needed
to proceed, but I could easily imagine finding myself in such a place.
(This was, by the way, what I ran into when attempting to upgrade from
2.9BSD to 2.10BSD, despite a fully documented contemporary upgrade
procedure).

-Henry

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* Re: [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration
  2021-10-04 17:22 [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration Henry Bent
@ 2021-10-04 17:41 ` Will Senn
  2021-10-04 17:51   ` Henry Bent
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Will Senn @ 2021-10-04 17:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

On 10/4/21 12:22 PM, Henry Bent wrote:
> My question is: how was this sort of thing done in the real world?  If 
> I was a site running stock 4.3BSD, would I have received (or been able 
> to request) updated tapes at regular intervals?  The replacement 
> process that I have been using is fairly labor intensive and on a real 
> VAX would have been very time intensive too.  Fortunately two to three 
> years' worth of changes were not so drastic that I ever found myself 
> in a position where the existing tools were not able to compile pieces 
> of Tahoe that I needed to proceed, but I could easily imagine finding 
> myself in such a place.  (This was, by the way, what I ran into when 
> attempting to upgrade from 2.9BSD to 2.10BSD, despite a fully 
> documented contemporary upgrade procedure).

Hi Henry,

I expect folks who actually ran this can weigh in with the 'real world' 
perspective. What I can offer is that the document entitled, "Installing 
and Operating 4.3BSD-tahoe UNIX* on the VAX" by the folks doing the 
release (CSRG) is probably canonical:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/suzanhud/BSD/4.3BSD_Tahoe_VAX.pdf

There's a section on migrating 4.2/4.3 to tahoe and the like. After it's 
up and running, it looks a little shy on details, but getting there 
seems well enough documented. If it's anything like 1bsd+, it seems like 
it was usually unpack and copy to the right locations, with the 
occasional compile with the right options thrown in.

Will

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration
  2021-10-04 17:41 ` Will Senn
@ 2021-10-04 17:51   ` Henry Bent
  2021-10-04 19:22     ` David Barto
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Henry Bent @ 2021-10-04 17:51 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Will Senn; +Cc: TUHS main list

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On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 at 13:42, Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 10/4/21 12:22 PM, Henry Bent wrote:
> > My question is: how was this sort of thing done in the real world?  If
> > I was a site running stock 4.3BSD, would I have received (or been able
> > to request) updated tapes at regular intervals?  The replacement
> > process that I have been using is fairly labor intensive and on a real
> > VAX would have been very time intensive too.  Fortunately two to three
> > years' worth of changes were not so drastic that I ever found myself
> > in a position where the existing tools were not able to compile pieces
> > of Tahoe that I needed to proceed, but I could easily imagine finding
> > myself in such a place.  (This was, by the way, what I ran into when
> > attempting to upgrade from 2.9BSD to 2.10BSD, despite a fully
> > documented contemporary upgrade procedure).
>
> Hi Henry,
>
> I expect folks who actually ran this can weigh in with the 'real world'
> perspective. What I can offer is that the document entitled, "Installing
> and Operating 4.3BSD-tahoe UNIX* on the VAX" by the folks doing the
> release (CSRG) is probably canonical:
>
> http://blog.livedoor.jp/suzanhud/BSD/4.3BSD_Tahoe_VAX.pdf
>
>
Well now I feel a little silly.  I did look in the source tree for a
document like this but couldn't find one.  It does appear, however, in the
installed (for Tahoe) tree in /usr/doc/smm/01.setup.

-Henry

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration
  2021-10-04 17:51   ` Henry Bent
@ 2021-10-04 19:22     ` David Barto
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: David Barto @ 2021-10-04 19:22 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Henry Bent; +Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

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> On Oct 4, 2021, at 10:51 AM, Henry Bent <henry.r.bent@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 at 13:42, Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com <mailto:will.senn@gmail.com>> wrote:
> On 10/4/21 12:22 PM, Henry Bent wrote:
> > My question is: how was this sort of thing done in the real world?  If 
> > I was a site running stock 4.3BSD, would I have received (or been able 
> > to request) updated tapes at regular intervals?  The replacement 
> > process that I have been using is fairly labor intensive and on a real 
> > VAX would have been very time intensive too.  Fortunately two to three 
> > years' worth of changes were not so drastic that I ever found myself 
> > in a position where the existing tools were not able to compile pieces 
> > of Tahoe that I needed to proceed, but I could easily imagine finding 
> > myself in such a place.  (This was, by the way, what I ran into when 
> > attempting to upgrade from 2.9BSD to 2.10BSD, despite a fully 
> > documented contemporary upgrade procedure).
> 
> Hi Henry,
> 
> I expect folks who actually ran this can weigh in with the 'real world' 
> perspective. What I can offer is that the document entitled, "Installing 
> and Operating 4.3BSD-tahoe UNIX* on the VAX" by the folks doing the 
> release (CSRG) is probably canonical:
> 
> http://blog.livedoor.jp/suzanhud/BSD/4.3BSD_Tahoe_VAX.pdf <http://blog.livedoor.jp/suzanhud/BSD/4.3BSD_Tahoe_VAX.pdf>
> 
> 
> Well now I feel a little silly.  I did look in the source tree for a document like this but couldn't find one.  It does appear, however, in the installed (for Tahoe) tree in /usr/doc/smm/01.setup.
> 
> -Henry

It is kind of funny that the following never got checked:

If your hardware configuration does not provide at least 75 XXX checkme XXX Megabytes of disk space ...


	David


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

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2021-10-04 17:22 [TUHS] 4.3BSD-Tahoe Restoration Henry Bent
2021-10-04 17:41 ` Will Senn
2021-10-04 17:51   ` Henry Bent
2021-10-04 19:22     ` David Barto

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