[TUHS] Dennis's V6 root tape

[TUHS] Dennis's V6 root tape

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Will Senn

    > I then extracted 101 blocks from the image (tmrk, a bootblock, and who
    > knows what else, but seriously what else is on those first 100 blocks?)

http://gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_UNIX_Sixth_Edition#Installation_tape_contents

    > I thought the Ken Wellsch tape was basically the same as the Dennis 
    > Ritchie disks, but now I'm not so sure

http://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/V6Unix.html#Initial

    > Makes me curious to see what else is different.

Nothing.

	Noel

[TUHS] Dennis's V6 root tape

[Will Senn]

On 11/11/17 3:07 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>      > From: Will Senn
>
>      > I then extracted 101 blocks from the image (tmrk, a bootblock, and who
>      > knows what else, but seriously what else is on those first 100 blocks?)
>
> http://gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_UNIX_Sixth_Edition#Installation_tape_contents
>
>      > I thought the Ken Wellsch tape was basically the same as the Dennis
>      > Ritchie disks, but now I'm not so sure
>
> http://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/V6Unix.html#Initial
>
>      > Makes me curious to see what else is different.
>
> Nothing.
>
> 	Noel

Thanks Noel. I remember reading this way, way back, before I even knew 
what an RK05 was! I do love reinventing the wheel every couple of years. 
Still, I'm learning interesting stuff this go-round and I'm glad it 
wasn't my own notes :).

Will

-- 
GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF

[TUHS] Dennis's V6 root tape

[Will Senn]

Does anyone know if the image 
http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v6/v6root.gz 
is somehow bootable as-is?

I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to boot, so I went on a quest 
to make it bootable. Here's what I did - let me know if this was 
overkill or misguided.

Basically, I downloaded the known bootable v6 distribution tape from 
Wellsch directory in TUHS. I then extracted 101 blocks from the image 
(tmrk, a bootblock, and who knows what else, but seriously what else is 
on those first 100 blocks?), converted it to a simh compatible tape 
format, and booted a simh generic pdp11/40 with my new little boot tape 
and Dennis's root disk attached. I used tmrk to copy the bootstrap from 
my little tape to Dennis's root disk (am I clobbering anything 
important?). Then voila - it was bootable :)! I could have done it 
straight off Ken's tape (after converting it to a simh tape format), but 
I wanted to keep the little tape image around for use in other contexts.

Details for the curious are here: 
https://decuser.github.io/bootable-tape-v6.txt

I thought the Ken Wellsch tape was basically the same as the Dennis 
Ritchie disks, but now I'm not so sure - on Ken's tape, it boots to:

@rkunix
mem = 1035
RESTRICTED RIGHTS
Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to
restrictions stated in Contract with Western
Electric Company, Inc.
#

on Dennis' it boots to:

@rkunix
mem = 1036
#

Makes me curious to see what else is different. Maybe Dennis's was prior 
to preparing an official distro where the rights were added to the kernel?

Will

-- 
GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF