Loading an OS onto a real PDP-11 - not an emulator

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Loading an OS onto a real PDP-11 - not an emulator
>   From: Doug Jackson <doug at stillhq.com>
>   Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:51:02 +1100
>     To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>Hi List,
>
>Following the wonderful advice so for, My shiny PDP 11/04 has now been 
>upgraded to a 11/34, and I have a temporary terminator pack for my RL01 
>disk drive.
>
>I suspect that I have a system that is capable of booting. - Wo Hoo. 
>(read - the disks spin, and the fault light stays off.....)
>
>My final problem (Dont hold me to that though) is that I while I have a 
>number of disk packs, I don't believe that I have anything to boot!!  
>The packs are not really usefully labeled.
>
>Having trawled the list, I can find many many messages about archiving 
>data off RL disk packs, and onto archival systems (such as emulators, 
>etc) - bit I cant find anything about how to take a disk image, and put 
>it onto an real RL01 attached to real PDP11 where there is no other 
>media...  I suspect that I have to load in a serial receiver program, 
>and dump an image - but the details are so far, sparse....
>
>If somebody could provide some pointers - that would be awesome.....  In 
>an ideal world, I would be able to get RSTS onto this system (I have 
>dual RL01's - so that may not work) - Alternately, just being able to 
>boot RT11 to load a Forth interpreter would also work. [Yes, this is 
>where I admit to being a Forth person - I hope people will still want to 
>talk to me having admitted that]


Two ways I know of and they are essentailly the same.  Create a pack on a 
working system or bring up a pack from a working sytems.  Other options 
are a floppy based bring up (RT11 fits on floppy) or maybe loading core 
via serial line with a bottable image.  Last option is emulateted Tu58
where the PC acts as a TU58 with RT11 and you use a serial line to boot
and run fromt hat to create a RL pack.  IN any case I don't think anyone 
has come up with a way to write a RL from a PC directly.  Generally every
one has at least one other media (RX01/2 or RX50 OR TK50, TUxx) for 
portability.

It's look at the option where someone creates a pack for you or loans 
a pack or the emulated TU58 option.

Allison


>Thanks
>
>Doug