DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

[Charles H Dickman]

Dave McGuire wrote:
> On May 2, 2009, at 2:05 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> Funny that noone else around seems to be able to answer. I thought 
>> there were atleast some people with experience from older systems 
>> around. :-)
>
>   I'd say this was a pretty esoteric issue. ;)  I've done tons of 
> stuff with OS/8, going back to when I was about 16 (24 years ago, 
> ugh!) but have never run across this.
>
>   Now, I finally got an ASR-33 a few weeks ago, and I want to connect 
> it to a PDP-8, so I might have to think about this some more! :)
>
>           -Dave
>
Disclaimer... I struggled through this myself and this is how I 
understand it. Comments and corrections are welcome.

First, the BUILD.SV utility is both a tool to change the OS 
configuration and a record of the configuration. Typically, BUILD.SV 
will contain the original configuration of the system. Changes are made 
by RUNing and then SAVEing new versions of the configuration.

Danger! Danger! Will Robinson...  If the BUILD.SV image does not match 
your running configuration, you will destroy your current OS 
configuration and make the system unbootable. I would use RESORC /E to 
determine the current configuration then make sure it matches what you 
see from BUILD.

The following is a transcript of taking a system configuration saved in 
BLDDMO.SV and adding a non-system TD8E handler. I will insert comments 
with a #.

# Start BUILD containing the current configuration. Make sure to use RUN 
because
# that lets you save it when you are done.
.RUN SYS BLDDMO.SV

# Print the configuration
# Handlers in the BUILD image are listed. Handlers that will be included 
in the OS
# are marked with *.
$PR

RK8E:  SYS   RKA0  RKB0
RK05: *RKA0 *RKB0 *RKA1 *RKB1
LPSV:  LPT 
PT8E:  PTP   PTR 
DUMP: *DUMP
COM :  RTS8
RX02: *RXA0 *RXA1
RX8E: *SYS 
KL8E: *TTY 

DSK=RX02:RXA0
CORE= 6

# First the handler must be loaded into the BUILD image using LOAD. The 
drive must
# already exist in .BN format on the SYS device.
$LOAD TD8EA.BN

# Now the TD8E handler is available, but will not be installed in the OS.
$PR

RK8E:  SYS   RKA0  RKB0
RK05: *RKA0 *RKB0 *RKA1 *RKB1
LPSV:  LPT 
PT8E:  PTP   PTR 
DUMP: *DUMP
COM :  RTS8
RX02: *RXA0 *RXA1
RX8E: *SYS 
KL8E: *TTY 
TD8A:  DTA0  DTA1

DSK=RX02:RXA0
CORE= 6

# Now the handler is added to the OS that will be built.
$INSERT TD8A,DTA0

# Note the * in front of DTA0.
$PR

RK8E:  SYS   RKA0  RKB0
RK05: *RKA0 *RKB0 *RKA1 *RKB1
LPSV:  LPT 
PT8E:  PTP   PTR 
DUMP: *DUMP
COM :  RTS8
RX02: *RXA0 *RXA1
RX8E: *SYS 
KL8E: *TTY 
TD8A: *DTA0  DTA1
DSK=RX02:RXA0
CORE= 6

# Now add DECTape drive 1
$INSERT TD8A,DTA1

# This is the point when the new OS is written to the SYS device using 
the devices that are
# in the configuration.
$BOOTSTRAP
SYS BUILT

# Now save the configuration. I used the same name that I started with. 
Change the
# name if you want to have the old configuration available.
.SAVE SYS BLDDMO.SV

# At this point I am not sure if the new system is in operation or not.
# I usually halt and then reboot.

# After a reboot.
# The TD8E is now available.
.RESORC /E

23 FILES IN 371 BLOCKS
561 FREE BLOCKS (3 EMPTIES)

#  NAME TYPE MODE SIZ BLK KIND U V ENT USER
01 SYS  RX02 RWF  988 SYS      0 M  07
02 DSK  RX02 RWF  988 20+           32
03 RKA0 RK8E RWF 3248 16  RK05 0 A  20
04 RKB0 RK8E RWF 3248 16  RK05 0 A  21
05 RKA1 RK8E RWF 3248 16  RK05 1 A  22
06 RKB1 RK8E RWF 3248 16  RK05 1 A  23
07 DUMP DUMP W        17+        C 176
10 RXA0 RX02 RWF  988 20+           32
11 RXA1 RX02 RWF  988 20+           36
12 TTY  TTY  RW       21+ KL8E   E 176
13 DTA0 TD8E RWF  737 22+ TD8  0 D  10
14 DTA1 TD8E RWF  737 22+ TD8  1 D  14

FREE DEVICE SLOTS: 03,  FREE BLOCK SLOTS: 03
OS/8 V3T


.


Thats all there is to it.

A TTY handler will already be present, so that will have to be removed 
before it can be replaced. DELETE removes the handler from the 
configuration. UNLOAD completely deletes the handler from the BUILD image.

The OS/8 Handbook is your friend. Start at page 2-34.

-chuck