Help installing HP 2000 contributed library in simh

[J. David Bryan]

On Monday, April 6, 2020 at 13:47, David Williams via cctech wrote:

> The first few tries I didn't see any messages, it just went on to the
> enter date and time and start up but when I'd check the account's
> directory there was nothing there. 

As I noted, I'm not that familiar with TSB (I'm an RTE guy).  But you might 
have to create the desired accounts with the "NEW" sysop command before you 
can restore to them.


> The last couple of times I tried I did get a message about something
> unsupported and listed something about 200 vs 1500 iirc (block
> size??). 

Feature level codes, I think.


> It asked if I wanted to take responsibility and continue which I said
> yes but still nothing appeared to be restored.

Pages 4-21 and 4-22 of the Access operator's manual (22687-90005, July 
1976) say:

   Each system is assigned a Feature Level Code identifying the level of
   features it supports. Currently, codes are assigned as follows: 

   Feature Level                         Code
   -----------------------------------   ----
   2000/C (High-Speed Option)             200
   2000/F (All Options)                   200
   HP 2000 Operating System, Release A   1000
   HP 2000 Operating System, Release B   2000

   Normally, systems with Feature Level Codes of 1000 or greater cannot
   access tapes from systems with Feature Level Codes of less than 1000
   and vice versa. For exceptions to this rule, refer to conversion
   information in Appendix F. 

If the tape reported a feature level code of 1500, then I'd think it was an 
Access tape.

Access does come with a conversion program, described in Appendix F of the 
above manual, that allows one to dump Access programs in 2000F format.  
Presumably, you could load the CSL tape into an Access system and then dump 
the programs to a 2000F tape that could be read into the latter system.  
I've never tried this myself, though.

Another possibility, if you can get listings of the CSL programs you want, 
is to copy-and-paste the source into a logged-in user terminal window 
session.


> The CSL tape image comes from Bitsavers as well and was the only copy
> I've found. It is listed as the 2000F CSL so figured it was
> compatible. 

Which specific tape are you using?  Bitsavers shows three CSL tapes under 
/bits/hp/tapes/2000tsb, but they all seem to be feature level 1500.


> Could the Simh hardware configuration in the default set up need to be
> changed? 

I don't think that's it.  Those couple of test programs installed with the 
software kit are loaded from a selective dump magnetic tape image as part 
of the sysgen process, so the DUMP and LOAD commands do work with the 
hardware setup.

                                      -- Dave