[HECnet] Multics online as node 1.770 (BANAI)

[Jeffrey H. Johnson]

> On Sep 6, 2018, at 4:41 PM, Zane Healy <healyzh at avanthar.com> wrote:
> 
> Very cool!  I just got my Multics system up and running this last Sunday.  I was a systems analyst on DPS-8 mainframes running GCOS-8 from ’90-93.  I’ve come to the conclusion that not only is that knowledge all evaporated from my head, it also wouldn’t really help with Multics. :-)

Oh no, a stinkin' GCOS user! Just kidding, of course. While we aren't running the GCOS Daemon for batch/absentee GCOS processes (mainly because nobody has asked!), gtss, the interactive GCOS TSS simulator does work, if you happen to have any GCOS tasks you'd like to run. 

We also have the DTSS simulator available (which I believe is also working in mainline). Login with the control arguments "-po >unb>dfast_process_overseer_", example:

"enter Guest  -po >unb>dfast_process_overseer_"

> How on earth did you manage to hook Multics up to HECnet?

It's a hugely abusive hack. Since the DECnet for Linux code is written in C, and the FNP emulation is a C simulation of the FNP/MCS behavior, I've taken advantage of that to simulate a hardwired protocol converter. This also means that rather than having to (re-)implement much of the networking code in obscure MAP355/Level 6 assembly language, the off-loaded networking code which would run on the FNP can run essentially natively on the host. (The overall long-term goal, however, is eliminating host-based services and 'properly' emulating the Level 6 FNP at the instruction level.)

We a use additional emulated hardware infrastructure such as emulated terminal servers to ease management, balance connections between FNPs, etc. 

While we have diverged somewhat from the mainline code, mainly to support our large configuration (8 FNPs, custom networking code, etc), extensive stress testing has exercised the code and located and fixed various bugs over the past 18 months.

The most important fixes have been integrated back upstream in the master branch already, while a larger number of enhancements will be in the next release of the simulator. 

(... Next project is Chaosnet networking!)

> I connected as a guest, am I correct that you have a bunch of Multics software that’s not available as part of the standard build?

You are correct. And even some more that isn't yet publicly installed yet, but is running and will soon be made available.

I've been something of professional harasser, contacting many Multics people and the past Multics sites trying to track down any leads on software (and hopefully backups) that may still exist, and finding what was run at each site. While successes are few and far between, I've recovered a surprising amount of software.  

In some cases software has been available from various collections, but was never integrated, compiled, and run on post-MR12 systems until now. Often this involves correcting many OCR errors or retyping listings from scans and microfilm. 

In other cases there is Multics software which is essentially 'extinct' but various descendants still exist, so we are working on backporting/crossporting the existing software versions back to Multics - this includes programming languages like XPL and SNOBOL, software packages like REDUCE, MACSYMA, OMNITAB, TeX, etc. 

Finally, we are also working to develop new Multics software and ports. We will be distributing the software and updates through a "package management" system via an online MIKSD (Multics Internet Kermit Service Daemon), which we hope to have available and running next year.

The most important utilities and tools from the efforts are being integrated back upstream and will appear in future releases of the base Multics distribution, where appropriate.

The BAN.AI system has sort of become the de facto "home base" for these efforts and I'm humbled and grateful to be able to work with so many people who I consider heroes of computer science.

Some of the other unique network features that BAN offers besides HECnet access includes Internet email for registered users, and a Internet finger daemon. (finger @m.trnsz.com)

Both an FTN (FIDO) and UUCP port is in progress (we hope to support UUHEC.net mail), and MAIL-11 is a certainly a possibility now too.

We have rudimentary web and gopher service, but I'm waiting on the integration and completion of the socketdev code before putting more effort into it abusing MCS and the FNP.

Other things being worked and in various stages of completion are X.25 networking and IBM 3270 terminal support. If we can complete the X.25 support, I envision creating a 'BAN X.25 PSDN', a virtual hobbyist Telenet/Tymnet-like PSN network for X.25 systems. There are other exciting Multics projects in progress by other parties as well.

Feel free to review our system news (pmotd -a) to get an idea of what we've been working on!

Thanks!

>> On Sep 6, 2018, at 8:52 AM, Jeffrey H. Johnson <jhj at trnsz.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Greetings,
>> 
>> Time to update those node databases ... BAN.AI Public Access Multics, the premier public access Multics system, has joined HECnet, as node number 1.770 (BANAI).
>> 
>> It's just an initial implementation (based on the Linux DECnet source) and performance is lacking, but I hope to get things better optimized and support more services in the near future.
>> 
>> There are currently 16 outgoing channels for HECnet connections, and up to 128 dynamically allocated incoming login channels.
>> 
>> Outgoing connections to HECnet are allowed only for registered users, but any incoming login from the Internet or HECnet is permitted, including anonymous Guest users.
>> 
>> For more information, you can visit https://ban.ai/, ssh or mosh to dps8 at m.trnsz.com, or SET HOST to BANAI/1.770. 
>> 
>> Feel free to request an account or ask any questions.
>> 
>> --
>> Jeffrey H. Johnson
>> jhj at trnsz.com
>> https://ban.ai/multics
>> http://mim.update.uu.se/hecnet?node=BANAI
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