[HECnet] KLH10 noob questions

Supratim Sanyal supratim at riseup.net
Sun Mar 10 17:08:43 PDT 2019


^Ecease now ? sounds like I am sending a notice from lawyers every time 
I shut it down! :)

On 3/10/19 3:49 PM, Keith Halewood wrote:
> On node 29.108 (WALACH), there’s a ‘guestuser’ account with the password 
> ‘top20guest’
> 
> Keith
> 
> *From:*owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] *On 
> Behalf Of *Keith Halewood
> *Sent:* 10 March 2019 19:30
> *To:* hecnet at Update.UU.SE
> *Subject:* RE: [HECnet] KLH10 noob questions
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> You are almost certainly correct and this would have been around 86-87. 
> I don’t recall using a PPN to login though. To be honest, the only 
> PPN-like thing I remember is my VMS UIC [210,035] which followed me from 
> my very first account on the computing department’s VAX11/780.
> 
> Keith
> 
> *From:*owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE <mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE> 
> [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] *On Behalf Of *John Forecast
> *Sent:* 10 March 2019 18:41
> *To:* hecnet at update.uu.se <mailto:hecnet at update.uu.se>
> *Subject:* Re: [HECnet] KLH10 noob questions
> 
> Keith,
> 
>      Are you sure Essex was running TOPS-20? When I was there, they were 
> running (a heavily modified) TOPS-10 but this was way before MUD was 
> available . If you look at Quentin’s blog 
> (https://www.quentin.org.uk/category/retro-computing/), it shows how to 
> build MUD from scratch and indicates they were still running TOPS-10 as 
> late as 1986.
> 
>    John.
> 
>     On Mar 10, 2019, at 1:30 PM, Keith Halewood
>     <Keith.Halewood at pitbulluk.org <mailto:Keith.Halewood at pitbulluk.org>>
>     wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
> 
>     I've just got the klh10-2 system (mentioned
>     http://ancientbits.blogspot.com/2013/05/ten-over-pi.html) running on
>     a debian box connected to networking via a tap interface. I've
>     'installed' the panda distribution of tops-20 and got its tcp/ip and
>     decnet services running (but not autostarting at the moment). You
>     can hecnet to 29.108 to see the default message. I haven't set up
>     any users yet. My only memory of tops-20 is connecting over Janet to
>     Essex to play MUD which was quite a while ago.
> 
>     Keith
> 
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE <mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
>     [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Johnny Billquist
>     Sent: 10 March 2019 16:58
>     To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE <mailto:hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
>     Subject: Re: [HECnet] KLH10 noob questions
> 
>     Vern, your memory is either not fully up to date, or else you've
>     developed a few memory errors over the years. :-)
> 
>     Anyway, to start from (hopefully) the right end - really cool to
>     have someone who worked on the code around. It should be a big
>     benefit in the discussions.
> 
>     Now, trying to backtrack a few things. I know that Tops-10 and
>     TOPS-20 used the same codebase. DECnet routing is something I can
>     only make half a comment on. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about
>     the end-node only stuff, and yes, it was also related to the DTE.
>     Basically, parts of the whole DECnet stack is actually offloaded to
>     the PDP-11, and not really done on the PDP-10 to start with. But I'm
>     sure you can correct me on that one. But this also relates to the
>     comments below about KL and ethernet...
> 
>     Now, on a KS, TOPS-20 never got beyond V4. Any later TOPS-20
>     development never came to the KS. That includes DECnet phase IV. So,
>     a KS never supported DECnet over ethernet to start with. I remember
>     having a discussion with MRC on this many years ago. He did manage
>     to get DECnet phase IV up and running on a KS, and it was some kind
>     of project supported from DEC, but it was never productified. I'm
>     also not sure if KS ever supported DECnet phase III, but maybe it
>     did over serial lines or something. There is no DTE on a KS, so this
>     does feel somewhat speculative to start with. I certainly used KS a
>     lot, but mostly with Tops-10, ANF-10 and no other networking...
> 
>     Ethernet on a KL is not done through the DTE. There was/is an
>     ethernet adapter for the KL, called the NIA-20, which was installed
>     in the same cabinet where the massbuses were. And installing the
>     NIA-20 removed two massbuses from the system. There was also the
>     CI-20, which was similar, in that it also took out two massbuses,
>     and I think was also installed in that area.
> 
>        Johnny
> 
>     On 2019-03-10 17:25, Vern Brownell wrote:
> 
>         Hi folks,
> 
>         I’m not sure if this will help.  I am the original author of
>         much of
>         DECnet for TOPS-10 and Tops-20.  The code base is the same for both
>         OSes, written in Macro, and it was called internally DECnet-36.  It
>         was developed with full DECnet routing capability and unless it was
>         restricted in later releases should be able to act as a full
>         routing
>         node.  It supported KL and KS machines.  Real KL’s were only
>         shipped
>         with PDP-11’s as front ends using an adapter called the DTE - so
>         that’s how they where connected to Ethernet.  KS’s had an UNIBUS
>         adapter, so I could talk directly to NI adapters.  So even
>         though a KL
>         was a full DECnet node with routing, it only really acted as an
>         end-node, since it’s only connection to Ethernet or DDCMP was
>         through
>         an -11.  I would imagine that you could configure a KS with
>         multiple NIs.
> 
>         At least that’s how I remember it through 38 years of fog.
> 
>         Have fun!
> 
>         Vern
> 
> 
>             On Mar 10, 2019, at 8:23 AM, Supratim Sanyal
>             <supratim at riseup.net <mailto:supratim at riseup.net>
>             <mailto:supratim at riseup.net>> wrote:
> 
>             On 3/10/19 10:40 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> 
>                 As far as I am aware, it was never supported to have
>                 more than one
>                 NIA-20 on a KL10.
>                 Also, since I think that TOPS-20 is endnode only, I
>                 suspect it would
>                 be of limited use, had it even been supported.
>                 (Yes, you could have had a second interface for just
>                 fallback, in
>                 case the first one broke, but it was rare that you would
>                 have two
>                 separate ethernets in the first place, so then it would
>                 only be if
>                 the NIA-20 itself broke, but then you'd probably want to
>                 power down
>                 the machine anyhow.)
> 
> 
>             Very likely true. The original KL10 doc clearly says only
>             one NIC is
>             supported. I just try my best to keep my DECnet and IP subnets
>             isolated if I can; two NICs help.
> 
>                 I know of KLH10s, but I don't know if any have a guest
>                 account.
>                 Although, I'm not sure what you think you would see from
>                 inside TOPS-20.
> 
> 
>             Never seen or logged into a TOP-20 system ... as you say below,
>             curious about what it looks like. Anyway, have a Panda
>             release up
>             now, working through tips for the basics.
> 
>                 But it's a good question if there is any TOPS-20 machine
>                 on HECnet
>                 with guest account. I guess it could be interesting for
>                 others to
>                 just experience what TOPS-20 looks and feels like.
>                 I don't have any myself.
>                 Johnny
>                 On 2019-03-10 15:28, Supratim Sanyal wrote:
> 
>                     Starting from zero with both KLH10 and TOPS-20.
>                     Newbie questions,
>                     surely:
> 
>                     1) Is there a KLH10 distribution for Linux that
>                     supports VDE2? (It
>                     appears it was at the least added  to the NetBSD
>                     target by Olaf
>                     'Rhialto' Seibert after being reuested by Cory
>                     Smelosky, going by
>                     https://github.com/PDP-10/klh10/issues/2)
> 
>                     2) Is it possible in KLH10 to have two network
>                     adapters, for
>                     example, something like
> 
>                     # DECnet adapter
>                     devdef ni0 564 ni20 dedic=true ifmeth=vde
>                     ifc=/tmp/vde-dnet
>                     enaddr=aa:00:04:00:XX:YY # IP adapter devdef ni1
>                     1500 ni20
>                     dedic=true ifmeth=vde ifc=/tmp/vde-ip
>                     enaddr=12:34:56:aa:bb:cc
> 
>                     3) Are there any KLH10 TOPS-20 systems active on
>                     HECnet now on
>                     which I could have an account to look around?
> 
>                     Thanks
>                     Supratim
> 
> 
> 
>             --
>             Sent from a Compaq CQ61 running Linux Mint Tessa
>             -
>             Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style Ain't got no gal to
>             make you
>             smile Don't worry, be happy
>             - Bobby McFerrin
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
>                                        ||  on a psychedelic trip
>     email: bqt at softjar.se <mailto:bqt at softjar.se>             ||
>       Reading murder books
>     pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
> 


-- 
Sent from a Compaq CQ61 running Linux Mint Tessa
-
Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got no gal to make you smile
Don't worry, be happy
- Bobby McFerrin


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