[HECnet] BQTCP without DECnet

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2020-05-09 03:51, Lee Gleason wrote:
> 
>    I'm working on an 11/73 running Mplus  that is tight on disk space, 
> to the point that DECnet won't fit. I was wondering if RSX TCP/IP (that 
> consumes less disk space) would work on a Q bus machine without DECnet. 
> It's documented as possible for Unibus machines - can it work on a QBus 
> system?

In theory it could. The problem is that you need some device driver for 
the Qbus ethernet card, and unfortunately DEC didn't provide any. There 
is for the Unibus ethernet, which is why that works.

If DECnet is installed on the machine, TCP/IP will be using the drivers 
provided through DECnet, so that they can co-exist. And that is usually 
how it is used, so I have never bothered looking into writing a device 
driver of my own for the Qbus ethernet cards.

If you find one somewhere, we could look into what would be required for 
it to be used by TCP/IP.

   Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol