[HECnet] DECnet/m+

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2021-12-22 19:42, Paul Koning wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Dec 22, 2021, at 1:28 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>
>> On 2021-12-22 19:14, Paul Koning wrote:
>>>> On Dec 22, 2021, at 1:07 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi, Paul. Sorry I didn't answer earlier. Saw some other mails I should have responded too as well, but been a bit busy.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway. 4.0 is way old and have various issues you do not want or need. Locate M+ 4.6 instead. That's basically the only version I'd recommend.
>>>> And yes, M+ is definitely easier to deal with than 11M.
>>>>
>>>> You can find both tapes at http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/magtapes/rsx11mplus/
>>>>
>>>> Basically you want BB-J0830-01.L01_RSX11M+_V4.6_BRU_1999.tap, which should be bootable, and contain all you need for M+ itself. There is a second tape (BB-J0830-01.M01_RSX11M+_V4.6_1999.tap), which might be the second tape if the whole thing came on two tapes. (I got M+ 4.6 on TK50, which just came on a single cartridge.)
>>>>
>>>> Then you want DECnet, which is decnet11mp46-netkit.tap. The manuals are online, but of course you can also just ask. And since you seem to have already managed once, it should hopefully not be too complicated.
>>> I used the DECnet 4.0 kit because I could not make sense out of that 4.6 kit.  The installation procedure in the manual (DECnet/RSX 4.5, which says it's for M+ 4.3) doesn't work at all with that tape.  It says to use FLX to copy PREGEN.CMD from the tape, but the tape isn't anything FLX understands.  Instead, it seems to be an ANSI labeled tape with 3 files on it, the first one named "INSTALL".  Is that a BRU tape?  Or a DSC tape? What do I do with it?
>>
>> oh... Weird. So it must not be an original distribution tape then.
>> Maybe someone created a BRU tape after running PREGEN? Check you you mount that tape /FOREIGN and see with BRU ("BRU /REW/DIR MU:") if you can read the thing. Might be that you just restore that tape then, and then run the NETGEN on it.
> 
> BRU isn't included by the default install for some reason, but I could restore using the standalone BRU and now I got the kit pieces copied.  Trying netgen again...

BRU is always in the system, but it's probably not installed.
Solved by
"RUN $BRU"
or
"INS $BRU"
after which the BRU "command" works.

   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