[HECnet] SIMH TOPS-20 question --> recipe for handling Tops20 install tapes --> MTBOOT --> create new PS: structure

[Paul Koning]

It turned out the tape image I was using is in fact defective; it ran into trouble at the DLUSER step.  I retried with the image you mentioned, found on trailing-edge, and that worked.  I now have a newly installed 4.1 system.  Neat.

	paul


> On Dec 25, 2021, at 5:42 PM, R. Voorhorst <R.Voorhorst at swabhawat.com> wrote:
> 
> Actually, come to think about it you should be able to create a new PS in 2
> phases:
> 
> 1.	boot tape and create a pristine PS: up to and including DLUSER
> stuff; see installation manual posted earlier.
> 2.	boot another monitor, mount the pristine PS as another structure on
> it; skip the tape 7 files and use monitor dumper to restore the savesets on
> the pristine structure.
> 
> Point to check is if a bootstrap is written to the pristine structure but
> the installation manual will make that clear.
> If I have some time I will checkthe problem out if the tape has a problem or
> not and how to create a structure from it; meanwhile you still cann retrieve
> files which was your primary requirement I believe.
> 
> Reindert
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Koning [mailto:paulkoning at comcast.net] 
> Sent: Saturday, 25 December, 2021 22:24
> To: Reindert Voorhorst <R.Voorhorst at swabhawat.com>
> Cc: <hecnet at update.uu.se> <hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
> Subject: Re: [HECnet] SIMH TOPS-20 question --> recipe for handling Tops20
> install tapes --> MTBOOT
> 
> 
> 
>> On Dec 25, 2021, at 3:21 PM, R. Voorhorst <R.Voorhorst at swabhawat.com>
> wrote:
>> 
>> I do not see that problem and I posted it here somewhat earlier:
>> 
>> Swbx04> att -f tu0 simh 
>> Swbx04> g:\temp\bb-d867e-bm_tops20_v41_2020_instl.tap-1
>> Swbx04> b tu0
>> 
>> And on console:
>> 
>> MTBOOT>
>> 
>> The first must be MTBOOT else you cannot load de monitor with /L and
> ?G143, so no skipping filemarks are needed as the monitor is the first file.
>> Mark well, it is format simh=tps!
> 
> So it is, interesting.
> 
> What's strange is that -f tpc reports success, while -f simh reports an
> error:
> 
> After processing 1159680 bytes of tape data (453 records, 5 tapemarks) Read
> Tape Record Returned Unexpected Status: invalid record length
> 19827814 bytes of unexamined data remain in the tape image file
> 
> but indeed in this format I can boot the tape.
> 
> 	paul
> 
>