Please document the installation procedure from beginning to end...

[gcasa]

Please document the entire installation procedure from downloading the files to an up and running system.

[drboone]

Greg, I'm trying to get my thoughts organized to write various pieces of documentation. Is there something specific I can help you with in the meantime?

[gcasa]

Hey Dennis, I just need to know how to create a disk and get it to load from the .tap files. I'm not sure how to change the tap files during runtime.

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 11:46 AM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

Greg, I'm trying to get my thoughts organized to write various pieces of documentation. Is there something specific I can help you with in the meantime?

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[drboone]

Ok, there's a process to go through where you boot MAKE from tape (details depend on which version of PRIMOS) to create partitions on a virtual disk. Then you boot MAGRST from tape (again, details) to restore the tapes. Not sure what your Prime background looks like, some of this may be familiar. To change "tapes", just make mt0 point to the next tape. I generally make mt0 a symlink to whatever I'm using anyway, so just remove the symlink and make a new one. The emulator will cope.

There's a writeup (with a few problems) on installing Rev22 or Rev23 on the old hobbyist (limited) version of the emulator that might be of some use to you if you have some Prime admin background. Here: https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb_installoview.html

The Rev22 install manual is here: https://sysovl.info/pages/blobs/prime/adminop/r22sinstgde.pdf

Fill me in on a few details and I'll try to be more specific.

[drboone]

Oh, and there are sample emulator images you can just run, here: https://sysovl.info/pages/blobs/emulator/p50em_samplemachines_v5.tar

[gcasa]

Right, I am familiar with the process if I had a Prime 9955-II in front of me, but what I'm not familiar with is the commands to use with respect to the emulator. I used to be a PRIMOS Admin way back in the day.

[drboone]

Ok. It's an awful lot like doing it from a VCP. Set up the BT logical as mt0, then do ./em -boot 5, wait for TREENAME=, enter the appropriate pathname, etc. Remember that in later versions you told it PRIRUN>PRIMOS.SAVE, then used the MTRESUME command, etc.

If you're doing a Rev19 install, that's a little trickier, because the emulator doesn't actually emulate the VCP, but you need to boot DOS, then halt, restore MAKE or MAGRST or whatever, then start it. There's a hack for this. Do ./em -boot 15. Once you get to the OK: prompt, hit Control-B, enter the new sense switch settings (505), wait for TREENAME=, then enter the appropriate pathname to the MAKE or MAGRST you want to read in.

[drboone]

Oh, in the util subdirectory of the emulator source there's a unix magrst. You can index a tape with it, using the -nw option.

[gcasa]

[Prime Emulator ver 280634b Apr 30 2020]

[Copyright (C) 2005-2019 Jim Wilcoxson prirun@gmail.com]

=== 0 Prime MIPS ===

Booting from file disk26u0.600m

[BOOT Rev. 21.0.6 Copyright (c) 1987, Prime Computer, Inc.]

BOOTING FROM 007460 PRIRUN>PRIMOS.SAVE

zsh: floating point exception ~/p50em/em

heron@glados 21 %

[image: Mailtrack] https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5& Sender notified by Mailtrack https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5& 04/30/20, 02:27:37 PM

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 2:04 PM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

Oh, in the util subdirectory of the emulator source there's a unix magrst. You can index a tape with it, using the -nw option.

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[gcasa]

I'm getting that on macos 10.15.

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 2:27 PM Gregory Casamento greg.casamento@gmail.com wrote:

[Prime Emulator ver 280634b Apr 30 2020]

[Copyright (C) 2005-2019 Jim Wilcoxson prirun@gmail.com]

=== 0 Prime MIPS ===

Booting from file disk26u0.600m

[BOOT Rev. 21.0.6 Copyright (c) 1987, Prime Computer, Inc.]

BOOTING FROM 007460 PRIRUN>PRIMOS.SAVE

zsh: floating point exception ~/p50em/em

heron@glados 21 %

[image: Mailtrack] https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5& Sender notified by Mailtrack https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5& 04/30/20, 02:27:37 PM

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 2:04 PM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

Oh, in the util subdirectory of the emulator source there's a unix magrst. You can index a tape with it, using the -nw option.

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/prirun/p50em/issues/3#issuecomment-622012954, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAG2J72CPTY2E7YJYNOLJDRPG4UFANCNFSM4MVMWU3Q .

-- Gregory Casamento GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=352392 - Become a Patron

-- Gregory Casamento GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=352392 - Become a Patron

[drboone]

Neat. Did you just build with the makefile? Sorta looks like optimization might be turned up or something. I pinged Jim to see if he sees anything, as he does work on a mac some.

[drboone]

Did you get a core dump? (Never do mac, they may have to be enabled, and/or may be snatched up by Crash Reporter?)

[hashbackup]

Is this a zsh-ism, where they have flt traps enabled and normally they aren't? Try this test (this is on OSX 10.9 Mavericks) under zsh and bash:

ms:~ jim$ cat tst.c
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  double x,y;
  x = 0.0;
  y = 21;
  printf("%f\n", y/x);
  return 0;
}
ms:~ jim$ cc -o tst tst.c
ms:~ jim$ ./tst
inf
ms:~ jim$ echo $?
0
ms:~ jim$ 

The other thing you might try is building the debug version and running the emulator under gdb to get a statement # where it's crashing: gdb ./em then run -boot etc.

[drboone]

Jim, I'm sorta wondering if the mips loop is getting optimized away, resulting in a division by zero. FP exception reporting can be delayed on x86 until the next fp instruction is executed, iirc.

You were talking about removing that anyway. Might be worth a try?

[hashbackup]

I removed the MIPS benchmark.

[drboone]

Greg, can you fetch current commit and rebuild?

[zampron]

I'm not Greg and I normally run the Prime emulator on a Linux system. I was able to replicate Greg's problem on a macOS 10.14.6 system with the version of em that includes the MIPS benchmark. I just now tried again with the version that has the MIPS benchmark removed. And now under macOS 10.14.6 I can successfully boot Rev 21 from the sample VMs. I downloaded this copy of the emulator source as a .zip instead of using git, so I'm afraid there's no em version number displayed when it starts up.

AG-ITG-3M8H03Q:pub amp1$ cd 21
AG-ITG-3M8H03Q:21 amp1$ ./em
[Prime Emulator ver  May  1 2020]
[Copyright (C) 2005-2019 Jim Wilcoxson prirun@gmail.com]
Booting from file disk26u0.600m
[BOOT Rev. 21.0.6  Copyright (c) 1987, Prime Computer, Inc.]

BOOTING FROM 007460 PRIRUN>PRIMOS.SAVE

Coldstarting PRIMOS, Please wait...
CONFIG -DATA CONFIG

PRIMOS 21.0.6
-------------
Copyright (c) Prime Computer, Inc. 1987

16382K BYTES MEMORY IN USE
2K BYTES MEMORY DETERMINED BAD AND MAPPED OUT

Starting up revision 21 partition "SYS210".

Initializing profile data for the supervisor from the SAD.

Profile data cannot be initialized from the SAD for the supervisor.
System defaults are being used.
248K bytes wired.
System clock has been initialized.
OK, DELAY 0 0
OK, SHA PRIRUN>ASRPATCH 6
OK, CHAP ALL 3 10

...many lines of output trimmed...

FIX_DISK finished

Starting up revision 21 partition "SYS210".
*** From PRIMOS: Priority ACL set on partition "SYS210"
    by user "SYSTEM" (#1) at 02 May 20 00:04:40 Saturday.
OK, A CMDNC0
OK, MAX
OK, CO -END; ICE
OK, stat sys

System EM21 is currently running PRIMOS rev. 21.0.6
Copyright (c) Prime Computer, Inc. 1987
16382K bytes memory in use

OK,

[drboone]

Thanks, Ron. Helpful to know.

[hashbackup]

Good catch Dennis, and thanks @zampron for testing the change.

Just an FYI, Primos rev 21 has a bug in the memory scanner and always displays this message about bad memory:

PRIMOS 21.0.6
-------------
Copyright (c) Prime Computer, Inc. 1987

16382K BYTES MEMORY IN USE
2K BYTES MEMORY DETERMINED BAD AND MAPPED OUT

We don't have the source for R21 (I think), so can't fix the bug.

[drboone]

@gcasa hope we didn't scare you off...

[gcasa]

Absolutely not. I'm just busy with day job stuff. :)

On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 3:03 PM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

@gcasa https://github.com/gcasa hope we didn't scare you off...

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[drboone]

@gcasa If work cuts you a break, there are install howto documents for Rev 21, 23 and 24 now. https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb.html toward the bottom of the page.

A friend tested the Rev 23 version, but I'm the only one who's tested Rev 21 and 24 so far.

I think the distribution tape sets are also updated since you started -- I found a few glitches including busted boot records. I also patched the boot to run the console at 9600 to reduce the pain a little. https://sysovl.info/downloads_prime_primedist.html

There are sample configuration files for Rev 21 and Rev 23. https://sysovl.info/downloads_prime_drb.html

[gcasa]

You're kind of missing the point. What is the procedure... TO DO IT IN THE EMULATOR? :) I am perfectly aware of how to do it on an actual PRIME, but what I'm after is how to I change tapes and such IN THE EMULATOR. :) That's why I said... document the procedure of installing it (yet again) IN THE EMULATOR. :)

On Sat, May 23, 2020 at 3:39 PM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

@gcasa https://github.com/gcasa If work cuts you a break, there are install howto documents for Rev 21, 23 and 24 now. https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb.html toward the bottom of the page.

A friend tested the Rev 23 version, but I'm the only one who's tested Rev 21 and 24 so far.

I think the distribution tape sets are also updated since you started -- I found a few glitches including busted boot records. I also patched the boot to run the console at 9600 to reduce the pain a little. https://sysovl.info/downloads_prime_primedist.html

There are sample configuration files for Rev 21 and Rev 23. https://sysovl.info/downloads_prime_drb.html

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/prirun/p50em/issues/3#issuecomment-633124994, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAG2J5KK57EH3QAMVWO4VTRTAQ6PANCNFSM4MVMWU3Q .

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[drboone]

Well, I'm missing something, but explaining how to do it in the emulator isn't what, at least not obviously. The writeup gives you the commands to create the disk image with touch, how to "load" tapes with ln -s, "unload" them with rm, how to start the emulator, etc. The Rev21 document is here:

https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb_installing_primos210.html

There's also material you probably don't need, given your background: git checkout and built, some of the PRIMOS stuff, etc.

So what's actually missing?

[gcasa]

I apologize, this appears to be what I need. I will let you know if I have any questions.

Thanks, GC

On Sat, May 23, 2020 at 10:37 PM Dennis Boone notifications@github.com wrote:

Well, I'm missing something, but explaining how to do it in the emulator isn't what, at least not obviously. The writeup gives you the commands to create the disk image with touch, how to "load" tapes with ln -s, "unload" them with rm, how to start the emulator, etc. The Rev21 document is here:

https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb_installing_primos210.html

There's also material you probably don't need, given your background: git checkout and built, some of the PRIMOS stuff, etc.

So what's actually missing?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/prirun/p50em/issues/3#issuecomment-633168273, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAG2J4BKVV2RNS2Q4PZH43RTCB63ANCNFSM4MVMWU3Q .

-- Gregory Casamento GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=352392 - Become a Patron

[drboone]

Greg - we just found a "typo" in the 21 howto - the example for making pagdev has the wrong pdev number. May not matter if you're doing a different disk layout, but the one that's supposed to be in the example is 172460.

[drboone]

Also, there seems to be a 21.0.6 bug where if an AMLC command for a given line is given an odd number of times, the line is dead. Even number, line works. scratches head Presumably there was a rapid release or something... ;)

[pixitha]

FYI, sysovl.info is down, need to use archive links, the downloads appear to NOT be on the archive however.

[drboone]

Yeah, OVH is having a bad day. Sorry!

[drboone]

Looks like they've got their act back together, more or less.

[pixitha]

Nice, I wasn't sure who owned the domain, was worried we lost some of the old data that is out there. Now that its back up, I put some of it on archive.org just to be safe.

[drboone]

At least one or two others have copies of the site. :)