================================ DEC Professional Computer Frequently Asked Questions and Miscellaneous Trivia ================================ Currently maintained by: Michael Umbricht mikeu@osfn.org Originally compiled and edited by: Chaim Dworkin chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vol. 4 No. 1 Part III Size:1136 lines; 44637 bytes 18-SEP-2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is Part 3 of a 4 part post. This "FAQ and other miscellaneous trivia" is compiled from discussions which took place on comp.sys.dec.micro over the past 7 years. Whenever possible names and addresses of contributing individuals are placed after each answer. Additions, corrections, and constructive comments are welcomed. Summary of questions in Part III: Q15. What hard drives can I attach to my Pro? Q16. What's the difference between a microPDP-11 and a Pro? Q17. Can I run MSDOS or CP/M on a Pro? Q18. Where can I get unix for the Pro? Q19. I just installed venix on my Pro. What is the root password? Q20. I just installed P/OS on my Pro. What is the default system password? Q21. I have an old copy of xxx unix for the Pro in a closet somewhere and I'm going to clean out the closet and discard all the old Pro stuff. Q22. I have lots of space on my disk yet whenever I try to copy a file I get a message saying out of disk space, please delete some files and try again. Why? Q23. How do I reclaim disk space occupied by "invisible" files? Q24. How do I set the printer port baud rate from DCL? Q25. How do I enter DCL commands that are more than one line in length? Q26. How do I set protection on a file? Q27. How do I reassign a device's LUN after the task has been built? Q28. How do I Run RMD (SHOW MEMORY) from a second terminal? Q29. I'm running P/OS 2.0 and can't get it to recognize my 20 Mb drive. Q30. I was given a Pro-350 by an office that was junking it and when I booted it up it asked for a password. I don't know any passwords. How can I break past that and delete the password file? Q31. Can anyone out there tell me the pinout for the monitor/keyboard connector on a DecPro 350? Q32. What is the pinout for the video port? Q33. What are the pin-outs for the RX50 floppy controller? Q34. I booted my Pro and got an error code. What does it mean? Q35. Are there any pro BBSs? Q36. I can't get my hands on an ethernet connection for my Pro. Is there any alternative? Q37. What is the latest version of Kermit available for the Pro? Q38. The Pro-350 comes with one serial port standard. Does anyone know if it's possible to add a second serial port or additional ports? Q39. What is DDCMP, Digital Data Communications Message Protocol? Q40. I have an RD-something. What kind of drive is it? What kind of controller do I need? Q41. I tried to plug in the keyboard while my Pro was powered up and now the keyboard doesn't work. Q42. Will any version of RT-11 older than 5.5 work with the Pro? Q43. What do the switches in my LA50 printer do? ************************** Q15. What hard drives can I attach to my Pro? The PRO's hard disk controller supported only a few kinds of disks. Early versions of the controller supported only 5 or 10 MB drives. The last set of ROMs they issued for the hard disk controller supported a 67-MB RD53 disk. Without the more recent firmware, the controller doesn't recognize the higher-capacity disks. The official DEC drives supported were: RD50 5 MB RD51 10 MB RD52 33 MB RD53 67 MB RD31 20 MB RD32 40 MB Various 3rd-party disks with similar operating specs to these drives would also work. The information I have on equivalent drives says the following drives would work as replacements for the official DEC hardware: RD52: Quantum Q540 RD53: Micropolis Micro1325 ATASI A3085 Computer Memories CM7085 Maxtor XT1085 Miniscribe M6085 Newbury Data NDR1085 RD31: Seagate ST225 or ST4026 Computer Memories CM3426 or CM6426 Lapine Titan20 Miniscribe M3425 or M8425 Syquest SQ325AF Tandon T262, T362, or T702AT RD32: Seagate ST251-0, ST251-1 or ST277 Miniscribe 3650J ...hope this helps... Kurt Wampler (wampler@MicroUnity.com) Q16. What's the difference between a microPDP-11 and a Pro? The first difference is that the microPDP's use the Q-bus, which is well supported both by DEC and many 3rd parties, while the Pro3xx used the CT- bus, which was never used for anything else or supported by anybody. rather limits the expandability of the Pro3xx... ->My first guess would be that the microPDP-11 has none of the limitations ->of the Pro. But then I've heard that the limitations put into the pro ->were to prevent the Pro from taking away from the PDP-11 market. True to a degree. The Pro was intended as a personal engineering workstation, while the microPDP-11's were aimed largely at embedded, controller-like applications, and the 'real' PDP-11's for serious expansion and multi-user environments. Or so I understood it...;{) One irony of all this is that the only place I know of anybody using Pro380's in new installations is as graphics front-ends to microPDP-11's being used as controllers. Steve Mitchell steve@seabhag.cps.altadena.ca.us ************************** Q17. Can I run MSDOS or CP/M on a Pro? Needs ms-dos like a battleship needs a popgun! However, there are third party companies (or were) if memory serves who made 8088 boards for a Pro so you could run msdos on it as well as P/OS...concurrently, yet! Glenn Everhart Everhart%Arisia.decnet@crd.ge.com There was an add-on board that DEC sold which allowed you to format your hard drive CP/M. I actually had one for a while in the mid-1980s... never used it. Chaim Dworkin chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu The CP/M Option consists of hardware and software: a CTI card (000043) which contains a Z80-A microprocessor, 64Kbytes of RAM, 4Kbytes of ROM and CP/M-80 which runs on top of P/OS. P/OS can continue to multitask in the background while CP/M is running. CP/M-format diskettes (96 tpi) can be read or written in the RX50 drive, 48tpi diskette can be read only, and up to four virtual diskettes can be accessed on the hard disk. A CP/M application can also read P/OS sequential files allowing data exchange between the two. CP/M does not have access to the Pro's hardware registers, so applications (such as graphics) that have been written for specific I/O devices will not work. Applications that use CP/M services for I/O will run without modification. The DEC order code is PC3XS-AA There are three diskettes: BL-V447B-BH Pro CP/M-80 APP DSKT V1.1 (1983) BL-AH67A-BH PRO-CP/M-80 APPLICATION (1983) DISKETTE SYSTEM V1.1 BL-V448B-BH PRO-CP/M-80 APPLICATION (1983) DISKETTE HARD DISK SYSTEM V1.1 Teledisk images of these diskettes are available at: http://starfish.rcsri.org/rcs/pdp-11/Professional/Pro-CPM - Michael Umbricht mikeu@osfn.org ************************** Q18. Where can I get unix for the Pro? We have two versions of UNIX running on PDP 11/73's in my lab. The first is UNIX 2.10BSD, which is real BSD UNIX, basically the same as 4.3BSD. It is available from USENIX in Berkeley, (415) 528-8649. It only cost us $200 for the media, a TS-11 tape, but we had to prove that we already had a site license with ATT for UNIX. It only comes with installation instructions. You have to purchase the 4.3BSD documentation seperately if you want it. It seems to run fairly well except the network stuff seems a little slow. I don't really use the network stuff. The second is VENIX (Release D I think), which is a clone. It is available from VenturCom in Cambridge, MA, (617) 661-1230. I am pretty sure they don't support it anymore but they still may sell it. We have been using it for quite a while (> 7 years) and it seems to work pretty well. It doesn't include any network stuff, but does support standard peripherals. We have done alot of patching to the kernal over the years, so if you get it and need some help drop me a note. By the way, UNIX 2.10BSD comes with the complete source code for UNIX, which I have found great to have access to although it is 70 Mb worth of stuff. Mark S. Spector mark@photon.mit.edu From: sms@wlv.imsd.contel.com (Steven M. Schultz) ---------------------------------------- Second Distribution of Berkeley PDP-11 Software for UNIX Release 2.11 (Revised February 1992) The USENIX Association is pleased to announce the distribution of a new release of the "Second Berkeley Software Distribution" (2.11BSD). This release will be handled by USENIX, and is available to all V7, System III, System V, and 2.9BSD licensees. The Association will continue to maintain the non-profit price of $200. The release will consist of two 2400 ft. 1600 bpi tapes or one TK50 tape cartridge (approximately 80M) and approximately 100 pages of documentation. If you have questions about the distribution of the release, or require 800 bpi tapes, please contact USENIX. At present a split I/D machine is required, thus 2.11BSD will not run on 23 or 23+ based sys- tems. The USENIX address and phone number are as follows: 2.11BSD USENIX Association 2560 Ninth St. Suite 215 Berkeley, CA 94710 +1-510-528-8649 USENIX may also be contacted by electronic mail at: {ucbvax,decvax}!usenix!office office@usenix.org If you have technical questions about the release, please contact Steven M. Schultz at: wlbr!wlv!sms sms@wlv.imsd.contel.com (yes, a bit of a misnomer, will be changing it one of these days) ************************** Q19. I just installed venix on my Pro. What is the root password? The root password is 'gnomes', and the games password is 'dale'. I think 'dale' is also the password to one other account. The password to the uucp account is probably 'uucp'. Anyway, you can change them once you get in as root. To login via the COM port, edit /etc/ttys and change the 01com1 to 11com1 for 9600 baud null modem. (Other speeds require other codes in the second byte.) The first byte turns on the getty listener on that port. Then do: kill -2 1 to get the init to reread the /etc/ttys (or just reboot). You will then be able to login via the com port via a null modem at 9600 baud. Venix does an fsck upon boot. This may be why your HD head is seeking? Enjoy! --Barry Kort barry@chezmoto.ai.mit.edu Q20. I just installed PO/S on my Pro. What is the system password? USERNAME: SYSTEM PASSWORD: SYSTEM --Tom Karlsson tomk@csd.uu.se ************************** Q21. I have a Pro running a form of unix and I no longer need or want it. I guess I'll just throw it out. I have an old copy of xxx unix for the Pro in a closet somewhere and I'm going to clean out the closet and discard all the old Pro stuff. DON'T DISCARD A UNIX PACKAGE FOR THE PRO! Please post a note in comp.sys.dec.micro and offer it to someone. On the whole very few copies of unix were sold for the Pro computers making it a somewhat difficult OS to get a copy of. In the past 4 years or so whenever I've mentioned unix to anyone who owned a Pro they've always responded that they were "dying to get a copy". ************************** Q22. P/OS says I have lots of space on my disk yet whenever I try to copy a file I get a message saying out of disk space, please delete some files and try again. Why? Most OSs put pieces of a new file in chunks of empty disk space, P/OS and RSX-11M-PLUS can do this for data files but they require a single contiguous space for each task file or for other files which are designated "Contiguous". This means that if you delete many small files you create "holes" or empty spaces on your disk. When you copy new files that must be contiguous to your disk, P/OS will copy those files after the last file on your disk until your disk is full. Then if it cannot find a single contiguous space to fit the new file it will tell you your disk is full even though you may have previously deleted enough files to create space for the new file. I do not know if it is possible to "pack" a disk to make a single large contiguous space out of many small holes. Can someone answer this? Chaim Dworkin chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu Robert "Bob" Gezelter gezelter@rlgsc.com ************************** Q23. How do I reclaim disk space occupied by "invisible" files? Sometimes, as when you abort a compile or link, temporary files that were created will not be erased. These temporary files do not have a directory entry -- and hence, they will not appear in a directory listing. The process that created this type of file did so by manipulating the master index file directly. Ordinarily, you will not be able to tell that these invisible files exist. There is one Toolkit utility, however, that makes these files visible: VFY (file structure verification utility). You may use the following VFY procedure on any PRO hard disk or diskette. VFY will search the volume and place any invisible file entries into the [1,3] directory. Hence, you should create a directory [1,3] first or VFY (while showing you what invisible files it found) will leave the files invisible. Once the files are placed into [1,3], you may delete them to recover volume space. These files are typically scratch files and deleting them will cause no problems. Enter the following to initiate the search for invisible ("lost") files: $ RUN $VFY VFY>/LO VFY will then look for the lost files. If any are found, VFY will list them on the screen. When VFY is done, it will return the VFY> prompt. To quit from VFY, do a CTRL-Z: VFY>^Z $ + The found files, as placed into [1,3], may have strange names and any block size (even zero). >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q24. How do I set the printer port baud rate from DCL? $ SET TERM TT2: /SPEED:(nnnn,nnnn) where nnnn,nnnn represents transmit and receive baud rates. To determine the current baud rate, do: $ SHOW SPEED/TT2: >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q25. How do I enter DCL commands that are more than one line in length? Use a hyphen (-) before the line's carriage return. In DCL, the command is not executed until a line ending in not preceeded by a hyphen is encountered. No DCL line can be more than 250 characters. >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q26. How do I set protection on a file? $ SET PROT [/qualifier(s)] /Qualifiers: /DATE=dd-mmm-yy /SINCE=dd-mmm-yy /THROUGH=dd-mmm-yy /TODAY /EXCLUDE=filespec (don't forget a version specification) is in the following format: (SYSTEM:RWED,OWNER:RWED,GROUP:RWED,WORLD:RWED) where SYSTEM, OWNER, GROUP and WORLD are user types (since the PRO is usually used as a single-user system the GROUP and WORLD types are seldom relevant) and RWED represent four kinds of access to files: R file can be read/run, copied, printed W file can be written to E user can change amount of disk space alloted to file D file can be deleted Example: $ SET PROT TEST.*;*/SINCE=01-JAN-88/EXCL=*.OBJ;* (S:RWE,O:WRE) >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q27. How do I reassign a device's LUN after the task has been built? o Install the task: $ INSTALL o Assign the new LUN to the task: $ ASSIGN/TASK= LUN o Run the task: $ RUN Example: If you want your task DATABASE (install name DATABA), which currently uses LUN 3 to write to a file, to write the data to the printer, you would perform the following steps -- $ INSTALL DATABASE $ ASSIGN/TASK=DATABA TT2: 3 $ RUN DATABA TT2: is the device name for the printer. >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q28. How do I Run RMD (SHOW MEMORY) from a second terminal? Note: This requires a BCC08 PR1/CONSOLE cable. $ INSTALL/NOREMOVE APPL$DIR:RMD.TSK/TASK=RMDT2 $ ASSIGN/TASK=RMDT2 TT2: 1 $ ASSIGN/TASK=RMDT2 TT2: 2 $ SET TERMINAL:TT2:/VT125 $ SPAWN RUN RMDT2 $ The above reassigns RMD's LUNs to point to the TT2: device. RMD requires a VT100-type terminal setting to run; you may substitute the /VT125 qualifier with one that more aptly describes your terminal. Note: You may still use SHOW MEMORY on the main terminal. >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q29. I'm running P/OS 2.0 and can't get it to recognize my 20 Mb drive. You must apply a P/OS 2.0 Patch for 20 MEG HD Perform the following ZAP to alter the POS.SYS file on the PROSYSTEMS2 volume diskette. This ZAP works for version 2.0 (not 2.0A) of P/OS. It causes the system to recognize a 20 meg hard disk (the Seagate ST225 is the one you want). Remove any write-protect tab from the PROSYSTEMS2 diskette and place it in drive 1. You should copy the file named below to another diskette in case you make a mistake and want to try again. (A separate copy is suggested because ZAP alters the file directly -- it does not create a new version). Type the following in the Toolkit (user entries are in bold). The ^Z is a control-Z. $ SET DEF DZ1:[ZZSYS] $ RUN $ZAP ZAP> POS.SYS/AB _162:770/ _000004 _162:776/ _001146 _163:004/ _114577 _162:756/ _000240 _^Z $ + The diskette is now ready to be used. Place the 20-meg disk into the PRO and format/load P/OS using the altered diskette. Note: P/OS may give a complaint regarding the hard disk when you boot up to format the hard disk, but it should say it will try to rectify the problem and continue. After the system continues, you should not see any error messages again. >From: sjs@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu ************************** Q30. I was given a Pro-350 by an office that was junking it and when I booted it up it asked for a password. I don't know any passwords. How can I break past that and delete the password file? Well, I've never really dealt with P/OS, but a long, long time ago I was involved with a group that had a similar problem with a PDP-11/60 that we bought from another group at the site. It ran RSX-11M, but we didn't get any passwords from the group from which we bought the machine. After a lot of poking about in manuals, I found a way to get to the password file, which in that version of RSX-11M was not encrypted. While the machine was booting, executing the startup command file, I pressed ^C. That gave me an MCR prompt at which I could type a command. Since the machine was executing the startup command file, the MCR prompt was attached to the system account. In an obscure manual that I no longer have and don't remember very well, I found the name of the password file. The MCR command that I issued, then, typed the password file on the console. Since P/OS is related to RSX-11M, it might work. Wish I could remember the name of the account file, though... Roger Ivie slsw2@cc.usu.edu >From: kalisiak@acsu.buffalo.edu (christophe m kalisiak) In article <1991Apr16.134937.47433@cc.usu.edu> slsw2@cc.usu.edu writes: >While the machine was booting, executing the startup command file, I pressed >^C. That gave me an MCR prompt at which I could type a command. Since the >machine was executing the startup command file, the MCR prompt was attached >to the system account. In an obscure manual that I no longer have and don't >remember very well, I found the name of the password file. The MCR command >that I issued, then, typed the password file on the console. What was the command? I would say that if one were to delete the password file, then you could probably start from scratch... Don't quote me on it. >Since P/OS is related to RSX-11M, it might work. Wish I could remember the >name of the account file, though... [0,0]RSX11.SYS Chris Kalisiak V076N3W7@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu kalisiak@acsu.buffalo.edu To break into P/OS, if you can get to a Pro (runnin g p/os 2.0 or later at least) that you can use, there is in the menu system a facility for writing a "password floppy". If you boot the Pro and have that floppy loaded, its' password will override the one on the hard disk. I used this technique once, but it's been long enough ago I don't recall more detail. I believe that some help exists on the system, though, as I had no manuals to infer this from at the time. (Someone had left the company and his pro was unusable till I freed it.) Doing this will also set a password on the pro you make the floppy on, but you can reset that after the floppy is safely written. I don't particularly recommend passwords on personal Pros due to the extreme inconvenience they cause. Glenn Everhart EVERHART@arisia.dnet.ge.com ************************** Q31. Can anyone out there tell me the pinout for the monitor/keyboard connector on a DecPro 350? From "The Professional 300 Series Technical Manual", I have (p. 8-5): J1 Pin-outs for the monochrome monitor: 1-3 not used 4 Ground ( video signal ground potential ) 5,6 Ground ( operational voltage ground potential ) 7,8 +12 Vdc ( operational voltage input ) 9-11 not used 12 M Video ( composite video ) 13 Ground ( tied to 5 and 6 ) 14 Data Receive ( serial data line from the keyborad output to the system box, via J3 ) 15 Data Send ( serial data line from the system box output to the keyboard, via J3 ) J3 pin-outs, for the keyboard: 1 Data Send ( via J1, pin 15 ) Serial line for output from the system box to the keyboard 2 +12 Vdc ( output of operational voltage to the keyboard ( from J1, pins 7 and 8 ) 3 Ground (from J1, pins 5,6,13) Operational voltage ground. 4 Data Receive (via J1, pin 14) Serial line for input from the system box. I could not find equivalent information about a VR241 ( color ) monitor. However, there must be some relation, as the Extended Bitmap Option board can drive either, without hardware changes. You might be able to get more out of the manual if you can obtain one: The ordering or part number is: EK-PC350-TM-001 John Erbland erbland@hartford.bitnet Hubert Bartels hgb@catalina.opt-sci.arizona.edu ************************** Q32. What is the pinout for the video port? Professional 380 video-port pinout: Pin: Description: 1,2,3,4,5,6 Ground 7,8 +12 Volts 9 Blue 10 Green 11 Red 12 Monochrome 13 Monitor Present (don't know what it's for, or where it has to be connected to.) 14 Keyboard transmit 15 Keyboard receive I got this info from our local DEC branch. I had to build my own cable and it works fine. Arno Griffioen v882246@si.hhs.nl ************************** Q33. What are the pin-outs for the RX50 floppy controller? 1,3,etc GND Ground 2 TG43 Track greater than 43 4 N/U Not used 6 SEL3 L Select for drive 3 (not used, near as I can tell) 8 INDEX L Index 10 SEL0 L Select 0 12 SEL1 L Select 1 14 SEL2 L Select 2 (N/U) 16 MOTOR ON L Motor on 18 DIR L Direction 20 STEP L Step 22 WRT DATA L Write data 24 WG L Write gate 26 TK00 L Track 00 28 WRT PRT L Write protect 30 RD DATA L Read Data 32 SIDE 0 H Side select (Note: H vs L, so a transitor needed) 34 READY L Drive Ready Warner Losh imp@solbourne.com ************************** Q34. I booted my Pro and got an error code. What does it mean? New Pro 350 owners are so worried about the error codes I have reproduced the most common ones here. These are taken from the P/OS handbook. Note that unless you want to buy new components all you can do is reseat connections! Code Problem area Corrective Action 000100 P/OS keyboard handler 1: Check cables and connections 2: Reseat option modules in card cage. 3: Reset all IC's in sockets on system module. 5: Replace system module 6: Reload Operating system. 000200 Terminal driver [deleted] 000300 Executive/general If error occured on first access of RX or RD subsystem, check that subsystem is in order: 1: Check cables and reseat controller in card cage 2: Replace Drive 3: Replace RX or RD subsystem controller If error not found on first access of mass storage, goto 000200 corrective action. 000400 System startup processing 000500 Terminal driver (video and printer port) Second line Error Codes 000000 IOT in system state 000001 Stack overflow or cannot install task CBOOT 000002 Trace Trap or breakpoint or cannot spawn task CBOOT 000003 Illegal instruction trap or cannot spawn task CBOOT 000004 Odd address or other trap to 4 000005 Segment fault 000006 A task on P/OS without a parent aborted 000007 EMT trap or required file not found 000010 TRAP trap Todd Miller tmiller@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu In a recent message someone reported getting the following error codes: >010013 >000401 The interpretation is: 000401 = hard disk subsystem 01 = card slot 1 0013 = RD hard disk drive format failure Kurt Wampler wampler@MicroUnity.com ************************** Q35. Are there any pro BBSs? Billys Place (213)837-0892 Login ID is 1000 and password is 'moving target', from there youll recive a personal ID. Supports the RT-11 SIG, and has the RT-11 SIG library online for downloading (youll probably need the DECUS catalogue to help you). VTCOM/TRANSF, XMODEM, and Kermit seem to be supported, Ive successfully connected at 2400 (which is the highest-lowest, I dunno:-) RSX BBS (612)777-7664 Supports RSX on the PDP-11 but since the Pro also runs RSX there is a Pro file area and discussion area. sysop is Bruce Mitchell. Intellicon Data Systems (401) 884-9002 Contact sysadmin@idsvax.ids.com or ...!uunet!rayssd!idsvax!sysadmin for information on their system. Chaim Dworkin chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu Michael P. Deignan mpd@anomaly.sbs.com Billy D'Augustine Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com ************************** Q36. I can't get my hands on an ethernet connection for my Pro. Is there any alternative? 2.11BSD comes with SL/IP so a serial network connection is possible. Slow, but better than nothing. Steve Mitchell steve@seabhag.cps.altadena.ca.us DECnet for P/OS supports serial lines. These connections are quite usable, provided the parameters are set correctly on the VAX that you are connecting to. Robert "Bob" Gezelter gezelter@rlgsc.com ************************** Q37. What is the latest version of Kermit available for the Pro? Pro KERMIT is actually RSX Kermit; there are conditionals in the code which make it recognize that it is running on a Professional rather than a PDP-11. The current version is T3.60 (with long packet support) which is available free from the RSX bulletin board system at (612) 777-7664. T3.60 works correctly on a Pro380 under P/OS 3.2 and under RSX-11M-Plus V4 and higher - I'm using it now in terminal emulation as a matter of fact. There are no problems with moving files from VMS to RSX using this version. If you have T3.60, and still encounter problems, try SET ATTRIBUTE OFF before transferring. Many VMS Kermits do not recognize attribute packets. Steve Mitchell steve@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us You can also run Kermit-12 on the PRO. All Kermit-12 files are available at watsun.cc.columbia.edu in the /kermit/d/k12*.* area via anonymous FTP. PDP-8/DECmate assembler versions of the ENCODE and DECODE programs are there as k12enc.pal and k12dec.pal respectively. -- Charles Lasner (author of Kermit-12) lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu home of Kermit-12 and other fine Kermits. ************************** Q38. The Pro-350 comes with one serial port standard. Does anyone know if it's possible to add a second serial port or additional ports? Actually the Pro 350 and the Rainbow have two serial ports as the printer port is a serial port also. The hardware is bi-directional, the support may be lacking in the drivers. I don't believe the printer port had full modem control on it ( I think it had DSR/DTR ). Near the end of the Pro 350's lifetime there was a 4 (?) port serial unit released for it. I doubt many would have been sold. Sorry, I don't recall the part number. Malcolm Dunnett dunnett@mala.bc.ca That 4 port unit was the Real Time Interface with 2 serial, 1 parallel, and an IEEE 488 bus (Pc3xx-aa). Dec was selling them through Dec Direct at fall special for $100 each last year. Or it could be the PC3XC-BA Quad Serial Line unit described in the guide to writing P/OS device drivers. 4 ports to 38.4Kbaud, two with modem control attached to a flat ribbon cable that snaked out from inside the unit. Todd M. Miller tmiller@caos.caos.kun.nl Paul S. Kleppner paulk@pkleppner ************************** Q39. What is DDCMP, Digital Data Communications Message Protocol? Digital Data Communications Message Protocol(DDCMP) is the network protocol covering Rainbows, PRO's, Microvaxes, and VAXes that brings network access (and multiple sessions) over a cable or modem. For those interested, I present here an abridged version of "Technical Aspects of Data Communication" chapter 18 "DDCMP" by John E. McNamara, 1977. Although I have not tried, it seems to be everything you need to program a DDCMP DDCMP Message Queuing System: "In the DDCMP protocol, any pair of stations that exchange messages with each other number those messages sequentially starting with message number 1. Each successive data message is numbered using the next number sequence, modulo 256. Thus a long sequence of messages would be numbered 1,2,3,... 254,255,0,1,... The numbering applies to each direction separately. For example, station A might be sending its messages 6,7,8 to station B while station B is sending its messages 5,6,7 to station A. Thus, in a multipoint configuration where a control station is engaged in two-way communication with 10 tributary stations, there are 20 different message number sequences involved - one for messages from each of the 10 tributaries to the control station and one for messages from the control station to each of the 10 tributaries. Whenever a station transmits a message to another station, it assigns its next sequential message number to that message and places that number in the "Sequence" field of that message header. In addition to maintaining a counter for sequentially numbering the messages which it sends, the station also maintains a counter of the message numbers received from the other station. It updates that counter whenever a message is received with a message number exactly one higher than the previously received message number. The contents of the received message counter are inclueded in the "Response" field of the message being sent, to indicate to the other station the highest sequenced message that has been received. When a station receives a message containing an error, that station sends a negative acknowledge (NAK) message back to the transmitting station. DDCMP does not require an acknowledgement for each message, as the number in the response field of a normal header, or in either the special NAK or positive acknowledgement (ACK) message, specifies the sequence number of the last good message received. For example, if messages 4,5, and 6 have been received since the last time an acknowledgement was sent, and message 6 is bad, the NAK message specifies the number 5 which says "messages 4 & 5 are good and 6 is bad." When DDCMP operates in full-duplex mode, the line does not have to be turned around; the NAK is simply added to the messages for the transmitter. When a station receives a message that is out of sequence, it does not respond to that message. The transmitting station will detect this from the response field of the messages which it receives, and if the "reply wait" timer expires before the transmitting station receives an acknowledgement, the transmitting station will send a "REP" message. The REP message contains the sequence number of the most recent unacknowledged message sent to the distant station. If the receiving station has correctly received the message referred to in the REP message (as well as the messages proceding it), it replies to the REP by sending a positive acknowledgement (ACK). If it has not received the message referred to in sequence, it sends a NAK containing the number of the last message that it did receive correctly. The transmitting station will then retransmit all data messages after the message specified in the NAK. The numbering system for DDCMP messages permits there to be up to 255 unacknowledged messages outstanding, a useful feature when working on high delay circuits such as those using satellites. DDCMP Message Format: - - - ----- ---- -------- -------- ------- ----- ----------- ----- |S||S||C||Count||Flag||Repsonse||Sequence||Address||CRC 1||Information||CRC 2| |Y||Y||L|| 14 || 2 || 8 bits || 8 bits || 8 bits|| 16 ||up to 16363|| 16 | |N||N||A||bits ||bits| -------- -------- ------- | bits|| 8-bit || bits| | || ||S| ----- ---- ----- | characters| ----- | || ||S| ----------- - - - | Only Data & Maintenance Message types have info & CRC 2 fields | SYN is a sync character. Classes: 10000001 = Data Messages (SOH) 00000101 = Acknowledgement (ENQ) 00000101 = Negative Acknowledgement (DLE) Count: Used for Data and Maintenance messages to indicate the number of characters that will follow the header and form the information part of the message. In control messages, the first 8 bits designate the type of control message and the last 6 0's (except for NAK which uses the low 6 bits for a reason: BCC Header Error 000001 BCC Data Error 000010 Rep. Response 000011 Buffer Unavailable 000100 Reciever Overrun 000101 Message too Long 000110 Header Format Error 000111 Flag: Contains the quick sync and select flags, bits 0 and 1 respectively: Quick Sync is used to inform the receiving station that the message will be followed by sync characters; the receiver may wish to set its associated synchronous receiver hardware into "sync search" and syncs will be discarded until the first character of the next message arrives. The purpose of this is to permit the receiving station to engage any hardware sync-stripping logic it might have and prevent it from filling its buffers with sync characters. It also warns the receiver that there may only be a few SYNs and no DEL` (377) Why the DEL`? Because it has only the 'stop' bit set. This helps force the UART to bitsync corectly with the incoming data. The select flag is used to indicate that this is the last message which the transmitting station is going to transmit and that the addressed station is now permitted to begin transmitting. This flag is useful in half-duplex or multipoint configurations, where transmitters need to get turned on and off. The Response field: The response field contains the number of the last message correctly received. This field is used in Data Message and in the positive and negative acknowledge types of Control Message. Its function should be evident from the preceding discussion of sequence control. The Sequence field: The sequence field is used in Data Messages and in the REP type of Control Message. In a Data Message, it contains the sequence number of the message as assigned by the transmitting station. In a REP message, it is used as part of the question: "Have you received all messages up through message number (specify) correctly?". The Address Field: The address field is used to identify the tributary station in multipoint systems and is used in message both to and from the tributary. In point to point operation, a station sends address "1" but ignores the address field on reception. In addition to the positive and negative acknowledgement and REP types of Control Message, there are also start and start acknowledge Control Messages. These are used to place the station which receives them in a known state. In particular, they intialize the message counters, timers, and other counters. The start ackknowledge message indicates that this has been accomplished. Maintenance Messages: These are typically bootstrap messages containing load programs in the information field. Known Drawbacks: The header is short and higher level operating systems must have a buffer of the appropriate size ready on relatively short notice. Todd M. Miller tmiller@caos.caos.kun.nl Paul zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au ************************** Q40. I have an RD-something. What kind of drive is it? What kind of controller do I need? RQDX1 supports RD51 , RD52 , RX50 . RQDX2 supports RD51 , RD52 , RD53 , RX50. RQDX3 supports RD51 , RD52 , RD53 , RD54, RX50, RD31 , RD32 , RD33*, RX33. For reference: RX33 - Teac FD-55GFR RX50 - DEC built 800KB dual 5.25" floppy RD31 - Seagate ST225 RD32 - Seagate ST251-1 RD51 - Seagate ST-412 / Tandon TM502 RD52 - Quantum Q540 / Atasi 3046 / [almost] Evotek ET-5540 RD53 - Micropolis 1325 with jumper R7 inserted (1335 also works) RD54 - Maxtor XT-2190 The Seagate ST506 is an *RD50*, which was never supported on any of the RQDX controllers; its use was primarily on the Rainbow. Tim Thompson xxwwxx@micom.com "Starkle, Starkle little twink" Mark E. Levy LEVY@FNALD.FNAL.GOV Bill Pechter bill@pyrite.nj.pyramid.com ************************** Q41. I tried to plug in the keyboard while my Pro was powered up and now the keyboard doesn't work. Take out the Mother Board and inspect the area near the Video Connector. Look for a meltdown on one of the leads and bridge it with a dollop of solder or a jumper wire. To remove the Mother Board, pop the latch at the front of the HD and floppy drives and slide them forward. Uplug the ribbon cables to the card cage, and unscrew the 3 thumbscrews on the front of the card cage. Unplug the power cable and slide the Mother Board out. The meltdown can occur if you try to connect the Video Connector with the power on. If you misalign the connector, you can short the power lead and meltdown the lead (I think it's Pin 1 or 2) to the keyboard. -- Barry Kort barry@michael.ai.mit.edu ************************** Q42. Will any version of RT-11 older than 5.5 work with the Pro? You can only run v5.0 (or is that 5.1) and above on the Pro. V4.x wont work, due to the video device abortion. --Billy D'Augustine bill@main.morris.org ************************** Q43. What do the switches in my LA50 printer do? Switch settings for the DEC LA50 printer. Factory settings (USA) 1=Closed and 0=Opened: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ----------------- SW1 | | | | | | | | | |0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0| ----------------- 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ----------------- SW2 | |1| | | | | | | |0| |0|0|0|0|0|0| ----------------- Country character set: SW1 country 4 3 2 1 ----------------------- USA 0 0 0 0 (factory) England 0 0 0 1 Finland 0 0 1 0 France 0 0 1 1 French Canada 0 1 0 0 Germany 0 1 0 1 Italy 0 1 1 0 Japan 0 1 1 1 Norway/Denmark 1 0 0 0 Spain 1 0 0 1 Sweden 1 0 1 0 Number of horizontal dots: SW1 relation b/h dots/cm 5 ------------------------- 2 to 1 57 0 (factory) 2.5 to 1 71 1 Communication protocol: SW1 Protocol 6 ----------------- XON/XOFF 0 (factory) Ready/Busy 1 SW1 Signal level 7 ----------------- Busy=high 0 (factory) Ready=low Busy=low 1 Ready=high Long rows printout: SW1 Work mode 8 ----------------- Truncate 0 (factory) cont.next row 1 Communication speed: SW2 speed 3 2 1 --------------------- 4800 Baud 0 0 0 (factory) 2400 Baud 0 1 0 1200 Baud 1 1 0 600 Baud 0 0 1 300 Baud 1 0 1 200 Baud 0 1 1 110 Baud 1 1 1 Data format: SW2 data format 6 5 4 ----------------------------- 7 bit odd parity 1 1 0 7 bit even parity 1 1 1 7 bit mark (8=low) 1 0 0 7 bit space (8=high) 1 0 1 8 bit odd parity 0 1 0 8 bit even parity 0 1 1 8 bit no parity 0 0 0 (factory) SW2: 7 and 8 not used. --Tom F Karlsson tomk@csd.uu.se End part III: DEC Professional Computer FAQ.