RSX11 Networking

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Augusto Baffa

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Apr 13, 2021, 3:55:39 PM4/13/21
to [PiDP-11]

Hi, 
   I've just assembled my kit and I'm trying to use some concepts. But, when using RSX11 with TCP/IP I receive an error msg from DHCP client and can't use networking tools (as ftp or ping). 
 
 How do I configure my simh to use the network device? I changed the boot.ini to attach eth to wlan0 and it's ok. Do I need to do some extra setup or it's another setting?

best,
Augusto Baffa

Augusto Baffa

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Apr 13, 2021, 4:16:45 PM4/13/21
to [PiDP-11]
well... same with 211bsd... I guess there is something wrong my simh setup.

Johnny Billquist

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Apr 13, 2021, 4:19:35 PM4/13/21
to Augusto Baffa, [PiDP-11]
Actually, maybe you should start by telling what your config of simh is,
and what system image you grabbed, and if it includes DECnet...

Someone should really write up some kind of a howto for this thing. It
can be confusing to people how things are related and required to be set
up. DECnet implies that you need to use specific MAC addresses for your
simh setup, which, depending on host system, is something you might need
to handle manually.

I first responses to Augusto just saying he needed to reconfigure TCP/IP
in case there is no DHCP server on his network. Which is also a
possibility here. But there could be various different things that are
the problem.

I should also mention that TCP/IP in RSX today does not support link
local addresses. I might do that one soon. I just haven't come around to
it, nor seen a big need. But if someone just plugs things in, and there
is no DHCP, then at the moment, you might not have things working.

Johnny
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|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Augusto Baffa

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Apr 13, 2021, 4:57:56 PM4/13/21
to Johnny Billquist, [PiDP-11]
I have a DHCP server in my network and I think it's not the problem.

I prepared my pi using  the default rasbian and following the instructions at https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11-building-instructions as follows:

  ----------------------  
sudo mkdir /opt/pidp11
cd /opt/pidp11
sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/pidp11.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf pidp11.tar.gz
sudo /opt/pidp11/install/install.sh

cd /opt/pidp11
sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/systems.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf systems.tar.gz
----------------------
 
and installed the decnet - packages  latd dnet-progs 

also... I configured my boot.ini to attach wlan0 instead of eth0

Augusto Baffa

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Apr 13, 2021, 5:04:07 PM4/13/21
to Johnny Billquist, [PiDP-11]
oh... and I've tried to add a bridge device (br0) but it's not working 

Mark Matlock

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Apr 13, 2021, 5:48:14 PM4/13/21
to Augusto Baffa, Johnny Billquist, [PiDP-11]
Augusto,
It would be helpful to see the /opt/pidp11/rsx11mplus/boot.ini file you are using. As Johnny said
RSX11M networking needs a valid DECnet MAC address which is set there.

Also, you mentioned that you configured boot.ini to use wlan0 instead of eth0

That may have something to do with it. The version of simh that the PiDP11 typically uses
eth0 and some have experimented trying to get wlan0 to work but you would need to take a look at forum
discussions on that topic.

Good Luck,
Mark
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Augusto Baffa

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Apr 13, 2021, 6:11:58 PM4/13/21
to Mark Matlock, Johnny Billquist, [PiDP-11]
This is my boot.in... it's like the default boot.ini but I changed the "attach xu eth0" line

---
;detach all
;reset all
set cpu 11/70, 4M

set xu enable
;set xu address=17774510
;set xu type-delua
set xu mac=aa:00:04:00:1e:78
;attach xu eth0
attach xu wlan0
sho xu

; under SimH 4, "throttling" results in a disturbed "idle pattern"
;set nothrottle
set noidle
set throttle 50%
;set console telnet=10000
sho cpu

set tm disable
set hk disable
set rp disable

set rq0 autosize
attach rq0 PiDP11_DU0.dsk
set rq1 autosize
;enable this line when you want to use the DECUS disk image collection
;which comes on a separate 1.7GB disk:
attach rq1 PiDP11_DU1.dsk
set rq2 autosize
set rq3 autosize

set tq tu81

set dz enable
set dz lines=8
set dz address=17760030
set dz vec=330
attach dz 10001
sho dz


; connect to panel
set realcons host=localhost
set realcons panel=11/70
; We're running on a desktop PC with connection to localhost: max speed!
set realcons interval=1
set realcons connected
;set realcons debug
;show realcons

boot rq0

Johnny Billquist

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Apr 13, 2021, 6:19:41 PM4/13/21
to Augusto Baffa, [PiDP-11]
One thing to be aware of is that wlan is *not* the same as ethernet.

Not sure that is your only problem, but running simh interfacing to a
wlan shared by the host is often not working well.

DECnet packages installed on the host system are not needed, and not
even relevant around this.

I suspect that the RSX image contains DECnet. Which is important,
because the MAC address you should use is based on what DECnet address
is configured for the RSX system.

One workaround for some of your problems is to use a feature of simh,
where it adds an internal nat.

You could do that like this:

attach xu nat:tcp=21:10.0.2.15:21,tcp=23:10.0.2.15:23

With that line, you also have access to telnet and ftp from the outside
by connecting to the host system. For the rest of it, connecting from
the RSX host out will always work fine, but outside connecting in will
obviously fail, unless you are on the host system itself.

The address 10.0.2.15 is the address the RSX host will get if using DHCP.
Note that I'm not sure if PiDP-11 have a new enough simh to have this
functionality in there.

However, if you use proper ethernet, then just attaching your PDP-11
ethernet to the actual ethernet should work just fine.

Other options include creating a bridge. See
https://github.com/simh/simh/blob/master/0readme_ethernet.txt for more
information.

Johnny

On 2021-04-13 22:57, Augusto Baffa wrote:
> I have a DHCP server in my network and I think it's not the problem.
>
> I prepared my pi using  the default rasbian and following the
> instructions at
> https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11-building-instructions
> <https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11-building-instructions>
> as follows:
>
>   ----------------------
> sudo mkdir /opt/pidp11
> cd /opt/pidp11
> sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/pidp11.tar.gz
> <https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/pidp11.tar.gz>
> sudo tar -xvf pidp11.tar.gz
> sudo /opt/pidp11/install/install.sh
>
> cd /opt/pidp11
> sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/systems.tar.gz
> <https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/systems.tar.gz>
> sudo tar -xvf systems.tar.gz
> ----------------------
> and installed the decnet - packages  latd dnet-progs
>
> also... I configured my boot.ini to attach wlan0 instead of eth0
>
> Em ter., 13 de abr. de 2021 às 17:19, Johnny Billquist <b...@softjar.se
> <mailto:b...@softjar.se>> escreveu:
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > <mailto:pidp-11+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/a4f00686-74f8-4344-bd51-0b118e5f5adfn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/a4f00686-74f8-4344-bd51-0b118e5f5adfn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
>
> --
> Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
>                                    ||  on a psychedelic trip
> email: b...@softjar.se <mailto:b...@softjar.se>             ||

Johnny Billquist

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Apr 13, 2021, 6:22:07 PM4/13/21
to Augusto Baffa, Mark Matlock, [PiDP-11]
Ok. That would be for a DECnet address of 30.30. Looks like Mark
Matlock's RSX image, I think.

I think your primary problem is just that wlan just do not work like you
wish it would.

Johnny
> <ma...@matlockfamily.com <mailto:ma...@matlockfamily.com>> escreveu:
>
> Augusto,
>    It would be helpful to see the /opt/pidp11/rsx11mplus/boot.ini
> file you are using. As Johnny said
> RSX11M networking needs a valid DECnet MAC address which is set there.
>
>    Also, you mentioned that you configured boot.ini to use wlan0
> instead of eth0
>
>     That may have something to do with it. The version of simh that
> the PiDP11 typically uses
> eth0 and some have experimented trying to get wlan0 to work but you
> would need to take a look at forum
> discussions on that topic.
>
> Good Luck,
> Mark
>
>
> > On Apr 13, 2021, at 3:57 PM, Augusto Baffa <augb...@gmail.com
> <mailto:augb...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> > I have a DHCP server in my network and I think it's not the problem.
> >
> > I prepared my pi using  the default rasbian and following the
> instructions at
> https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11-building-instructions
> <https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11-building-instructions>
> as follows:
> >
> >   ----------------------
> > sudo mkdir /opt/pidp11
> > cd /opt/pidp11
> > sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/pidp11.tar.gz
> <https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/pidp11.tar.gz>
> > sudo tar -xvf pidp11.tar.gz
> > sudo /opt/pidp11/install/install.sh
> >
> > cd /opt/pidp11
> > sudo wget https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/systems.tar.gz
> <https://www3.ispnet.net/pidp11/systems.tar.gz>
> > sudo tar -xvf systems.tar.gz
> > ----------------------
> >
> > and installed the decnet - packages  latd dnet-progs
> >
> > also... I configured my boot.ini to attach wlan0 instead of eth0
> >
> > Em ter., 13 de abr. de 2021 às 17:19, Johnny Billquist
> <b...@softjar.se <mailto:b...@softjar.se>> escreveu:
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > > <mailto:pidp-11+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/a4f00686-74f8-4344-bd51-0b118e5f5adfn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/a4f00686-74f8-4344-bd51-0b118e5f5adfn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
> >
> > --
> > Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
> >                                    ||  on a psychedelic trip
> > email: b...@softjar.se <mailto:b...@softjar.se>             ||
> Reading murder books
> > pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups "[PiDP-11]" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an email to pidp-11+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/CAFxfXNOtr87BvaNvMpx1KdxGEk1vjCcUC3NAXHZxFbrkbtLdaA%40mail.gmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/CAFxfXNOtr87BvaNvMpx1KdxGEk1vjCcUC3NAXHZxFbrkbtLdaA%40mail.gmail.com>.
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