2.11BSD ready to use image

[Johnny Billquist]

I've done work on providing a 2.11BSD image that is up to date, and easy
to configure and use. Documentation (well, my simple docs anyway) can be
found at http://mim.softjar.se/pidpbsd.htm.
The intent is that this image will be updated with the latest patches at
all times, and usable as is by people. There are some manual
configuration required after the initial boot, which is described on the
web-page. The image caters to both PiDP-11 users, as well as anyone
running simh, or even on real Qbus machines.

The configuration is primarily around setting the networking address,
what services/clients/daemons to run, and a couple of other basic setup
steps. All should hopefully be easy to understand and fill in.

I'm happy to answer any questions, as well as getting feedback on both
the documentation and the image as such.

Johnny

[Steven A. Falco]

Thanks, Johnny! This is really useful!

Steve

[Steven A. Falco]

Hmm - I just tried the disk image and it appears to be an RSX disk. Here is what shows up when I boot it:


*** booting 211bsd ***
*** Start client/server ***

PiDP-11 FP 2023

PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Current REALCONS build Mar 18 2025
Disabling XQ
RQ0: 'pidp.bsd.dsk' Contains an ODS1 File system
RQ0: Volume Name: RSX11MPBL87 Format: DECFILE11A Sectors In Volume: 2000896
boot.ini-18> att dz 42,speed=*32
Listening on port 42
boot.ini-24> att xu en0
Eth: pcap_open_live error - en0: No such device exists (No such device exists)
Eth: open error - en0: No such device exists (No such device exists)
Address Vector BR # Device
-------------------- -------- -- - ------
17760100 - 17760107* 300-304 5 1 DZ
17770200 - 17770377 1 CPU
17772150 - 17772153 5 1 RQ
17772200 - 17772277 1 CPU
17772300 - 17772317 1 CPU
17772320 - 17772337 1 CPU
17772340 - 17772357 1 CPU
17772360 - 17772377 1 CPU
17772516 - 17772517 1 CPU
17772520 - 17772533 224 5 1 TM
17774400 - 17774411 160 5 1 RL
17774500 - 17774503 5 1 TQ
17774510 - 17774517 120 5 1 XU
17776700 - 17776753 254 5 1 RHA
17777170 - 17777173 264 5 1 RX
17777400 - 17777417 220 5 1 RK
17777440 - 17777477 210 5 1 HK
17777514 - 17777517 200 4 1 LPT
17777546 - 17777547 100 6 1 CLK
17777550 - 17777553 070 4 1 PTR
17777554 - 17777557 074 4 1 PTP
17777560 - 17777563 060 4 1 TTI
17777564 - 17777567 064 4 1 TTO
17777570 - 17777571 1 CPU
17777572 - 17777577 1 CPU
17777600 - 17777617 1 CPU
17777620 - 17777637 1 CPU
17777640 - 17777657 1 CPU
17777660 - 17777677 1 CPU
17777740 - 17777775 1 CPU
17777776 - 17777777 1 CPU



RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 BL87 1920.KW System:"PIDP "
>RED DU:=SY:
>RED DU:=LB:
>RED DU:=SP:
>MOU DU0:"RSX11MPBL87"
>@DU:[1,2]STARTUP
>;
>; W E L C O M E
>; W E L C O M E
>;
>; This is a prebuilt RSX-11M-PLUS system with DECnet, TCP/IP and RPM
>; installed. This has all been prepared by Johnny Billquist.
>; (b...@softjar.se). Please feel free to reach out if you have any
>; questions.
>;
>; It seems you have not booted this system before.
>;
>; This is the time to do some initial setup of this system to
>; properly match your requirements and environment.
>;
>; Main among these are the setup of DECnet networking and TCP/IP
>; networking configurations.
>;
>; If you in fact do not want to start DECnet or TCP/IP by default,
>; you should edit LB:[1,2]STARTUP.CMD to that effect.
>;
>* Press enter to continue [S]:

[Johnny Billquist]

Oh bloody hell. :-D
That was a stupid mistake. The tape image is correct, but the disk image
was not.

New one coming up in a few seconds.

Johnny

[Johnny Billquist]

This is really appreciated by the way. And this is how stupid errors are
detected.

Thanks a lot!

New image created.

Johnny

[Steven A. Falco]

On 4/7/26 10:56 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> This is really appreciated by the way. And this is how stupid errors are detected.

A second set of eyes always helps. Glad to do it.

Steve

[Steven A. Falco]

On 4/7/26 09:26 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

I successfully generated an RP07 system based on this new .tap file, and I see that the system is up to date as of patch 499. That is excellent news - I wasn't able to apply patch 499 on my systems because of some errors that crept in at some point.

Patch 499 has a comment:

Later in 2026 patch 500 will be the formal announcement (/VERSION
change) and release of "2.11BSD: The 35th Anniversary Edition" with
new distribution tape image.

I haven't heard anything further about the anniversary edition tape, but I guess I should assume that it will be different from the tape that you just released.

Steve

[sunnybo...@gmail.com]

I followed the directions on the web page and used FTP to get copies of the tape and disk image. However, when I try to "gunzip" them, I get this error 

gunzip pidp.bsd.dsk.gz

gzip: pidp.bsd.dsk.gz: invalid compressed data--format violated

This on raspbien 64bit recent rebuild for my PiDP11 (Pi 3B+). When I try to unzip on a windows machine, I get similar errors 'only a partial file'.

-R

[Steven A. Falco]

I would guess that they were not downloaded in binary format, but of course some other error could also have happened during your ftp transfer. Here are the sizes of the files, and the results of running sha256sum on them; I had no trouble running gunzip on them:

beast$ ll *.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sfalco sfalco 47875687 Apr 7 11:52 pidp.bsd.dsk.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sfalco sfalco 24876680 Apr 7 11:52 pidp.bsd.tap.gz

beast$ sha256sum pidp.bsd.dsk.gz pidp.bsd.tap.gz
05be0648ed8f76545722fa8df227a9641492c64e93794462080010c07c866b6c pidp.bsd.dsk.gz
d323ef6def418ea0443a7697e9de331f6a84a7a8fe66045a79cf374debfab6c9 pidp.bsd.tap.gz

If you cannot verify those sizes and checksums then you would have to try ftp again.

Steve

On 4/7/26 05:33 PM, sunnybo...@gmail.com wrote:
> I followed the directions on the web page and used FTP to get copies of the tape and disk image. However, when I try to "gunzip" them, I get this error
>

> /gunzip pidp.bsd.dsk.gz

>
> gzip: pidp.bsd.dsk.gz: invalid compressed data--format violated

> /

> This on raspbien 64bit recent rebuild for my PiDP11 (Pi 3B+). When I try to unzip on a windows machine, I get similar errors 'only a partial file'.
>
> -R
> On Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 12:22:05 PM UTC-7 steve...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> On 4/7/26 09:26 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

> > I've done work on providing a 2.11BSD image that is up to date, and easy to configure and use. Documentation (well, my simple docs anyway) can be found at http://mim.softjar.se/pidpbsd.htm <http://mim.softjar.se/pidpbsd.htm>.

> > The intent is that this image will be updated with the latest patches at all times, and usable as is by people. There are some manual configuration required after the initial boot, which is described on the web-page. The image caters to both PiDP-11 users, as well as anyone running simh, or even on real Qbus machines.
> >
> > The configuration is primarily around setting the networking address, what services/clients/daemons to run, and a couple of other basic setup steps. All should hopefully be easy to understand and fill in.
> >
> > I'm happy to answer any questions, as well as getting feedback on both the documentation and the image as such.
> >
> >   Johnny
> >
>
> I successfully generated an RP07 system based on this new .tap file, and I see that the system is up to date as of patch 499. That is excellent news - I wasn't able to apply patch 499 on my systems because of some errors that crept in at some point.
>
> Patch 499 has a comment:
>
> Later in 2026 patch 500 will be the formal announcement (/VERSION
> change) and release of "2.11BSD: The 35th Anniversary Edition" with
> new distribution tape image.
>
> I haven't heard anything further about the anniversary edition tape, but I guess I should assume that it will be different from the tape that you just released.
>
> Steve
>

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[sunnybo...@gmail.com]

Yea, downloaded again and they are fine. Thanks for the feedback and confirming it was all good (just my own problem).

-R

[Mark Matlock]

Johnny,

   In your instructions:

Edit with /usr/usb/vi    should be /usr/ucb/vi

 So far that’s the only thing that I’ve run into.

Thanks,

Mark

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[Johnny Billquist]

No. This is that tape. I'll update it with #500 when it comes out. I
just wanted to start getting things tested before we get there.

Johnny

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

[Johnny Billquist]

Whops. Thanks. Corrected... :-)

Johnny

>> pidp-11/496ea7db-751d-4640-9c3b-9a00614e439c%40softjar.se <https://
>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/
>> pidp-11/496ea7db-751d-4640-9c3b-9a00614e439c%40softjar.se>.

[Johnny Billquist]

Speaking of editors, if someone is more comfortable with something
Emacs-like, there is also Jove. I'll add that...

Johnny

[Steven A. Falco]

A very minor typo: In the sentence "... the system figures out if this is a Unibus of a Qbus system ..." the word "of" should be "or".

Steve

[Malcolm Ray]

This is really timely! Just yesterday, I did a fresh install of pl195,
intending to roll it forward through all the patches, so that I could
be sure they were all done right. But that's a lot of work!

Two minor glitches in the documentation, I think:

In the /etc/rc.conf section, you mention "rc_configure", but that
should be "rc_configured".

You refer to /etc/inet.conf, but that should be /etc/inetd.conf.

[Johnny Billquist]

Thanks for the feedback. Updating the doc...

Johnny

[Mark Matlock]

Johnny,

    I would prefer Jove over Vi when you get the chance.

    Also, my experience with the installation went very well. Thanks for putting this disk image together! 

    One of my favorite parts so far is that nc (netcat) the Swiss Army knife of TCP/IP is included and working from one of these later patches. I could never get it to “make” in the past. Now I can do things like:

$ nc frodo 17

    To get a fortune cookie from port 17 on Frodo. This is similar to PIP when combined with your TCP/IP enhancements to RSX:

>PIP TI:=TC:”Frodo”;17

Best,

Mark

[Johnny Billquist]

On 08/04/2026 16.30, Mark Matlock wrote:
> Johnny,
>     I would prefer Jove over Vi when you get the chance.

Already added to the instructions. :-)

>     Also, my experience with the installation went very well. Thanks
> for putting this disk image together!

I hope it is easy enough for most anyone to get up and running with
2.11BSD with little effort.

>     One of my favorite parts so far is that nc (netcat) the Swiss Army
> knife of TCP/IP is included and working from one of these later patches.
> I could never get it to “make” in the past. Now I can do things like:
>
> $ nc frodo 17
>
>     To get a fortune cookie from port 17 on Frodo. This is similar to
> PIP when combined with your TCP/IP enhancements to RSX:
>
> >PIP TI:=TC:”Frodo”;17

:-)

Johnny

[Steve Gibson]

Johnny,

Thanks so much for putting this together! I migrated to this with zero problems. It's a nice feeling to be at the latest version knowing all of the patches have been applied correctly.

"Bumpers and no heel taps!"

-Steve

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  :___;

{ o , o }

| ) ___ )

 - " - " -

[sunnybo...@gmail.com]

Once I had the correct download (my problem, not anyone else's) I installed it as a separate bootable option by editing 'selections' and storing the files and boot.ini in a directory "211bsdj" tied to switches 0103. Works perfectly! The only thing I did for setup at the moment was to provide a MAC address in boot.ini. 

I do notice the LED 'idle' pattern is different than with the original 211BSD disk (0102) but otherwise works great. Now to start playing again.

Awesome work Johnny!