Kermit-12 woes

[Thomas Moss]

Hi All,

I'm trying to get a working copy of Kermit on an RX01 on my 8/e.
So far I've tried os78v1-1-kermit.rx01 from
https://www.pdp8online.com/images/images/os8.shtml, and after booting and
running Kermit, it says: "Using SLU 2 9600 Baud", which seems correct as I
have 2 serial boards installed, and the 2nd board is strapped to 9600.
However, when trying to connect to a system, it fails to send or receive
characters. The 2nd board is strapped to 40/41, and works fine with
os8diskserver and simple toggle-in echo tests.

After a bit of reading I realised that the VT78, and thus in all
likelihood this copy of OS/78 has SLU2 set to 30/31, at least from what I
gathered from the V3D release notes:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/os8/DEC-S8-OSRNA-B-D_os8v3DrelN.pdf
It also says that the SLU2 handler is made by modifying the KL8E handler.

I tried running BUILD to see which handlers were installed, and SLU2
wasn't there.
I found the source for V3D's KL8E handler here:
https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/file?name=src/os8/ock/HANDLERS/KL8E.PA,
changed DEVICE to SLU2, INDVC to 40, and OUTDVC to 41. From there I
managed to successfully assemble it (as far as I can tell), and LOAD and
INSERT it in BUILD.

Despite all this, Kermit still doesn't seem to do anything.

Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? I'm pretty new to OS/8 so I feel
like I'm winging it a bit.


Regards,
-Tom

mo...@sdf.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

[K. Krause]

Are you speaking about CJL's K12MIT, or about Johnny Billquists KERMIT-8?
I think your os78v1 is an adapted variant of one of them, which
doesn't work with the older 8/e serial lines.

I'm using both KERMITs on my 8/e. You should look for the originals.
At least Charles Lasners K12MIT seems to be available at:
http://www.kermitproject.org/archive.html#dec

Klemens

On 15.07.20 00:49, Thomas Moss wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm trying to get a working copy of Kermit on an RX01 on my 8/e.
> So far I've tried os78v1-1-kermit.rx01 from
> https://www.pdp8online.com/images/images/os8.shtml, and after booting

...

[Thomas Moss]

> Are you speaking about CJL's K12MIT, or about Johnny Billquists KERMIT-8?
> I think your os78v1 is an adapted variant of one of them, which
> doesn't work with the older 8/e serial lines.
>
> I'm using both KERMITs on my 8/e. You should look for the originals.
> At least Charles Lasners K12MIT seems to be available at:
> http://www.kermitproject.org/archive.html#dec

That did it! Turns out I was using the modified version of K12MIT that
expected transfers over the console port rather than 40/41.

I have since transfered a copy of K12DJG over which works fine, however it
seems like whoever assembled it left the boilerplate "INSERT LOCAL USER
MESSAGE HERE!" text in place. I suppose my next step will be to assemble a
clean copy for the sake of correctness.

Cheers,
-Tom