Altos running MP/M-II on the net
Howard M. Harte
I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don Maslin. He
provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies with.
I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server. You can
connect to it using links at the following web site:
http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
On this page are also downloads of the TeleDisk images for CP/M 2.2,
MP/M-II, and OASIS 5.6 for this machine.
In addition, my Cromemco System One is back on line, at:
http://www.imsai8080.com/computers/s100/cromemco.html
If anyone has any documentation or software (ie, disk images...) for these
machines in electronic format, I would be interested to make it available
on-line via these web pages.
Please test these machines out and let me know if they work. They work fine
from within my firewall, but I'm not sure if I opened up the TCP ports
properly.
These machines "power on" when a telnet session is established, so if they
"hang" for any reason, simply reconnect and they will automatically
power-cycle. Also, there is a 10-minute idle timeout on the ports, so you
will be disconnected after 10 minutes of idle time.
Take care,
Howard
PS - only the console on the Altos is connected right now. I plan to
connect the other ports tomorrow after I make the RJ-45 cables...
Howard M. Harte
the boot disk, please email me so I can fix it ASAP.
(or maybe I'll just write-protect the boot drive...)
Thanks,
Howard
"Howard M. Harte" <hha...@hartetec.com> wrote in message
news:vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...
CBFalconer
>
> PPS - if you accidentally crash one of these machines by somehow
> destroying the boot disk, please email me so I can fix it ASAP.
>
> (or maybe I'll just write-protect the boot drive...)
For a CP/M machine, check out DOSPLUS 2.5, available on my site.
This has built in ability to write protect drives and various ZCPR
derived (but NOT ZCPR) security abilities via a 'wheel' byte. The
gotcha is that a write protected drive will crash a program if
time stamping is also enabled, because then file access tries to
update the last accessed time.
--
Chuck F (cbfal...@yahoo.com) (cbfal...@worldnet.att.net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home.att.net> USE worldnet address!
Arobase, Salle multimédia
Congratulations!
You have done what I dreamed to do during several years.
Unfortunately, I am only a programmer, and never found
a competent enough electronician to help me on the
hardware side.
First: the bug (?). When I used "user 1", I found myself
facing the "A1>" prompt, but DIR produced nothing.
Worse: typing "user 0" or "0:" did not return me to
User 0. (But this is the first time that I actually used
a MP/M system.)
Second: Would you be interested in ZSID v2.5 for MP/M II ?
Since I am a CP/M Plus fan (which is a single-user version
of MP/M II), I was using the last version of ZSID ever done.
I have it on DRI 8" disk, with the photocopied "new commands".
(Its COM version (that I was obliged to produce, to run
it under the Z80.CMD emulator of CP/M-86) was shown
in a message about COMAL that I posted in September
2001. I was surprised that nobody noticed which version
of ZSID I was using... Am I the only programmer out there?)
(Needless to say, I have disassembled it (PRL files are
easier to disassemble than COMmand files). But, if you
don't mind, I would prefer not to release its source code
at the moment (10 years ago, I was corresponding with
the German electronics enginner Tilmann Reh, maker of
the famous CPU280 (the fastest Z-80-compatible ever made).
Since he is a fan of the Z-80 (I prefer the Old Faithful 8080)
I was corresponding with him about ZSID (and trying to
persuade him to make a MP/M II version of CPU280).
During this correspondence, I found 2 unused opcodes
which started to display "LD". Unfortunately, Tilmann
got yet another baby, and needed to do more productive
work... So, it was never finished.)
(Since CP/M-86 Plus, the 8086 version of CP/M Plus,
has been found 2 years ago, I have been working on it
(as shown by my messages). Right now, I am trying
to assemble a 400 MHz system.)
Yours Sincerely,
"French Luser"
Howard M. Harte
Thanks for the compliments. I would be interested in running ZCPR on this
machine if possible. You're welcome to try and install it yourself on the
machine if you wish!
It is pretty straightforward to put a machine with a serial port console on
the internet.
The first step is to obtain some sort of terminal server which converts
multiple serial lines into ethernet. I've found that Xyplex MaxServer 1600's
work very well for this purpose, and can be found on eBay for very
reasonable prices. If you have a TFTP server running, you don't even need a
FLASH memory card to boot the terminal server.
Then you simply make up some serial cables to go between the terminal server
and the machine you wish to put on the web. Configure the terminal server
ports as required (ie, baud rate, parity, etc.)
Then, on your internet server, you can run some software to "port forward"
TCP requests to another IP address. In my case, I port-forward telnet
requests from my www.hartetec.com IP address, ports 2001-2016 to the IP
address of my terminal server (which contains only a local non-routable
subnet address, ie 10.0.0.x)
The terminal server is configured with IP address of 10.0.0.x, and
configured to listen on the ports that my internet server forwards these
requests to.
The final trick is to have a way to control the power to the CP/M systems. I
built a simple power control box using nothing more than a solid state relay
(3-32V switching voltage) which controls the 120V mains. I built this entire
thing into a duplex outlet box, along with a Levitton dual RJ-45 outlet. The
dual RJ-45 outlets are wired together in a "crossover" fashion (pin 1-8,
2,7, etc.) I use the DTR signal on the serial port (from one of the pins on
the RJ-45) to control the solid-state relay. I have an LED in parallel with
the relay so that the LED lights up when the relay is on. If you really want
to get fancy, you can use a dual-color LED so that it is RED when off, and
GREEN when on. This works because RS-232 uses +/- 12V for signalling. I
found the solid-state relays on eBay, and picked up the rest of the parts at
a local electrical supply place. It helps to have an RJ-45 crimping tool so
you can make your own cables.
Instead of using a terminal server, you could alternatively use a PC running
Linux to do the ethernet<->serial conversion. If anyone is interested, I can
post more details about the power control circuit on my web site (perhaps
with some pictures.)
Take care,
Howard
"Arobase, Salle multimédia" <arobase1....@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:<b4a7hn$jo7$1...@news-reader0.wanadoo.fr>...
Howard M. Harte
give it a try one of these rainy days when I have some spare time.
Also, I noticed that there are DOSPLUS disk images for the P112 board
available for download from the P112 site.
Take care,
Howard
"CBFalconer" <cbfal...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3E688439...@yahoo.com...
Paul Ryan
Arobase, Salle multimédia
Arobase, Salle multimédia
> machine if possible. You're welcome to try and install it yourself on the
> machine if you wish!
Err... I am a CP/M Plus fan, not a ZCPR fan...
I discovered MP/M II when researching info about the internals of CP/M Plus.
I am VERY impressed by it. I have 2 S-100 Bus systems, and 2 NorthStar
Horizons. I hope to convert one to MP/M II, one day.
Back to you.
1) CP/NET
Do you know that CP/NET was intended as a network interface between
one or more CP/M system(s) and a MP/M II server? (We recently had a
thread on CP/NET.) Recently, I was given the PRN files of CP/NET 1.2.
Since only CP/NET 1.0 and 1.1 are available on the Internet, I wrote a
PRN2ASM.BAS program. So, I now have the source code of CP/NET
1.2 for three S-100 Bus cards (but the BIG problem will be to find them!).
If you were interested, I could send them to you (with a WordStar 4 file
holding a doc), and you could try to resurrect CP/NET on your MP/M II
system and one or more CP/M systems. If you managed to make it work,
you would be the only person in the world with CP/NET working.
2) IBM 5140
Some time ago (6 months?), we had a thread about the IBM 5140,
because it is the best portable that I have ever used, despite the fact that
it was made in 1986!... Since then, I have been trying to find one
electronician
able to build me a motherboard to fit inside it, so I could have one (or
two...)
portables running under CP/M Plus. (Only the case, the keyboard, the screen,
and the two 720KB 3.5" drives would be kept. At the time, I had found a
US company having a stock of IBM 5140s, and selling them for peanuts.
I would buy you one, you would develop the motherboard, make one or two
for me, and keep the IBM 5140 for your own use (in France, we use AZERTY
keyboards, not QWERTY). Needless to say, I hope that you will accept this
challenge to design a good CP/M Plus portable...)
Yours Sincerely,
"French Luser"
Arobase, Salle multimédia
> machine if possible. You're welcome to try and install it yourself on the
> machine if you wish!
Err... I am a CP/M Plus fan, not a ZCPR fan...
primo
<arobase1....@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Some time ago (6 months?), we had a thread about the IBM 5140,
>because it is the best portable that I have ever used, despite the fact that
>it was made in 1986!... Since then, I have been trying to find one
>electronician able to build me a motherboard to fit inside it, so I could
>have
>one (or two...) portables running under CP/M Plus. (Only the case,
>the keyboard, the screen, and the two 720KB 3.5" drives would be kept.
>At the time, I had found a US company having a stock of IBM 5140s,
>and selling them for peanuts. I would buy you one, you would develop the
>motherboard, make one or two for me, and keep the IBM 5140 for your
>own use (in France, we use AZERTY keyboards, not QWERTY).
>Needless to say, I hope that you will accept this challenge to design a good
>CP/M Plus portable...)
I don't know what your opinion of it is, but have you ever looked at
the Radio Shack 4p? It is the best z80 based portable I have and it
does have a version of cpm3 out there already. I have several all with
different drive setups, from 2 double 40's to two double 80s to two
3.5 in 80 track drives. I much prefer them to my Osborne Exec for a
cpm3 machine, and they blow away my kaypro4 and O1's running cpm2.2.
Raj Rijhwani
<vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>
hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
> I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don Maslin. He
> provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies with.
> I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server. You can
> connect to it using links at the following web site:
> http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML> tags,
each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're serving
two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in the middle of
an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and complete other links
layout. Completely screws up rendering of the page.
--
Raj Rijhwani | This is the voice of the Mysterons...
r...@rijhwani.org | ... We know that you can hear us Earthmen
http://www.rijhwani.org/raj/ | "Lieutenant Green: Launch all Angels!"
Ralf A. Quint
Rijhwani) wrote:
>On Fri, 07 Mar 2003 05:57:47 GMT, in article
> <vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>
> hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
>
>> I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don Maslin. He
>> provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies with.
>> I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server. You can
>> connect to it using links at the following web site:
>
>> http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
>
>The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML> tags,
>each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're serving
>two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in the middle of
>an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and complete other links
>layout. Completely screws up rendering of the page.
Sorry, but that rather seems to be your browser than a problem with
the web site.
I just checked that link and it shows up just fine in Opera 6.05,
Opera 7.0x, IE 6.1, Mozilla 1.3, Phoenix 0.5 and NS 7.1....
Ralf
Bill Leary
news:20030408.1...@rijhwani.org...
> > http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
>
> The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML> tags,
> each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're serving
> two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in the middle
of
> an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and complete other links
> layout. Completely screws up rendering of the page.
The page referenced above, or some sub page?
The above rendered fine for me on both IE6 and Opera 7.03.
- Bill
Raj Rijhwani
<11d69vcbrsqull2jo...@4ax.com>
ralf_...@hottmail.com "Ralf A. Quint" wrote:
> On Tue, 08 Apr 2003 17:56:04 +0100 (BST), r...@rijhwani.org (Raj
> Rijhwani) wrote:
>
> >On Fri, 07 Mar 2003 05:57:47 GMT, in article
> > <vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>
> > hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
> >
> >> I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don Maslin. He
> >> provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies with.
> >> I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server. You can
> >> connect to it using links at the following web site:
> >
> >> http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
> >
> >The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML> tags,
> >each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're serving
> >two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in the middle of
> >an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and complete other links
> >layout. Completely screws up rendering of the page.
>
> Sorry, but that rather seems to be your browser than a problem with
> the web site.
No. It's a problem with the HTML provided on the page. I read the source.
> I just checked that link and it shows up just fine in Opera 6.05,
> Opera 7.0x, IE 6.1, Mozilla 1.3, Phoenix 0.5 and NS 7.1....
Maybe so. The browsers are making it up as they go, trying to overcome
the broken source. Modern browsers are pretty smart in that respect. They
have to be, given the amount of duff HTML out in the wild. The fact remains
that the HTML is borked, in exactly the fashion described. Below is the
bottom of the truncated table, followed by the second illegal HEAD/BODY
sequence (although anyone reading in a newsreader that automatically renders
HTML tags probably won't see the source). Note - I haven't typed this, I've
copied it directly from the delivered page source.
---snip---
and MP/M-II disk images!
<p align="center">
<p align="center">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
</head>
<body>
---snip---
Raj Rijhwani
Bill_...@msn.com "Bill Leary" wrote:
> "Raj Rijhwani" <r...@rijhwani.org> wrote in message
> news:20030408.1...@rijhwani.org...
> > > http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
> >
> > The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML> tags,
> > each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're serving
> > two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in the middle
> of
> > an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and complete other links
> > layout. Completely screws up rendering of the page.
>
> The page referenced above, or some sub page?
The page at the URL provided.
Bill Leary
> > The page referenced above, or some sub page?
>
> The page at the URL provided.
I just saw your other message on the subject. I guess I missed what browser
you're using. I also note that the page claims to have been generated by MS
FP. It seems way better than half the time I encounter something like this,
it came from MS FP.
- Bill
Raj Rijhwani
Bill_...@msn.com "Bill Leary" wrote:
> "Raj Rijhwani" <r...@rijhwani.org> wrote in message
> news:20030409.1...@rijhwani.org...
> > The page at the URL provided.
> I just saw your other message on the subject. I guess I missed what browser
> you're using. I also note that the page claims to have been generated by MS
> FP. It seems way better than half the time I encounter something like this,
> it came from MS FP.
I didn't say, you're right. I was using Netscape 4.07 on Linux.
John Elliott
: Sorry, but that rather seems to be your browser than a problem with
: the web site.
: I just checked that link and it shows up just fine in Opera 6.05,
: Opera 7.0x, IE 6.1, Mozilla 1.3, Phoenix 0.5 and NS 7.1....
Try feeding it to validator.w3.org. :-)
--
------------- http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/index.html --------------------
John Elliott |BLOODNOK: "But why have you got such a long face?"
|SEAGOON: "Heavy dentures, Sir!" - The Goon Show
:-------------------------------------------------------------------------)
Raj Rijhwani
j...@seasip.demon.co.uk "John Elliott" wrote:
> Ralf A. Quint <ralf_...@hottmail.com> wrote:
> : Sorry, but that rather seems to be your browser than a problem with
> : the web site.
> : I just checked that link and it shows up just fine in Opera 6.05,
> : Opera 7.0x, IE 6.1, Mozilla 1.3, Phoenix 0.5 and NS 7.1....
> Try feeding it to validator.w3.org. :-)
I thought of that, but thought it a little TOO harsh. <sniggers>
donut
news:20030408.1...@rijhwani.org:
> On Fri, 07 Mar 2003 05:57:47 GMT, in article
> <vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>
> hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
>
>> I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don
>> Maslin. He
>> provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies
>> with. I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server.
>> You can connect to it using links at the following web site:
>
>> http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
>
> The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML>
> tags, each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're
> serving two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in
> the middle of an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and
> complete other links layout. Completely screws up rendering of the
> page.
Well, I have gobs of sympathy for anyone trying to run an Altos on the net.
donut
> On Fri, 07 Mar 2003 05:57:47 GMT, in article
> <vxW9a.379849$HN5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>
> hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
>
>> I got my Altos 5-15AD to boot CP/M and MP/M-II thanks to Don
>> Maslin. He
>> provided some Teledisk images that I was able to create boot floppies
>> with. I have put this machine on the internet via a terminal server.
>> You can connect to it using links at the following web site:
>
>> http://www.cpm80.com/s100/altos.html
>
> The page is broken. It serves complete sequences of <HTML> </HTML>
> tags, each with its own HEAD and BODY constructs. (Essentially you're
> serving two separate pages at once.) The first just ends abruptly in
> the middle of an incomplete table, the second is a simpler and
> complete other links layout. Completely screws up rendering of the
> page.
Well, I have gobs of sympathy for anyone trying to run an Altos on the net.
Raj Rijhwani
no...@none.com "donut" wrote:
> Well, I have gobs of sympathy for anyone trying to run an Altos on the net.
Oh yes. It's a great idea, and it wasn't my intention to piss on the
fireworks. The terminal server works fine once you get through. Damned
fine idea.
It's just hobbled a little if the web page used as the access portal
doesn't render properly, and in particular doesn't render the telnet
URLs. It's a shame if the idea is let down by the implementation.
I finally got through after reading the page source and telnetting
directly.
donut
news:Xns93651C4...@216.102.43.227:
Sorry about the double posting. I learned computing on an Altos 5 running
MP/M II. Finding this NG was a treat.
BTW, for future reference, the password for the Oasis BIOS running on an
Altos is "sotla." I actually called Altos in 1988 and got it. That's Altos
spelled backwards.
Howard M. Harte
I just attempted to fix the page. I'm using server-side includes, and
one of my includes was a little more "complete" than it should have. I
never noticed a problem on Internet Explorer, but go ahead and try your
favorite browser and let me know if the problem is solved.
BTW- the Cromemco is "down" at the moment, waiting for me to build a new
power controller for it. I've replaced the Cromemco with a Northstar
Horizon running CP/M with the stock Northstar 5.25" hard disk controller and
a 15MB drive.
In a few weeks, I should have all three machines going on the web.
Take care,
Howard
"Raj Rijhwani" <r...@rijhwani.org> wrote in message
news:20030422.1...@rijhwani.org...
Raj Rijhwani
hha...@hartetec.com "Howard M. Harte" wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just attempted to fix the page. I'm using server-side includes, and
> one of my includes was a little more "complete" than it should have. I
> never noticed a problem on Internet Explorer, but go ahead and try your
> favorite browser and let me know if the problem is solved.
>
> BTW- the Cromemco is "down" at the moment, waiting for me to build a new
> power controller for it. I've replaced the Cromemco with a Northstar
> Horizon running CP/M with the stock Northstar 5.25" hard disk controller and
> a 15MB drive.
>
> In a few weeks, I should have all three machines going on the web.
I can no longer see anything wrong with the source, and Lynx likes it well
enough. But Nutscrape still isn't rendering. I dunno...