> Is it possible to take a distribution disk cartridge and put it on
tape,
> then run the install from tape? I have an RT11 pack I want to do this
> with, but only have 1 RL02 so I can't install.

On a full RT-11 distribution kit there are command files MSB.COM,
MUB.COM, and MTB.COM for building the three different types of magtape
RT-11 distributions.

There are other things you can do with only a single disk, like copy
the minimal files needed to run RT-11 and PIP and DUP and whatever
other utitlities you need to VM0: and boot from VM0:.

Not to belittle RT-11, but if you've got a bootable installation disk
then you don't need to "install". It's nice to preserve a backup copy,
of course, but the results of a RT-11 installation is pretty much
what you have on that disk already.

Tim.

>>Wolfe, Julian wrote:

>>Is it possible to take a distribution disk cartridge and put it on tape,
>>then run the install from tape? I have an RT11 pack I want to do this
>>with, but only have 1 RL02 so I can't install.
>
>
>Tim Shoppa wrote:

>On a full RT-11 distribution kit there are command files MSB.COM,
>MUB.COM, and MTB.COM for building the three different types of magtape
>RT-11 distributions.

>There are other things you can do with only a single disk, like copy
>the minimal files needed to run RT-11 and PIP and DUP and whatever
>other utitlities you need to VM0: and boot from VM0:.

>Not to belittle RT-11, but if you've got a bootable installation disk
>then you don't need to "install". It's nice to preserve a backup copy,
>of course, but the results of a RT-11 installation is pretty much
>what you have on that disk already.

Jerome Fine replies:

FIRST, you do not mention which version of RT-11 you
have. While that is not really critical, the answers
I provide are probably more for V05.03 of RT-11 than
for earlier versions. And stating the hardware you
use would also be useful.

I think that a few additional suggestions would be helpful.

(a) About the only difference between an "install" for
RT-11 on an RL02 pack and the distribution pack is the
volume ID / Owner and the monitor which is booted after
turning on the hardware.

(b) If you have an installation distribution disk, then
if you leave the WRITE PROTECT switch for the RL02 ON
when you do a hardware boot, then RT-11 will drop OUT
of the "install" command file back into RT-11. You can
the leave the WRITE PROTECT switch ON and boot a different
distribution monitor such as:
BOOT RT11XM
BOOT RT11FB
and be sure that nothing changes on the RL02 installation
distribution disk.

(c) Due to the age of any PDP-11 hardware, unless you run
RT-11 ONLY to demonstrate that you can run RT-11, making
a backup is probably essential. If you can find a second
RL02 drive and some additional RL02 packs, they will
probably not cost very much, if anything.

(d) You seem to have a tape drive - very useful, although
a bit slower than a second RL02. If you have even 512 KBytes
of memory (although 1 MByte would be better) and are using
V05.0x of RT-11, setting up the files needed to run a VM:
disk (in memory) would allow you to copy the complete
distribution RL02 to a tape file, followed making a second
copy back to a second RL02 disk. If you then have a third
RL02 pack, you could then set up a working set of files
and never loose the distribution RL02 pack.

MORE suggestions if you reply.

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
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