Simh problem

[Scott Stevens]

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:26:28 +0000
Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 12/30/05, Josef Chessor <josefcub at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 12/29/05, Jim Beacon <jim at g1jbg.co.uk> wrote:
> > > Hi All,
> > >
> > > I've been trying to install NetBSD 2.0 on the SimH VAX emulator, but the
> > > install text shows up as control codes, rather than correctly spaced and
> > > formatted.
> >
> > You haven't done anything wrong -- SIMH doesn't provide any kind of
> > emulation other than straight TTY for its console window.  I've run
> > Open VMS in Simh/VAX and have the same issue.  You'll likely just have
> > to read around the control codes, and later use a telnet client to get
> > reasonable output, once the OS is installed.
> 
> When running simh under Linux/UNIX, wouldn't it work to put a real
> VT100 (or clone or a proper emulator on an external PC), fire up a
> getty, then run simh from that window?  That way, the device external
> to the CPU running simh would interpret the codes.  That trick _does_
> work for me running TOPS-20 under klh10.  It was easier to do that
> than fix or replace xterm which is _not_ VT100 compatible anymore.  I
> was unable to successfully run emacs on an xterm, but with a _real_
> dumb terminal hung off the back of the machine, emacs ran perfectly.
> 
> What's puzzling to me is that that at least back in the 1980s, when
> installing 4BSD, we used to use printing terminals like an LA36.  If
> the install procedure used ANSI sequences, for the most part, we'd
> also see garbage.  I guess by the time NetBSD 2.0 came around, it's
> entirely possible that its developers assumed you were on a glass TTY,
> but it's too "new" for me to have much experience with it.
> 
I've installed NetBSD over a serial console on a lot of older
hardware.  If I am not mistaken it prompts for a terminal type
very early in the install process, but I can't remember if I've
tried bare TTY to see how usable that was.  I always do it from
minicom on another NetBSD box which has passable VT-100 emulation.

My first home online experience wa on a printing terminal, an old
1200 baud DecWriter that I hooked to an acoustic coupler to call
BBSes before I had a home computer of my own with a serial port.
'Reading the backscross' was as simple as pulling up the sheafs
of paper cascading behind the big DecWriter.  Life has never
again been that simple.