RT-11 V05.02 RELEASE NOTES ADDENDA =================================== The following lists new general features, restrictions, and documentation changes and additions finalized after the printing of the RT-11 V5.2 Release Notes. GENERAL FEATURES ---------------- Version 5.2 provides support for the following new features and devices: o Global region support in extended memory o Support for PRO GIDIS graphics o Support for DECNA and DEQNA Ethernet controllers (NC and NQ) o Support for a User Commands First (UCF) KMON preprocessor o LA210 - serial-line dot matrix printer o LN03 - desk-top laser printer o Mini-Exchange - a serial switching communications device o QDA50 - RA80 Q-BUS controller o RD52 - 33M byte hard disk o TSU05 - UNIBUS TS05 magtape drive o 512KB Memory Expansion Card - for Professional 300 series GENERAL RESTRICTIONS -------------------- o Do not SETUP SMOOTH on Professional series processors; that command exe- cutes as a NOP. Only SETUP JUMP (the default) is supported on Professional processors for V5.2. o FRUN/SRUNning a privileged foreground job containing extended memory overlays causes the system to crash. Do not FRUN/SRUN privileged foreground jobs containing extended memory overlays. o The command COPY/DEVICE cannot be used by RT-11 V5 to copy images from magtapes to disks, when the image was copied to the magtape using RT-11 V4. Use RT-11 V4 for that operation. o The distributed monitors do not support the command SET DUn: PORT=x. To generate support for that command, you must perform a SYSGEN and respond to question 108 (How many ports are to be supported (1) ?) with 2, 3, or 4. o After aborting GIDIS, the global region "ALPH00" remains loaded in extended memory. You can remove it by using the "REMOVE ALPH00" command. o Issuing a PRINT command to the LP or LS handler while the printer is off line or XOFFed (LS only) causes the handler (and possibly the system) to hang. Place the printer on line or clear the XOFF condition, then execute CTRL/C twice to free the handler. - 2 - o Programs that use the vector information table generated by the .DRVTB macro to determine the vectors for a multivector device must be modified to recognize the new (V5.2) vector table terminator. Previously, the vector table terminator used by .DRVTB was 0. For V5.2, the vector table terminator used by .DRVTB is 100000. o When using an RC25 dual drive configuration (4 platters), turn on both RC25 drives before booting RT-11. Turning on the second RC25 drive after booting RT-11 will require a reboot. o Use the following procedure when linking FORTRAN 77 programs, or linking FORTRAN IV programs when the OTS is not built for threaded code support. You can experience undefined global symbol errors when linking FORTRAN programs that use the GETSTR.OBJ and PUTSTR.OBJ object files (modules). Those modules are located in SYSLIB, the system subroutine library, and require threaded code support in the FORTRAN OTS. If you are using FORTRAN IV with non-threaded code, or if you are using FORTRAN 77, and your program is calling GETSTR or PUTSTR: Compile the distributed files GETSTR.FOR and PUTSTR.FOR, and replace the modules of the same name in SYSLIB with the created GETSTR.OBJ and PUTSTR.OBJ. See Chapter 10 of the RT-11 System Utilities Manual for the correct procedure. Specify SYSLIB and FORLIB (in that order) when linking your program. DIGITAL recommends combining SYSLIB and FORLIB. See the RT-11 Program- mers' Reference Manual for the correct procedure. When you receive a new version of RT-11, relink that distributed SYSLIB with FORLIB. GENERAL INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE CORRECTIONS -------------------------------------------- 1. COMMANDS (Keyboard) o The COPY/ALLOCATE:size command created a file with the current date, rather than the input file date. Now, the COPY/ALLOCATE:size command correctly uses the input file date as the creation date for the output file. - 3 - 2. DEVICE HANDLERS Device Handler Region Names o RT-11 appends a dollar sign ($) to handler names residing in regions in extended memory. The form is xx(sp)$, where: xx is the handler name (sp) is a required space $ is a required dollar sign Use that form when specifying a handler region name in the IGETR or .CRRG request; for example "VM $ " is the handler region name for the VM region. DL handler o When a disk reported certain hard errors to the DL handler, the han- dler would reverse seek one track and then reseek to the desired track. The DL handler now homes to track 0 and then reseeks to the desired track. That improves the chance for recovery from the hard error. DU handler o DU did not correctly check and truncate non-file-structured .WRITE re- quests that crossed partition boundaries. That could cause data that was written across a partition to corrupt data already written in the next partition. DU now correctly checks and truncates requests that cross a partition boundary. The amount of data actually transferred is not reported to the program requesting I/O, but a hard error is indicated. LP and LS handlers o LP and LS have been converted to file-structured-device handlers to support the new SET Lx ENDPAG=n command. Issuing a directory oper- ation (for example the PRINT command) to LP or LS while the printer is off line or XOFFed (LS only) can cause the handler (and possibly the system) to hang. That is caused by the handler attempting to interrupt a non-existent device. It also stops the USR from processing direc- tory operations to any other device. Place the printer on line or clear the XOFF condition, then execute CTRL/C twice to free the handler. TT Handler o When running under the SJ monitor, the TT handler prompted with an uparrow (^) for every .READ request, rather than correctly prompting only when the .READ request specified block 0 as the starting block. Now, the TT handler prompts only for a block 0 .READ request. - 4 - 3. EDITORS o Previously, the hard-copy editor, EDIT, was the default editor. For RT-11 V5.2, KED is the default editor for SJ and FB monitors, and KEX is the default editor for the XM monitor. To make the EDIT editor the default editor, place the command SET EDIT EDIT in your startup com- mand file. 4. ERROR SEVERITY LEVELS Error level descriptions were inconsistent throughout the RT-11 doc- umentation. The following are the error severity level names, from least to most severe: SUCCESS The program ran successfully; also equivalent to INFORMATIONAL. WARNING A problem occured when running the program. Program runs to completion, but output should be examined. ERROR An error occured and program may not run to com- pletion. The output may contain errors. FATAL The program produced no usable output, or no output at all. The program does not run to completion, but the system remains in a known state (error fatal to pro- gram, not the operating system). UNCONDITIONAL The program and/or system has completely failed. The integrity of the monitor is unknown; the system should be rebooted. The user error byte (byte 53 in block 0) contains the status of a pro- gram upon exit. The following are the correct bit and mask meanings: Bit Mask Status RT-11 Message ---- ----- ------- ------------------ 0 1 Success ?Prog-I-text, or none 1 2 Warning ?Prog-W-text 2 4 Error ?Prog-E-text 3 10 Fatal ?Prog-F-text 4 20 Unconditional ?Prog-U-text - 5 - The SET ERROR command sets the error level at which an indirect com- mand file will abort. The following are the correct SET ERROR commands: SET ERROR WARNING Aborts indirect command files if warning, error, fatal, or unconditional errors occur. SET ERROR ERROR Aborts indirect command files if error, fatal, or unconditional errors occur. The default. SET ERROR FATAL Aborts indirect command files if fatal or unconditional errors occur. SET ERROR NONE Aborts indirect command files (or) if an unconditional error SET ERROR SEVERE* occurs. * DIGITAL does not recommend using the SET ERROR SEVERE command; support for it may be discontinued in the future. 5. ETHERNET Receive Ethernet Frame o A new word, frame size, has been inserted into the special function receive Ethernet frame. Frame size is located below the status word and above the field that receives the Ethernet frame, and contains the length in bytes of the frame as received over the Ethernet. The byte count returned in frame size is especially useful when the size you specified in the buf argument was not large enough to receive the entire frame. In that case, the frame is truncated, the remainder is lost, and the status word is set to 4. o A new octal status code can be returned in the low byte of the status word: 4 The received Ethernet frame is too large for the buffer; the frame is truncated, and the remainder is lost - 6 - Transmit Ethernet Frame o A new word, reserved, has been inserted into the special function transmit Ethernet frame. Reserved, located below the status word and above the destination field, is reserved for the future use of DIGITAL. o The minimum buffer size for transmit Ethernet frame is now 32 (decimal) words; the maximum is 759 (decimal) words. The following is an illustration of the first two words of the transmit and receive Ethernet frame buffers: Transmit Receive Ethernet frame Ethernet frame +-------------+ +-------------+ buf--> | status | buf--> | status | +-------------+ +-------------+ | reserved | | frame size | +-------------+ +-------------+ | | | | o DEQNA Watchdog Code The DEQNA controller can, under rare circumstances, enter a state whereby a posted transmit does not complete. Therefore, no interrupt occurs, and the handler appears to hang transmits. Receives should continue to work correctly. Because of the rarity of the problem, the distributed NQ handler does not have the code generated to time-out the transmit. To generate that time-out support, set the NQ$WDT assembly parameter to non-zero (during SYSGEN, specify system conditional NQ$WDT = 1). Time-out sup- port adds about 100 (decimal) words to the NQ handler. The time-out code posts a 2-second timer for each transmit. If the transmit completes successfully, the timer is cancelled. If the trans- mit times-out, the code assumes the transmitter has become hung, the board is re-initialized, interrupts are re-enabled, and the transmit is restarted. - 7 - 6. SYSTEM SUBROUTINE LIBRARY (SYSLIB) CONCAT o A problem in the SYSLIB CONCAT function caused incorrect error re- porting. An error was not correctly reported when both the length specified for the output string was shorter than the first input string and the address of the first input string fell on a block boundary. CONCAT now correctly reports errors. 7. UTILITIES BINCOM o When using BINCOM to create a SIPP command file, the flag to strip leading zeroes was cleared at an incorrect time. That caused significant zeroes in addresses higher than 7776 to be lost in the created SIPP command file. BINCOM now correctly clears the flag and the SIPP file is correctly created. BUP o A copy operation could corrupt the output file when the number of blocks of the file buffer in memory was not a multiple of the output tape transfer block size. Now, the file buffer in memory need not be a multiple of the tape transfer size for BUP copy operations. FORMAT o The /VERIFY:only option can be used to perform the write/read verify operation on the following devices: DD, DL, DM, DP, DT, DW, DX, DY, DZ, and RK. GIDIS o When programming for GIDIS using the .SPFUN request or ISPFN sub- routines, you should initialize GIDIS each time you begin a new picture. Initialize GIDIS by issuing an .SPFUN 371 request and specifying -1 for the wcnt argument. Do that after establishing a channel to PI with the .LOOKUP request and before issuing the .SPFUN 371 that writes your data buffer to GIDIS. Refer to the RT-11 GIDIS documentation and the following example: .LOOKUP #IOAREA,#0,#PIBLK ;Open PI on channel 0 BCS ERROR .SPFUN #IOAREA,#0,#371,,#-1,#0 ;Initialize GIDIS BCS ERROR .SPFUN #IOAREA,#0,#371,#REQPOS,#1,#0 ;write to GIDIS - 8 - o When you FRUN GIDIS on a color monitor, any text on the screen will change to white. GIDIS sets its default color values into the color map. RT-11 uses color map entry number one as its text color, and GIDIS color map entry number one defaults to white. FRUNing GIDIS on a monochrome monitor does not change the screen text. o Issue a SETUP RESET or SETUP CLEAR command to initialize the three video planes on a color monitor. Use either command to clear GIDIS graphics from your color monitor screen after exiting from GIDIS. o The GIDIS graphics utility requires a hardware FP11 floating point chip on the Professional processor running GIDIS. Attempting to run GIDIS without the FP11 chip returns the error message: ?GIDIS-F-Floating point unit required HELP o The command HELP ? displayed the incorrect error message "?HELP-F-HELP.MLB has invalid form". The command HELP ? now correctly displays the error message "?HELP-F-HELP not available for ?". IND o Executing a control file using the DCL keyboard command syntax RUN IND ctrl-filespec[/options] or IND ctrl-filespec[/options], did not let you pass parameters. Those commands now let you pass parameters. LD o Monitors built with non-standard suffixes caused the SET LD CLEAN and SHOW SUBSET commands to not to work properly. Those commands now work properly with monitors built with non-standard suffixes. LIBR o Under certain circumstances, LIBR generated macro libraries where the last entry would not appear in the library directory. That normally occurred when adding to SYSMAC or HELP, and no LIBR error message was displayed. Now, all entries into macro libraries appear in the library directory. QUEUE o QUEUE no longer appends a carriage-return to the end of files that are queued to VM. RESORC o When more than 14 logical names were assigned to a device, the SHOW command (RESORC) printed a corrupted listing. More than 17 logical name assignments to a single device caused RESORC to hang the system. RESORC now correctly prints listings, and more than 17 logical device name assignments to a single device no longer hang the system. - 9 - SPOOL o If a SETUP PRINTER command was issued while SPOOL was running, the system would hang or trap to 4. Now, issuing the SETUP PRINTER com- mand while SPOOL is running does not hang or trap the system. UCL (user command linkage) o The following customization patch lets you change the data file name appearing in a UCL error message. The patch is useful if you have changed the name of the UCL data file. In the patch, ..ERR is the symbol for that value found in the on-line file CUSTOM.TXT. Substitute for each n one of the three letters you want to appear in the error message. For example, if you substitute XYZ for nnn in the patch, a UCL error message will then read ?XYZ-F-Error message, rather than ?UCL-F-Error message. .R SIPP *UCL.SAV/A Base? ..ERR Offset? 1 Base Offset Old New? ..ERR 000001 xxxxxx ;A ..ERR 000001 xxxxxx ;An ..ERR 000002 xxxxxx ;An ..ERR 000003 xxxxxx ;An ..ERR 000004 xxxxxx * . VTCOM o The EXIT and PAUSE commands now close any open logging file before exiting to the monitor. o Modifying the VTCOM Default Dial String Prefix The default VTCOM dial string prefix is ^A^B. That is the correct pre- fix for the DF03 modem. Perform the following customization patch if your modem requires a different dial string prefix (consult your modem user guide for the correct dial string prefix). VTCOM first sends the dial string prefix and then sends the dial string. This patch does not affect the dial string itself. - 10 - In the customization, ..DPFX is the value of that symbol from the file CUSTOM.TXT on your distribution kit, and nnn is the octal ASCII value for each character in the dial string prefix. Insert a NULL (000) in the location immediately following the last character in the dial string prefix. The prefix cannot be longer than 15 characters. The sixteenth byte must be a NULL. For VTCOM.REL: .R SIPP *VTCOM.REL Base? 0 Offset? ..DPFX Base Offset Old New? 000000 ..DPFX 001 nnn 000000 ..DPFX+1 002 nnn . . 000000 ..DPFX+16 ??? nnn 000000 ..DPFX+17 000 * . For VTCOM.SAV: .R SIPP *VTCOM.SAV Segment? 1 Base? 0 Offset? ..DPFX Segment Base Offset Old New? 000001 000000 ..DPFX 001 nnn 000001 000000 ..DPFX+1 002 nnn . . 000001 000000 ..DPFX+16 ??? nnn 000001 000000 ..DPFX+17 000 * . o Modifying the VTCOM Default Dial String Suffix The default VTCOM dial string suffix is NULL (000). Some modems (not the DF03) require a dial string suffix following the digits of the number to be dialed. Refer to your modem user guide for any required dial string suffix. Perform the following patch if your modem requires dial string suffix support. - 11 - In the customization, ..DSFX is the value of that symbol from the file file CUSTOM.TXT on your distribution kit, and nnn is the octal ASCII ASCII value for each character in the dial string suffix. Insert a NULL (000) in the location immediately following the last character in the dial string suffix. The suffix cannot be longer than 15 charac- ters. The sixteenth byte must be a NULL. For VTCOM.REL: .R SIPP *VTCOM.REL Base? 0 Offset? ..DSFX Base Offset Old New? 000000 ..DSFX 001 nnn 000000 ..DSFX+1 002 nnn . . 000000 ..DSFX+16 ??? nnn 000000 ..DSFX+17 000 * . For VTCOM.SAV: .R SIPP *VTCOM.SAV Segment? 1 Base? 0 Offset? ..DSFX Segment Base Offset Old New? 000001 000000 ..DSFX 001 nnn 000001 000000 ..DSFX+1 002 nnn . . 000001 000000 ..DSFX+16 ??? nnn 000001 000000 ..DSFX+17 000 * . - 12 - 8. MONITORS KMON o Previously, a virtual job could not pass information when chaining to another job. Also, you could not chain to a virtual job. For RT-11 V5.2, a virtual job can now pass information when chaining to another job, and you can chain to a virtual job. o The keyboard monitor RUN command no longer automatically loads locations 500-777 of the save image. The Chain bit (bit 8 of offset 44 in block 0) must now be set to do that. Programs such as MUBASIC that do not set that bit, but require the save image be loaded, must be run using the R command. The R command loads those programs prop- erly. o When the EXECUTE command was issued and the device was not resident KMON returned the error message ?KMON-F-File not found FORTRA.SAV. KMON now returns the error message ?KMON-F-Handler must be loaded . The EXECUTE command when issued for a device and filename, but no file type, causes KMON to first search for .FOR, then .MAC, then .DBL file extensions. If no filespec is found with those extensions, KMON re- turned the error message ?KMON-F-File not found FORTRA.SAV. KMON under those circumstances now returns the error message ?KMON-F-File not found DEV:FILNAM.TYP. o Previously, nested indirect control files and nested indirect command files that contained a CTRL/C, could skip the command following the CTRL/C. Control could revert to the calling file before the nested file finished processing. That could happen to indirect control files nested within indirect command files, and indirect command files nested within indirect control files. Now, nested files correctly finish processing under those circumstances. 9. NATIONAL REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (NRC) SET o SETUP DATA and TYPE mode As described in the RT-11 System Release Notes, the SETUP command can be used to set not only the national keyboard language, but also DATA or TYPE mode for that keyboard. Most national keyboards support both DATA and TYPE mode. Setting DATA mode (the default) selects the characters shown to the right on the keys. Setting TYPE mode selects the characters shown to the left. You should set DATA mode when the keyboard is primarily used for program development. Set TYPE mode when using the keyboard primarily for word processing. DIGITAL recommends using either of the following setup procedures. - 13 - For program development: SETUP DATA KB LANG:code !where code is your national language code SETUP VIDEO LANG:code !where code is USA For word processing: SETUP TYPE TERM LANG:code !where code is your national language code o You must UNPROTECT the PI handler (PIX.SYS) before executing the SETUP RETAIN command. o COMPOSE Sequence and Dead Diacritical Key Anomalies When NRC settings are used, several anomalies are possible, depending on the national language keyboard used, and whether DATA or TYPE mode is selected. The following table illustrates those anomalies. In the table, the column under the header Character shows the various keys and combinations of keys that are affected. The columns under the headers DATA and TYPE show first the code for the various language keyboards, and under that the following symbols: "X" unimplemented key (no keyclick, no character sent) "*" dead diacritical key (automatic COMPOSE) "N" character shown on key is replaced by an NRC character and displayed as the NRC character. "%" key combining the characteristics of "*" and "N" above. "A" character shown on key is an NRC character and displayed as a USASCII character. In the table: For Use NRC Code: NRC Code: --------- --------- A D AUS USA B F IRL GB NZ USA - 14 - NATIONAL REPLACEMENT CHARACTER SET ANOMALIES ============================================ D A T A T Y P E ------------------------- ------------------------- C C D C C D C C N H H D G N S N H H D G N S Character F D F D K E F B I N L S F F D F D K E F B I N L S F --------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Degree X X X A X X X X X X X X X X X X X Section X X X X X X X 1/4 X X X X 1/2 X X X Pound Sterling X Tilde * * * * * * * * * * * * * % % % % % * % * % % * % % ^ * * * * * * * * * * * * * % * * * % * * * * % * % % ` * * * * * * * * * * * * * % * * * % * * * % % * % % ' * * * * * * * * * * " * * * * * * * * * * * * * * @ N N # N N | N \ N a_ X A" A A a" A A X a` A X AE A ae A C, X c, A A e` A A X E' X X e' A A A X i` A N~ A n~ A o_ X o` A O" A A A o" A A A A X O/ A o/ A ss A u` A N u" A X ------ end of V5NOTE.TXT --------