This directory contains all the resources needed to install VenturCom
Venix on a DEC PRO 350 or 380.  

Use Venix 1.0 on a PRO 350 and Venix 2.0 on a PRO 380.  Your machine
should have an RD50, RD51, RD51A, or RD31 disk drive.  Venix will
not install properly on an RD52 or RD53 drive.

venix1.zip contains the VenturCom distribution of Venix 1.0 for
the DEC PRO 350.

venix2.zip contains the VenturCom distribution of Venix 2.0 for
the DEC PRO 380, plus an additional raw tar RX50 with some extra
goodies on it (including Kermit).  See additional notes below
for obtaining a missing part of the goodies tar.

Download venix1.zip or venix2.zip to your DOS machine, unpack it
with PKUNZIP, then use TELEDISK to make RX50 floppies from the
*.TD0 images.  There is a copy of TELEDISK.ZIP included in venix2.zip.
For venix1.zip, download teledisk.zip separately.

One of the RX50 disks will be a bootable transfer/installation diskette.
The others are tar format diskettes which the XFER/Boot diskette
will read as it builds your root and usr areas onto the hard drive.

You will need the installation code, which can be computed
from the 'proacc' program on the venix.tar collection.  Note
that venix.tar is from a VAX development environment, not from
a Venix machine.  You should FTP venix.tar to a Unix platform
and compile and run proacc as explained below.

venix.tar contains the VenturCom algorithm for generating installation
codes for Venix 1.0 and 2.0 on the DEC PRO 350 and 380.  The source code
is in dist/dist/proacc.c and the VAX executable is in dist/dist/proacc
The algorithm can be compiled for other platforms as well.

If you have no way to compile or run proacc, contact Barry Kort,
bkort at musenet.org, and I'll run it for you.  You will need to
give me the serial numbers that come up when you try to install
Venix on your PRO.

There are other utilities in venix.tar including some for writing
the serial number on the XFER diskette.  This algorithm might also
be usable to increase the number of permitted logins.

The root password on Venix is 'gnomes'.

Venix is essentially the same as Bell Labs' System III Unix.
It includes UUCP, but there is no support for any TCP/IP.

To make a raw copy of an RX50 diskette on Venix:

        dd < /dev/f0 > /dev/f1 bs=10b count=79

You can use RX50 floppies for raw tar backups.  You can create a 
mountable file system on a floppy with 

	/etc/mkfs -b /dev/f0 790
	mount /dev/f0 /f0

It is possible to log in via the serial port if /etc/ttys is
edited appropriately.  A line is /etc/ttys is "on" if the first
digit is a 1.  The second digit encodes the baud rate; for 
9400, use the digit 1.  After editing /etc/ttys, either reboot
or do kill -2 1.

venix2.zip includes an additional raw tar RX50, v2goodie.td0,
which has Kermit and other goodies on it.  For Venix 1.0 on
the PRO 350, there is a version of Kermit in v1kermit.td0
(which was omitted from the venix1.zip archive).  Binaries
compiled for the PRO 350 will run on the 380, but generally
not vice versa, since the 380 supports a more liberal overlay
architecture than the 350.  These are earlier versions of
Kermit than are found on modern Unix systems, but they get
the job done.  Further note:  a critical Kermit file was
missing from v2goodie.td0.  The separate goodies.td0 includes
the missing file (/usr/lib/kermit4.sr).  I found that Kermit 4E,
as included in goodies.td0 *does* work on Venix 1.0 on the 350,
so I recommend using it instead of the older version of Kermit
in v1kermit.td0.  One final caution: goodies.td0 is a raw tar
with ABSOLUTE PATHNAMES.  I suggest examining it first with
tar tv, because you may not want to overwrite all the original
files there.  The Goodies include Compress, Man, Head, Printenv,
Kermit 4E and some UUCP stuff.

RX50.notes is an archive collection of correspondence about 
reading, formatting, and archiving RX50 diskettes  on an AT DOS
machine, using various drivers and utilities.

raind112.zip is one of the AT DOS driver packages discussed in
RX50.notes.  rx50.zip contains the RX50DRVR.SYS driver package.
You don't need either of these for TELEDISK, but I offer them
for those who want them for whatever purpose on their DOS machine.

teledisk.zip is the Sydex utility for archiving RX50 diskettes
for distribution via the Internet.  It must be run on a DOS
machine with a 5 1/4 HD floppy drive to create the RX50 format
floppies from the *.TD0 archive files.

Good luck!  Post comments to comp.sys.dec.com

Barry Kort
bkort at musenet.org