FEP on Serial

Getting the FEP display on the serial port isn't hard - as long as you want to use the serial port built onto the console. So far I haven't seen a way to tell the FEP to use the serial port built onto the I/O Board.

FEP Command: Show Configuration  
XL1200 4.0 Processor; Serial number SN-582; Reveision level: 1.0  
I/O Board 0; Revision level: 5.0  
2048k words physical memory at 00000000000  
2048k words physical memory at 00010000000  
Black and white Moniterm console 0  

To get the FEP to talk to the serial port on the console simply connect a normal DB25 serial cable to the back of the console and to your serial port (or USB-to-serial in my case).

Set your serial terminal program to 9600 bps, 8/N/1.

At your Symbolics console, type LOCAL-T to enter test mode, and type stuff. This stuff should show up on your serial program. Type LOCAL-O to exit test mode and your typing should show up on the console (FEP Command prompt or wherever you were).

At the FEP, load the usual I333 FEP overlays (with the Hello command). Then you have to tell the FEP that you have a serial console and reset the FEP to get it to use the new console:

  • Set FEP Options :Serial Console Type X3.64 - X3.64 is code for ANSI/VT100
  • Reset FEP and answer Yes, or use the option to tell it not to query for a confirmation

At this point, the FEP will restart and the autoboot sequence will need to be cancelled again, and the Hello command re-issued. However, this time the serial terminal program will now show something interesting:

Serial Console

Type "Hello" to initialize the FEP's command databases, etc.  
Type "Set Console Serial X3.64 console 0" to select this console.  
Type "c-_ ?" for character translations.  

Doing what it says now makes the FEP prompt appear on the serial console! Set Console Serial X3.64 console 0. Typing Control-_ ? then shows this information on the serial console:

  The following characters may be used to access the Symbolics
  character set:
    c-^ = Toggle the Control bit        c-] = Toggle the Super bit
    c-[ = Toggle the Meta bit           c-\ = Toggle the Hyper bit
    c-@ = Toggle the Shift bit
  The character c-_ dispatches off one of the following:
    A = Abort                           N = Network
    B = Back-Space                      0 = Null
    2 = Circle                          P = Page
    I = Clear-Input                     F = Refresh
    C = Complete                        R = Resume
    E = End                             Space = Scroll
    X = Escape                          @ = Select
    # = Function                        1 = Square
    H = Help                            S = Suspend
    L = Line                            3 = Triangle
  c-__ is the prefix for symbol characters (which print as their
  symbol-shifted key, highlight-ed).

  c-_? will redisplay this message

[Hit any key to continue]

Now doing a Set Time "07/04/2016 16:44" might make the computer not ask for the time when we boot.

Now asking about the configuration will show the serial console:

FEP Command: Show Configuration  
XL1200 4.0 Processor with FPA; Serial number SN-582; Revision level:  1.0  
I/O Board 0; Revision level:  5.0  
2048k words physical memory at 00000000000  
2048k words physical memory at 00010000000  
Black and white 80MHz console 0  
Serial X3.64 console 0  

Unfortunately, booting into Lisp doesn't seem to work:

FEP Command: Boot (File [Default FEP7:>Boot.boot.newest]) FEP7:>Boot.boot.newes  
t  
>Load World FEP7:>Inc-02-Add-TCP.ilod.1
[Error:  Error trap #o-7374741040; 37001234321 at #<DTP-ODD-PC (213 in FEP::INI
TIALIZE-LOAD-MAP) 37000023017>]  
FEP Command:  

Hitting the reset button and then trying again gave other odd errors, so at this point I literally power cycled the X1201.

I'll come back to this later.

Questions

  • How do I get the FEP to use the serial port on the I/O card in the XL1201 rather than the serial port on the console?

Douglas Fields

Writing LISP and Haskell since 1990