Symbolics LISP Engineering

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 … »

Every time Genera boots, it asks for the time. However, Genera clearly uses the RFC 868 Time Protocol. So, I thought I’d try to make my local Linux server (named HELIUM in our namespace) serve … »

Although away, I have my laptop with me and decided to try to get Xquartz running with the Genera X11 fonts. Find the Genera X11 fonts (in bdf format) and transfer them to your Mac. I put them in … »

Last Updated July 2, 2016 Current Goals and Plans Maintenance Expand LMFS on main XL1201 Genera boot drive Set up CrashPlan on Linux NFS server Usability Autoboot world Serial access to FEP Telnet … »

I’ve decided to take a minor detour when I get back from the gaming convention to make a disk image for someone with an XL400 without a working console. My goal here will be to make a world … »

An organized list of the content available on this site. Digital VAX VAX Hardware VAX Intro - my 2026 retrocomputing project Symbolics Symbolics Hardware XL1201 Power Consumption Console Internals … »

Well, on a whim I decided to see if I could get Genera running on my iMac’s X display. (This way I can spare the 3620 Console from use while I figure out how to recap it.) It was a frustrating … »

Update 1: Added FEP Kernel image. ams asked me for a few clean filesystems so he can analyze how they work. Happy to oblige. They’re here. Configuration: Device used: SCSI2SD v5 Created using … »

Good evening with the XL1201 tonight. TL;DR: Got NFS working on Genera, mostly Need to fix UIDs Showed editing a file on NFS server Showed the SELECT-P peeking stuff Saved file listings for … »

I was asked to provide a full list of all the files on the XL1201 Genera 8.3 hard drive I received from David K. Schmidt. Here they are in screenshot form from the first boot this past Thursday. »

I’m setting up Genera 8.3 on the XL1201 using a clean hard drive. Literally all this hard drive has on it is Genera 8.3 and these patches: Genera 8.3 y2k patches Copy world patch Fepfs patch … »

I was asked how much power is used by the XL1201. Here are a few data points… XL1201 with only SCSI2SD: 222-233W Console: 106W With the XL1201 sitting idle it takes the same amount as … »

I’m attempting to use the SCSI2SD v5 with a 128G microSD card. You can find out the size of an SD card attached to a modern Mac with diskutil list and then diskutil info /dev/disk8 (or whatever … »

Well, it seems that not all SCSI 50-pin female to 68 pin female adapters are created equally. I bought several of these from Amazon, made by Monoprice. (Pictures below.) My SCSI chain in the XL1201 … »

This is a Symbolics Model PE36-PCONS, Part No 365404 Rev C console. My serial number is 21811. (“There are many like it, but this one is mine.”) An album of detailed internal photographs … »

TL;DR: Still no luck using 3-button mouse on MacIvory. Need to find MouseKey 1.0 or 1.1 software. My MacIvory III in a Quadra 650 running Mac OS 8 has a Logitech Mouseman (Model M-AH32), which is a … »

UPDATED July 28, 2016: More mini-benchmark results added. I was asked to do a simple benchmark of the XL1201 by Jerome Ibanes and share the results. Here is his requested code: (defun fib(n) (if (or … »

Status XL1201 running clean Genera 8.3 on X15 drive from DKS MacIvory III running clean Genera 8.3 All physical drives ddpt’d for backup Next Steps Preparation Permanently mount X15 drive and … »

Note: After formatting a disk to 1280-byte blocks on Genera, make sure to hard power cycle reboot the computer before trying to use it for a FEP file system or any other purpose. From my own trials, … »

TL;DR: SCSI disks with 20M 1280-byte blocks work SCSI disks with 25M 1280-byte blocks work SCSI disks with 28M 1280-byte blocks work SCSI disks with 28,870,145 1280-byte blocks works Both Narrow and … »

The XL1201 now boots nicely from a new ST318451LW Cheetah drive that David K. Schmidt sent (sold) me. It loads FEP version 333 and a clean Genera 8.3 distribution world with just a few patches: Genera … »

Well, I was installing a new hard drive into the XL1201 today and just before I connected the SCSI cable, I noticed a pin seemed to be missing on the 50-pin SCSI male connector on the backplane. On … »

Updated as of June 23, 2016 My Symbolics goals: Get an entirely clean, hard-drive based Genera 8.3 install running on the XL1201 Get the MacIvory III running 8.3 as well (which it already is) Set up a … »

Attempting a clean install of Genera 8.3 on XL1201 using just a CD-ROM drive and a blank hard drive. However, from preliminary results, this seems to require a working Genera to install Genera again. … »

When I purchased the XL1201, it came with a Model 3600 keyboard. Unfortunately, several keys didn’t work, including both hypers, and the left control and super. I disassembled it and … »