I've uploaded a preliminary pre-alpha binary distribution for pmax.
I say pre-alpha because I've done only minimal testing, and I don't
guarantee that it'll come up to single-user mode, although I think
it's pretty close.  You can expect me to put up a few fixed binaries
before anybody starts really winning with these bits.

A few important caveats:   ***PLEASE READ THIS***

- The boot blocks in /usr/mdec have only been tested on the DECstation
  5000/25, and are known not to work on DECstation 2100 and 3100s.  If
  you already have working boot blocks, don't use these.

- The binaries included in this distribution are in ELF format.   This
  means that if you have an old kernel, you can't hope to run
  these.   If you're able to build a kernel, upgrade your sources and
  build one, and then you should be able to run these binaries.
  Otherwise, I'll be uploading a generic kernel in the not-too-distant
  future.

- There's probably something missing right now - I haven't been able
  to get these bits to boot, even though they appear superficially to
  be correct, and I can run them from a booted system.   As I learn
  more, I'll be putting out updates to affected binaries, so you
  probably aren't wasting your time if you ftp these - you just might
  have to ftp a few new binaries as time goes by.

- There's no installation software.   You'll have to massage /etc by
  hand to get the system to come up in multi-user mode.   The
  distribution is just a set of compressed tar files - you'll have to
  unpack them on a filesystem that you set up on your own.   Allocate
  a 32 megabyte root - the binaries aren't stripped (strip is broken),
  so they're a little big yet.   This will be fixed eventually.

- There's no libcrypt.a.

- There are bugs in some library functions.

- The compiler and linker are developer snapshots.   I'm going to be
  feeding my changes back to the appropriate people, so there should
  be official releases soon, but until then these bits are by no means
  guaranteed to produce correct code, qlthough they seem to be doing
  so.

On the other hand, a lot of the pieces finally work - e.g., groff.   I
can't tell you how happy I am to finally have working manual pages.

			       _MelloN_
--
Ted Lemon							 mellon@vix.com
+1 415 477 5045

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