This is following my research documented in my video on MP/M & CP/NET Networking Uncovered.
I wanted to get into CP/NET and MP/M networking, and before tampering around with the real hardware, get my stuff up and running using Udo Munk's z80pack simulator.
What I wanted to achive, is a client-server simulation, with one MP/M server, and four CP/NET clients as depicted here:
Building this was not as straight forward with z80pack and cpmsim,
as it needs some alterations, furtherly explained below.
But let's start first with what's contained in this repository:
- 1 set of MP/M 2.0 boot disks
- sourced from z80pack
- was recompiled using SYSGEN to have only 1 (instead of 3) TMPs
- includes a patched and recompiled NETWRKIF.RSP to support 4 network connections
- 4 sets of CP/M 2.2 + CP/NET 1.2 boot disks
- sourced from z80pack
- includes a patched and recompiled SNIOS.RSP with a Unique Network Requestor ID per each disk
- The cpnet startup script, to run the simulation
You need:
Plus, of course, this repository. Place all the files directly into your ´./z80pack/cpmsim` directory, i.e. something like this:
cd ./z80pack/cpmsim
https://github.com/gpdm/TPC-CPNET-simulation/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
bsdtar xfv main.zip --strip-components=1
rm main.zip
chmod 755 ./cpnet
Note: You may not have the bsdtar available. So when extracting, make sure to strip away
the TPC-CPNET-simulation directory.
All files should be inside the /z80pack/cpmsim directory.
It's as simple as this, run the command from the /z80pack/cpmsim directory:
./cpnet
This will give you something like this:
And eventually you'll end up here:
The simulation runs 1 server and 4 clients in the background.
They're launched into a tmux session, so you can switch through the consoles
using the usual tmux hotkeys, i.e.
- ^B-N (next)
- ^B-P (previous)
- `B+(0-4) for the indivual consoles
- console 0 is the MP/M server
- consoles 1-4 are the CP/NET clients 1-4
To exit from the simulation, simply type bye into each console window,
then press ^-C to exit.
Note: If you don't press ^-C the simulation on that console will restart.
All simulations will boot directly into CP/M, however they will not yet startup MP/M or CP/NET automatically.
I read how this can be patched for automatic startup, but it's currently not implemented yet.
So you need some manual steps to set it in motion.
This is only quick and dirty, for all details, please refer to the MP/M manual.
- start MP/M by running
mpmldr - That's it. You can get some stats using the
mpmstatscommand
Again, refer to the CP/NET manual for all the details.
-
start CP/NET by running
cpnetldr -
run
login(no passwords required) -
map the network drives from the server to the client:
network C:=A: network D:=B: -
Stats command is
cpnetsts
Want to send mail?
Check the cpnetsts command. It provides the requester ID,
which is 11h for the first client, 12h for the second,
13h for the third, and 14h for the fourth.
Run mail like this:
D:
mail
When asked for a recipient, use one of the requester IDs named above. There's no user accounts, or anything, so that's the only way to direct a mail message at a given client.
That's it!
The simulation rewrites the config files within the ./z80pack/cpmsim/conf directory,
notably:
net_client.confnet_server.conf
It does this to enable the MP/M server to run 4 listening serial consoles via a TCP socket, and each client to allow for connecting to one of these TCP sockets for a simulated serial connection.
The original MP/M images provided by Udo Munk were changed to allow 4 ingress serial line connections.
For that, the NETWRKIF.ASM file was patched to refer to the serial interfaces
0000h, 0100h, 0200h and 0300h in the source code.
Furtherly, SYSGEN was used to recompile the kernel, effectively reducing the TMPs (Terminal Message Processors)
from original 3 down to 1.
References are provided in the MP/M patches directory.
As for the 4 CP/M + CP/NET disk images, these include changes in the SNIOS.ASM file,
essentially changing the network requestor ID to a unique value.
Without that, all simulations would run with the default ID of 11h, which would break functions like CP/NET mail, which rely on having unique requestor IDs.
References are provided in the CP/NET patches directory.