A restored PDP-11/83 serving this page on 211BSD Unix

A restored PDP-11/83 serving this page on 211BSD Unix pdp1173.com

The box is a restored Q-bus PDP-11/83 named minerva: Mentec M11 CPU, two chassis tied with M9404/M9405, RQDX3, 2xEmulex UC07, KDA50, RLV12, DEQNA, M3104. Storage is RA82 + dual RA92, MFM boot/swap, dual…

100 points•davepl•9 days ago•45 comments•

#x2f #unix #restored #pdp #mentec #211bsd #webtop #serving

The live panel is top. /cgi-bin/webtop is the raw snapshot.

A 16-bit httpd will not survive the front page, so Varnish/Caddy/Cloudflare cache the HTML and a 5-second webtop sample. Origin is still the 11 itself, and it handles all of the webtop and visitor count requests.

Telnet exists (pdp1173.com, guest) but it is a 40-year-old UNIX with no modern security story. Please do not treat it as a challenge box; I can restore from tape, but that ruins it for everyone else.

Happy to answer Mentec, MSCP, Q-bus, or 2.11BSD questions.

To get BSD running on the Mentec, I had to customize the BSD kernel to use FPSIM, as the Mentec supports IEEE floating-point and NOT the DEC formats.

45 comments

kjs39 days ago

Please do not treat it as a challenge box; I can restore from tape, but that ruins it for everyone else.

Unfortunately, for a disturbing percentage of the Internet, ruining things for everyone else is the goal. I'd turn off telnet.

pmlnr9 days ago

I will never understand why, but the story of Reddit Place ( https://web.archive.org/web/20170409173246/http://sudoscript... ) certainly supports this :(

dwedge9 days ago

A PDP-11 serving adverts for an AI-written site in 2026 was not on my bingo card. Imagine being brought back from the dead for that.

nancyminusone9 days ago

Unfortunately, this is just Dave "I wrote Task Manager" Plummer's handwriting.

ok1234569 days ago

Dave "fake antivirus software scammer" Plummer

https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/attorney-general-s...

jasomill9 days ago

I miss my 11/83, which was connected to my network through a SLIP connection to a Power Mac running Yellow Dog Linux and connecting to the Internet via dialup.

It was the late '90s, and it shared my small apartment with a DEC AlphaServer running VMS, an HP 3000 running MPE, an IBM System/36, an IBM AS/400, a Wang OIS, a SparcStation 1, and a NextStation.

I miss them all.

I do still have an external SCSI TK50 in an MicroVAX 2000-style lunchbox enclosure (complete with carrying handle) in good working order, though, and have toyed with the idea of installing a Raspberry Pi in the enclosure alongside the tape drive to emulate a VAX.

frumplestlatz9 days ago

Thanks for keeping the spirit of the old internet alive :)

I hope you won’t have to restore it from tape!

mikerg879 days ago

I posted this to twostopbits. Community over there is small but devoted to such willful acts of restoration

https://twostopbits.com/item?id=9970

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

45 comments

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