Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 10:27:09 -0400
From: Tim Shoppa <SHOPPA@trailing-edge.com>
To: PUPS@MINNIE.CS.ADFA.OZ.AU
Message-Id: <000619102709.262000b0@trailing-edge.com>
Subject: Re: [Newbie alert!] Disk usage of various Unices
Sender: owner-pups@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au
Precedence: bulk

>I recently obtained a beast which appears to be a PDP 11/53+, and I want
>to run some Unix on it (Wahey!). I've got a small problem though: It
>only has one(!) RD32A disk (42MB). I know that this probably won't be 
>enough to hold a complete distribution, but which release can I install
>bare-bones on that disk?

You can put the root partition of 2.11BSD on there quite nicely, it'll
live in 8 Mbytes.  Trimming down /usr to 42 Mbytes will depend on what
exactly you need from it, though.  Certainly you can set up a system
with compilers, etc., even though you won't be able to have all the
sources online at the same time.

>I might be able to slip in another MFM disk (but I don't have something
>bigger than 21 MB at hand), provided I can low-level format it.

You want to read Terry Kennedy's document on adding third-party disks
to DEC RQDX3 controllers.  You can find it at

  ftp://ftp.spc.edu/third-party-disks.txt

Information about formatting, jumper settings, etc., is all there.

Tim.