How to use MP/M II?

In the last post, we saw how to experience CP/M-68k using Musashi Simulator. In this tutorial we are going to use MP/M II. MP/M was a multi-user version of CP/M. You can download the emulator package from here:

• MP/M II for Linux
• MP/M II for Windows

Installing MP/M II

It is very easy to start using MP/M II. On Linux, extract the above archive and right click on the mpm.sh file and choose "Run as a Program" or run the shell file the way you run any other shell file. On Windows, extract the above archive and double click the Runme.bat file. The Virtual Machine will start (It may ask for admin password. Enter it to continue. It may be needed to start the telnet session).

Now, you need to connect to MP/M using a telnet client. On different Linux distributions, telnet client is already installed mostly. You need to enter the following command in a new terminal instance to connect to MP/M:

telnet localhost

On Windows, you may need to enable the telnet client first. See this article on Microsoft TechNet to do so. After you have installed telnet client, you can can the above command to connect to MP/M.

After you have connected to MP/M, it will open a single user session that is CP/M 2.2. You can use the DIR command to see a list of files:

To change to a multi-user session, enter the following command:

mpm

To switch back to the single user session, enter the following command:

cpm

You can now close that window. Read the manuals linked below to learn how to use MP/M. Also, read the manuals linked in our CP/M 2.2 tutorial to learn more as MP/M was based on it.

You can connect up to four telnet clients to that one server. You can also connect to it from other computers on the same network if you enter the local IP address of the host computer instead of localhost. That's it. We used MP/M, a multi-user Operating System from 1980s.

Manuals

• MP/M II User's Guide
• MP/M II System Guide
• MP/M II Programmer's Guide

Related Pages

• Wikipedia
• The Unofficial CP/M Web site
• Gaby's Homepage for CP/M and Computer History
• Commercial CP/M Software (Retro Archive)
• A lots of other links

Credits

The emulator which is linked above was created by Peter Schorn. You can visit his website to download the original emulator and lots of other software.