INFO-VAX Sun, 04 Mar 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 125 Contents: Re: Blue Screen of Death on VMS Re: DECforms How to use Pseudo Terminal Driver Re: Kermit Large File Support Re: Kermit Large File Support Re: Oracle moves to per-chip licencing Re: Oracle moves to per-chip licencing Re: SCSI disk firmware update question Re: SCSI disk firmware update question Re: SYS$INPUT problem (I guess) running Java 1.42 servlet Re: VMS and storage subsystems documentation ? Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 06:12:14 +0100 From: Paul Sture Subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death on VMS Message-ID: In article , "FredK" wrote: > "JF Mezei" wrote in message > news:5601f$45e45fab$cef8887a$9893@TEKSAVVY.COM... > > > > Whoever chose the default colour "blue" for the background of the console > > on a ATI Radeon 7500 should be punished by being offered a job at > > Microsoft. > > Thank you. I chose it because it is the universal symbol for "this system > isn't running right now, thanks for your support". I can assure you that a row of Alphastations which have just been powered off by a janitor do convey that message accurately. He didn't do it again :-) -- Paul Sture ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 05:53:18 +0100 From: Paul Sture Subject: Re: DECforms Message-ID: In article <8KGdnTyZLfcqrnnYnZ2dnUVZ_rCsnZ2d@comcast.com>, pechter@pechter.dyndns.org (William Pechter) wrote: > In article <1172538959.462805.240960@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, > wrote: > >Since SuSE 10.2 Linux on 64-bit AMD machines is the best I've found, > >that is what I will focus on. I've even made the jump to StarOffice/ > >OpenOffice from WordPerfect since they informed me they had no > >intentions of ever releasing another Linux version of their product. > > Too bad. I've got their earlier version and the WPOffice 2000 product. > > > (The later was a big mistake). It was so tied to their Wine and certain > versions of libraries... Once you went past RH6.2... ugh. With Corel > Linux it was kind of fun. I wondered what had happened to WP Office, as I had been running the Windows version (it had a nice solid reliable feel to it) and wanted to try out their Linux version when I moved to SuSE. Unfortunately the last version of SuSE I tried didn't live happily with the hardware I had and I ended up buying a Mac. -- Paul Sture ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2007 14:48:38 -0800 From: shofu_au@yahoo.com.au Subject: How to use Pseudo Terminal Driver Message-ID: <1172962118.449135.108580@n33g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> Hi Group, I am trying to use the pseudo terminal driver to fake user input to a program I wrote for testing and I just cannot get my head how the pseudo terminal driver works. In the end I wish to have a text file that my pseudo terminal driver reads from and sends to my program. At the moment I am only interested in sending commands to my program. Yes I know I can do this via DCL script files, however I am interested in the pseudo terminal driver since it is about the only I/O driver I have not successfully used. My understanding is I need to create a pseudo terminal via the ptd $create. Now comes the part I don't understand, how do I get this terminal to login into my VMS system? I am using a captive account so the login procedure for the account starts my program. At this stage I wish to start entering commands, which in my case are just number for menu selection. Any one got a simple example of how to do this using the pseudo terminal driver? I have seen the one in the VMS manual and this is a little to complicated to dissect. Thanks Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 21:27:02 -0500 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= Subject: Re: Kermit Large File Support Message-ID: <45ea2e77$0$90274$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Bob Koehler wrote: > Depends on which system service. $QIO[W] was 64 bit clean from > day 1 since all the parameters are passed via 64 bit registers. 1) There are not much point in passing a 64 bit address if 64 bit addresses is not supported. 2) AFAIK only the first 6 arguments are passed via registers. QIO has 12 arguments. And the most likely candidate for a 64 bit adress is indeed the 7th argument. Arne ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 21:34:13 -0600 (CST) From: sms@antinode.org (Steven M. Schweda) Subject: Re: Kermit Large File Support Message-ID: <07030321341363_2020028F@antinode.org> By the way, I've been corresponding with Mr. da Cruz regarding this stuff, and there's more than a little hope of seeing support for large files in Kermit for VMS on non-VAX systems (and support for the optional "Built-in FTP client", albeit not supporting any of the fancy VMS attribute preservation schemes) in the next pre-release Kermit kit. (You'll probably get command-line case preservation, too, with SET PROC /PARS = EXTE.) And, if I didn't break too much, probably in the next real release, as well. I don't know when anything will appear, but I suspect that there will be an announcment when it does. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steven M. Schweda sms@antinode-org 382 South Warwick Street (+1) 651-699-9818 Saint Paul MN 55105-2547 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:55:15 -0600 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: Oracle moves to per-chip licencing Message-ID: <45E9E0B3.C75D266C@spam.comcast.net> Malcolm Dunnett wrote: > > "Ian Miller" wrote in message > news:1172876407.298757.129560@8g2000cwh.googlegroups.com... > | Interesting but Does Oracle Standard Edition and Standad Edition One > | run on VMS? > | > > Standard Edition up to version 9.2 runs on VMS, but > Oracle is not going to release Standard Edition 10.x > on VMS. Apparently Oracle doesn't feel anyone wants > Standard Edition on VMS. I guess Oracle never heard of either Healthcare or high finance, both of which have been prime markets for Oracle. The industry is so deep into Itanic denial that it defies comprehension. -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 21:13:55 -0500 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= Subject: Re: Oracle moves to per-chip licencing Message-ID: <45ea2b62$0$90268$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> David J Dachtera wrote: > Malcolm Dunnett wrote: >> Standard Edition up to version 9.2 runs on VMS, but >> Oracle is not going to release Standard Edition 10.x >> on VMS. Apparently Oracle doesn't feel anyone wants >> Standard Edition on VMS. > > I guess Oracle never heard of either Healthcare or high finance, both of which > have been prime markets for Oracle. Would healthcare or financial sector use Standard Edition ? Or would theu use Enterprise Edition ? Arne ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:05:02 -0600 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: SCSI disk firmware update question Message-ID: <45E9E2FE.96960AC0@spam.comcast.net> bradhamilton wrote: > > Richard B. gilbert wrote: > > > Updating the firmware does not inherently wipe the disk. The risk is > > that something will go wrong with the update leaving you with an > > unusable disk. > > > > What problem are you trying to solve by updating the firmware? In a > > career spanning some twenty years with disks from the RA (SDI) series , > > to DSSI and SCSI disks, I don't believe I EVER needed to update the > > firmware. > > I have been attempting (without success) to create minimum-boot > environments on one or more non-system disks, (using > @sys$system:axp*min*) so that I may boot "minimally" without using the > CD (which is much slower). > > In my time as a system manager, I was able to do this in many different > Alpha VMS HW "environments" without issue. I am unable to do this on my > hobbyist system here at home; I successfully install the above-named > software, and I can start the minimal boot process, which inevitably > fails trying to read the pointer to the boot block. > > I suspect that this happens for one of two reasons: > > - The 73GB data disks have never had their firmware "updated" since I've > purchased them (they are all Seagates, purchased via e-bay, that I have > successfully "shoe-horned" into empty topgun-blue SBB carriers; they > reside happily in two BA-356X boxen, and have been holding and serving > data to the system without error for a couple of years now). > > - The 73GB disks are "too large" to host a minimum environment for booting. > > I was hoping to prove/disprove one of the two hypotheses by upgrading > firmware (if possible). Of course, there could be several more reasons > why booting minimally is not working, but these are the only two > possibilities that currently come to mind. All are welcome to jump in > and offer opinions, advice, etc. O.k., dumb question time: Why are you trying to do a minimum install? Just to save time? How often do you need to do this (boot minimum)? The description of your problem seems to indicate the need to run WRITEBOOT, not update any firmware. -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:54:44 -0500 From: bradhamilton Subject: Re: SCSI disk firmware update question Message-ID: <45E9EEA4.6080203@comcast.net> David J Dachtera wrote: > O.k., dumb question time: Why are you trying to do a minimum install? Just to > save time? How often do you need to do this (boot minimum)? Yes, to save time. Not only is the boot faster from disk, my CD-ROM is so old that the mechanism that moves the "holder" in and out of the PWS433au is not working - I need to use an unbent paper clip into the small hole to eject the CD's manually. The PWS is located in a part of the house I call "Little Siberia" - an unheated/uninsulated small room that also contains a workbench and tools, so being able to boot minimum without the CD is a time-saver and convenient. I have a small terminal server hooked to the console port, so that I can telnet into the console via the terminal server from the comfort of my living-room couch. I boot minimum when I patch the O/S (once/month - once/three months). This is a hobbyist system - I have no "customers" (except myself and my wife) to please. I boot minimum at the time that I install patches so that I can have a "clean" backup of the system disk before patching. Since I'm a hobbyist, I'm a little frugal, so replacing the CD-ROM is not (at this time) an option. > The description of your problem seems to indicate the need to run WRITEBOOT, not > update any firmware. I've never needed to run WRITEBOOT when installing a minimum system environment (up to VMS V7.2-3). I have V8.3 now, and I've not gotten a successful minimum environment. Is anyone else running V8.3, who have had (or not had) problems with a minimum system environment? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:00:17 -0600 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: SYS$INPUT problem (I guess) running Java 1.42 servlet Message-ID: <45E9E1E1.CA7EDAD3@spam.comcast.net> Stephen Eickhoff wrote: > > Warning: I'm not a Java programmer. > > I have Java 1.42 running a servlet that is designed with an interactive shell. > It will run only in the following environments: > > 1. Interactively (java -classpath ScorchServer.jar:Scorch.jar > ScorchServer.ScorchServer) > 2. In a DCL command file with $ DEFINE/USER SYS$INPUT SYS$COMMAND > before the above command. > > If I try to run it detached, spawned, or in a batch, the log will show that > the servlet's prompt is scrolling endlessly (and consuming near 100% CPU) as > if someone was holding down the ENTER key. I suppose it may be checking for > user input, finding an EOF, and rewriting the prompt over and over. Is there > a way I can keep it at bay without rewriting the code? > > I imagine this should not be an insurmountable problem, as I am currently > running this as a service in Windows 2000 without the same problem. In the modes mentioned, SYSCOMMAND does not point to anything useful. I'd add a test before DEFINE/USER SYS$INPUT SYS$COMMAND like so: $ IF F$GETJPI( 0, "MODE" ) .EQS. "INTERACTIVE" THEN - $ DEFINE/USER SYS$INPUT SYS$COMMAND ...or is the DCL the code you didn't want to change? -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 16:54:06 -0800 From: Ryan Moore Subject: Re: VMS and storage subsystems documentation ? Message-ID: On Sat, 3 Mar 2007, JF Mezei wrote: > Is there a VMS manual that describes how VMS interfaces with various storage > subsystems ? The best document I've seen is chapter 7 of the "Guidelines for OpenVMS Cluster Configurations". It's chapter 7 in the 8.3 docs anyway. > It is also unclear to me how the disk entities virtualised by storage arrays > appear on VMS. Are they SCSI devices with SCSI-ID and LUN as identification > for each device ? Or are they totally separate devices requiring their own > special driver ? It's not too different from a CI cluster. In a CI cluster, the VAX plugs into the starcoupler which plugs into the HSC which serves the disk. In FC, the Alpha/Itanium box plugs into a Fiber Channel switch which plugs into a HSG/HSV which serves storage. Same idea. Different technology. The HSV storage systems present total virtualized storage. You add physical disks to the storage cabinet to give it a pool of storage. Then you carve out virtual "disks" of any size you want. That's simplified, but the basic idea. When you create the virtual disk, you give it a VMS unit number. Let's say you give it unit number "102", it will show up on the VMS server as disk device $1$DGA102: Here's a sample (a shadowset, actually): Disk DSA10:, device type Generic SCSI disk, is online, mounted, file-oriented device, shareable, available to cluster, error logging is enabled, device supports bitmaps (no bitmaps active). Error count 0 Operations completed 231774878 Owner process "" Owner UIC [SYSTEM] Owner process ID 00000000 Dev Prot S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G:R,W Reference count 1 Default buffer size 512 Total blocks 314572800 Sectors per track 128 Total cylinders 19200 Tracks per cylinder 128 Logical Volume Size 314572800 Expansion Size Limit 2147450880 Volume label "POUR_RAID" Relative volume number 0 Cluster size 8 Transaction count 1 Free blocks 313829248 Maximum files allowed 16711679 Extend quantity 5 Mount count 4 Mount status System Cache name "_DSA1:XQPCACHE" Extent cache size 64 Maximum blocks in extent cache 31382924 File ID cache size 64 Blocks in extent cache 21733648 Quota cache size 0 Maximum buffers in FCP cache 5083 Volume owner UIC [SYSTEM] Vol Prot S:RWCD,O:RWCD,G:RWCD,W:RWCD Volume Status: ODS-2, subject to mount verification, write-back caching enabled. Volume is also mounted on BARNEY, FRED, MACK. Disk $1$DGA3305:, device type HSV110, is online, device has multiple I/O paths, member of shadow set DSA10:, error logging is enabled. Error count 0 Shadow member operation count 238844112 Current preferred CPU Id 3 Fastpath 1 WWID 01000010:6005-08B4-0010-491D-0000-6000-0087-0000 Allocation class 1 I/O paths to device 4 Path PGA0.5000-1FE1-5006-6C7D (ROCK), primary path. Error count 0 Operations completed 3275 Path PGA0.5000-1FE1-5006-6C78 (ROCK). Error count 0 Operations completed 3272 Path PGB0.5000-1FE1-5006-6C7C (ROCK). Error count 0 Operations completed 3273 Path PGB0.5000-1FE1-5006-6C79 (ROCK), current path. Error count 0 Operations completed 238834292 The best part is how it works with dynamic volume expansion. Since the DGA device is completely virtual, you can change the size of the device at the HSV on-the-fly. This virtual device is about 150GB. Not enough, space? I go to the HSV and say "make it 250GB". Assuming I have enough free storage pool, it will do that. Then on the VMS side, I say SET VOL/LIMIT and the size changes. This works assuming you did an INIT/LIMIT when you initialized the disk. -Ryan ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 10:31:31 -0800 From: "John Gemignani, Jr." Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners Message-ID: "vaxorcist" wrote in message news:1172833456.664174.120990@8g2000cwh.googlegroups.com... > Who else has got (and eventually runs) the worlds slowest VAX ever ??? > > I'm going to build one from parts and will probably need some help. > All OSes welcome! > > Regards > > Ulli > I've got uV-I, uV-II and uV-III in my collection. I don't have the software kits, though and I don't know what shape my RD drives are in. John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:16:13 +0000 (UTC) From: dfevans@bcr10.uwaterloo.ca (David Evans) Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners Message-ID: In article , Tad Winters wrote: > >At one point, I had 2 MicroVAX 2000 systems. Ugh! They took 25 minutes to >boot...and yes, that was from disk. I see your uV 2000s and raise you a Pro 350 running 2.9BSD. Now *that* was painful; you didn't make many mistakes, given how long it took to load vi. -- David Evans dfevans@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca Research Associate http://bbcr.uwaterloo.ca/~dfevans/ Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge ------------------------------ Date: 4 Mar 2007 01:14:03 GMT From: bill@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroVAX I / VAXstation I owners Message-ID: <54ukqrF22tfolU1@mid.individual.net> In article <1172942091.825878.220890@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, sean@obanion.us writes: > On Mar 2, 3:04 am, "vaxorcist" wrote: >> Who else has got (and eventually runs) the worlds slowest VAX ever ??? >> >> I'm going to build one from parts and will probably need some help. >> All OSes welcome! >> >> Regards >> >> Ulli > > Wan't the VAX-11/730 slower? I think it was about .3 VUP... > > When I installed bsd 4.1 (circa 1985, it was new!), the installation > notes said the the 730 was not fast enough to be usefull. A MicroVAX II running NetBSD is not fast enough to be useful but that doesn't seem to stop people from trying. :-) bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.125 ************************