INFO-VAX Wed, 13 Aug 2008 Volume 2008 : Issue 441 Contents: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology invalidating I-cache on I-tanium Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10 What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? Re: What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? Re: What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:22:14 -0700 (PDT) From: sampsal@gmail.com Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: <9781c047-761a-4923-9aab-8c1a32ff7c67@x35g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> > I would have thought a CLI overflow to have been tried by at least a few > at DEFCON9 because the system automagically created service-rich user > accounts with of course DCL which the hackers were then free to abuse. > > We were not scrutinizing buffers however and any such overflow may in > our case have done nothing harmful (by luck or design). I think it was > version 7.1-? if it makes a difference. Did the gentleman specify any > versions? Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes. To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump follows. Sampsa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:12:36 -0400 From: bradhamilton Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: <48A2C1A4.50607@comcast.net> sampsal@gmail.com wrote: >> I would have thought a CLI overflow to have been tried by at least a few >> at DEFCON9 because the system automagically created service-rich user >> accounts with of course DCL which the hackers were then free to abuse. >> >> We were not scrutinizing buffers however and any such overflow may in >> our case have done nothing harmful (by luck or design). I think it was >> version 7.1-? if it makes a difference. Did the gentleman specify any >> versions? > > Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes. > To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters > of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump > follows. Sorry - I can't reproduce this the way it is described here on my V8.3 Alpha. After entering the characters, and pressing the up arrow three times, I am returned to the "$", without a dump. I have reproduced this technique on two different Alphas, both running V8.3, and have not reproduced the reported behavior. It will be interesting to see the slides. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:30:15 GMT From: VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: <00A7E09E.E4C98557@SendSpamHere.ORG> In article <9781c047-761a-4923-9aab-8c1a32ff7c67@x35g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, sampsal@gmail.com writes: >> I would have thought a CLI overflow to have been tried by at least a few >> at DEFCON9 because the system automagically created service-rich user >> accounts with of course DCL which the hackers were then free to abuse. >> >> We were not scrutinizing buffers however and any such overflow may in >> our case have done nothing harmful (by luck or design). I think it was >> version 7.1-? if it makes a difference. Did the gentleman specify any >> versions? > >Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes. >To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters >of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump >follows. I know you didn't make the claim but you should first test it out before brandishing bullshit here. I've tried to reproduce the claimed results from your posted instruction and it does NOT produce a "core dump". -- VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM ... pejorative statements of opinion are entitled to constitutional protection no matter how extreme, vituperous, or vigorously expressed they may be. (NJSC) Copr. 2008 Brian Schenkenberger. Publication of _this_ usenet article outside of usenet _must_ include its contents in its entirety including this copyright notice, disclaimer and quotations. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:56:05 -0700 (PDT) From: sampsal@gmail.com Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: <347244e5-2cd1-4b7d-8fc3-6d36675ee149@w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com> > >Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes. > >To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters > >of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump > >follows. > > I know you didn't make the claim but you should first test it out before > brandishing bullshit here. > > I've tried to reproduce the claimed results from your posted instruction > and it does NOT produce a "core dump". Hey don't shoot the messenger, people were interested in what was in the presentation, I just relayed that information WITH THE CAVEAT THAT I DIDN'T TEST IT. They had screenshots of the flaw and source code for an exploit, based on that I assumed it's genuine even if we haven't been able to reproduce it. I'm not trying to scaremonger or stir up shit, in fact I stated in my original post that neither of these exploits seemed particularly earth shattering. Sampsa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:38:13 -0400 From: "William Webb" Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: <8660a3a10808130538r347cf7fdn77e2a8502e6c5360@mail.gmail.com> ------=_Part_112856_30991732.1218631094057 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:56 AM, wrote: > > >Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes. > > >To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters > > >of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump > > >follows. > > > > I know you didn't make the claim but you should first test it out before > > brandishing bullshit here. > > > > I've tried to reproduce the claimed results from your posted instruction > > and it does NOT produce a "core dump". > > Hey don't shoot the messenger, people were interested in what was in > the presentation, I just relayed that information WITH THE CAVEAT THAT > I DIDN'T TEST IT. They had screenshots of the flaw and source code for > an exploit, based on that I assumed it's genuine even if we haven't > been able to reproduce it. > > I'm not trying to scaremonger or stir up shit, in fact I stated in my > original post that neither of these exploits seemed particularly earth > shattering. > > Sampsa > > > There are people in Engineering with whom I can check... WWWebb ------=_Part_112856_30991732.1218631094057 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline


On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:56 AM, <sampsal@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Default 8.3 install on an Alpha according to the presentation notes.
> >To reproduce this, apparently one is to enter exactly 511 characters
> >of input, then press the up arrow three times and wait - a core dump
> >follows.
>
> I know you didn't make the claim but you should first test it out before
> brandishing bullshit here.
>
> I've tried to reproduce the claimed results from your posted instruction
> and it does NOT produce a "core dump".

Hey don't shoot the messenger, people were interested in what was in
the presentation, I just relayed that information WITH THE CAVEAT THAT
I DIDN'T TEST IT. They had screenshots of the flaw and source code for
an exploit, based on that I assumed it's genuine even if we haven't
been able to reproduce it.

I'm not trying to scaremonger or stir up shit, in fact I stated in my
original post that neither of these exploits seemed particularly earth
shattering.

Sampsa


 
There are people in Engineering with whom I can check...
 
WWWebb
------=_Part_112856_30991732.1218631094057-- ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 2008 11:12:38 GMT From: burley@Encompasserve.org (Graham Burley) Subject: Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology Message-ID: <48a2c1a5$0$90262$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> In article , "Richard Maher" writes: > Just goes to show what can be achieved when all the > http/webserver/interpreter/process-management crud is removed. I couldn't resist enduring some crud-wading to demonstrate an alternate approach (AJAX polling), the example can be seen at: http://deathrow.vistech.net/~spider/ajaxpoll.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:59:59 GMT From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= Subject: Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology Message-ID: Graham Burley wrote: > In article , "Richard Maher" writes: > >> Just goes to show what can be achieved when all the >> http/webserver/interpreter/process-management crud is removed. > > I couldn't resist enduring some crud-wading to demonstrate an > alternate approach (AJAX polling), the example can be seen at: > > http://deathrow.vistech.net/~spider/ajaxpoll.html > Nice... I get aprox 500 ms refresh time. This is in Sweden behind a 2 Mb DSL line using a Zyxel DSL modem/router/firewall. Would it be possible to in short summarize the CONF file setting in WAST to run this server script ? How the "script reuse" is setup ? Jan-Erik. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 2008 13:15:55 GMT From: burley@Encompasserve.org (Graham Burley) Subject: Re: Example: VMS to Web Browser "push" technology Message-ID: <48a2de8b$0$90270$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> In article , =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= writes: >Would it be possible to in short summarize >the CONF file setting in WAST to run this server >script ? How the "script reuse" is setup ? The set-up on Deathrow is a bit odd since we allow user scripting (where the script executes under the users username) so that users can experiment at their own risk. That said there's nothing special about this script (i.e. you'd configure the same as any other), and iirc DCL script process re-use is the default WASD setting. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:59:23 GMT From: VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG Subject: invalidating I-cache on I-tanium Message-ID: <00A7E0BC.1BE926E8@SendSpamHere.ORG> I've been writing some self-modifying Itanium assembly. Fun stuff if you'd like to develope a deep routed psychosis. :) Anyway, while my code does work, it should, to be proper, invalidate the I-cache. I looked at the macro INSTRUCTION_MB and it contains: .MACRO INSTRUCTION_MB address,length,?L1 .if ndf ALPHA .if ndf IA64 .ERROR 0 ; No architecture defined .endc .endc ===> .if df ia64 ===> .warn ; Not yet flushing the Icache ===> .endc .IF NDF SMP$V_ENABLED $SPLCODDEF .ENDC .WEAK SMP$GL_FLAGS .WEAK SMP$INTALL_ACQ .WEAK SMP$INTALL_BIT_ACQ MOVAB SMP$GL_FLAGS,R0 BEQL L1 BBC #SMP$V_START_CPU, - G^SMP$GL_FLAGS,L1 ASSUME SMP$V_ENABLED EQ 0 BLBC G^SMP$GL_FLAGS,L1 IPINT_ALL INV_ISTREAM L1: .if df alpha EVAX_IMB .endc The .warn directive has me concerned. If "Not yet flushing the Icache", why does the macro do an interprocessor interrupt? I'm hoping somebody in VMS engineering is readign this and would answer. -- VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM ... pejorative statements of opinion are entitled to constitutional protection no matter how extreme, vituperous, or vigorously expressed they may be. (NJSC) Copr. 2008 Brian Schenkenberger. Publication of _this_ usenet article outside of usenet _must_ include its contents in its entirety including this copyright notice, disclaimer and quotations. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 2008 11:49:26 -0500 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain Message-ID: In article <0uKdnT1Qz677UzzVnZ2dnUVZ_iydnZ2d@comcast.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes: >> >> IMHO, if Ken Olson had the vision to release prior versions of VMS as >> open source, we would see VMS everywhere that we now see Unix and >> Linux. > > Wouldn't the reliability, usability, etc. be about the same as > Unix/Linux, or worse? IOW, thank God that Ken Olson did NOT release the > source "as open source". The original prorietary version might not be, if kept separate, but an open source version would likely fall into the "it works" trap. Code that does what the author wants it to do is also often the code that can do things the author doesn't want it to do. Like old sendmail bugs, the mail did go through just fine. But it's a lot easier to prove that software will do what is wanted when used as intended than it is to prove it won't do something when abused. Not many software organsations are even intrereted in the upward compatability, reliability, and security, that VMS Engineering has historically produced. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 2008 06:25:34 -0500 From: clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Message-ID: In article <97773d08-1c63-4ab1-aee8-607189f82b78@f36g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, johnwallace4@yahoo.co.uk writes: > > A sensible global hobbyist program could still > make VMS truly affordable (currently that doesn't apply in, for > example, the UK, where membership of HPUG to get the hobbyist licence > is =A350+ ($100+?) per year... may not seem much, but times are hard). > Are free associate memberships in the US DECUS still available, and if so, can they still be used to register for a VMS Hobbyist license ? That's how I got my hobbyist licenses even though I'm in the UK, but since I don't do any VMS hobbyist work these days, I'm a bit out of touch with what the current situation is. > Open sourcing chunks of Tru64 might have been an interesting option... > this week at work so far I have mostly been building a pre-emptible > Linux kernel with a 1ms tick, 'cos unlike later Tru64s, many/most > Linuxes still don't ship as such by default (and I have been finding > that the "real time Linux" vendors like MontaVista and SuSe make it > very difficult to get at their GPL-based sources without signing up > for an expensive subscription, hmm does *that* comply with the GPL?). Yes, that does comply with the GPL. While the standard use of the GPL is to make source code freely available to everyone, the GPL can quite legally be used to by a company only wishing to make it's source available to those who purchase binaries from that company. What that company apparently cannot do is to further restrict distribution of that source code by the customer to a third party; however I'm not a lawyer, and you really should run the company's policies by a lawyer to make sure that you aren't been restricted in other ways before making that source code available to a third party. Simon. -- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:40:16 -0700 (PDT) From: etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: <48e64275-63d5-48c1-9519-822b5b193cec@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com> On 12 Aug, 20:06, johnwalla...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: > What would we call it though? Open OpenVMS? Can't call it > FreeVMS, that's taken. > Opener VMS ??? :o) > A sensible global hobbyist program could still > make VMS truly affordable (currently that doesn't apply in, for > example, the UK, where membership of HPUG to get the hobbyist licence > is =A350+ ($100+?) per year... may not seem much, but times are hard). > - Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Unfortunately, HP don't run the User Group in the UK. It has to stand on its own two feet. So, free membership for the masses isn't a realistic option. If those that say, "it's too much, we can't afford it," were to commit to membership in sufficient numbers I'm sure that the organisation could reduce the membership costs. However, those that say it's too much tend to just run away in my observations rather than suggest ways of reducing the price tag. i.e. more members could result in a lower price. If you don't join, how can the price be lowered? The User Group still needs to raise funds in order to run. Just my $0.02, not speaking for anyone else. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:22:18 -0700 (PDT) From: maxoutrage@gmail.com Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: On Aug 12, 11:19 pm, johnwalla...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: > On Aug 12, 9:32 pm, maxoutr...@gmail.com wrote: > > > > > On Aug 12, 2:13 pm, AEF wrote: > > > > On Aug 12, 4:20 am, maxoutr...@gmail.com wrote: > > > > > This might not be too well known or in the media but over 50% of > > > > mobile text messages sent in the world are on OpenVMS systems. > > > > > --Peter. > > > > On Aug 11, 12:04 am, urbancamo wrote: > > > > > > Spotted an LK201 and an LK401 at the console of the controller at the > > > > > National Grid Control Centre in the programme 'Britain From Above' > > > > > broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 10/08/08. > > > > > > The National Grid Control Centre is responsible for providing the UK's > > > > > electricity supply. The programme focussed on the unique problem in > > > > > the UK of supplying the peak demands of power required after > > > > > mainstream TV programmes such as East Enders. The controller had > > > > > direct influence at an instant over several hydroelectric power plants > > > > > dotted round the UK that are solely used for providing temporary extra > > > > > power to satisfy peak demand. The controller monitored a display > > > > > showing the mains frequency which required action when it dropped to > > > > > 49.8 Hz - the normal in the UK being 50 Hz. > > > > > > I found it absolutely fascinating that hydroelectric dams are opened > > > > > temporarily because East Enders has finished and a large portion of > > > > > the UK public are making a brew! > > > > > > OpenVMS was not mentioned in the programme but it can be assumed that > > > > > it is used in some major capacity at the control centre. > > > > > > Can anyone provide more details? > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > Mark. > > > > Hi, > > > > I'm not challenging your claim, but it would be great if you could > > > provide a reference for this. > > > > Thanks! > > > > AEF > > > I work for Acision so I know first hand how many customers we have. > > > The original company was called CMG and created the first SMSC and > > sent the first text message back > > in the early 90's using VAX and VMS. > > > CMG merged with Logica who were our main competition and became > > LogicaCMG. Logica had a competing product that was based on Unix. > > After the merger it was decided to proceed with the CMG / OpenVMS > > based product as the performance and stability were better but the > > Logica product was still maintained and sold to customers who still > > wanted it. LogicaCMG then spun off the telecoms division to become > > Acision last year. > > > If you look on the Acision product page, the SMSC IP product is based > > on OpenVMS. It says IP now because it is possible to communicate with > > telecoms equipment IE STP, MSC and HLR's using IP as well as > > traditional means. > > > In the US AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are the biggest carriers using our > > SMSC. The largest systems are 14 node OpenVMS clusters that can > > sustain 14K messages per second delivered to a handset. Now at > > 10-15cents/message you work out how much they make!! > > > --Peter. > > Thanks for the clarification, I think I got my early Logica/CMG > history wrong way wround (byteswapped?) :( Sorry. > > Are you also able to clarify the comment re the spinoff of Acision, > along the lines of "this is now a commodity market" or words to that > effect ? E.g. Is a Windows-based or Linux-based SMSC now a viable > market sector, especially for the smaller Cellcos? (What you or I > think makes sense matters little, it's what folks are buying that > matters) It was really different parts/conflicting parts of the business. CMG and Logica both has large consultancy divisions and the telecoms was really just a small part. It was deemed better to spin off the telecoms part as its own company. This was also helped by the fact that a group of venture capitalist approached LogicaCMG and offered to buy just the telecoms part and so Acision was born. Telecommunication companies really demand what is called "carrier grade solutions". This means 5 9's uptime and redundancy. Multiple, large OpenVMS clusters provide this and the software takes advantage of the cluster principle for software redundancy. We do use RedHat Enterprise with a lot of success with other products and has proved to be reliable but I find there is a lot more maintenance required. As I saw in another poster sig here "VMS just works". Having said that I have nothing against Linux and use it daily on my laptop instead of Windows for regular work. --Peter. --Peter. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:24:45 -0700 (PDT) From: maxoutrage@gmail.com Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: On Aug 13, 1:01 am, "Tom Linden" wrote: > On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:32:48 -0700, wrote: > > I work for Acision so I know first hand how many customers we have. > > The original company was called CMG and created the first SMSC and > > sent the first text message back > > in the early 90's using VAX and VMS. > > CMG merged with Logica who were our main competition and became > > LogicaCMG. Logica had a competing product that was based on Unix. > > After the merger it was decided to proceed with the CMG / OpenVMS > > based product as the performance and stability were better but the > > Logica product was still maintained and sold to customers who still > > wanted it. LogicaCMG then spun off the telecoms division to become > > Acision last year. > > If you look on the Acision product page, the SMSC IP product is based > > on OpenVMS. It says IP now because it is possible to communicate with > > telecoms equipment IE STP, MSC and HLR's using IP as well as > > traditional means. > > In the US AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are the biggest carriers using our > > SMSC. The largest systems are 14 node OpenVMS clusters that can > > sustain 14K messages per second delivered to a handset. Now at > > 10-15cents/message you work out how much they make!! > > --Peter. > > What was the implementation language? Bliss? > > -- > PL/I for OpenVMSwww.kednos.com The implementation language is 'C'. --Peter. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:25:23 GMT From: "Tim Wilkinson" Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10 Message-ID: As others have said, UK power generation was very VAX/VMS orientated. I worked (and still do) for a company building power stations and even post the breakup of the CEGB the VAX/VMS ethos still existed. For one power plant our contract required us to deliver an "As Built" database to the customer, to run under VMS &RDB. When we met the requirement and delivered our product together with a small microvax to run it on. The operators IT people then rewrote the requirement to include a large cluster, 100 times the disc storage than the app needed, etc. about £500,000 of kit & licences. Cheeky sods were after us upgrading their datacentre on the back on a 5 line requirement in a power station requirement document. With Y2K, we didn't do anything with in house apps. As they had been coded to use VMS quad word date structures from day one. Pity about all the later apps that used Oracle etc. We had contracts that required us to maintain our records for 20+ years. I wonder with what confidence my colleagues of today will sign off this sort of requirement with multi million dollar penalties. "Ashley Shepherd" wrote in message news:l3e3a4pj072g9418bshflp8q7vk2nnil0e@4ax.com... > Where to start? > > I worked for a regional electricity company in the 90's. Everything > technical was based on VMS, all the inter-company and national grid > billing, all of the planning and strategy of supply & demand, and of > course the control of the ENTIRE grid network was managed by....... > PDP11's. And old ones at that. The year 2K planning was interesting, > when I said "are these Y2K compliant" there was just silence. When I > pushed it was a case of "well, the programs were written 20-30 years > ago, nothing was documented and we suspect all the programmers have > died of old age, certainly we know of none of them. All we know is > that it all works, even though we don't know how. If your can boil > your kettle on New Years Day, you'll know everything was Y2K > compliant!" It was a classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix > it" > > As for today, I suspect VMS is still embedded in the electricity > companies, for the very same reason it was chosen. In 5 years (except > for when an over zealous system admin typed DEL *.* whilst in > SYS$SYSTEM and ensured that 2,000 users had an extra half-day > holiday), we never had a single day of unplanned downtime of any > application. > > Regarding the SMS systems, I also worked for a mobile company, and VMS > is indeed embedded in those organisations too. As with most > companies, there is an edict that VMS is "non strategic" and that it > needs to be replaced, but when you get down to it, nothing else can > touch the reliability and scalability of VMS > > IMHO, if Ken Olson had the vision to release prior versions of VMS as > open source, we would see VMS everywhere that we now see Unix and > Linux. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:15:55 -0500 From: "***** charles" Subject: What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? Message-ID: Hi, this seems to be the right group. I came across a DEC Server 3000 FR-K7F4W-AB with a 500MHz alpha chip and one stick of 128M of ram and I don't know how big the hard drive is yet. I have fired it up, white letters on a blue background and the final prompt is >>>. I know a bit about a lot of architectures but this is my first alpha so I am stumped. The guy that I got it from said it would run VMS but I don't know how to get it that far if that is true. Any other ideas? I understand that this machine will go to 1G of ram (2 sitcks of 512M each). Anyone know where I could get some of this cheap? thanks, charles..... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:32:19 -0500 (CDT) From: sms@antinode.info (Steven M. Schweda) Subject: Re: What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? Message-ID: <08081308321926_20200492@antinode.info> From: "***** charles" > Hi, this seems to be the right group. I came across a DEC Server 3000 What does it _actually_ say on the front? Sounds like one of the "white-box" systems intended for Windows NT (only). > FR-K7F4W-AB with a 500MHz alpha chip and one stick of 128M of ram and I > don't know how big the hard drive is yet. I have fired it up, white letters > on a blue background and the final prompt is >>>. I know a bit about a lot > of architectures but this is my first alpha so I am stumped. The guy that I > got it from said it would run VMS but I don't know how to get it that far if > that is true. Any other ideas? http://h71000.www7.hp.com/index.html http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/ http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/archive/ [...] >>>help >>>boot http://hoffmanlabs.org/vmsfaq/ > I understand that this machine will go to > 1G of ram (2 sitcks of 512M each). Anyone know where I could get some of > this cheap? Ebay? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steven M. Schweda sms@antinode-info 382 South Warwick Street (+1) 651-699-9818 Saint Paul MN 55105-2547 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:14:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike R Subject: Re: What to do now with a DEC Server 3000? Message-ID: On Aug 13, 4:15=A0pm, "***** charles" wrote: > Hi, this seems to be the right group. =A0I came across a DEC Server 3000 > FR-K7F4W-AB with a 500MHz alpha chip and one stick of 128M of ram and I > don't know how big the hard drive is yet. =A0I have fired it up, white le= tters > on a blue background and the final prompt is >>>. =A0I know a bit about a= lot > of architectures but this is my first alpha so I am stumped. =A0The guy t= hat I > got it from said it would run VMS but I don't know how to get it that far= if > that is true. =A0Any other ideas? =A0I understand that this machine will = go to > 1G of ram (2 sitcks of 512M each). =A0Anyone know where I could get some = of > this cheap? > > thanks, > charles..... Have a look at http://montagar.com/~patj/vbegin.htm Mike http://alpha.mike-r.com ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2008.441 ************************