Bigger problem with VMS

From: Roger Ivie <IVIE_at_cc.usu.edu>
Date: Mon Jul 14 10:33:29 1997

> As I have no username/password, I can't shut it down right!
> How do I shut down VMS without losing the harddisk?
> Can I just power it off?

OK, a few things about VMS.

To break into VMS, boot it /1 like this:

>>> b/1

It will give you a SYSBOOT> prompt, at which time you tell it to use
the console for the startup command file:

        SYSBOOT> set/start=opa0:
        SYSBOOT> continue

Then it'll boot farther and give you a $ prompt. What I usually do here
is this:

        $ spawn
        <<< spawning SYSTEM_1 message >>
        $ _at_sys$system:startup

This executes the startup file. When the startup file exits, you get the
$ prompt back. At that point, you can:

        $ spawn
        $ set def sys$system:
        $ mc authorize
        UAF> set system/password=whatever
        UAF> ^Z
        $

At this point, you can either shut the system down:

        $ _at_sys$system:shutdown
        [[[ you can punch return to all the questions ]]]

and power cycle the system or just hit the power switch. Unlike Unix,
VMS doesn't eat the disk if the power goes out unexpectedly; normally, you'll
want to shut it down with the shutdown command, though (what happens if any
files are open is that blocks allocated to those files are marked as
allocated in the bitmap but not recorded as belonging to those files in
the directory; if you just turn the power off, you'll essentially lose
space on the mounted disks that have open files).

The next time you boot, the system will remember that it wants to use the
console as the startup command file, so you'll have to do the "conversational
boot" again and set it back:

>>> b/1
        SYSBOOT> set/start=sys$system:startup.com
        SYSBOOT> continue

Roger Ivie
ivie_at_cc.usu.edu
Received on Mon Jul 14 1997 - 10:33:29 BST

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