Egregious VMS newbie questions

From: Witchy <witchy_at_binarydinosaurs.co.uk>
Date: Sun Jan 11 14:21:21 2004

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of John Lawson
> Sent: 11 January 2004 18:14
> To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Egregious VMS newbie questions
>
> Can this be done:
>
> VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the Net.

Yup. Others have already answered how. My 3100-90 (VMS 7.3) is on the web
most of the time, ie when it's powered up :) I'm using an AUI MAU which
converts UTP to AUI and plugs straight into said port on the back of the
machine. The other end of the cable goes straight into my DSL router.

> More specifically to download/install freeBSD perhaps...

NetBSD. I had some tremendous fun installing that! One of these days I'll
get round to installing PHP/Apache for a smart almost-retro webserver for
Binary Dinosaurs :)

> What is the system called that VMS uses to chain all the DCL commands to
> auto-execute at startup? I wanna edit a lot of them out - especially
> right now it's looking for a cluster it can't find, and periodically
> (every 15 mins) complains of "too few servers".

Oh dear, it's running DECnet/OSI. The main startup file is
sys$system:startup.com, but you don't want to go there. All the configurable
stuff as far as an end-user is concerned is in
sys$manager:systartup_vms.com, but remember not to delete lines in there -
comment them out with a $! instead so if Things Break you can reinstate the
line easily. Yes VMS has file versions but a lot of people keep the version
limit to 2, even in the system directories where it's a Bad Idea.

Somewhere in systartup there'll be a line that says $START/NETWORK.
Commenting that out will stop DECnet coming up and complaining very vocally
about stuff it'll never find.
If it was my system I'd do PRODUCT REMOVE DECNET just to get rid of the
bloody thing, then if I really needed it running I'd install DECnet Phase IV
which just sits there and works. The main networking stuff is done with
TCP/IP Services for VMS. Hopefully the hobbyist license covers that.

It's worth keeping a copy of the license database file -
sys$system:lmf$license.ldb - once you've got that you can blow away the
system and start again if there's too much crap on there you don't
want/need. Sometimes this is easier than manually deleting things,
particularly if you're low on disk space. Also, from the $ prompt type
PRODUCT SHOW PRODUCT to see what else is installed, though it may not show
all 3rd party apps.

Also, if it's looking for a cluster then shut it down to get to the
dead-sergeant prompt (>>>) and type SET VAXCLUSTER 0 to turn off the
clustering software. Once you reboot you'll probably have to edit
sys$system:modparams.dat to see if there's a line in there that says SET
VAXCLUSTER 2 - comment it out if there is, then do this:

$MC SYSGEN
SYSGEN> use current
SYSGEN> set vaxcluster 0
SYSGEN> write current
SYSGEN> write active
SYSGEN> exit

This will remove the line from the main parameter file,
sys$system:params.dat. You're supposed to use AUTOGEN to do this but the way
I've just described is much faster :)

> Thirdly/finally: Anyone got a VMS Grey Wall they'd like to unload cheap?
> I'll pay for the books, packing and shipping to zip 89706 (Carson City,
> NV).

Others have already pointed at the online docs, but the grey wall ceased to
exist after VMS 5.5 didn't it? We certainly stopped getting updates for it
after 5.5-2.
I've got severalteen docs CDs here but I'm in the UK.

cheers

--
Adrian/Witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(
Received on Sun Jan 11 2004 - 14:21:21 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:36:45 BST