=;The OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)D

The OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)



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14.11 Where can I find more info about VAX systems?

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14.12 Where can I find information on NetBSD for VAX systems?



.Gunnar Helliesen maintains a NetBSD VAX FAQ at

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14.13 What system disk size limit on the MicroVAX and VAXstation 3100?



CSystem disks larger than 1.073 gigabytes (GB)---1fffff hexidecimal Hblocks -- are not supported on any member of the VAXstation 3100 series Fand on certain older members of the MicroVAX 3100 series, and are not Hreliable on these affected systems. (See below to identify the affected Fsystems---the more recent members of the MicroVAX 3100 series systems are NOT affected.)

FVarious of the SCSI commands used by the boot drivers imbedded in the console@PROM on all members of the VAXstation 3100 series use "Group 0" Gcommands, which allow a 21 bit block number field, which allows access Fto the first 1fffff hexidecimal blocks of a disk. Any disk references Epast 1fffff will wrap---this wrapping behaviour can be of particular Ginterest when writing a system crashdump file, as this can potentially Flead to system disk corruptions should any part of the crashdump file be located beyond 1.073 GB.

CMore recent systems and console PROMs use "Group 1" SCSI commands, (which allow a 32 bit block number field.

EThere was a similar limitation among the oldest of the MicroVAX 3100 Hseries, but a console boot PROM was phased into production and was made Havailable for field retrofits---this PROM upgrade allows the use of the D"Group 1" SCSI commands, and thus larger system disks. There was no 4similar PROM upgrade for the VAXstation 3100 series.

(Systems that are affected by this limit:



Also see



9Also see Section 9.5.d

14.14 What are the VAX processor (CPU) codes?



 

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   CPU:    Platform:    -----   --------- *   KA41-A : MicroVAX 3100 Model 10 and 20 +   KA41-B : VAXserver 3100 Model 10 and 20    KA41-C : InfoServer ,   KA41-D : MicroVAX 3100 Model 10e and 20e -   KA41-E : VAXserver 3100 Model 10e and 20e ,   KA42-A : VAXstation 3100 Model 30 and 40 ,   KA42-B : VAXstation 3100 Model 38 and 48 %   KA43-A : VAXstation 3100 Model 76 *   KA45   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 30 and 40 %   KA46   : VAXstation 4000 Model 60 #   KA47   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 80     KA48   : VAXstation 4000 VLC )   KA49-A : VAXstation 4000 Model 90/90A %   KA49-B : VAXstation 4000 Model 95 %   KA49-C : VAXstation 4000 Model 96 #   KA50   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 90 #   KA51   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 95    KA52   : VAX 4000 Model 100    KA53   : VAX 4000 Model 105    KA54   : VAX 4000 Model 106 #   KA55   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 85 #   KA56   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 96    KA57   : VAX 4000 Model 108 #   KA58   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 88 #   KA59   : MicroVAX 3100 Model 98    KA85   : VAX 8500    KA86   : VAX 8600    KA88   : VAX 8800 '   KA600  : VAX 4000-50 (aka VAXbrick) 0   KA610  : MicroVAX I, VAXstation I (aka KD32)    KA620  : rtVAX (VAXeln)    KA62A  : VAX 6000-200    KA62B  : VAX 6000-300 '   KA630  : MicroVAX II, VAXstation II )   KA640  : MicroVAX 3300, MicroVAX 3400 H   KA650  : VAXstation 3200, MicroVAX 3500, MicroVAX 3600, MicroVAX III    KA64A  : VAX 6000-400 8   KA655  : MicroVAX 3800, MicroVAX 3900, MicroVAX III+    KA65A  : VAX 6000-500 (   KA660  : VAX 4000-200, VAX 4 upgrade    KA66A  : VAX 6000-600    KA670  : VAX 4000-300    KA675  : VAX 4000-400    KA680  : VAX 4000-500    KA681  : VAX 4000-500A    KA690  : VAX 4000-600    KA691  : VAX 4000-605A    KA692  : VAX 4000-700A    KA693  : VAX 4000-605A    KA694  : VAX 4000-705A    KA730  : VAX-11/730    KA750  : VAX-11/750 #   KA780  : VAX-11/780, VAX-11/782    KA785  : VAX-11/785    KA7AA  : VAX 7000-600    KA7AB  : VAX 7000-700    KA7AC  : VAX 7000-800    KA800  : VAXrta    KA820  : VAX 8200, VAX 8300    KA825  : VAX 8250, VAX 8350    KA865  : VAX 8650 


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14.15 Where can I get software and hardware support information?



<Please contact the HP Customer Support Center. Services and Ginformation, manuals, guides, downloads, and various other information %is available via the support link at:



:Various hardware and system documentation is available at:



CTSM (Terminal Server Manager), DEChub, DECserver, etc. information:



FThe owner and maintainer of current DECserver and related hardware is &DIGITAL Network Products Group (DNPG):

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14.16 Where can I get hardware self-maintenance support assistance?



FThe HP Parts Directory and the HP Parts Reference Guide (arguably the Dmost direct descendents of the HP Assisted Services program, of the CCompaq Assisted Services program, and of the now-ancient DECmailer Dprogram) are available to customers that wish to maintain their own Hsystem(s) (self-maintenance), but that wish some level of assistance in Hacquiring specific parts, hardware diagnostics and hardware manuals for Gthe system(s), and that wish to have access to spares and module-level 5repairs for customer-performed hardware module swaps:



FThe HP Parts Reference Guide replaces the CAS-Catalog and DAS-Catalog %parts catalogs and related resources.

DDetails of the available self-maintenance programs and services can Avary by geography and by the particular services channel(s), and ;current program specifics are available via the above URLs.}

14.17 Why does my system halt when I power-cycle the console terminal?



AVarious VAX and Alpha consoles are designed to process the BREAK &signal, treating it as a HALT request.

>A BREAK is a deliberately-generated serial line framing error.

EWhen a serial line device such as a terminal powers up (or sometimes Bwhen powering down) it can generate framing errors. These framing 0errors are indistingushable from a BREAK signal.

BWhen a BREAK is received on a serial line console for various VAX Hsystems---including most VAXstation, MicroVAX, and VAX 4000 series---it Bis typically interpreted as a HALT. Alpha systems will also often 9process a BREAK in a similar fashion, halting the system.

?There is no uniform or generally-available way to disable this ?behaviour on every VAX or Alpha system. On some systems, BREAK Dprocessing can be disabled in favor of [CTRL/P], or [CTRL/P] is the only way to halt the processor.

GThe most common way to avoid these halts is to disable the serial line Dconsole or to simply not power-cycle the console terminal. There is Ecertain important system state information that is displayed only on Athe console, OpenVMS expects to always have access to the system console.

9Also see Section 5.6.t

14.18 Can I reuse old keyboards, mice and monitors with a PC?



COlder HP keyboards (those with the DIGITAL logo and the RJ modular Cjacks), older HP mice (those with the DIGITAL logo and with the RJ Dmodular jacks, or with a DIN connector with pins in a configuration Eother than the PC-standard DIN connector pin orientation), and older Avideo monitors (with RGB synch-on-green video signaling) all use Gsignaling formats and/or communications protocols that differ from the ?PC standards, and are not (easily) interchangable nor (easily) Hcompatible with typical PC peripheral device controllers. The LK201 and FLK401 keyboards, the VSXXX series mice, the VR260 and VR290 monitors, etc.,Aare incompatible with most PC systems and with most KVM switches.

ENewer HP (and Compaq) keyboards (those with with PC-style DIN plugs, Dand the HP, Compaq or DIGITAL logo), newer HP mice (with PC-pin DIN Eplugs, and the HP, Compaq or DIGITAL logo), and newer video monitors D(multi-synch) are often interchangeable with "industry standard" PC >systems, and can often be used with most PC peripheral device Acontrollers. LK461, LK463, LK46W, LK471, PC7XS-CA, VRC16, VRC21, CTFT-series LCD flat-panel displays, etc., are typically reasonably Fcompatible with most PC systems, and will usually perform as expected "within the limits of the hardware.>(For details of CRT and LCD display compatibility, please see 3Section 14.19.)

HRule of thumb: if the peripheral device component was sold for use with Ethe DEC 2000 (DECpc 150 AXP), an AlphaServer series, an AlphaStation Gseries, or a more recent Alpha system, it will probably work with a PC Aperipheral controller or with a PC-compatible KVM switch. If the Dperipheral device component was sold for use with an VT420 or older Gterminal, most VAX, most VAXstation, and most Alpha systems with names Fin the format DEC [four-digit-number], it probably won't work on a PC #system or with a PC-compatible KVM.

FNote that the above is a general guideline, and should not be read to Hindicate that any particular peripheral device will or will not work in Eany particular configuration, save for those specific configurations &the device is explicitly supported in.

GSoftware Integrators sells a video adapter card called Gemini P1 which Hwill drive many of the older HP (DIGITAL-logo) fixed-frequency monitors on a PC system:



GThe DIGITAL (classic 2-5-2-style) part number 29-32549-01 converts the Foutput from the RGB cable (3 BNC, synch-on-green) that comes with the VAXstation 3100 and VAXstationC 4000 series to a female SVGA D connector. You may be able to find @ third-party converters or adapters (3 BNCs with synch-on-green : signaling to 5 BNCs with VGA/SVGA, or to 15-pin VGA/SVGA.

HThis adapter will allow PC multisync monitors with the needed frequency Dspecifications to be used with the VAXstation series synch-on-green Fvideo connection. It may well also work with a VAXstation 2000 series Csystems, but specifics and performance of that combination are not "immediately known at this writing.

?The protocol definition for the old DIGITAL keyboard and mouse @interfaces is buried at the back of the QDSS section in the old CVAXstation II manual, specifically, in the back of the VCB02 Video BSubsystem Technical Manual (EK-104AA-TM). The keyboard wiring and Hprotocol is in appendix B, and occupies circa 44 pages. The mouse is in appendix C, circa 12 pages.

;Also see Section 14.19.v

14.19 Which video monitor works with which graphics controller?



G To determine the answer to the "will this video monitor or this G LCD panel work with this graphics controller?" question, please > first locate the resolution(s) and the frequencies that are I possible/supported at both ends of the video cable (on the display and E on the graphics controller, in other words), and then determine if C there are any matching settings available. If there are multiple H matches, you will need to determine which one is most appropriate for your needs.

AYou will also need to determine if the video monitor or graphics Acontroller requires the 3 BNC signaling with the synchronization Fsignals on the green wire, or the 5 BNC signaling common on many PCs, Gor other connections such as the DB15 video connector or USB connector Bused on various systems. (BNC signaling is comparatively old, but >prevalent with many older hobbyist AlphaStation or VAXstation configurations.)

HIf there are no matches, you will likely need to change the hardware at $one or both ends of the video cable.

=The refresh frequencies for many devices have been posted to Fcomp.os.vms and/or other newsgroups. Search the archives for details. Also see:



HLCD-based and plasma-based flat-panel displays are generally compatible =with all recent OpenVMS Alpha systems and supported graphics Econtrollers. For best results, you should generally set the graphics Dcontroller to match the native LCD or plasma display resolution and G(for LCD displays) also set the controller refresh rate to 60Hz. Check @your graphics controller and your display documentation for any Bdevice-specific requirements and/or configuration recommendations.

ASome of the older graphics controllers around do not necessarily Fgenerate stable signals at 60 Hz, if the controller can even generate Fthat refresh rate; you may end up upgrading to a less-old controller. 9(At least some of the PowerStorm 3D30 and PowerStorm 4D20Fseries controllers, for instance, are not necessarily the best choice Efor 60 Hz operations with an LCD, based on empirical testing with an :AlphaStation XP1000, PowerStorm 3D30, and a TFT2025 series?LCD. Degraded or mismatched signals produce degraded displays, @obviously. The newest graphics controllers compatible with your Fparticular system are generally better choices here for use with LCD; theE Radeon 7500 series is a good choice for most EV6-class AlphaStation  systems, for instance.

;Also see Section 14.18.m

14.20 Where can I get information on storage hardware?



CInformation on various HP (Compaq, DIGITAL) OpenVMS and other disk Gstorage hardware and controllers, and related technical information on ,SCSI, device jumpers, etc., is available at:





/  
Note

Fthe aquascape website appears to have become unavailable, and the FAQ Emaintainer is unaware of a new or replacement server. You may or may Gnot have some success looking for this or of any other now-unavailable 'sites using the world-wide web archives at:
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14.21 Why does my LK401 keyboard unexpectedly autorepeat?



#There are several modes of failure:

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14.22 Problem - My LK411 sends the wrong keycodes or some keys are dead



CCheck the firmware revision on the keyboard. Hardware revision B01 Fintroduced an incompatability with the device driver which causes the Gkeyboard to not be recognized correctly. There is a patch available to Hfix this problem: [AXPDRIV06_061] - the fix is also included in OpenVMS GV6.2. The rev A01 keyboard, and the LK450 should work without problems.

FIf you are working from another operating system platform, please see Cthe DECxterm tool and related information on OpenVMS Freeware V5.0.r

14.23 Which DE500 variant works with which OpenVMS version?



HEnsure you have a version of the Alpha SRM console with support for the BDE500 series device. Apply ALL mandatory ECO kits for the OpenVMS Eversion in use, and also apply the CLUSIO, ALPBOOT, and ALPLAN kits, 8and apply any available ALPCPU ECO kit for the platform.



FTo check the DE500 device hardware id from OpenVMS, use the following command:

 

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$ ANALYZE/SYSTEM SDA> SHOW LAN/DEVICE=EWcu: 




$The "hardware id" will be displayed.

HTo set the DE500 speed and duplex settings via the associated Alpha SRM Zconsole environment variable, see Table 14-4.

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Table 14-4 DE500 Speed and Duplex Settings
EWx0_MODE setting Meaning
 Twisted-Pair 10 Mbit/sec, nofull_duplex
 Full Duplex, Twisted-Pair  10 Mbit/sec, full_duplex
AUI 10 Mbit/sec, nofull_duplex
BNC 10 Mbit/sec, nofull_duplex
Fast ! 100 Mbit/sec, nofull_duplex
 FastFD (Full Duplex)  100 Mbit/sec, full_duplex
 Auto-Negotiate $ Negotiation with remote device


.To override the console setting and use LANCP:

 

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$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:LANCP  LANCP> SET DEV EWA0/SPEED=10 -LANCP> SET DEV EWA0/SPEED=100/full_duplex 




CFast Ethernet (100Base, 100 megabit) controllers such as the DE500 @series have a pair of connections available---while traditional DEthernet (10Base, 10 megabit) is inherently a half-duplex protocol, DFast Ethernet can be configured to use one or both of the available Dconnections, depending on the controller. Fast Ethernet can thus be <half- or full-duplex depending on the configuration and the Gcapabilities of the network controller and the Ethernet network plant. HSome Fast Ethernet controllers can also operate at traditional Ethernet Gspeeds, these controllers are thus often refered to as 10/100 Ethernet controllers.|

14.24 Third-party or Unsupported disk/tape/controllers/SCSI/widgets?



FA wide variety of third-party and formally-unsupported widgets---SCSI ?and ATA (IDE) disks and tapes, graphics controllers, etc---are >obviously widely available, and are used on various platforms.

HIf you purchase third-party or unsupported or generic SCSI or ATA (IDE) Hstorage devices, you and your device vendor will be responsible for the Htesting and the support of the devices. In general, you can expect that AHP will address non-standards-compliance problems within OpenVMS D(changes that will also not prevent operations with other supported Hdevices, of course), but you and/or the device vendor and/or the device Dmanufacturer are responsible for finding and fixing problems in the 9particular third-party device and or controller involved.

<In particular, realize that neither SCSI nor ATA (IDE) is a ?particularly standard interface, these interfaces tend to be a @collection of optionally-implemented and standardized interface Efeatures. You should not and can not simply assume that all SCSI nor EATA (IDE) storage devices are interchangeable. If you want to try to Duse a generic SCSI device, use V6.2 or later, or (better) V7.1-2 or Hlater. If you wish to try to use ATA (IDE), use OpenVMS V7.1-2 or later.

kOn older OpenVMS releases, see the disk capacity limits ( Section 9.5).

CWith SCSI disks on releases prior to V6.2, ensure that you have theG ARRE and ARWE settings configured correctly (disabled). (If not, you < will see DRVERR fatal drive errors and error log entries.)

BSome SCSI disks set the medium type byte as part of the SCSI size Efield---this is a SET CAPACITY extension to SCSI specs. This problem #also applies to VAX V7.1 and later.

EDisks with SCSI disk sizes past 8.58 GB and/or with the SET CAPACITY Eextension require ALPSCSI07 ECO or the OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 or later Srelease. (See Section 9.5 for further details.)

CBased on the displays of the (undocumented) SYS$ETC:SCSI_INFO tool;1 this tool is present in OpenVMS V6.2 and later:

 

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BIssuing 6-byte MODE SENSE QIOW to get current values for page 01h '       Page Code ................. 01h =       Page Name ................. Read-Write Error Recovery '       Saveable .................. Yes &       Size ...................... 10 ;       Hex Data .................. E6 08 50 00 00 00 08 00 )                                   00 00 




-The E6 shown indicates that the AWRE and ARREJ bits are set, and this is incompatible with OpenVMS versions prior to G V6.2. Further along in the same SCSI_INFO display, if you also see:

 

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EIssuing 6-byte MODE SENSE QIOW to get changeable values for page 81h '       Page Code ................. 01h =       Page Name ................. Read-Write Error Recovery '       Saveable .................. Yes &       Size ...................... 10 ;       Hex Data .................. C0 08 50 00 00 00 08 00 )                                   00 00 




)The C0 value means that the AWRE and ARREG values can be changed on this particular SCSI device. (This is not G always the case.) If the bits are set, you can use RZDISK from the 4 OpenVMS Freeware, and can reset the E6 flag byteH to hexadecimal 26 (or whatever the remaining mask when you remove bits  C0) on page one.

EEach SCSI and ATA (IDE) host contains non-trivial SCSI and IDE driverE software, and each device contains equally non-trivial firmware--- E taken together with the mechanical and electronic components, this J software and firmware will determine whether or not a particular device  will function as expected.

E Also note that various devices---such as various SCSI CD-R devices H ---can implement and can require vendor-specific protocol extensions, C and these extensions can require modifications to OpenVMS or the A addition of various utilities. In various of these cases, theseF devices perform functions that will require them to use SCSI or ATA I (IDE) commands that are (hopefully) architecturally-compatible SCSI or ^ ATA (IDE) command extensions. (Also see Section 7.1 and 3 Section 9.7.)

GSome SCSI tapes lack odd-byte transfer support, making operations with BOpenVMS problematic at best, as OpenVMS expects odd-byte support. AExamples of such include LTO-1 devices such as the HP Ultrium 230series tape, and the DLT VS80< series tapes. Due to the lack of odd-byte transfer support,F LTO-1 devices are not supported by OpenVMS. LTO devices in the LTO-2 E and later series do reportedly presently all have odd-byte transfer D support, and operations are reportedly rather easier. Do check for  formal support, of course.




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