11 Jan
2004
11 Jan
'04
12:14 p.m.
Thanks to Mr. Finnegan - I have a nice VAXstation 3100 Mod 38 running
Hobbyist VMS V7.2 - sitting here whirring away. As I observed to him -
it's interesting to have a DEC machine in my collection that weighs *less*
than I do.
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the Net.
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
More specifically to download/install freeBSD perhaps...
And, furthermore: MY VMS experience was sketchy at best, mostly
desultory playing with a uVAX II that Hans now has - and I have no doc at
all right now.
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".
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).
Cheers!
John
11 Jan
11 Jan
12:29 p.m.
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004, John Lawson wrote:
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
A hub that has both RJ-45 and coax connectors? My main hub is one such.
I needed it for the 10Base2 cable segment that connected my voicemail
system to the network.
I think I have one for you...
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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12:40 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 11, 2004 at 01:14:20PM -0500, John Lawson wrote:
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the Net.
Yes
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
Three things come to mind immediately:
1) a media-converter. A box the size of a pack of cards that has two media
interfaces. More ordinary ones are 10BaseT to 10BaseFL (fiber), but
there are 10Base2 to 10BaseT boxes. These days, if you can locate one,
they should be cheap. Once upon a time, they were $75-$100.
2) a sufficiently equipped 10BaseT hub. I have a NetGear 10BaseT hub (not a
switch) with 8 10BaseT ports in front, one 10Base2 port and one AUI port
in back. I happen to have a 10BaseFL transciever on mine, but that's
coincidental. The important part is that all of my ancient, pre-100BaseT
devices go through this hub. The hub is attached to my cable modem via
an ordinary 100BaseT/10BaseT switch (also NetGear).
3) a router. If you want your own firewall that you control and program,
put a 10Base2 card in it and give it its own network. You can have one
100BaseT card in the router for the cable modem side, another 100BaseT
card for "modern" hardware, and a thinnet (10Base2) segment for classic
stuff.
What is the system called that VMS uses to chain all
the DCL commands to
auto-execute at startup? I wanna edit a lot of them out - especially
right now it's looking for a cluster it can't find, and periodically
(every 15 mins) complains of "too few servers".
SYS$MANAGER holds lots of goodies, but beware randomly editing things. If
you want make the machine *stop* doing things, cutting sections out of system
files is usually regarded as bad. There's a way to "uncluster" your
machine,
but since I've never done it, I can't tell you the simplest way to do it.
Even when you want to make your machine *start* doing things at startup that
it never did before, there are places to add new commands that don't involve
altering system scripts (kinda like rc.local under *BSD), but since I'm not
in front of a VMS machine at the moment, I hesitate to name specific files
from memory (it's now been 4 months since I did VMS
daily... the details
evaporate fast when you can't peek ;-)
Here's some things I found using "VMS startup customize startup.com" in
google:
http://www.totse.com/en/zines/nia/nia012.html
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).
Not mine. Nor my Orange Wall. Nor my Blue Wall. :-)
Besides... the Grey Wall is for VMS 5.x. They went to bound volumes for
VMS 6.x and newer. Not as sexy, but a lot smaller.
-ethan
Cheers!
John
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 11-Jan-2004 18:20 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -18.9 F (-28.3 C) Windchill -36.6 F (-38.1 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 6.6 kts Grid 068 Barometer 683.6 mb (10492. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
1:07 p.m.
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004, John Lawson wrote:
Thanks to Mr. Finnegan - I have a nice VAXstation 3100 Mod 38 running
Hobbyist VMS V7.2 - sitting here whirring away. As I observed to him -
it's interesting to have a DEC machine in my collection that weighs *less*
than I do.
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the Net.
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
Many older 10Baset hubs have a 10Base2 connector so you could go that route
(or cross that bridge), but in the 3100 M38 its probably easier just to use
the AUI connector and a 10BaseT MAU. You need to set the little push button in
the correct position so the AUI port is activated...
If you need a 10BaseT MAU, I have many, for the cost of shipping...
More specifically to download/install freeBSD perhaps...
You probably mean NetBSD...
And, furthermore: MY VMS experience was sketchy at best, mostly
desultory playing with a uVAX II that Hans now has - and I have no doc at
all right now.
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".
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).
Cheers!
John
Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics
1:19 p.m.
On Sunday 11 January 2004 13:14, John Lawson wrote:
Thanks to Mr. Finnegan - I have a nice VAXstation 3100
Mod 38 running
: ) I can answer some of this..
Hobbyist VMS V7.2 - sitting here whirring away. As I
observed to him
- it's interesting to have a DEC machine in my collection that weighs
*less* than I do.
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the
Net.
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
You've got about two (simple) options:
One involves finding either a box to convert this specifically (I've got
one somewhere, it's about the size of a 2U rackmount ethernet hub)... I
think it's called a "bridge". Or, you can just find a 10BaseT ethernet
hub that has an AUI port and get a 10Base2 (coax) transciever to put on
it.
The next option, which might be simpler, is to just get an 10BaseT AUI
transciever and put it on the VAXstation's AUI port (and make sure to
switch it from BNC to the AUI port for networking on the back).
More specifically to download/install freeBSD
perhaps...
I think you actually want NetBSD (or possibly OpenBSD). I'm pretty sure
FreeBSD doesn't run on VAX.
And, furthermore: MY VMS experience was sketchy at
best, mostly
desultory playing with a uVAX II that Hans now has - and I have no
doc at all right now.
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/
Most to all of the OpenVMS documentation is online there.
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".
SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP.COM from what I see on google.
My memory also says SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP.COM, so try there as well.
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).
Well, that I can't really help you with. I just got my own Orange
wall. : ) But, you can look at the docs at the hp site above, which
are going to be more up-to-date than anything else.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
12 Jan
12 Jan
8:43 a.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Sunday 11 January 2004 13:14, John Lawson wrote:
I've got a couple running around. E-mail me privately...
--
--- Dave Woyciesjes
--- ICQ# 905818
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the
Net.
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
You've got about two (simple) options:
The next option, which might be simpler, is to just get an 10BaseT AUI
transciever and put it on the VAXstation's AUI port (and make sure to
switch it from BNC to the AUI port for networking on the back).
11 Jan
11 Jan
2:21 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of John Lawson
Sent: 11 January 2004 18:14
To: cctalk(a)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(
2:45 p.m.
John,
Your Ethernet question has already been answered. Besides the solution
suggested by Sellam, there are "media converters" designed specifically
for this purpose. DEC used to deliver Allied Telesyn models with early
Alphas that had a native Cat.5 interface only, but needed to be matched
to the then-common thinwire networks.
For the software question, I do have a grey wall, but only one, and you
wouldn't want to break my heart by taking this away, would you?
The startup procedure is in one of the directories referred to by the
logical name SYS$MANAGER (since you don't run a cluster, you needn't be
concerned about which of them), so you can get your hands at it using
EDIT SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM.
If your system wasn't stripped down too far after installation, you may
also have the original template of the file - SYSTARTUP_VMS.TEMPLATE -
in the same directory.
(A file type of .COM means a DCL command procedure on VMS, so it
contains readable text like a .BAT file or a shell script - it is not a
binary file like a DOS .COM.)
Less frequently used and even among system administrators somewhat less
known is the startup database, managed with the SYSMAN utility. If this
is what you are looking for, try
$ MCR SYSMAN
SYSMAN> STARTUP SET DATABASE STARTUP$STARTUP_LAYERED
SYSMAN> STARTUP SHOW FILES
SYSMAN> EXIT
$
to see the "components" (scripts or binary programs) to be executed upon
startup. On most systems I have seen, however, this list was empty. If
there are files, the SHOW FILES command can show more detail if you add
the /FULL option. To see what there is besides the STARTUP command
level, try HELP inside SYSMAN, too.
If you want to see how the system itself is initialized, specify STARTUP
SET DATABASE STARTUP$STARTUP_VMS instead of the above. One of the files
listed there, VMS$LPBEGIN-050_STARTUP.COM, invokes SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM.
None of these files is ever changed by any system administrator - these
files "belong" to DEC - xxx - COMPAQ - xxxxxx - HP.
All components listed in the startup database must be located in the
SYS$STARTUP directories (again: no cluster, don't worry about which
one).
The "too few servers" message is typical for DECnet/OSI: this message is
issued when the system wants more time servers (at least three per LAN)
to synchronize clocks. Yes, it *can* be annoying, but with a single node
configuration, it's harmless. As a quick workaround, try REPLY/DISABLE
to turn all operator communication (OPCOM) messages off.
If you are looking for VMS documentation, try to search German ebay for
articles offered by "mandirali". He recently had several documents to
sell, and I bought a pile of books from him (not the ones offered at
ebay). Other than as a happy customer, I am not connected... yada yada
yada...
Besides that, if you have more questions, let me know.
Regards,
Andreas
John Lawson schrieb:
Thanks to Mr. Finnegan - I have a nice VAXstation 3100 Mod 38 running
Hobbyist VMS V7.2 - sitting here whirring away. As I observed to him -
it's interesting to have a DEC machine in my collection that weighs *less*
than I do.
So now my untutored Quesions am:
Can this be done:
VAXstation --> Ethernet -->[???]<-- Ethernet <-- cablemodem <-- the Net.
What adapts Thin Ethernet coax to Cat5?
More specifically to download/install freeBSD perhaps...
And, furthermore: MY VMS experience was sketchy at best, mostly
desultory playing with a uVAX II that Hans now has - and I have no doc at
all right now.
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".
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).
Cheers!
John
7663
days inactive
7664
days old
7 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
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Andreas.Freiherr＠Vishay.com -
dickset＠amanda.spole.gov -
dwoyciesjes＠comcast.net -
jpl15＠panix.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
pcw＠mesanet.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk