INFO-VAX Thu, 12 Apr 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 202 Contents: Re: CSWB on EV4 (21064) Re: ftp: display some text and close session Re: ftp: display some text and close session Re: ftp: display some text and close session Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Microvax II Disgnostics Re: Microvax II Disgnostics Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Squirrels Are Scientifically literate (Part 37) Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: Updated VMS Information (not to big) [OT] Bob's new email address, was: Re: Global warming update: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 Apr 2007 06:20:14 -0700 From: etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: CSWB on EV4 (21064) Message-ID: <1176384014.357319.224020@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> My bet would be that it's the monitor that's better on the VAXstation rather than the graphics adapter. The VRT-19 was a rebadged Sony and that's what I got with my VS4000-90 and also with the DEC 3000-600 that I bought. Very fine but very heavy monitors! Steve Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply wrote: > In article , "H Vlems" > writes: > > > Phillip, before you spend real money on a new video card, remember DEC's > > advice: > > buy more memory! > > Memory for th AS1200/DS5305 is not so expensive (US$30 for 256 MB) on eBay. > > Actually, performance is OK on the AS1200/DS5305. Even on the 3000/600, > there was still some memory free. It's probably CPU-bound on this > machine. > > I have the AS1200/DS5305 connected to a "PC style" monitor which came > with an ALPHAstation 255/233. I get a better picture, though, on an old > Digital monitor on a VAXstation. I'm not sure if that's due to the > monitor or the video card. > > The AS1200/DS5305 is fine as a Mozilla machine. (It's fine for many > other things as well, but due to the power consumption I only switch it > on for Mozilla.) If a smaller ALPHA could run Mozilla successfully > (better than the 3000/600, not necessarily as well as the AS1200/DS5305, > then I might consider putting such a machine into my cluster (perhaps > removing another one) so that one could start Mozilla without booting > the AS1200/DS5305. (I would still keep the AS1200/DS5305 configured as > a satellite as it is now so that I can boot it whenever I need the > performance.) > > Memory is always good. In my inventory I am making a note of which > machine has how much memory and how it is divided up, so that I know > what to buy. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 00:47:15 -0700 From: "Pierre" Subject: Re: ftp: display some text and close session Message-ID: <1176364035.373757.37770@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> > Look at the file: > SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM > > $ ! activate any site-specific login file > $ ! > $ if f$trnlnm("tcpip$ftpd_sylogin") .nes. "" .and. - > f$search("tcpip$ftpd_sylogin") .nes. "" then - > @tcpip$ftpd_sylogin no such line in SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM in TCPIP 5.3. neither in 5.4 either... :( $ sea sys$system:*.com tcpip$ftpd_sylogin %SEARCH-I-NOMATCHES, no strings matched $ sea sys$manager:*.com tcpip$ftpd_sylogin %SEARCH-I-NOMATCHES, no strings matched ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:03:02 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: ftp: display some text and close session Message-ID: <96970$461df5f2$cef8887a$26682@TEKSAVVY.COM> Pierre wrote: > no such line in SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM in TCPIP 5.3. neither > in 5.4 either... :( > > $ sea sys$system:*.com tcpip$ftpd_sylogin Interesting. Well, you could still edit yor TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM file and add logic to send a message and exit instead of running the ftp executable. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 06:10:43 -0700 From: "Pierre" Subject: Re: ftp: display some text and close session Message-ID: <1176383443.316476.64470@w1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> On Apr 12, 11:03 am, JF Mezei wrote: > Pierre wrote: > > no such line in SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM in TCPIP 5.3. neither > > in 5.4 either... :( > > > $ sea sys$system:*.com tcpip$ftpd_sylogin > > Interesting. Well, you could still edit yor TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM file > and add logic to send a message and exit instead of running the ftp > executable. I found the quoted lines in : HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.6 on a COMPAQ Professional Workstation XP1000 running OpenVMS V8.3 I need to uprade :) Pierre ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:56:44 +0100 From: "R.A.Omond" Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: JF Mezei wrote: >> I can't believe noone's mentioned this already. There's probably not a >> file-system on the RD53. Simple as that. > > BAKUP/IMAGE should initialise the disk by default. (you may wish to try > /INIT after /IMAGE just in case). However, an unformatted drive would > not be usable. Ahem, JF, look carefully at the original posting: $ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA0: MUA0:DUA0.BCK/SAVE_SET %BACKUP-F-NOINDEXF, no valid index file header found on DUA0: -SYSTEM-F-VOLINV, volume is not software enabled Still think Backup should initialise the disk ? ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:10:23 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: R.A.Omond wrote: > Ahem, JF, look carefully at the original posting: > > $ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA0: MUA0:DUA0.BCK/SAVE_SET Mea culpa. Sorry. I had just assumed he tried to write to the disk. Ok, then, if there is no valid file header on the disk, that would explain the error message. It is unable to mount the volume and is thus declared offline. stabackup.exe does appear to have the PHYSICAL qualifier in it. Perhaps he should do a packup/physical DUA0: MUA0:DUA0.BCK/save and see if DUA0: shows consistent disk activity. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:40:22 GMT From: Curtis Rempel Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: R.A.Omond wrote: > Curtis Rempel wrote: > >> Anyway, after cleaning the tape path, I decided to boot s/a backup again >> and this time it worked (almost): >> >> >>>>>BOOT MUA0 >> >> >> 2..1..0.. >> >> >> OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version V7.3 Major version id = 1 Minor version >> id = >> 0 >> %WBM-I-WBMINFO Write Bitmap has successfully completed initialization. >> PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 10-APR-2007 19:48 >> >> Configuring devices . . . >> Now configuring HSC, RF, and MSCP-served devices . . . >> >> Please check the names of the devices which have been configured, >> to make sure that ALL remote devices which you intend to use have >> been configured. >> >> If any device does not show up, please take action now to make it >> available. >> >> >> Available device DUA0: device type RD53 >> Available device MUA0: device type TK50 >> >> Enter "YES" when all needed devices are available: YES >> %BACKUP-I-IDENT, Stand-alone BACKUP T7.2; the date is 10-APR-2007 >> 19:50:09.05 >> $ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA0: MUA0:DUA0.BCK/SAVE_SET >> %BACKUP-F-NOINDEXF, no valid index file header found on DUA0: >> -SYSTEM-F-VOLINV, volume is not software enabled >> If you do not want to perform another standalone BACKUP operation, >> use the console to halt the system. >> >> If you do want to perform another standalone BACKUP operation, >> ensure the standalone application volume is online and ready. >> Enter "YES" to continue: >> >> >> So, VMS sees DUA0: alright but complains that it can't back it up. Maybe >> there is nothing on the disk and the disk is actually working after all. >> The same repetitive brief flashing of the Ready light and arm motion >> sounds happen as they do when trying to boot DUA0. >> >> Seems as though the Q-bus is operating correctly now that I moved the >> cards >> up one slot and set the RQDX2 back to factory. The DEQNA works (at least >> as far as to be refused into a cluster) and the TK50 is alive now. VMS >> sees the RD53 via s/a backup so I would think at this point the RD53 is >> either unstructured or has a hardware fault. >> >> Are there any diags I could run to figure out which? I don't have any >> TK50 diag media. >> >> If all else fails, I suppose I could just turn it into an academic >> exercise (and forego any potential winning lottery numbers on the drive) >> to see if the drive is alive by trying to restore something via s/a >> backup to it and >> see what happens. :-) > > I can't believe noone's mentioned this already. There's probably not a > file-system on the RD53. Simple as that. > > Suggestion: to check if the disk is readable, use BACKUP/PHYSICAL > instead of /IMAGE, which can only work if there's a recognised > file-system on it. Excellent idea! I've done just that and since it's on volume 4 right now, I don't really see how it takes 3 x 95 MB TK50's to store 1 x 71 MB RD53. It would make sense though that the drive has lost its format and I'm simply backing up an endless supply of hot air... > Once you've done that, feel free to overwrite the disk if you can. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:59:35 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Microvax II Disgnostics Message-ID: <50a08$461df524$cef8887a$26682@TEKSAVVY.COM> I've wanted to do this for a long time... And since Mr Rempel is trying to honour a Microvax II by bringing it back to life, I figured it was time to resurect this. Some time ago, while I still had a working TK drive, I managed to copy the contents of the Microvax II Customer Diagnostics TK50. There are 37 files. And there is a couple of additional files in the kit including a command procedure that copies the files to a tape device in the right order. http://www.vaxination.ca/vms/microvax/mv_ii.html (I also have the MVII installation/operations/config manual on that page). Note that I have NOT tested the diagnostics kit. z This is version 2.0 of the Diagnostics software. It appears to be VAXELN based. There is a SYSBOOT file (first) which seems to contain most of the diagnostics software followed by a whole bunch of smaller files (all GGSKM*MSG.EXE). QUESTIONS: Does VAXELN understand ODS-2 ? AKA: if one were to create a [000000.SYS0.SYSEXE] directory on a disk and place the 37 files in it, and use writeboot to point to the SYSBOOT.EXE in that directory, could one boot the diagnostics from that disk ? What if I were to MOP boot ? With a boot_type of "OTHER", the boot node would give the microvax II "SYSBOOT.EXE" properly. But would there be a way to get the MVII to access the other 36 files ? (and to those who say this is confidential proprietary information, it is dated 1986 and I am not sure if the copyright was renewed on this since all the products attached to it (Microvax, VAXENL etc) have been EOLed a long time ago. Besides, it is to help hobbyists. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:36:41 -0500 (CDT) From: sms@antinode.org (Steven M. Schweda) Subject: Re: Microvax II Disgnostics Message-ID: <07041208364128_202002DA@antinode.org> From: JF Mezei > Some time ago, while I still had a working TK drive, I managed to copy > the contents of the Microvax II Customer Diagnostics TK50. Sadly, "MVII DIAG CUST TK50" is not the one you really want, especially if you want to format a virgin (or re-virginized) RD-series disk. The good one is "MVII DIAG MAINT TK50", which was a little more closely held (that is, not handed out with every MicroVAX II ever sold). > This is version 2.0 of the Diagnostics software. Pretty old, too. > Does VAXELN understand ODS-2 ? AKA: if one were to create a > [000000.SYS0.SYSEXE] directory on a disk and place the 37 files in it, > and use writeboot to point to the SYSBOOT.EXE in that directory, could > one boot the diagnostics from that disk ? Personally, I'd use [SYSD.SYSEXE] ("D" for diagnostics, close to "E" and "F"), and COPY /CONT for SYSBOOT.* and/or *.SYS. > What if I were to MOP boot ? With a boot_type of "OTHER", the boot node > would give the microvax II "SYSBOOT.EXE" properly. But would there be a > way to get the MVII to access the other 36 files ? Ah. You probably want the "MDM Ethernet Server User's Guide" and/or the "MDM Development Kit Installation Guide", neither of which I have. You may also need some *.SYS files which you don't have, which may be specific for various Ethernet adapters. > (and to those who say this is confidential proprietary information, You mean like the copyright owner? > it > is dated 1986 and I am not sure if the copyright was renewed on this Oh, well. If you're not sure, then it must be ok. > since all the products attached to it (Microvax, VAXENL etc) have been > EOLed a long time ago. Besides, it is to help hobbyists. And we're all sure that the copyright owner wouldn't mind your publishing his property, just so long as you have a good use for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steven M. Schweda sms@antinode-org 382 South Warwick Street (+1) 651-699-9818 Saint Paul MN 55105-2547 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:45:12 +0000 (UTC) From: david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: In article , John Santos writes: >david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk wrote: >> In article , Dave Froble writes: >> >>>Bill Todd wrote: >>> >>>>Dr. Dweeb wrote: >>>> >>>>... >>>> >>>> >>>>>C02 is not a pollutant >>>> >>>>*Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to our >>>>own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused by >>>>data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather than >>>>a pollutant under other circumstances)? >>>> >>>>- bill >>> >>>Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. >>> >>>Oxygen is also a big pollutant. >>> >> >> >> To early life forms on Earth Oxygen really was a big and very very >> deadly pollutant. We may rely on it now but photosynthesis could be regarded as >> the greatest source of pollution that Earth has ever suffered. >> >> > >David, sorry for essentially duplicating your post with my (much later) >followup to Dave, but on the plus side (or maybe this isn't such a >positive thing to people trying to avoid all the OT), the reason I >didn't notice your followup is that Mozilla threaded it as followup >to the same post Dave was replying to, rather than as a reply to >Dave's post. Mozilla bug?? > > Don't worry about it. Such duplication of response is a standard part of Usenet. If you hadn't posted this I'd just have assumed that your newsserver hadn't received my post yet. Because of the way Usenet works there is no guarantee when or in what order posts will be received. On many occasions such duplication is useful since there will be differences in phraseology or emphasis. David Webb Security team leader CCSS Middlesex University >> >> >> >> David Webb >> Security team leader >> CCSS >> Middlesex University >> >> >>>:-) >>> >>>-- >>>David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 >>>Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com >>>DFE Ultralights, Inc. >>>170 Grimplin Road >>>Vanderbilt, PA 15486 > > >-- >John Santos >Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc. >781-861-0670 ext 539 ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 06:00:28 -0700 From: "AEF" Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: <1176382828.113037.287670@b75g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> On Apr 12, 1:33 am, John Santos wrote: > Dave Froble wrote: > > Bill Todd wrote: > > >> Dr. Dweeb wrote: > > >> ... > > >>> C02 is not a pollutant > > >> *Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to > >> our own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused > >> by data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather > >> than a pollutant under other circumstances)? > > >> - bill > > > Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. > > > Oxygen is also a big pollutant. > > Not sure about Nitrogen, but Oxygen certainly is, especially if you're an > anaerobic bacterium. :-) The atmosphere had no free oxygen until it was > produced by plants, poisoning most of the existing life. Of course the > descendants of the original critters had hundreds of millions of years of > slowly changing conditions to adapt to the presence of O2 (or to hide from > it), or about a million times longer than present day life. > > > :-) > > -- > John Santos > Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc. > 781-861-0670 ext 539- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - All right. Enough with the word games. Is something a pollutant? Context matters. Check out this opening paragraph for nitrogen monoxide from Wikipedia: The chemical compound nitric oxide is a gas with chemical formula NO. It is an important signaling molecule in the body of mammals including humans, one of the few gaseous signaling molecules known. It is also a toxic air pollutant produced by automobile engines and power plants. OK, done! :-) AEF ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:55:14 -0600 From: "Dale E. Coy" Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: <461e5662$1@nntp.zianet.com> "Dr. Dweeb" wrote in message news:461c1f3a$0$7608$157c6196@dreader2.cybercity.dk... .... > IIRC the "environmental" issue with diesel engines is more with > "particulate mass" and its elimintaion than gas emissions (NO, CO2 etc) > > C02 is not a pollutant, particulate mass is, and the stuff that comes out > of diesel engines is nasty stuff. > > Dweeb. > >> - bill > Isn't CO2 listed as a "greenhouse gas"? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:48:04 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Squirrels Are Scientifically literate (Part 37) Message-ID: John Santos wrote: > Not sure about Nitrogen, but Oxygen certainly is, especially if you're an > anaerobic bacterium. :-) Once computers have taken over the world and destroyed all biological lifeforms, then pollution will no longer be an issue. And since they will likely have adopted VMS clustering, the robots/computing centres that are anywhere near ocean shores will have backup sites well into the continent to survive when their seaside nodes are flooded. Water will then be considered a huge pollutent that kills computers, especially salt water. (Unless they become fully optical computers that run from the light of the sun, and with extra long distance clustering, nodes in daylight would take over nodes in darkness. And these computers may find a way to convert the whole atmosphere to helium or some other inert gas that would eliminate corrosion. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:13:50 +0200 From: "Rudolf Wingert" Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: <002801c77cc9$bce7d850$994614ac@domina.fom> Hello, all this values are statistical values. Nobody can guarantee you that = all the tapes do work. When we start to use SDLT1 tapes (years ago), we did = see a few bad tapes. But the quality would be better. The last years we have used hundreds of SDLT1 tapes without any problem. Last year, I did copy = all DLT III, IIIxt and IV tapes we did to SDLT1 tape, without any problem. = You have to cleanup the tape drive. DLT tape drive after ten passes. SDLT = drives after 15-20 passes. May be this will help. Best regards R. Wingert ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:28:05 -0700 From: David Mathog Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: Alan Frisbie wrote: > I > have adopted a policy of only using new tapes for non-critical > backups, and only using known-good tapes for the critical ones. The two that failed were "known-good" tapes. Well, at least they had been used for routine backups without problems. At no point had they been rigorously tested, for their full length. In retrospect before putting a new tape in service one should probably retension it (to knock any dust or other crud sticking to the edge of the tape roll loose while the heads aren't involved) and then do a test write for the full length of the tape. The retension step isn't very time consuming, but writing 160Gb at 16Mb/sec (no compression) should take around 167 minutes. That's about 3 hours per tape before putting it into service. Anybody bother with this? I'm also thinking that if one really wanted to read a SDLT tape that had been sitting on a shelf for 30 years (the cartridge archive time rating) it would be a good idea to retension before trying to read it. Again, to knock any dust or other accumulated dust loose while the heads weren't in play. Assuming of course one could still find a working drive 30 years later. Somebody asked about the room environment. The drives live in a machine room and are located at about head level, so they shouldn't see too much dust. The cartridges are stored in their closed cases, inside filing cabinets. Bottom line, there isn't a lot of dirt around. Also I don't see the point of keeping a cartridge in the drive since the drives have a door that closes when no cartridge is present. That should keep out dust as well as a cartridge, right? Regards, David Mathog ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 01:46:10 -0700 From: "Ian Miller" Subject: Re: Updated VMS Information (not to big) Message-ID: <1176367570.218134.162450@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> On Alphaservers F$GETSYI( "SERIAL_NUMBER" ) returns the value of the console environment variable SERIAL_NUMBER. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 06:14:06 -0500 From: clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) Subject: [OT] Bob's new email address, was: Re: Global warming update: Message-ID: In article <1176245592.045668.269350@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, ultradwc@gmail.com writes: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3869753.stm > Bob, is your email address valid ? Before emailing you (instead of cluttering up COV), I thought it best to check that you weren't using a madeup address again, and found that your email address above is used on a Wii forum. Simon. -- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.202 ************************