INFO-VAX Sun, 19 Oct 2008 Volume 2008 : Issue 565 Contents: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Re: DECServer 900 TM User Guide wanted Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:40:32 -0700 (PDT) From: H Vlems Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: On 18 okt, 20:22, alexandre.laguejacq...@gmail.com wrote: > Hello all, > > I'm trying to do an installation on an old AlphaServer 1000a with > video card installed. > > When I turn it on, one can clearly see that the system performs its > self tests thanks to the LCD on the front panel. > > Some moments later, the blue screen appears on the monitor and I see > that the remaining tests -- including memory -- are completed > successful. =A0The ">>>" prompt appears. > > Then, about 1 min later, the screen goes dark. > > Any ideas? A couple of questions about the system: What is the hardware configuration of the system? How much memory does it have? Is that amount shown on the console? Did you try to reseat each pci board and memory module ? Hans ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:28:58 -0700 (PDT) From: alexandre.laguejacques@gmail.com Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: On Oct 19, 7:40=A0am, H Vlems wrote: > A couple of questions about the system: > What is the hardware configuration of the system? > How much memory does it have? > Is that amount shown on the console? > Did you try to reseat each pci board and memory module ? > Hans My initial message was misleading in the sense that I did not mention that most of the time, the fans turn on but the front panel LCD does not. This means that there is no diagnostic. Moreover, I only get output to the monitor *if* the front panel has already given some sign of life. Then, when it finally gets as far as output to the monitor, everything goes black after a minute or two whilst the fans continue to turn. Maybe this suggests that there is some poor contact somewhere or a bad power supply perhaps? The configuration is fairly straight forward: pbxga-aa/an video card 0x 0 MB bank 3 4x 32 MB bank 2 4x 8 MB bank 1 4x 256 MB bank 0 ECC bank not present on this motherboard The memory appears to be recognized (when I can get that far in the boot console). There is one slot in bank 1 that has visibly suffered some abuse but with some play, one manages to insert the SIMM. Reseating the SIMMs has not helped. Right now I'm taking apart the machine piece by piece. I've turned it on without the RAM and the CPU daughterboard. Still no output to the front panel LCD. Perhaps I'm just making things worse! - Alex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:40:17 -0700 From: "Tom Linden" Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:28:58 -0700, wrote: > On Oct 19, 7:40 am, H Vlems wrote: >> A couple of questions about the system: >> What is the hardware configuration of the system? >> How much memory does it have? >> Is that amount shown on the console? >> Did you try to reseat each pci board and memory module ? >> Hans > > My initial message was misleading in the sense that I did not mention > that most of the time, the fans turn on but the front panel LCD does > not. This means that there is no diagnostic. Moreover, I only get > output to the monitor *if* the front panel has already given some sign > of life. Then, when it finally gets as far as output to the monitor, > everything goes black after a minute or two whilst the fans continue > to turn. Maybe this suggests that there is some poor contact > somewhere or a bad power supply perhaps? > > The configuration is fairly straight forward: > > pbxga-aa/an video card > > 0x 0 MB bank 3 > 4x 32 MB bank 2 > 4x 8 MB bank 1 > 4x 256 MB bank 0 > ECC bank not present on this motherboard > > The memory appears to be recognized (when I can get that far in the > boot console). There is one slot in bank 1 that has visibly suffered > some abuse but with some play, one manages to insert the SIMM. > Reseating the SIMMs has not helped. > > Right now I'm taking apart the machine piece by piece. I've turned it > on without the RAM and the CPU daughterboard. Still no output to the > front panel LCD. Perhaps I'm just making things worse! > > - Alex > Remove cover and report the state of the LEDs in the upper left corner of MLB. -- PL/I for OpenVMS www.kednos.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:55:39 -0700 From: "Tom Linden" Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:28:58 -0700, wrote: > On Oct 19, 7:40 am, H Vlems wrote: >> A couple of questions about the system: >> What is the hardware configuration of the system? >> How much memory does it have? >> Is that amount shown on the console? >> Did you try to reseat each pci board and memory module ? >> Hans > > My initial message was misleading in the sense that I did not mention > that most of the time, the fans turn on but the front panel LCD does > not. This means that there is no diagnostic. Moreover, I only get > output to the monitor *if* the front panel has already given some sign > of life. Then, when it finally gets as far as output to the monitor, > everything goes black after a minute or two whilst the fans continue > to turn. Maybe this suggests that there is some poor contact > somewhere or a bad power supply perhaps? > > The configuration is fairly straight forward: > > pbxga-aa/an video card > > 0x 0 MB bank 3 > 4x 32 MB bank 2 > 4x 8 MB bank 1 > 4x 256 MB bank 0 > ECC bank not present on this motherboard There are only 2 memeory banks. Organized as follows connector to MLB 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 The memory in each bank must be identical and Bank 0 must be populated first. List the DIMMs you have. > > The memory appears to be recognized (when I can get that far in the > boot console). There is one slot in bank 1 that has visibly suffered > some abuse but with some play, one manages to insert the SIMM. > Reseating the SIMMs has not helped. > > Right now I'm taking apart the machine piece by piece. I've turned it > on without the RAM and the CPU daughterboard. Still no output to the > front panel LCD. Perhaps I'm just making things worse! > > - Alex > -- PL/I for OpenVMS www.kednos.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:56:44 -0700 (PDT) From: alexandre.laguejacques@gmail.com Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: <6d22c62c-16bd-40b4-a110-da3d25ad3a98@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> On Oct 19, 12:28=A0pm, alexandre.laguejacq...@gmail.com wrote: > On Oct 19, 7:40=A0am, H Vlems wrote: > > > A couple of questions about the system: > > What is the hardware configuration of the system? > > How much memory does it have? > > Is that amount shown on the console? > > Did you try to reseat each pci board and memory module ? > > Hans > > My initial message was misleading in the sense that I did not mention > that most of the time, the fans turn on but the front panel LCD does > not. This means that there is no diagnostic. Moreover, I only get > output to the monitor *if* the front panel has already given some sign > of life. =A0Then, when it finally gets as far as output to the monitor, > everything goes black after a minute or two whilst the fans continue > to turn. =A0Maybe this suggests that there is some poor contact > somewhere or a bad power supply perhaps? > > The configuration is fairly straight forward: > > pbxga-aa/an video card > > 0x 0 MB bank 3 > 4x 32 MB bank 2 > 4x 8 MB bank 1 > 4x 256 MB bank 0 > ECC bank not present on this motherboard > > The memory appears to be recognized (when I can get that far in the > boot console). =A0There is one slot in bank 1 that has visibly suffered > some abuse but with some play, one manages to insert the SIMM. > Reseating the SIMMs has not helped. > > Right now I'm taking apart the machine piece by piece. =A0I've turned it > on without the RAM and the CPU daughterboard. =A0Still no output to the > front panel LCD. =A0Perhaps I'm just making things worse! > > - Alex Sorry, that's 4x 64 MB bank 0 (for a total of 256 MB). ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:08:24 -0700 (PDT) From: alexandre.laguejacques@gmail.com Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: <1ab57ffb-6846-4b79-be58-04e438459c80@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> On Oct 19, 12:40=A0pm, "Tom Linden" wrote: > Remove cover and report the state of the LEDs in the upper left corner of > MLB. > > -- > PL/I for OpenVMSwww.kednos.com No LEDs on the motherboard as far as I can tell. The service guide makes no reference to any LEDs besides those on the storage devices. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:11:06 -0700 From: "Tom Linden" Subject: Re: AlphaServer 1000a screen blanks after self test Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:08:24 -0700, wrote: > On Oct 19, 12:40 pm, "Tom Linden" wrote: >> Remove cover and report the state of the LEDs in the upper left corner >> of >> MLB. >> >> -- >> PL/I for OpenVMSwww.kednos.com > > No LEDs on the motherboard as far as I can tell. The service guide > makes no reference to any LEDs besides those on the storage devices. > Sorry, ignore my posts I thought you had an XP1000 should have read more carefully. No LEDs on a Digital box seems odd. How about beep codes? -- PL/I for OpenVMS www.kednos.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:42:20 GMT From: "Colin Butcher" Subject: Re: DECServer 900 TM User Guide wanted Message-ID: Look for the DNAS (Digital Network Access Software) guides if you want the CLI reference rather than the hardware manuals. The CLI is pretty much consistent across most of the DECservers. There's always "HELP" at the command prompt too. -- Cheers, Colin. Legacy = Stuff that works properly! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:42:51 -0700 (PDT) From: dooleys@snowy.net.au Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: On Oct 19, 8:16=A0am, gerr...@no.spam.mail.com wrote: > Hello everyone, > > how do I copy just some records from a non-indexed file to another one wi= thout > having to resort to third party utilities like EXTRACT (1)? I just needed > something like DUMP/BLOCKS or DUMP/RECORDS with binary output, but wasn't= able > to find it among the standard system utilities. I also gave a quick check= to > CONVERT and SORT documentation, to no avail. I'm a hobbyist, so I'm not v= ery > used to RMS tools... Am I missing something obvious? > > Thanks, > G. > > (1)http://mvb.saic.com/freeware/freewarev80/extract/ sort with a specification file would be my preference Phil ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:44:10 GMT From: gerry77@no.spam.mail.com Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:42:51 -0700 (PDT), dooleys@snowy.net.au wrote: > > how do I copy just some records from a non-indexed file to another one without > > having to resort to third party utilities like EXTRACT (1)? I just needed > > sort with a specification file would be my preference May you give me some hints about the specification file syntax for this task? Let's suppose I've a 1000 records file without any obvious sort field, what I should do to extract something like records from the 450th up to the 550th? :) Thank you! G. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:12:15 -0700 (PDT) From: PR Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: <795027af-f942-4c22-9258-70ce5b5de093@64g2000hsu.googlegroups.com> On Oct 19, 8:44=A0am, gerr...@no.spam.mail.com wrote: > On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:42:51 -0700 (PDT), dool...@snowy.net.au wrote: > > > how do I copy just some records from a non-indexed file to another on= e without > > > having to resort to third party utilities like EXTRACT (1)? I just ne= eded > > > sort with a specification file would be my preference > > May you give me some hints about the specification file syntax for this t= ask? > Let's suppose I've a 1000 records file without any obvious sort field, wh= at I > should do to extract something like records from the 450th up to the 550t= h? :) > > Thank you! > G. Okay - If you have a binary file format that contains records that no utility will understand, which is what you seem to be saying, then the answer is pretty obvious isn't it? Write a little C / COBOL / Pascal / Fortran / Basic program to read the file, select the records you want, and write the selected records out to a new file. This task should take, oh, about 15 minutes? Other folks have already presented very good suggestions if the file format is understandable by provided utilities, such as SORT. -Paul ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:46:20 -0500 From: BRAD@rabbit.turquoisewitch.com (Brad Hamilton) Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: In article <795027af-f942-4c22-9258-70ce5b5de093@64g2000hsu.googlegroups.com>, PR wrote: >On Oct 19, 8:44 am, gerr...@no.spam.mail.com wrote: [...] >> May you give me some hints about the specification file syntax for this task? >> Let's suppose I've a 1000 records file without any obvious sort field, what I >> should do to extract something like records from the 450th up to the 550th? :) >> >> Thank you! >> G. > >Okay - > >If you have a binary file format that contains records that no utility >will understand, which is what you seem to be saying, then the answer >is pretty obvious isn't it? > >Write a little C / COBOL / Pascal / Fortran / Basic program to read >the file, select the records you want, and write the selected records >out to a new file. Or, if the OP is familiar, you can do the same thing in DCL. [...] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:15:45 +0100 From: "R.A.Omond" Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: <48fb5d34$0$90268$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> gerry77@no.spam.mail.com wrote: > Hello everyone, > > how do I copy just some records from a non-indexed file to another one without > having to resort to third party utilities like EXTRACT (1)? I just needed > something like DUMP/BLOCKS or DUMP/RECORDS with binary output, but wasn't able > to find it among the standard system utilities. I also gave a quick check to > CONVERT and SORT documentation, to no avail. I'm a hobbyist, so I'm not very > used to RMS tools... Am I missing something obvious? I'll second VAXman's proposed solution (EDT), or TPU if the records are longer than 255 bytes. There's nothing intrinsically special about a "binary" file. It's just a bunch of records, for which any decent editor should have no trouble dealing with. For what it's worth, editing executable images is something I do quite frequently. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:50:37 GMT From: gerry77@no.spam.mail.com Subject: Re: Selective record extraction/copy? Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:12:15 -0700 (PDT), PR wrote: > If you have a binary file format that contains records that no utility > will understand, which is what you seem to be saying, then the answer > is pretty obvious isn't it? > > Write a little C / COBOL / Pascal / Fortran / Basic program to read > the file, select the records you want, and write the selected records > out to a new file. I ended up using EXTRACT, which actually is a "little" Fortran program, and copied those records I needed to a new file. Since I used DUMP to see which records to copy, I was just wondering if there was a way to achieve what I needed using only provided utilities. As a matter of facts, if DUMP had a /BINARY qualifier to be used with /OUTPUT, I think it would have been enough, at least for my current needs. :-) > This task should take, oh, about 15 minutes? Other folks have already > presented very good suggestions if the file format is understandable > by provided utilities, such as SORT. I spent a lot more than 15 minutes debugging EXTRACT.EXE which had a problem when used with /BLOCKS (it exited with %RMS-F-UPI). But, since I'm a hobbyist, it was very well-spent time because I learnt something more about Fortran, about the VMS debugger (in screen mode), and about RMS FABs and their fields and values (FAB$B_FAC, FAB$B_SHR, and FAB$M_UPI). :-) All's well that ends well, G. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:35:13 +0100 From: Ted Allwood Subject: Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Message-ID: <00A8155E.D512A99F.5@leva.leeds.ac.uk> The roll-out of the SMG patch for additional versions of VMS seems to have paused. Nothing has been added to the itrc ftp site for the past month with support for VMS 7 versions < 7.3-2 on Alpha still missing. Does anyone know if/when these patches might appear? Thanks, Ted ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 06:44:05 -0400 From: "William Webb" Subject: Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Message-ID: <8660a3a10810190344n37ba8f96v328564323de0c63c@mail.gmail.com> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5:35 AM, Ted Allwood wro= te: > The roll-out of the SMG patch for additional versions of VMS > seems to have paused. Nothing has been added to the itrc ftp > site for the past month with support for VMS 7 versions < 7.3-2 > on Alpha still missing. > > Does anyone know if/when these patches might appear? > > > Thanks, > Ted > The SMGRTL-MUP patch was incorporated into UPDATE-V1600. =BB view selected patch list The most recent patch is : ALPHA_V732_MASTER_ECO_LIST File Name: ALPHA_V732_MASTER_ECO_LIST Release Date: 23-SEP-2008 CURRENT UPDATE KIT=09=09=09=09RELEASE DATE ------------------ ------------ VMS732_UPDATE-V1600 23-SEP-2008 PROJECTED UPDATE KIT RELEASE SCHEDULE ------------------------------------- Week of: December 8, 2008 KITS INCLUDED IN UPDATE KIT: =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D (note that kits included in the UPDATE kit are available for individual download) KIT NAME RELEASE DATE SUPERSEDED / Comment ----------------------------- ------------ -------------------- VMS732_ACC-V0100 17-APR-2008 VMS732_SMGRTL_MUP-V0100 26-AUG-2008 WWWebb ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:13:50 GMT From: gerry77@no.spam.mail.com Subject: Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Message-ID: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:35:13 +0100, Ted Allwood wrote: > The roll-out of the SMG patch for additional versions of VMS > seems to have paused. Nothing has been added to the itrc ftp > site for the past month with support for VMS 7 versions < 7.3-2 > on Alpha still missing. I'm a hobbyist, so this may not be suitable for a production environment, anyway with some friends of mine we have verified that the Alpha 7.3-2 patch does work also on 7.2, and the same is true for the VAX 7.3 patch working on a 7.2 system without any apparent issue. Obviously the patch has to be installed "manually" to circumvent patch installation checks which wouldn't allow to do this, i.e. you'll have to extract SMGSHR.EXE from the remedial kit file and put it in place. If you want to be safe, place the new file in SYS$SPECIFIC and keep the original one in SYS$COMMON so to be able to quickly revert to it. We are running flawlessy that way since when the patch was published. HTH, G. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:00:10 -0700 (PDT) From: IanMiller Subject: Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Message-ID: On Oct 19, 10:35=A0am, Ted Allwood wrote: > The roll-out of the SMG patch for additional versions of VMS > seems to have paused. =A0Nothing has been added to the itrc ftp > site for the past month with support for VMS 7 versions < 7.3-2 > on Alpha still missing. > > Does anyone know if/when these patches might appear? > > Thanks, > Ted VMS V6.2 appeared a month ago 19th September ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/vax/V6.2/ ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/vax/V6.2/VAXSMGRMUP01_062.A-DCX_VAXEX= E ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/alpha/V6.2X/ALPSMGRMUP01_062.txt ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/alpha/V6.2X/ALPSMGRMUP01_062.A-DCX_AX= PEXE V5.5-2 is not affected. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:15:14 +0200 From: "Martin Vorlaender" Subject: Re: SMGRTL patch available on ITRC ftp site Message-ID: Ted Allwood wrote: > The roll-out of the SMG patch for additional versions of VMS > seems to have paused. Nothing has been added to the itrc ftp > site for the past month with support for VMS 7 versions < 7.3-2 > on Alpha still missing. > > Does anyone know if/when these patches might appear? I wouldn't count on that. AFAIK, only "landig zone" versions see MUP updates, i.e. 7.3(-2), 6.2, and 5.5-2. cu, Martin -- One OS to rule them all | Martin Vorlaender | OpenVMS rules! One OS to find them | work: mv@pdv-systeme.de One OS to bring them all | http://vms.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/ And in the Darkness bind them.| home: martin.vorlaender@t-online.de ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2008.565 ************************