Re: DS10 questions

From: Rich Jordan (jordan_at_ccs4vms.com)
Date: 08/04/04 

Date: 3 Aug 2004 15:33:14 -0700

tadamsmar@yahoo.com (Tom Adams) wrote in message news:<ea44f5a1.0408030926.3debb6f3@posting.google.com>...
> We just got a new DS10 server but we have not been able to get it to
> boot.
>
> We wanted it to come in the door configured to be a workstation, but
> the graphics card was omitted. HP sent us a 3X-DEPVZ-AA that we
> installed.
>
> First I connected to an old VRT17-HA monitor and tried to boot. (Or
> new monitor has not arrived yet.) I got nothing but a blue screen.
>
> Then I tried hooking a dumb terminal to the 25-pin RS232 port. I got
> a backwards question mark.
>
> I am not sure what to do. I have never had to boot a pure server with
> a dumb terminal, but I know it can be done. Of course, I am only
> trying to boot dumb because the graphics card is not working - I
> figured I might learn something about the status of the system if I
> could boot from a dumb terminal.
>
> The DS10 is running VMS 7.3.2 with the Graphics 0200 patch already
> installed. Is there some other patch we might need?
>
> According to the graphics card installation guide, there is a jumper
> to enable/disable VGA. Where should I put the jumper?
>
> Is the 25-pin connector the right place to connect a dump terminal
> console? What is the baud rate? Do I just need pins 2,3,7 connected
> to pins 2,3,7 direct or do I need to connected pin 2 to 3 and 3 to 2?
>
> Does the fact that we have the graphics card installed cause the dumb
> terminal console to stop working? Do I need to remove the graphics
> card to get the dumb terminal console to work?

If you have a keyboard plugged in to the PS2 port, it will default to
graphics mode, though I think you can override that with a console
variable. Did you have a compatible keyboard plugged in? Mouse?

The 25 pin port on the back is a parallel printer port. You need to
use one of the 9-pin ports; pretty sure its the upper one. Default
settings on that port will be 9600 baud, No parity, 8 bits data, 1
stop bit. I don't have a 9-pin pinout handy, but using a DEC VTxxx
terminal all you should need is transmit data, receive data, and
signal ground. If you have a bog standard PC serial modem cable, pins
2, 3, and 7 on the 25 pin end will correspond to those. However a
modem cable will probably need a null modem adapter (crosses 2 and 3)
in order to work with a terminal (DCE versus DTE pinout).

If there is only one graphics card, you should normally have VGA mode
enabled. I'm pretty sure the 'console' mode uses the VGA mode.

Rich

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