Re: VAX 4000/500 general questions

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Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:48:42 GMT

In article <68baa2fe.0310141527.55dafec8@posting.google.com>, google@wondercool.com (Jeroen Lodewijks) writes:
>Hi all,
>
>I recently became the proud owner of a VAX 4000/500 running OpenVMS
>6.1
>
>The computer came from a company which went bust and has no manuals.
>I downloaded some PDF's from HP's website but could use some instant
>advice anyway.
>
>So here I post some burning questions, some of you might know an
>answer to.
>
>1) The computer came without the SYSTEM account password.
>I do have a user account which can do most (all??) administrative
>tasks but clearly
>this is not a desirable situation. Can I retrieve/reset the SYSTEM
>account?

If your user account is in fact appropriately privileged:

$ SET PROC/PRIV=ALL
$ SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM
$ AUTHORIZE
UAF> MOD SYSTEM/PASS=Temporary
UAF> EXIT
$
$ SET HOST 0
Username: SYSTEM
Password: Temporary

and it will prompt you to change the password, which will have been left
pre-expired by just changing it in AUTHORIZE.

You can't _retrieve_ the system password because it's stored encrypted with
a non-reversible algorithm.

>
>2) The boot process loads lots of programs and tries to make the
>computer part of a non-existent DECnet network. Also, it starts a lot
>of auditing programs and a database. (10 min bootup time!)
>I had a quick peek in the System Manual PDF and had a look at some
>boot files, but all seemed to be empty (except for the usual standard
>comments)
>Which file is the most likely place to find the startup commands, so
>that I can disable some commands and speed up the boot process

Look for SYS$STARTUP:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM

(Incidentally, the messages about starting up different kinds of auditing
all come from the same audit server - that's only one program. And it's really
a bad idea to disable it, especially after you get on a network.)

>
>3) The VAX is currently not on a network. How do I move programs/data
>on to it??

Get it on a network? I will let people more familiar with this particular
hardware than I am discuss i/o options; there certainly are (or were) tape
drives, CD-Rom drives, etc, available for it.

>At the moment the only way to access the VAX is through a VT320
>terminal

That's not a bad way.

>
>4) Related to 3) How do I get it to connect to my PC? I am pretty
>sure it loads up some sort of Telnet server, but how do I find out
>what the IP adress and port is?

It depends which IP package is running. (There are several different IP
packages, and they all have different sets of commands to tell you stuff.
The port is probably the standard telnet port (23).)

If you can figure out whether you're running UCX, TCPware, WOllongong,
Multinet, or CMU, somebody here can tell you which commands to use to find
r set the IP address.

>Do I need to connect it to a hub? At the moment I do have it connected
>directly to my PC network card, is that enough?

You'll need to configure the IP on the VMS side so that it doesn't try to route
everything outside of the subnet it used to be on through some router it can't
talk to anymore. (That would be the same answer for a non-VMS system.)

>
>5) Is OpenVMS free? (as in beer?) If not, how do I preserve the OS if
>I want to experiment with NetBSD.

Use a different disk?

(Legally, you're not entitled to use the OS installation
if you didn't pay a license trasfer fee from the previous owner, or don't get
your own licenses. For non-commercial single-user use, you can get a free
hobbyist license.)

You can visit openvmshobbyist.org for information about free hobbyist licenses
for VMS, and you can buy a CD with the OS and layered products for something
like $30, but you'll have to get a CD drive on the thing first. If you go that
route you can nuke the current installation and play with NetBSD, then nuke
that and do a clean install from the hobbyist disk.

>
>6) Is it possible to connect a cdrom or any more modern storage device
>to it?

Sure, although it may not be a very modern CDROM. Hardware-savvier people will
probably have more to say about this.
>
>
>Any answers, pointers to, etc are welcome.

The VMS Faq will be of some help:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/openvms_faq.html

-- Alan

-- 
===============================================================================
 Alan Winston --- WINSTON@SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
 Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL   Phone:  650/926-3056
 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA   94025
===============================================================================

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