topic Access to console parameters in Operating System - OpenVMS

Access to console parameters

Richard Leighton — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 05:10:50 GMT

Hi All,

Please could anyone tell me whether there is a way to report on console parameters (in particular EI*0_MODE) without performing a shutdown of the system?

Thanks in advance
Rich

Re: Access to console parameters

labadie_1 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 05:30:25 GMT

I am not sure I have understood what you mean, but if you want to change some console parameters without rebooting, I do not know of a supported way.

getenv and setenv spring to mind, but they do not let you modify this parameter, if memory serves me.

There is a Tru64 tool to modify many console parameters, it may (has ?) be ported to Vms.

Sorry, but I have forgotten the name.

Gerard

Re: Access to console parameters

Lokesh_2 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 05:50:03 GMT

Hi Richard,

You can use F$GETENV lexical to see console parameters from VMS . See help lexical f$getenv for more details and support environment variables.

Here is the list of console variables you can see using this leixcal.
Auto_action, Boot_dev, Bootdef_dev, Booted_dev, Boot_file,
Booted_file, Boot_osflags, Booted_osflags, Boot_reset, Dump_dev,
Enable_audit, License, Char_set, Language, Tty_dev

HTH,
Best regards,
Lokesh Jain

Re: Access to console parameters

Willem Grooters — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:08:21 GMT

Rich,

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=480328

covers the question.

HTH

Willem

Re: Access to console parameters

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:18:23 GMT

Could someone open a request "return all console variables without checking anything" ?

E.g. f$getenv("toto") must return "". Unless toto was defined.

Btw : you can do
control P
at bootprompt show *
at bootprompt continue

But of course this will freeze your system for some time.

Re: Access to console parameters

Richard Leighton — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:33:58 GMT

Hi All,

Thanks for all your replies.

To give a little history ... output derived from the lancp utility shows that the Internal LAN between the cluster members is operating at a line-speed of 10mbps with full-duplex disabled. Therefore, I'm trying to find out what the console parameter EIB0_MODE is set to i.e. auto-sensing etc..

I can't seem to find a way to do this without shutting down the machine.

Thanks in advance
Rich

Re: Access to console parameters

Lokesh_2 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:36:35 GMT

Hi Rich,

Check out this thread. May can give you some help.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=382270

Best regards,
Lokesh

Re: Access to console parameters

labadie_1 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:40:44 GMT

Wim

I remember doing, for allowing remote boot of satellites in a Cluster

ctrl P
>>> set mop 1
>>> set trig 1
>>> set pswd xxx
>>> c

It has never crushed, but recnxinterval was at 20 seconds

:-)

Re: Access to console parameters

Richard Leighton — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 07:06:50 GMT

Thanks all,

Lokesh,
The thread you attached relates to the same issue, however a method to retrieve the value of EI*0_MODE was never posted as it was determined that 10mbps was all that was supported.

Wim / Labadie,
Although I'd be happy to perform a ctrlP and continue I'm not sure whether the system owners would be!

Thanks
Rich

Re: Access to console parameters

Willem Grooters — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 07:30:31 GMT

Rich

Your users will surely NOT like CTRL-P.

>>>continue

may NOT work and, as I have experienced, eventually crash the system after continuation. The only situation where I would use it in emergency situations when nothing else is possible (for instance, a thrashing system).

Wim,

Send a message to Sue Skonetski (Sue.Skonetski@hp.com) with the request. She is very pleased with this type of requests to enhance DCL. There is no warrant it will be granted, but at least there is SOME chance it will, once known.

Re: Access to console parameters

Kris Clippeleyr — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:38:42 GMT

Rich,

From memory, (uh, well not completely)

Somewhere in the HWRPB is hidden a CRB at offset "hwrpb$iq_crb_offset".
In that CRB there is a dispatch routine at offset "hwrpb_crb$il_va_dispatch_pd_l".

If you call that routine with four arguments, the 1st being the constant HWRPB_CRB$K_GET_ENV, the 2nd being a number ranging from 1 to 255, the 3rd being the address of a piece of memory to receive the value returned, the 4th being the address of an unsigned 64-bit integer to receive the condition value, you might get what you want.

I think that it will require some kernel mode programming, and I know that some values for the 2nd argument made my Alpha crash. So, be very careful...

Kris Clippeleyr

Re: Access to console parameters

Martin P.J. Zinser — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 10:29:55 GMT

And for what its worth, I do seem to remember that Hoff stated ctrl-P/continue will definitly not work on IA64 systems.

Greetings, Martin

Re: Access to console parameters

Henk Ouwersloot — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 01:19:28 GMT

Hi,

The E*0_mode console variables are not available with the F$GETENV lexical function and LANCP shows only the current speed of the etherenet devices.

If you have the console log of the last system startup available, you can find the ethernetcard mode settings there and the way its set. Just after the OpenVMS banner you see messages like:

%EIA0, FastFD mode set by console
%EIA0, Full Duplex 100BaseTX connection selected
%EIB0, FastFD mode set by console
%EIB0, Full Duplex 100BaseTX connection selected
%EIA0, Link state change: UP

or

%EWA0, Fast mode set by console
%EWB0, Auto-negotiation mode set by console
%EWB0, Auto-negotiation (external) starting

These messages indicate that EIA0_mode & EIB0_mode are both set to "FAST FD". The mode for EWA0 is set to "FAST" and the mode for EWB0 is set to "Auto-negotiation".

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards,
Henk

Re: Access to console parameters

labadie_1 — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 01:34:27 GMT

Even if you find a hack to modify on the fly your ei*0_mode, I think it will not work, as it does not seem to work with TRU64, see

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/askkcs/hpcg/215_0_133535627_3665226.html