Alessandro,
The quota list (PQL) is a complex entity, please read the description in the System Services Reference Manual very carefully.
In addition to the interactions beyween supplied, default and minimum values, the calling process needs IMPERSONATE or CMKRNL to grant a quota higher than their own.
Another potential issue is the PQL structure itself. Since it's unaligned, you need to explicitly disable member alignment when declaring it, like this:
#pragma __member_alignment __save
#pragma __nomember_alignment
typedef struct _pqls
{ char item;
int value;
} pqls;
pqls quota[10];
#pragma __member_alignment __restore
It's difficult to alignment detect errors, as examining the source code, or even the structure under DEBUG, everything will look OK, but $CREPRC will see something very odd because the value field will (by default) be aligned on a longword boundary, rather than immediately following the item code byte. Try examining your quota structure with DBG> EXAMINE/LONG/HEX and make sure all the fields are exactly where you want them to be.
I recommend you experiment with a detached process executing a procedure that just lists the actual process quotas and privileges with F$GETJPI and convince yourself that you can specify precisely what you want.
A crucible of informative mistakes
