DECWINDOWS X

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

I have an alphastation 500 running VMS 7.3.
When I boot it, I start DECW in batch (don't ask why).
But on the grphical station, I have to do control f2 to get really into decw. Otherwise I stay in the console. I know that f2 is used to toggle.

Anyone an idea why I don't get decw directly ?

[Lokesh_2]

Hi ,

Check for sysgen parameter WINDOW_SYSTEM and for the following logical in systartup_vms.com

DEFINE DECW$IGNORE_DECWINDOWS TRUE

HTH,
Best regards,
Lokesh

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Nope. DECW did start but my graph station was in console mode. of course ignore is on because otherwise I am not able to start in batch. WINDOW_SYSTEM is on 1.

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Wim,

I am not familiar with the AS500 anymore (this was a looong time ago). Does it have a switch at the back to enable the graphics screen as OPA0 and if yes how is it set?

Greetings, Martin

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Martin,

Yep. They are old (1997). But we use them until they fail (up to next decade !). We even have some older ones left (1995). Do you find many PC's of that age ?

I don't have any info about the switches at the back. But since they were not changed when switching to batch mode, this should have nothing to do with it.

Another try ?

[Lokesh_2]

Hi,

I have a alpha server 2100 . I did the same, that is, started dec window in batch mode. But, I am NOT facing any problem. FYI, I am using VMS 7.3-1 & DWMOTIF V1.2-6.

Best regards,
Lokesh

[Antoniov.]

Hi Wim,
I don't know DecW; in my mind you could set graphical console in SRM.

@Antoniov

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Wim,

I've checked the DCLs in sys$startup and they give no indication of a different behaviour in interactive vs. batch mode. But since you do start in batch, is there a chance to write a log during the startup that might give us some more clues?

Greetings, Martin

[Bob Blunt]

Most of the, if not all, Alpha systems set the choice of console setup with a SRM environment variable. The majority I've setup by changing the variable "console" to either "serial" or "graphics."

Are there any particular error messages that you get when booting and starting up DECWindows? Does this only happen at boot-up or also if you restart DECWindows? What happens if/when you start DECWindows "normally" (not in batch)?

bob

[Uwe Zessin]

About the WINDOW_SYSTEM parameter: there has been a longtime bug[*] in DECwindows. The startup does not honor it's setting - it decides on its own if DECwindows should be started (then it even sets WINDOWS_SYSTEM=1) or not. I have not checked the latest incarnation of OpenVMS and DECwindows.


[*] Even Fred Kleinsorge from OpenVMS engineering admitted in news:comp.os.vms that that behaviour is not correct.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bvms+%2Bkleinsorge+%2B%22window_system%22&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=eIyF7.1277%24RL6.32514%40news.cpqcorp.net&rnum=2

If the URL does not work, I entered the following search parameters: +vms +kleinsorge +"window_system"

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Found 2 things.

1) I started decwindows in batch and continued the boot in parallel. In the logfile :
%RUN-S-PROC_ID, identification of created process is 000000B3
Number of screens: 1
Screen devices and order: GYA0
%RUN-S-PROC_ID, identification of created process is 000000B4
%INSTALL-I-NONRES, image installed ignoring '/RESIDENT' DISK$WSYS01_SYST:YSCOMMON.SYSLIB>CDE$UNIX_ROUTINES.EXE
-INSTALL-E-NOGHREG, insufficient memory in the code or data granularity hint reg
ion
%INSTALL-I-NONRES, image installed ignoring '/RESIDENT' DISK$WSYS01_SYST:YSCOMMON.SYSLIB>DECW$XLIBSHR.EXE
-INSTALL-E-NOGHREG, insufficient memory in the code or data granularity hint reg
ion
...

2) After decwindows switches to graphics (just a flash), it switches directly back to console mode. To display the logout message ?

3) I did a set verify and found the code executed was not different. Only the installs failed (but is this a reason for the f2 behaviour ?).

[Uwe Zessin]

Wim,

-INSTALL-E-NOGHREG, insufficient memory in the code or data granularity hint region

That looks to me like you should run AUTOGEN. Normally, if DECW$STARTUP is run during startup it checks the system parameters and if they are not sufficient the boot process stops and the operator is asked if AUTOGEN should be run.

[Martin Kirby]

The install failures should be harmless, however they may be producing OPA0 messages.

Try defining DECW$IGNORE_SHARE_ADDRESS TRUE as a system logical name. This will stop DECwindows installing images resident and avoid the messages.

The messages arise because, at the end of install, the granularity hint code region is trimmed to leave none unused. So when you start DECwindows later there is no space to install resident. Running AUTOGEN will not avoid this.

If you want the images installed resident (I never bother maybe because I change images far too often) then you will need to set the SYSTEM parameters that tell the system to retain extra granularity hint region.

Martin Kirby

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

If I sync with the batch job, it starts without problem. I have the impression it has sonmething to do with using opa0 during the remainder of the startup, t.i. decw must be started completely at the end of the startup of you return to opa0 console mode.