Excursion using DecNet with OpenVMS 8.2 and XP

[lross]

I am having a lot of trouble setting up Excursion on my XP machine to interface with my Alpha DS15 running OpenVMS 8.2.

I have seemed to have gotten Pathworks 32 installed correctly. I base this just on the notion that the DecNet File Transfer Utility and the PowerTerm 525 is working. It obviously seems that the XP Machine and the Alpha are communicating via DecNet.

I have installed Excursion and have set it up. I have a profile alias called system. This profile has the node name that I need to connect to and asked for the username and password, and DecNET is selected. In the application section I have it using the system alias' information and I used the default application choices to launch a terminal.

When I go to run this application it says it can't connect to the node. The error is WSConnect() Failed, Error=EREMOTE.

It seems like Excursion is unable to talk to the Alpha computer via DecNET.

What am I missing? Need help badly.

Leon

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,

Did you copy the file from the CDROM called:
pcx_serv.com into SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE] and renamed it to PCX$SERVER.COM, and made sure that it has (W:RE) priv's on it?

If not, than that is your very first step to take.

You will find it under Xcursion directory on the CDRom probably under the "MISC" directory.

Next -

Are you able to resolve the Alpha system's name to it's Decnet address on the PC?

Try substituting the Alpha's decnet address in place of it's hostname, and test it that way. If that still fails, then are you able to "push" a display from Alpha system to the PC using Decnet.

1) Set host to the Alpha from the PC.
2) Set your display to point to the PC using the pc's Decnet address.

$ set display/create/node={pcnodename}/trans=decnet

-or-

$ set display/create/node={pcdecnetaddress}/trans=decnet

Example:

$ set -
_$display/create/node=39.171 -
_$/transport=decnet

$ show display

$ run decw$examples:ico

What error (if any) does ico return back to you?

Give that a try and report your findings back to us.

Rick

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,
I've attached the latest version of pcx_serv.com to this reply if you need the file.

The header comments in the file will tell you where to place the file and what permissions it requires.

Cheers,
Rick

[John Gillings]

Leon,

Why would you bother with DECnet on a PC? Forget about installing Pathworks, just use the built in TCP/IP stack from Windows, and access your OpenVMS system using IP.

Sure DECnet is(was) a great network stack, especially VMS to VMS, but the PC implementation has been badly neglected for more than a decade, and it never really worked very well, even in its heyday.

That's a technology battle that has long been lost. It's hard to imagine a good argument for persisting with DECnet, especially when there are non-VMS systems involved.

[lross]

Hey Rick,
Thanks so much for the reply and information. Here are my results.

: I do have PCS$SERVER.com in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE] with W:RE privs

: On the PC, in Network Connections->Properties of Connection->DECDNP DECNet Transport Protocol Driver

->This Node
Node Name: This_Node
Node Address: 1.201

->Other Nodes
Node Name: Dest_Node
Node Address: 1.100

I can the PowerTerm 525 to reach Dest_Node when I have it set up using the host name or DECNet address.

: From the PC, Using PowerTerm 525, I logged on to Dest_Node under the system account. I then executed:
$ set display/create/code={This_Node address}/trans=decnet
$show display
$run decw$examples:ico

The error message returned was:
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image DECW$EXAMPLE.ico
-CLI-E-IMAGE, image file DECW$EXAMPLE:[SYSMGR]ICO.EXE
-RMS-F-DEV, error in device name or inappropriate device type for operation

Leon

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,
You have a typograpical error in your command syntax...


$ run decw$example:ico

it should be:

$ run decw$examples.ico

Give that a try.

Rick

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,
One other thing that bothers me...

Can you execute these commands on your Server for me?

$ @sys$update:decw$versions all
$ install list/full -sys$library:decw$transport_common.exe

And post the output...

Cheers,
Rick

[lross]

Sorry about that. I am still pretty new to OpenVMS so I don't know exactly what to expect when I get an error message.

I re-ran it using run decw$examples:ico.

A screen popped up that was mostly black but had a little white noise in it. The white noise is in a vertical "sound frequency" waveform (on the y axis). If that makes sense :)


Leon

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,

That is good news. What that is, is a small program that displays a wire-framed ball bouncing around inside of the window at a very high speed which indicates that you do have connectivity between your PC and the Alpha system via Decnet.

Did you also check to ensure that you have the PCX$SERVER.COM command procedure in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]?

[lross]

$ @sys$update:decw@versions all

DECwindows ident is DW V1.5-041115
DECwindows server ident is DW v8.2-050322
DECwindows transport ident is DW v8.2-050322
DECwindows xlib ident is DW v1.5-041115
DECwindows OSF/Motif Toolkit ident is DW v1.5-041115
DECwindows apps ident is DW v1.5-041115
DECwindows programming ident is DW v1.5-041115
DECwindows LBX utilities ident is DW v8.2-041119
DECwindows LBX proxy server ident is DW v1.5-041115

$ install list/full - sys$library:decw$transport_common.exe

DISK$ALPHASYS:.EXE
DECW$TRANSPORT_COMMON;1
Open Hdr SharAddr Lnkbl Resid
Entry access count = 217
Current / Maximum Shared = 11 / 13
Global Section Count = 2
Resident section count = 0001

[Rick Retterer]

Leon,

What I meant to say was are you sure that pcx$server.com is in the correct place and that the file is not corrupt, and that you have created the necessary object for it within NCP as per the header information within the file itself?

$!* 1. Login to the other VMS system using the SYSTEM account.
$!* 2. Rename or delete any older versions of PCX$SERVER.COM. For example:
$!* RENAME /LOG PCX$SERVER.COM;* PCX$SERVER.OLD;*
$!* 3. COPY /LOG node"user pass"::SYS$SYSTEM:PCX$SERVER.COM SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]
$!* 4. SET PROT=(S:RWED,O:RWED,G:RWED,W:RE) SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM
$!* 5. NCP := $NCP
$!* 6. NCP DEFINE OBJECT PCX$SERVER FILE SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM -
$!* NUMBER 0
$!* 7. NCP SET OBJECT PCX$SERVER FILE SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM -
$!* NUMBER 0

Cheers,
Rick

[lross]

Did you also check to ensure that you have the PCX$SERVER.COM command procedure in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]?

yes, PCX$SERVER.COM resides in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE] and has World:RE privs

[lross]

Ok. give me a sec to do that :)

[lross]

Ok. This is what I did:
1. Renamed PCX$SERVER.COM to PCX$SERVER.OLD
2. Copied the file you sent me to SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM
3. SET PROT=(S:RWED,O:RWED,G:RWED,W:RE) SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM
4. NCP := $NCP
5. NCP DEFINE OBJECT PCX$SERVER FILE SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM NUMBER 0
6. NCP SET OBJECT PCX$SERVER FILE SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]PCX$SERVER.COM NUMBER 0

No errors whatsoever :)

[Rick Retterer]

Very good.

Enjoy eXcursion. It's a little bit limited in terms of Color Depth (8bpp) and a few other things... but for a rudimentary remote PC Xserver it will work very well.

eXcursion is on it's way to being a retired product, and most of us now use either ReflectionX, eXceed, or Xwin32 on our PC's for remote X Windows. ReflectionX and eXceed provide more functionality and a "TrueColor" visual type (32bpp) and allows for multi-headed display support if you ever need anything with more features.

Take care,
Rick

[lross]

Thanks so much for the help Rick. I really appreciate it. I will check out some of those other products also.

The reason I installed eXcursion is because I used to use it at my old job.

[Hoff]

You might want to let your management know that this path and this environment will only going to get harder and more involved and more expensive to maintain.

HP PATHWORKS 32 is a retired product, per the HP web site.

DECnet is not seeing particular new work, nor new applications, nor any OS ports. And it's getting expensive to maintain a DECnet-specific network infrastructure. (Yes, DECnet-Plus over IP can potentially help keep some of the network costs lower; you can use an IP transport.)

Windows XP is headed toward retired status and that'll involve a (reportedly somewhat gnarly) upgrade to Windows 7 sooner or later.

Might it be time to move to Xming or other such X Windows client for Windows, and over to IP-based and ssh-based networking for communications?