TNA Question

[David Hickerson]

I have a piece of software that is designed to log into a OpenVMS system (among others), find reports, and perform an FTP file download. This software has worked nearly flawlessly until we performed an upgrade to version V7.2-2 yesterday, but now an error is displayed when connecting:
"ERROR MODIFYING TNA123" (the number seems to increase wich each connection attempt)
"UNKNOWN TERMINAL TYPE"

I honestly have no idea what this is complaining about, the only thing I know is the FT GET commands it sends are failing (complaints "SIZE is unimplemented" and "file not found" even after it has determined the file is there - including it's size in bytes) and the support group for the software isn't in on Sundays. It would sure be nice to fix this myself instead of relying on someone nearly two-thousand miles away to do it for me, especially since I keep getting this itchy feeling telling me that this isn't a huge problem.

Thanks in advance!

[Hein van den Heuvel]

If you hit the web (google) with +"UNKNOWN TERMINAL TYPE" +VMS then you will find some earlier reports.

Mostly this error occurs when trying to issue commands like SET TERM/INQ on non-terminals (like the TNA device).

See if SYLOGIN.COM or the LOGIN.COM file for the username in question contains SET TERM commands. Those SHOULD be in a conditional sections, only to be executed in "INTERACTIVE" mode.

A workaround could be to add:
$ if f$mode() .nes. "INTERACTIVE" then exit 1
Just befor the line with the SET TERM, but after required logicals and symbols are defined.

What is not clear to me, is how an upgrade to 7.2-2 could have played a role. One would suspect something with those SYLOGIN or LOGIN.COM file but I would not expect an update to touch that. Maybe someone used to upgrade as an down-time opportunity to bring forward other changes as well?

hth,
Hein.

[John Gillings]

All LOGIN procedures need to be "threaded" according to process mode. Use this as a template:

$! Commands for all modes here
$!
$ GOTO DO_'F$MODE()
$
$ DO_BATCH:
$! Commands for BATCH mode here
$ EXIT
$!
$ DO_NETWORK:
$! Commands for NETWORK mode here
$ EXIT
$!
$ DO_OTHER:
$! Commands for OTHER mode here
$ EXIT
$!
$ DO_INTERACTIVE:
$! Commands for INTERACTIVE mode here
$ EXIT

Incoming FTP connections will be "NETWORK", so make sure there are no commands that expect a terminal in the network section.

Remember to check both the SYLOGIN.COM and the individual user LOGIN.COM.

[Karl Rohwedder]

David,
beside the problem of the 'unknown terminal' there seems to be also problem with your FTP itself (SIZE is unimplemented...).

Did you change the TCPIP product during your upgrade or did your application use a separate FTP utility? Btw. From what version did you upgrade?

regards Kalle

[Antoniov.]

David,
welcome to vms forum.


I have a piece of software that is designed to log into a OpenVMS system (among others), find reports, and perform an FTP file download.

Reading your first sentence, I understand your software creates an interactive or network session on vms; after of this it executes ftp. If is it true, the problem is indeed located in SYLOGIN as posted by Hein. I remember SYLOGIN template was radically modificed between V6 and V7 of vms.

Antonio Vigliotti