wells@bgsuvax.UUCP (Deb Wells) (02/05/88)
January 20, 1988 On Saturday, January 2, 1988, we at Bowling Green State University decided to start the New Year off right by installing version 4.6 VMS on a VAX 8530. Described here are some of the complications we encountered while trying to do this menial task. There was one documentation error in the release notes. The way our configuration is set up to reboot the system is DEFBOO.COM calls BDABOO.COM which contains all the register settings. In the pre-upgrade procedure, the instructions said to change register 5 so that it contained a 1 when it actually needed to be left a 0. So when we did get to phase 5 and couldn't get the system rebooted, software support told us this was an error in the documentation. Even after correcting register 5 in the boot command procedure, the system still would not boot up version 4.6 VMS. Every time it got the point where VMB.EXE is suppose to start, the system would hang. After spending three to four hours on the telephone with software support, they referred us to hardware support. Hardware support determined that our console copy of VMB.EXE must have gotten blown away. Our local office had the console floppies for version 5.0 so we couldn't copy VMB.EXE from the floppies and go on. By this time, it was 6:30 on a Saturday night. We had to notify the on-duty-manager that we desperately needed to get our hands on the console floppies. Just about this time., we began to realize that this problem seemed similar to the one encountered prior to installing version 5.0 (REV E) of the PRO 380 console software. Since we would have had to wait until someone brought down another copy of VMB.EXE, we decided to throw caution to the wind and try one of the remedies discovered in the pre-REV-E day. Powering off and on the VAX 8530. And glory be, the darn thing came up running version 4.6 VMS! We were then able to continue with the rest of the installation. But we did still experience some of the old problems with the console. For example, the console hanging when the system's rebooting and having to clear restart flags; bringing the system up using SYSINIT; system not rebooting when an automatic reboot was requested. All of which had been solved by updating to version 5.0 (or REV E) of the console software almost a year ago. On Monday, January 4, the local field service engineer brought down the console floppies and we copied a different version of VMB.EXE onto the console device. Since then, we have only had one occurrence of not being able to boot the system properly. We will be upgrading to version 7.0 of the console software soon. We also discovered that when users tried to log in to a VT100 under 4.6 VMS the terminal appeared to be hung. We are using Emulex CS41 multiplexors emulating DMF32's with all of the hardwired terminals set to be autobaud detected. It seems the terminals were not getting autobaud detected correctly. Per software support's suggestion, we dropped back to version 4.5 of the YCDRIVER.EXE which seemed to clear up the problem. We have submitted an SPR on the subject of hung terminals under 4.6 VMS. After talking to software support in Colorado, we felt very reassured to hear that no two VAXes boot the same. (So what's all the hype about being able to port a VMS operating system over to any ol' VMS machine?) GOOD LUCK!