Now why would you do THAT?

Episode 4 - "We have liftoff" Last time , I got the RX2600 started up and failed to install OpenVMS because of a suspect hard drive.  From the screen shot above, you might observe that I have gotten OpenVMS installed and running on the machine. There were a bunch of issues.  The hard drive supplied with the system was bad, and it was not the original device if the butchered screws on the caddy were anything to go by.  The seller did offer to replace it for me, but since I have a box of replacements, I didn't take him up on the offer.  Needless to say, if I want another RX, I know where I will look first. The other curious issue is that the DVD drive is staggeringly slow.  It's not just OpenVMS, but also on RedHat.  Since it's not something you use much once the system is installed, HP didn't put much emphasis on it's performance. I'm not going to take you through the whole installation process, that's what the OpenVMS manuals are for, ...

Episode 3 - " Are we there yet? " Last time , we had the RX2600 plugged in and talking on the Management Processor (MP), and burned a copy of OpenVMS to a DVD.  Now let's get this thing running.  The green on black terminal mode is not required, but it does make things feel so much more serious.  I recommend it. Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds! My system had previously been configured with HP-UX as you can see from the Boot Manager menu.  With the DVD in the internal drive, I scrolled down (using the "v" key) and hit enter to boot it.  Wait a while (patience is a virtue...), you will get an OpenVMS startup message.  So far so good! After a long time you get the installation menu for OpenVMS.  Wait a while again... Alright!  Now, type INITIALIZE (Aussies, Kiwis, Brits etc, just tolerate the spelling) because this is an existing disk, and we're going to clobber it. And this is why my problems began...  ...