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, ...

It's here! Last time, I wrote about my reasons for choosing the HP RX2600 to run OpenVMS . Having gotten all the manuals, firmware and everything else, I set up the machine according to the instructions from HP, and nothing much happened.  Nothing on the monitor, even though all the docs said it should mirror the console. Next step, connect a cross-over cable to the Management Processor (MP) serial port, and try again.  This time I get greeted by a login prompt.  The user needs to be "Admin", but I don't know the password... No biggie, with the power on, hold in the reset button on the MP card and then you will be prompted to enter "p" to reset the accounts.  The manual says Admin (note the capital letter) should have no password, but the prompt on the console said it's "Admin", so that worked. The Help command is your friend here.  First thing I did was to use the Command Menu (CM) then LC to configure the networking for the...

Chapter I  A New (Old Stock) Hope The first computer I got to use was a PDP-11 owned by a time-sharing bureau in Wollongong in the 1970's.  From memory they ran services for car dealers or some such thing.  The operating system was RSTS/11. When I finished high school I was able to get access to a VAX/VMS system owned by the Department of Education.  Security wasn't a big thing, and my lecturer even gave me the phone number for a dial-in port so I could get access on the weekends.  I discovered the machine I had access to was part of a larger network of VAXes and with a few simple commands, I could jump from one to another.  Just looking around mind you, nothing even remotely interesting was attempted. VAX/VMS, and later OpenVMS on Alpha have played a moderate part in my career, and I still enjoy tinkering because of the generous way that Digital,then Compaq and now HP/E have supported the hobbyist community. Emulators are one thing, but ...