1 INFO-VAX	Tue, 18 Jul 2006	Volume 2006 : Issue 397       Contents:9 "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COM = Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COM = Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COM = Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COM  Re: DVD video (was Re: DVD) P Re: File I/O in Pascal, Exec-Mode, ASTs disabled (was: Re: File io while in execC Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS) C Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS) C Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS) C Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS)  RE: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?  Re: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?  Re: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/? @ Intel Expands Channel Offerings With Customizable Storage System Netbeans BASIC plugin  Re: Netbeans BASIC plugin & Re: The possibility of vms opening up?& Re: The possibility of vms opening up?& Re: The possibility of vms opening up?& Re: The possibility of vms opening up?& Re: The possibility of vms opening up?& Re: The possibility of vms opening up?$ Tomcat user authentication question. Re: update SCSI to IDE bridge   F ----------------------------------------------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:52:00 -0700) From: "Bob Gezelter" <gezelter@rlgsc.com> B Subject: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COMB Message-ID: <1153234320.846189.73730@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>  > OSNews.com has just published an article I wrote on OpenVMS at- http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=15222   $ - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com   ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 08:12:23 -0700; From: "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" <johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com> F Subject: Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COMC Message-ID: <1153235543.939724.158890@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>    Bob Gezelter wrote: @ > OSNews.com has just published an article I wrote on OpenVMS at/ > http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=15222  > & > - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com   Good article.  Great job, Bob.   ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 09:33:42 -0700  From: "Ian Miller" <ijm@uk2.net>F Subject: Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COMC Message-ID: <1153240422.282184.187670@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>    Excellent article.  & Read the comments to the article also.   ------------------------------   Date: 18 Jul 2006 16:54:13 GMT From: healyzh@aracnet.com F Subject: Re: "OpenVMS - A System of Structure" published on OSNEWS.COM, Message-ID: <e9j3nl02chd@enews1.newsguy.com>  ( Bob Gezelter <gezelter@rlgsc.com> wrote:@ > OSNews.com has just published an article I wrote on OpenVMS at/ > http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=15222   & > - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com  L Wow, it was a bit of a shock this morning when I hit OSNews.com and saw thatL OpenVMS was in the alternative OS contest.  I'd never even considered VMS asL an entrant, rather OS's such as SkyOS or Syllable are what I think of when I think of alternative OS's.  F Good article and good job at bringing some possitive attention to VMS!   		Zane   ------------------------------    Date: 17 Jul 2006 23:42:13 -0700/ From: "Volker Halle" <volker_halle@hotmail.com> $ Subject: Re: DVD video (was Re: DVD)B Message-ID: <1153204933.937322.48610@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>   > > $ dir sys$etc:*cd*% > > %DIRECT-W-NOFILES, no files found  > > = > > The tool you mention must be missing from my distro.  :^(  >  > It is on 8.2 and later  8 Actually this tool is on F8.3 (V8.3 fieldtest) or later.   Volker.    ------------------------------  # Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:56:29 GMT , From: Hoff Hoffman <hoff-remove-this@hp.com>Y Subject: Re: File I/O in Pascal, Exec-Mode, ASTs disabled (was: Re: File io while in exec 0 Message-ID: <hM5vg.660$vV3.152@news.cpqcorp.net>   fkburrie@yahoo.co.uk wrote:   E > Still struggling with the topic (topic of last week) to do file io, G > from a pascal program, while in a condition handler in executive mode D > and with asts disabled. Originally the standard pascal file io wasA > used, which of course will cause concurrency problems with RMS.   A    C, Macro32 and Bliss are the primary languages for inner-mode  D operations; they're what OpenVMS Engineering uses for this purpose. H With Pascal, I don't know that anybody's looked at the RTL to this end, C either.  (With C, there ended up being a kernel-mode RTL; a second  G parallel API.  Macro32 and Bliss only call into RTLs when you ask them   to, obviously.)   H > c) to find a proper pascal example using qio which will function while! > in exec mode and asts disabled.   E    If you're sending output, the other approach is to write into the  H terminal broadcast mailbox.  (You can use this interface from kernel at  IPL, as well.)  G    tr_print is another approach, though that's centrally intended as a  E path for debugging and not for generating user-level output.  (And I  H don't know that there's a tr_print call available for Pascal -- look in H the C libraries for the C version of the call, or in the Macro or Bliss  libraries, etc.)  H    I'd be seriously tempted to queue an outer-mode AST to generate user ! output, too.  (If I needed that.)   J    The obvious question being here, what might this exit handler be doing?   ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:45:30 -0500; From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) L Subject: Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS)3 Message-ID: <jUnNOxP2Qegm@eisner.encompasserve.org>   d In article <mddodvn3jgz.fsf@panix5.panix.com>, Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> writes: > Q > No, the world did not ignore his point of view, nor was it particularly unique.   C    Right, that's why all those DB25's were wired with so few wires.   H    Oh, you meant on _your_ systems.  I think the OP does not have one of    your systems.   N > Odd.  I've been using EMACS (under Tops-20 and ITS), GNU Emacs (under 8 or 9L > different versions of Unix, Tops-20, and 4 different versions of Windows),N > microEmacs, Gosling Emacs, elle, and Fred, since 1978.  I frequently use ^Q,8 > and I've never re-mapped incremental search off of ^S.  D    When you run emacs on a system like Windows, you're not generallyE    running it over a serial line, you're usually only running it over C    the keyboard cable.  Keyboard cables don't use XON/XOFF for flow E    control.  And all those other systems, yes, you can set them up to 2    use hardware flow controls instead of XON/XOFF.  G    But neither you nor Stallman can force the whole world to do it that     way.   K > But then, when it comes to EMACS, I probably know what I'm talking about.   H    Fine.  How much do you know about serial line protocols, which is the    issue here?   ------------------------------  % Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 15:21:12 +0200 / From: Paul Sture <paul.sture.nospam@hispeed.ch> L Subject: Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS): Message-ID: <536df$44bce04a$50db5015$8280@news.hispeed.ch>   Rich Alderson wrote:? > koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes:  > E >> In article <1153059083.982684.77830@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,  >> sampsal@gmail.com writes: > F >>> I just finished installing MicroEMACS 3.12 on my VMS box (7.3-1 ifB >>> relevant) and it works fine except for the fact that somethingK >>> somewhere keeps grabbing the ^S chars sent, and the terminal connection I >>> then locks up until I hit ^Q. I assume this is to do with incorrectly $ >>> interpreted XON/XOFF characters. > I > Terminal.app is eating them for you.  This can easily be changed in the  > Preferences. >   I By default, Terminal.app certainly does *not* "eat them". I can't find a  ' setting for this in Preferences either.    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:23:50 -0700 From: sampsal@gmail.com L Subject: Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS)B Message-ID: <1153232629.948994.326290@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>  C Received this from a Mr Forrest Kenney privately, and it did fix my  problem:   ====== SNIP ======= G     As others pointed out VMS by default uses Xon/Xoff for flow control  your choice are:  C 1) Remap the CTRL-S and CTRL-Q commands to something else.  That is  what&    most Emacs users on VMS usually do.  ? 2) Use set terminal/nohostsync/nottysync tt:  That will disable A    Xon/Xoff flow control in VMS.  But may not disable it for your D    telnet connection to VMS.  Also disabling Xon/Xoff means that youD    run the risk of character loss on output.  Less likely these days>    but a real concern with slow connections or slow emulators.     Forrest Kenney* OpenVMS one time terminal driver developer ====== END SNIP ======  A As he quite correctly points out, telling VMS to ignore soft flow G control might make other apps lose data. Therefore, I made a little DCL G script to do the set terminal/nohostsync/nottysync, run emacs, and then ? reset the term parameters. Works for me, but I might be missing  something here.    Sampsa   ------------------------------  % Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:40:57 -0700 # From: "Tom Linden" <tom@kednos.com> L Subject: Re: Greenhorn question: XON/XOFF control chars (when in MicroEMACS)) Message-ID: <op.tcv22jwuzgicya@hyrrokkin>   > On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:23:50 -0700, <sampsal@gmail.com> wrote:   > E > Received this from a Mr Forrest Kenney privately, and it did fix my 
 > problem: > / > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D SNIP =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D I >     As others pointed out VMS by default uses Xon/Xoff for flow contro=  l  > your choice are: > E > 1) Remap the CTRL-S and CTRL-Q commands to something else.  That is  > what( >    most Emacs users on VMS usually do. > A > 2) Use set terminal/nohostsync/nottysync tt:  That will disable C >    Xon/Xoff flow control in VMS.  But may not disable it for your F >    telnet connection to VMS.  Also disabling Xon/Xoff means that youF >    run the risk of character loss on output.  Less likely these days@ >    but a real concern with slow connections or slow emulators. >  >  > Forrest Kenney, > OpenVMS one time terminal driver developer0 > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D END SNIP =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > C > As he quite correctly points out, telling VMS to ignore soft flow I > control might make other apps lose data. Therefore, I made a little DC=  L I > script to do the set terminal/nohostsync/nottysync, run emacs, and the=  n A > reset the term parameters. Works for me, but I might be missing  > something here.  >  > Sampsa > - BTW,  which version of emacs are you running?    ------------------------------  % Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:50:00 -0400 ' From: "Main, Kerry" <Kerry.Main@hp.com> ( Subject: RE: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?T Message-ID: <FA60F2C4B72A584DBFC6091F6A2B8684017238B7@tayexc19.americas.cpqcorp.net>   > -----Original Message-----9 > From: JF Mezei [mailto:jfmezei.spamnot@teksavvy.com]=20  > Sent: July 17, 2006 9:46 PM  > To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com * > Subject: Re: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/? >=20 > Dave Froble wrote:A > > Like you, I use ping to determine connectivity.  I totally=20  > understand8 > > why it's disabled, but it sure is a pain in the ass. >=20@ > If HP's network were not "blocked", we would have been able=20
 > to see that G > traffic stopped before the VMS node and perhaps send an email to some G > netowrk administrator that should be there 7/24. As it stands, we all & > tended to blame the VMS node itself. >=20  C That is the job of those being paid to manage stuff like this. Some F monitoring processes in place did not work as expected and from what I5 have heard, steps are being taken to address this.=20   F If HP or any other business had to rely on a Cust notifying them of an= IT failure, then that would be a very poor IT infrastructure.   G > What it does show however is that no matter how disaster tolerant VMS E > might be, if it is connected to the net by a single switch, then it ' > becomes quite vulnerable to downtime.  >=20  C Mmm .. Kind of why we stress DT solutions - not just DT systems.=20   6 Same applies for single server or single site as well.   Regards   
 Kerry Main Senior Consultant  HP Services Canada Voice: 613-592-4660  Fax: 613-591-4477  kerryDOTmainAThpDOTcom (remove the DOT's and AT)=20  4 OpenVMS - the secure, multi-site OS that just works.   ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 05:38:11 -0700 From: etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk( Subject: Re: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?C Message-ID: <1153226291.008459.248090@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>   G And if the HP network were not "blocked", they would have every windows C weenie between here and the other side of the world exploring their ; network and figuring out every little hole that they could.   D Companies like HP keep their servers hidden for a good reason.  Just* like you and me, they don't like downtime.   Steve    JF Mezei wrote:  > Dave Froble wrote:I > > Like you, I use ping to determine connectivity.  I totally understand 8 > > why it's disabled, but it sure is a pain in the ass. > I > If HP's network were not "blocked", we would have been able to see that G > traffic stopped before the VMS node and perhaps send an email to some G > netowrk administrator that should be there 7/24. As it stands, we all & > tended to blame the VMS node itself. > G > What it does show however is that no matter how disaster tolerant VMS E > might be, if it is connected to the net by a single switch, then it ' > becomes quite vulnerable to downtime.    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:39:30 -0500; From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) ( Subject: Re: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?3 Message-ID: <2JkfJlXeWpLE@eisner.encompasserve.org>   _ In article <51Sug.624$Ir3.562@news.cpqcorp.net>, Hoff Hoffman <hoff-remove-this@hp.com> writes:  > Bob Koehler wrote: > G >>    While I'm not at all sure that HP still runs that site under VMS,  > 9 >    The OpenVMS external web site runs on OpenVMS Alpha.       That's good to know.    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:01:39 -0700 From: eng_pst@yahoo.com I Subject: Intel Expands Channel Offerings With Customizable Storage System B Message-ID: <1153231298.998902.195010@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>  @ Intel Expands Channel Offerings With Customizable Storage System    g http://www.technology-updates.com/intel-expands-channel-offerings-with-customizable-storage-system.html    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 08:39:49 -0700( From: "Rich Jordan" <jordan@ccs4vms.com> Subject: Netbeans BASIC pluginC Message-ID: <1153237189.699165.130760@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>   A Back in 2001 the Netbeans announcement stated that BASIC would be C supported.  Last year (around May) there was a post that Pascal and ; BASIC plugins were being worked on.  Any idea yet when they , (specifically BASIC) will be made available?   Thanks!    Rich Jordan  CCS    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 10:16:04 -0700( From: "Rich Jordan" <jordan@ccs4vms.com>" Subject: Re: Netbeans BASIC pluginB Message-ID: <1153242963.599378.136330@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>   Rich Jordan wrote:C > Back in 2001 the Netbeans announcement stated that BASIC would be E > supported.  Last year (around May) there was a post that Pascal and = > BASIC plugins were being worked on.  Any idea yet when they . > (specifically BASIC) will be made available? > 	 > Thanks!  > 
 > Rich Jordan  > CCS   B Followup; I see that the 2006 release of Distributed Netbeans doesG include the Pascal plugin.  So our remaining (critical for our own use) 9 holdout is BASIC.  Any info would be greatly appreciated.    Rich   ------------------------------  # Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:41:40 GMT & From: John Reagan <john.reagan@hp.com>/ Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? 0 Message-ID: <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>   Bob Koehler wrote:o > In article <1152980171.444026.140530@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, "geletine" <adaviscg1@hotmail.com> writes:  > G >>I am sure there is more people than me interested in the source code, C >>as you bring up Bliss, how much is still written in Bliss? i also D >>believe vms is the only operating system that actually uses bliss. >  > D >    While I beleive VMS is the only OS to use BLISS in it's kernel,F >    the TOPS (both -10 and -20) Fortran compiler was written in BLISSB >    and I think EDT was kept in BLISS when it was ported from VMS >    to both RSX and TOPS. >  >   F There is BLISS code scattered around everywhere.  I'll guess at least G 40% or more of the OS itself is in BLISS.  Outside of kernel mode, the  E amount of BLISS goes up.  Most of the utilities are in BLISS (or C).  G Just about all the compiler are in BLISS (either totally in BLISS or a  H huge portion in BLISS with some C mixed in).  BLISS is written in BLISS.   --   John Reagan 5 HP Pascal/{A|I}MACRO/COBOL for OpenVMS Project Leader  Hewlett-Packard Company    ------------------------------  % Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:22:55 -0700 # From: "Tom Linden" <tom@kednos.com> / Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? ) Message-ID: <op.tcv40hpwzgicya@hyrrokkin>   H On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:20:46 -0700, Michael Kraemer <m.kraemer@gsi.de>   wrote:  > > In article <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>, John Reagan > <john.reagan@hp.com> writes: >> BLISS is written in BLISS.  > 2 > And how did you compile the 1st BLISS compiler ?  = The same way we wrote PL/I, you write a bootstrap interpreter 9 (usually for a subset in which the compiler is originally 
 expressed)   ------------------------------  + Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 15:20:46 +0000 (UTC) ( From: m.kraemer@gsi.de (Michael Kraemer)/ Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? 5 Message-ID: <e9iu8e$21s$1@lnx107.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de>   < In article <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>, John Reagan <john.reagan@hp.com> writes: > BLISS is written in BLISS.  0 And how did you compile the 1st BLISS compiler ?   ------------------------------   Date: 18 Jul 2006 15:52:03 GMT( From: bill@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon)/ Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? + Message-ID: <4i4ed3F21q10U1@individual.net>   5 In article <e9iu8e$21s$1@lnx107.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de>, + 	m.kraemer@gsi.de (Michael Kraemer) writes: > > In article <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>, John Reagan > <john.reagan@hp.com> writes: >> BLISS is written in BLISS.  > 2 > And how did you compile the 1st BLISS compiler ?   Your joking, right?   C It is not uncommon for compilers to be written in the same language @ they compile.  C, Ada, Pascal and even one COBOL compiler I know come immediately to mind.   @ At somne point in it's history the very first Bliss compiler was> very likely written in Assembler, then re-written in Bliss andB "bootstrapped".  I would guess this was probably done opn TOPS-10.   bill   --  J Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolvesD bill@cs.scranton.edu     |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton   |A Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>       ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 08:43:04 -0700 From: davidc@montagar.com / Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? C Message-ID: <1153237384.541298.165560@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>    Tom Linden wrote: H > On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:20:46 -0700, Michael Kraemer <m.kraemer@gsi.de> > wrote: > @ > > In article <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>, John Reagan  > > <john.reagan@hp.com> writes: > >> BLISS is written in BLISS.  > > 4 > > And how did you compile the 1st BLISS compiler ? > ? > The same way we wrote PL/I, you write a bootstrap interpreter ; > (usually for a subset in which the compiler is originally  > expressed)  G This is pretty common in compiler-writing.  The first C compilers where G written in something besides C.  Now almost all C compilers are written  in C.    ------------------------------  # Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:18:24 GMT & From: John Reagan <john.reagan@hp.com>/ Subject: Re: The possibility of vms opening up? 0 Message-ID: <kR7vg.672$OZ3.173@news.cpqcorp.net>   Michael Kraemer wrote:> > In article <Eq6vg.662$nY3.629@news.cpqcorp.net>, John Reagan > <john.reagan@hp.com> writes: >  >>BLISS is written in BLISS. >  > 2 > And how did you compile the 1st BLISS compiler ?  I The very first BLISS compiler was done at CMU in the late 1960s.  It was  A originally written in BLISS as sort of pseudo-code and then hand  G translated into assembley language.  Then the pseudo-code bootstrapped  G into itself.  While structures were used in its writing, they were not  H implemented.  Rather structure references were implemented using a TECO 
 preprocessor.   H At Digital, the BLISS-11 compiler was the basis for producing the first I BLISS-32 cross-compiler on the PDP-10.  The back-end of the BLISS-11 was  . redone to produce VAX code.  This was in 1976.     --   John Reagan 5 HP Pascal/{A|I}MACRO/COBOL for OpenVMS Project Leader  Hewlett-Packard Company    ------------------------------    Date: 18 Jul 2006 08:58:46 -0700) From: "Dave McNeil" <dave.mcneil@bell.ca> - Subject: Tomcat user authentication question. C Message-ID: <1153238326.433552.109210@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>   
 Hello all,  F We are running an OpenVMS 7.3-2 on an Alpha, with CSWS 2.0  and TomcatG 5.5.9.  Some of our static html pages require user authentication which G Apache handles by validating their web logon with their VMS userid.  An  example from httpd.conf:  $ <Directory "/apache$documents/dave"> AuthType Basic AuthAuthoritative On( AuthName "ICSIS Bell-ATS Authentication" AuthOpenVMSUser On AuthOpenVMSAuthoritative On  require valid-user </Directory>  > I am trying to implement user authentication with Tomcat (Java? servlets) and I would like to use a similar method where Tomcat 3 validates their web logon against their VMS userid.   B I'm hoping that HP made some OpenVMS specific tags for web.xml for/ BASIC authentication, but I haven't found them.   ( Does anyone know how to accomplish this?   Dave   ------------------------------  # Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:06:13 GMT , From: Hoff Hoffman <hoff-remove-this@hp.com>& Subject: Re: update SCSI to IDE bridge0 Message-ID: <915vg.658$8Q3.243@news.cpqcorp.net>   nnc@eta.chalmers.se wrote:6 > May I guess that this is a problem of sector size !?  	    Maybe.   F > VAX:es usually requires 512 byte sectors on disc, as opposed to most> > modern computers (PC:s etc.) that works on 256 byte sectors.  G    Eh?  I've not seen a 256-byte sector size in a device over the last  H half-eon or so, everything I've seen and worked with in the past decade I is using 512 or 2048 byte sectors, and 4096 sectors are just starting to  C come on-line.   The most recent devices I can recall with 256 byte  G sectors I can recall are the RX01 floppy disk, and the TU58 DECtape II    -- and both are, um, rather old.  F    Alpha, VAX, Integrity all use 512, all PC systems I've encountered I this side of Windows Vista also use and default to 512 byte sector sizes  I for magnetic disks.  (Vista reportedly adds the larger 4096 sector size,  C something that is coming into the storage device product pipeline.  G AFAIK, OpenVMS doesn't have immediate plans to add this variant sector  G size.  I don't personally expect any storage vendors to rush to create  F devices that exclusively support 4096 byte sector size interfaces and F not the long-standing 512; I expect that there to be an overlap where D devices support both 512 and 4096, or one device with two different  firmware profiles.)   F    Systems back from TOPS vintage and some variants of disks commonly C seen on VAX systems did have some odd sector sizes, though the VAX  G systems used 512.  A few of the disks had error correction in addition  H to the data, and these had larger sector sizes at lower levels, but the  host-visible data size was 512.   H > Compare this problem to the very few CD brands that might be hooked onI > the SCSI-bus of a Vax - and for these, a jumper has to be moved to tell % > the drive to work in 512 Byte mode!   G    This would be the 2048 byte sector size of CD and DVD media, and CD  I and DVD devices that support 512-byte transfers (the native VAX size) do  F work, where CD and DVD devices can and do default to 2048 byte sector E sizes.  This was/is SCSI, as there wasn't blocking and deblocking of  F 2048 byte sectors.  IDE disks in particular are all 2048, which would I mean that all devices that convert these over to SCSI also need to block  H and deblock these into 512 byte units to get this configuration to work 	 via SCSI.   I    The Alpha and the Integrity driver stack has similar requirements for  D SCSI devices.  Like VAX, these devices also expect 512 byte sectors.  F    (There has been engineering work to add 2048 byte sectors into the H 64-bit platform SCSI driver stack, but I don't know off-hand when or if G that will be enabled or supported; most certainly not before V8.3, and  C quite possibly later if at all, and the devices and platform to be  D determined.  The Alpha and Integrity IDE/ATAPI stack does have 2048 H deblocking support (it can make a native 2048 byte sector look like the I four 512-byte blocks that OpenVMS expects), but -- unless you're looking  > at one of my side-builds -- it does not have blocking support.  > > Happy trying, and please reconfigure the bridge, if possble,* > thereafter, tell the result to the list!  F    That the bridge works for Alpha and not for VAX makes me wonder if B it's something else.  There are ECO kits for SCSI disk sizes, for F instance, and I don't know off-hand if the VAX consoles can deal with D the command sets on newer disks.  (The defaults on newer disks have H certainly derailed a few SRM consoles, for instance -- the AlphaStation F XP1000 cannot bootstrap from a number of ATAPI devices, for instance. I The Plextor PX716A is one of the few new devices that does work and does  H boot via the SRM on the AlphaStation XP1000 series.)  Check the OpenVMS E FAQ for the specific SCSI ECO kits that are required for larger SCSI  G disks, as these ATA devices (via the bridge) do (obviously) present as  
 SCSI devices.    ------------------------------   End of INFO-VAX 2006.397 ************************