8.4 Fieldtest CD burning – Twice
Some days ago, I created a logical disk on the emultaor, to create a CD for installing the VMS 8.4 fieltest on the new PWS500. I thought I had it copied to Aphrodite – found an ISO-file ready to be burned – and stored that on CD. But when I tried to boopt the PWS from that file, it failed – it turned out to be the bad, non-bootable one. So I re-created a second LD-device, and now did the proper restore on that one, and copied the container file to the Windows environemnt and burned it as an image.
This morning, I tried to see if it really was bootable on the emulator – and it was, but there is something wrong on the CD:
>>> b dka300
(boot -file '' -flags '' 'dka300')
BOOT_RESET is ON: cold boot
Booting from the device 'dka300' file ''
Loaded the primary booter; size 0x9a000
OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version E8.4
© Copyright 1976-2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image TYPE
-CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file DKA300:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
*** AXPVMS$PCSI_INSTALL_MESSAGES.COM called with invalid message identifier!
identifier: welcome
Installing required known files…
Configuring devices…
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image TYPE
-CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file DKA300:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
*** AXPVMS$PCSI_INSTALL_MESSAGES.COM called with invalid message identifier!
identifier: menu
Enter CHOICE or ? for help: (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/?)
I know that choice 8 will start DCL – and it did, without a problem, except that, again, TYPE will not show up the message what to do to finish the session:
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image TYPE
-CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file DKA300:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
*** AXPVMS$PCSI_INSTALL_MESSAGES.COM called with invalid message identifier!
identifier: notnormal
$$$
So TYPE is a problem: it will show the same error if invoked.
$$$ type SMGTERMS.TXTSMGTERMS.TXT
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image TYPE
-CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file DKA300:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
$$$
but DUMP does not show an error but runs to the end. So it IS readable.
$ analyze/image however, signals a different problem:
Analyze Image 30-DEC-2009 13:14:33.90 Page 1
DKA300:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
ANALYZ A01-07
*** This file is not a VMS native image.
The analysis uncovered 1 error.
$$$
I successfully updated the standard bootdisk of the emulator from a backup; I booted that system, and tried to access the specific image.
$ analyze/image
had the same problem as when booted from CD, and running the image directly issues yet another error:
$ run type.exe
%DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image TYPE.EXE
-CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file DKA300:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1
-SYSTEM-F-IVADDR, invalid media address
$
but now, DUMP finds a problem:
$ dump/rec/page DKA300:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE
Dump of file DKA300:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]TYPE.EXE;1 on 30-DEC-2009 13:42:03.79
File ID (1301,1,0) End of file block 61 / Allocated 63
-SYSTEM-F-IVADDR, invalid media address
$ Analyze/disk revealed quite a lot of errors – including on directories
$ analyze/disk dka300:
Analyze/Disk_Structure for _$3$DKA300: started on 30-DEC-2009 13:47:09.72
%ANALDISK-W-CHKSCB, invalid storage control block, RVN 1
%ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS
-SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHFILE, no such file
%ANALDISK-I-BADHIGHWATER, file (2297,1,0) SYS$ERRLOG.DMP;1
inconsistent highwater mark and EFBLK
%ANALDISK-W-READDIR, error reading directory [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSFONT]
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
%ANALDISK-W-READDIR, error reading directory [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSHLP]
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
%ANALDISK-W-READDIR, error reading directory [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSHLP]
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
%ANALDISK-W-READDIR, error reading directory [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSHLP]
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
%ANALDISK-W-READDIR, error reading directory [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSHLP]
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
and because of that, subdirectories and files could not be located:
%ANALDISK-W-LOSTHEADER, file (1322,1,0) DECW.DIR;1
not found in a directory
%ANALDISK-W-LOSTHEADER, file (1323,1,0) 100DPI.DIR;1
not found in a directory
There may indeed be something wrong with the CD. Well, check it on the Alpha’s. If it runs there, it’s possible that either the CD on my laptop has a problem reading the files, it has broken the LD-image writing it to the CD…
Update
Inserted the CD in one of the drives on Diana and analyze/image didn’t reveal an error. Executing the program fails, but because of something completely different:
$ run type.exe
%LIB-F-INVARG, invalid argument(s)
At least, the program starts without a problem. So it’s quite likely to be the CD in the laptop, or the driver with Personal Alpha. Next: installing 8.4 on the other PWS….
This worked like a charm: upgraded from 7.3-2 to 8.4 directly, though I think it’s not supported – officially. It took quite some time but that may have been a matter of a slow CD-device. Once started, the system was restarted, and it ran a SYSGEN script – to update the system parameters due for the changes in the OS. Thsi would have been executed in an upgrade to 8.3 as well, but this one might have to do with the clustering-over-ip that comes with 8.4. This actually is the big thing to test in the coming weeks – with a new setup of WASD: version 10 has some big chnages and it’s a good moment to re-think the structure of the site. It’s prpably also the moment to re-define the mapping to fit WordPress 2.9 – if possible.
Anyway: Daphne runs 8.4 when booted. Next is the setup of SCS-IP, using one of the NICS for cluster traffic, the other for normal traffic.