Lakeland Developer

HP LK464 XModmap OpenVMS Keyboard Map for Ubuntu Linux

2011-03-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

Save the following entries to a file, for example .xmodmap-lk464, then run

$ xmodmap .xmodmap-lk464

File contents:

keycode 9=grave asciitilde
keycode 49 = less greater
keycode 199 = KP_F1
keycode 200 = KP_F2
keycode 201 = KP_F3
keycode 202 = KP_F4
keycode 110 = Find
keycode 115 = Select
keycode 191 = F13
keycode 192 = F14
keycode 142 = F16
keycode 195 = F17
keycode 196 = F18
keycode 197 = F19
keycode 198 = F20
keycode 108 = Alt_R
keycode 90 = KP_0
keycode 87 = KP_1
keycode 88 = KP_2
keycode 89 = KP_3
keycode 83 = KP_4
keycode 84 = KP_5
keycode 85 = KP_6
keycode 79 = KP_7
keycode 80 = KP_8
keycode 81 = KP_9
keycode 91 = KP_Decimal
keycode 129 = KP_Separator
keycode 22 = Delete
keycode 119 = 0x1000FF00

Successful install of OpenBSD 4.7 on a SPARCbook 3

2010-08-13T15:02:00.001-07:00

Here is the proof:


ZS is initialized                                                         
OBP CRC check: OK                                                         
Clearing TLB Entries                                                      
Initializing Tsunami Cache                                                
Probing for RAM @ 0x06000000                                              
Probing for RAM @ 0x04000000                                              
Probing for RAM @ 0x02000000                                              
Top RAM bank @ 0x02000000                                                 
Available Memory 0x04000000                                               
Context Table allocated, Available Memory 0x03ffc000                      
RAMsize allocated, Available Memory 0x03fec000                            
Level 1 Table allocated, Available Memory 0x03febc00                      
Mapping RAM @ 0xffef0000                                                  
RAMbase --> RAMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feba00                         
Mapping ROM @ 0xffd00000                                                        
ROMbase --> ROMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feb800                         
Mapping ROM @ 0x00000000                                                        
0 --> ROMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feb500                               
Available Memory 0x03feb000                                                     
                                                                                
ttya initialized                                                                
Probing Memory Bank #0 32 Megabytes                                             
Probing Memory Bank #1 32 Megabytes                                             
Probing Memory Bank #2 Nothing there                                            
Probing Memory Bank #3 Nothing there                                            
Incorrect configuration checksum;                                               
Setting NVRAM parameters to default values.                                     
Setting diag-switch? NVRAM parameter to true                                    
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 0,0  p9000                         
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 4,0  espdma esp sd st SUNW,bpp led 
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 1,0  ts102                         
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 2,0  SUNW,DBRIs3                   
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 3,0  Nothing there                 
                                                                                
ZS is initialized                                                               
OBP CRC check: OK                                                               
Clearing TLB Entries                                                            
Initializing Tsunami Cache                                                      
Probing for RAM @ 0x06000000                                                    
Probing for RAM @ 0x04000000                                                    
Probing for RAM @ 0x02000000                                                    
Top RAM bank @ 0x02000000                                                       
Available Memory 0x04000000                                                     
Context Table allocated, Available Memory 0x03ffc000                            
RAMsize allocated, Available Memory 0x03fec000                                 
Level 1 Table allocated, Available Memory 0x03febc00                            
Mapping RAM @ 0xffef0000                                                        
RAMbase --> RAMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feba00                         
Mapping ROM @ 0xffd00000                                                        
ROMbase --> ROMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feb800                         
Mapping ROM @ 0x00000000                                                        
0 --> ROMsize mapped, Available Memory 0x03feb500                               
Available Memory 0x03feb000                                                     
                                                                                
ttya initialized                                                                
Probing Memory Bank #0 32 Megabytes                                             
Probing Memory Bank #1 32 Megabytes                                             
Probing Memory Bank #2 Nothing there                                            
Probing Memory Bank #3 Nothing there                                            
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 0,0  p9000                         
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 4,0  espdma esp sd st SUNW,bpp led 
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 1,0  ts102                         
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 2,0  SUNW,DBRIs3                   
Probing /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000 at 3,0  Nothing there                 
Tadpole S3 SPARCbook, Keyboard Present                                          
ROM Rev. 2.9 V1.00                                                              
64 MB memory installed, Serial #10690881.                                       
Ethernet address 0:0:83:a3:21:41, Host ID: 80a32141.                            
                                                                                 
Spinning discs down .. done                                                     
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@4,8400010/le@4,8c00000   File and args:          
Automatic network cable selection succeeded : Using AUI Ethernet Interface      
                                                                                
Type  help  for more information                                                
ok boot /iommu/sbus/espdma@4,8400000/esp/sd@5,0 bsd                             
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@4,8400000/esp/sd@5,0   File and args: bsd       
>> OpenBSD BOOT 2.3                                                             
Booting bsd @ 0x4000                                                            
3145804+437948 [52+149536+131969]                                               
[ using 281932 bytes of bsd ELF symbol table ]                                  
console is ttya                                                                 
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993                                      
        The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.      
Copyright (c) 1995-2010 OpenBSD. All rights reserved.  http://www.OpenBSD.org   
                                                                                
OpenBSD 4.7 (GENERIC) #152: Fri Mar 19 02:33:48 MDT 2010                        
    deraadt@sparc.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC           
real mem = 66699264 (63MB)                                                
avail mem = 59355136 (56MB)                                                     
mainbus0 at root: Tadpole_S3                                                    
cpu0 at mainbus0: TMS390S10 @ 50 MHz, on-chip FPU                               
cpu0: physical 4K instruction (32 b/l), 2K data (16 b/l) cache enabled          
obio0 at mainbus0                                                               
clock0 at obio0 addr 0x71200000: mk48t08 (eeprom)                               
timer0 at obio0 addr 0x71d00000 delay constant 23                               
zs0 at obio0 addr 0x71100000 pri 12, softpri 6                                  
zstty0 at zs0 channel 0: console                                                
zstty1 at zs0 channel 1                                                         
zs1 at obio0 addr 0x71000000 pri 12, softpri 6                                  
zskbd0 at zs1 channel 0: keyboard, type 5, layout 0x2e                          
wskbd0 at zskbd0 mux 1                                                          
zsms0 at zs1 channel 1                                                          
wsmouse0 at zsms0 mux 0                                                         
slavioconfig at obio0 addr 0x71800000 not configured                            
auxreg0 at obio0 addr 0x71900000                                                
auxreg1 at obio0 addr 0x71910000                                                
tctrl0 at obio0 addr 0x42000020 pri 11                                          
tctrl0: main power available, lid down                                   
clk-ctrl at obio0 addr 0x713c0000 not configured                                
btcham0 at obio0 addr 0x71380000: id 0x3a, revision 0xa0                        
com0 at obio0 addr 0x713a0000 pri 13: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo                    
com0: probed fifo depth: 0 bytes                                                
iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x1/0x4, page-size 4096, range 64MB 
sbus0 at iommu0: clock = 25 MHz                                                 
"p9000" at sbus0 class display slot 0 offset 0x100000 not configured            
dma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400000: rev 2                                    
esp0 at dma0 offset 0x8800000 pri 4: ESP200, 40MHz                              
scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets, initiator 7                                        
probe(esp0:3:0): max sync rate 10.00MB/s                                        
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 3 lun 0:  SCSI2 0/direct fixed       
sd0: drive offline                                                              
sd1 at scsibus0 targ 5 lun 0:  SCSI2 0/direct d
sd1: 3067MB, 512 bytes/sec, 6281856 sec total                                   
cd0 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 0:  SCSI2 5/cdrom reme
bpp0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc800000: DMA2  
ledma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400010: rev 2                                  
le0 at ledma0 offset 0x8c00000 pri 6: address 00:00:83:a3:21:41                 
le0: 16 receive buffers, 4 transmit buffers                                     
tslot0 at sbus0 slot 1 offset 0x2000000 pri 11: 2 slots                         
pcmcia0 at tslot0 socket 0                                                      
pcmcia1 at tslot0 socket 1                                                      
"SUNW,DBRIs3" at sbus0 class ISDN slot 2 offset 0x40 not configured             
vscsi0 at root                                                                  
scsibus1 at vscsi0: 256 targets                                                 
softraid0 at root                                                               
bootpath: /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@4,8400000/esp@4,8800000/sd@50
root on sd1a swap on sd1b dump on sd1b                                          
WARNING: / was not properly unmounted                                           
Automatic boot in progress: starting file system checks.                        
/dev/rsd1a: 2695 files, 32121 used, 810934 free (78 frags, 101357 blocks, 0.0% )
/dev/rsd1a: MARKING FILE SYSTEM CLEAN                                           
/dev/rsd1e: 9 files, 8 used, 164293 free (21 frags, 20534 blocks, 0.0% fragment)
/dev/rsd1e: MARKING FILE SYSTEM CLEAN                                           
/dev/rsd1d: 22231 files, 288694 used, 569387 free (1787 frags, 70950 blocks, 0.)
/dev/rsd1d: MARKING FILE SYSTEM CLEAN                                           
setting tty flags                                                               
pf enabled                                                                       
starting network                                                                
starting system logger                                                          
starting initial daemons: ntpd.                                                 
savecore: no core dump                                                          
checking quotas: done.                                                          
building ps databases: kvm dev.                                                 
clearing /tmp                                                                   
starting pre-securelevel daemons:.                                              
setting kernel security level: kern.securelevel: 0 -> 1                         
creating runtime link editor directory cache.                                   
preserving editor files.                                                        
ssh-keygen: generating new DSA host key... 
ssh-keygen: generating new RSA host key... done. 
ssh-keygen: generating new RSA1 host key... done.                               
starting network daemons: sshd sendmail inetd.                                  
starting local daemons:.                                                        
standard daemons: cron.                                                         
Thu Dec 31 12:09:33 GMT 1987                                                    
                                                                                
OpenBSD/sparc (tadpole.hecnet.eu) (console)                                     
                                                                                
login:

Epson Geneva PX-8 Portable Computer Serial RS/232 Cable

2010-08-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

Thought it was worth posting this as there doesn't appear to be a reference for how to wire up a serial cable or RS/232 cable for the Epson PX-8 Mini DIN-8 to a PC DB9 female connector.

PX-8	PC-DB9
1	5
2	2
3	3
4,5	1
6	4
7	6
8	7,8

If the cable you're using contains a CG/E Common Ground wire you can connect this to the shell of the DB9. It's best to scratch the shell just above the connections then solder the wire directly onto the shell.

DEC Legacy Event, April 17th & 18th 2010, Windermere, UK

2009-11-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

I am organising a DEC Legacy Event on the 17th & 18th April 2010 in Windermere, UK.

The event's purpose is to bring together people with an interest in the company Digital Equipment Corporation and their legacy of hardware, software and ethos. I am hoping to attract people willing to exhibit their DEC computer hardware and software at the event. There will be tables setup around the main hall on which equipment can be presented.

Whilst the format for the event is still fluid, I envisage that it will involve a mixture of the following:

Walkabout sessions giving the opportunity to talk to owners of DEC hardware and to 'have a play'
Demonstrations of equipment or software by their owners (languages, applications, games etc)
Sit down presentations about specific topics of interest
A programming competition (if there is enough interest)
Buy & sell hardware, software, relevant items
Raffle (with suitably themed items) on behalf of the National Museum of Computing

For more information please visit the webpage at: http://declegacy.org.uk

The Home Network

2009-10-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is when you know it's time to 'consolidate'.

Simple Volume Shadowing of the System Disk under OpenVMS

2009-09-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am not an OpenVMS expert. I had to read the manual a couple of times and consult with the Hoff to get the commands sorted to do this, so hopefully it will save you some time.

Volume Shadowing on OpenVMS at it's very simplest can be used to provide RAID-1 mirroring using two or more locally attached hard drives. In my case I have a single hard drive (DKA300:) which acts as my system and data disk. I wanted a complete hot mirror of this drive in case of hardware failure. I have used two identical drives to do this.

If you are an OpenVMS hobbyist you will have the license required for volume shadowing. You can easily check:


$ SHOW LICENSE VOLSHAD
Active licenses on node ORAC:

------- Product ID --------    ---- Rating ----- -- Version --
Product            Producer    Units Avail Activ Version Release    Termination
VOLSHAD            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      16-OCT-2009

You then need to setup the system parameters so that when you reboot OpenVMS your current system disk is included in a shadow set to which another drive (or drives) can then be added. Edit the file SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT and add the following lines:


ALLOCLASS=100
SHADOWING=2
SHADOW_SYS_DISK=1
SHADOW_SYS_UNIT=0

A sensible value for ALLOCLASS is 100, but it can be anything from 1 to 255. If you have previously added the box to a cluster this parameter may already be defined. SHADOWING must be 2 to enable shadowing. SHADOW_SYS_DISK must be 1 to enable shadowing for the system disk, and SHADOW_SYS_UNIT defines the virtual unit number which is appended to the virtual drive name DUAx:

You then need to run AUTOGEN to save these parameters. I used the following two commands:


$ @SYS$UPDATE:AUTOGEN SAVPARAMS GENPARAMS
$ @SYS$UPDATE:AUTOGEN GENPARAMS REBOOT

The second command may fail on errors, if this is the case and you are happy to proceed add the keyword FEEDBACK to the end.

This will reboot the system and (hopefully) when it's started up you should see the virtual unit when you run the SHOW DEVICE command:


$ show dev d

Device                  Device           Error    Volume         Free  Trans Mnt
Name                   Status           Count     Label        Blocks Count Cnt
DSA0:                   Mounted              0  OVMSVAXSYS    16637880   337   1
$100$DKA200:    (ORAC)  Online wrtlck        0
$100$DKA300:    (ORAC)  ShadowSetMember      0  (member of DSA0:)

To add a new member to the volume set use the MOUNT command, like this:

MOUNT/CONFIRM/SYSTEM DSA0: /SHADOW=($100$DKA300,$100$DKA400) OVMSVAXSYS

This command specifies the existing system disk $100$DKA300 and the new disk $100$DKA400. You will need to confirm that you want to overwrite the contents of the new drive. The command initiates a copy of the data on the system disk to the new drive. SHOW DEVICE will indicate the copy progress:


$ show dev d

Device                  Device           Error    Volume         Free  Trans Mnt
Name                   Status           Count     Label        Blocks Count Cnt
DSA0:                   Mounted              0  OVMSVAXSYS    16637880   337   1
$100$DKA200:    (ORAC)  Online wrtlck        0
$100$DKA300:    (ORAC)  ShadowSetMember      0  (member of DSA0:)
$100$DKA400:    (ORAC)  ShadowCopying        0  (copy trgt DSA0:  43% copied)

After the copy is complete the two shadow set members will contain identical data, so that if one of the drives should fail it can be replaced without losing any data.

I encourage you to consult the Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS manual for more information.

VAX APL LK201 Keyboard

2009-09-06T03:06:00.001-07:00

From the VAX APL Users Guide page 1-3 comes an image of the LK201-EC variant with APL keycaps:

With this image as a reference I designed a set of replacement keycaps for an existing LK201 using the Open Office Drawing tool (source file) and the excellent Simpl APL Unicode Font:

These were printed out using a laser printer on the self-adhesive transparency paper provided as part of the Hooleon Keyboard Sticker Label Making Kit. These were then cut out using a scalpel and mounted on backing stickers which are opaque. A final top sticker adds a textured finish and protects the printed label.This is the resulting keyboard:

Left Hand Side:

Right Hand Side:

I've also uploaded a short video to YouTube demonstrating how you interact with VAX APL V4.0 using this keyboard together with a VT320 terminal.

Embedding the SimPL APL font on a web page using Cufón

2009-08-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

I came across Cufón a while ago whilst browsing the excellent nettuts+ website.

Having started coding in APL I was wondering about the best way to present developed code on my blog. One option is to use my java transcoding technique to load my Soliton Sharp APL code into jEdit (my favourite editor) using my custom character set transcoder to convert the custom eight-bit ASCII encoding used by Soliton into standard Unicode APL characters.

Cufón allows you to embed any arbitrary truetype font or fonts into a webpage via javascript and then use the font directly within the html by replacing a standard html tag. You can either download the utility or use their website to process a truetype font located on your hard disk to generate a javascript file containing your selected truetype glyphs. The generated file in this example is simpl_400.font.js (see code below).

I chose the excellent free font created by Phil Chasney called SImPL to embed within this blog.

The code required within the head tag of this page to embed the font is very simple:


  <script src="http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/styles/cufon-yui.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script src="http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/styles/simpl_400.font.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript">
   Cufon.replace('h1');
  </script>

The results can be seen with the following APL characters above ASCII location 127 in the SOLITON-APL encoding:

¨¯≤≥≠∨×⍪⌹∵⌿
⍲¡€£¥¬⍱⌻⍂≡⌷¿
⍺⊥∩⌊∊∇∆⍳∘⎕∣⊤○
⍴⌈↓∪⍵⊃↑⊂⊢⍀⊣÷
⌶⊖⍎⍝⍷⍫⍒⍋⍸⍤⍞⍕⍥
⍟⍉⌽⍧←⍙→⋄

and an example of some APL code:

∇mbrt1[⎕]∇
[0] z←mbrt1
[1] rrz←(0.1×⍳21)−1 ⍝ array from ¯1 to +1 stepsize 0.1
[2] iiz←(0.1×⍳21)−1 ⍝ array from ¯1 to +1 stepsize 0.1

∇cmplsq[⎕]∇
[0] z← cmplsq ⍵
[1]
[2] ⍝ Function: Complex Square
[3] ⍝ Perform a complex square of the argument ⍵, returning array r,i in z
[4]
[5] r←⍵[0] ⍝ extract real part into r
[6] i←⍵[1] ⍝ extract imaginary part into i
[7] rn←(r⋆2)−(i⋆2) ⍝ real result
[8] in←r×i×2 ⍝ imaginary result
[9] z←rn,in ⍝ z is array of real and imaginary results

DIGITAL and Alpha Powered Logos

2009-08-08T01:26:00.001-07:00

I created a couple of high-resolution logos for DIGITAL and Alpha Powered from existing sources with transparent backgrounds as PNG files that someone might find useful! Below are two scaled images - be sure to use the links above to get the full resolution version.

Retrochallenge 2009 Summer Challenge Entry

2009-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

I participate in retrochallenge - a convenient excuse to utilise retro technology for a month. For the summer 2009 challenge I coded up a fractal generator in VAX Macro-32. You can check out the challenge blog at http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/rc2009sc. I produce this blog on my main website because it is created using ALLIN1 on the VAX by a set of scripts I created for my winter warmup 2009 entry.

One of the images I produced has been used by the competition organiser for the winners mousemat. It can also be ordered in t-shirt format from cafepress.

The above image is also available at 4800x4800 resolution, which shows the recursive nature of the image much more clearly.

Transcoding AVCHD into DVD and Web Formats using the Command Line under Linux

2009-08-07T23:50:00.001-07:00

I needed a way of transcoding output from my Panasonic HDC-HS300 into a DVD and web viewable format under linux. There are webpages out there that tell you how to do it, but I had to edit some of the scripts to perform this task automatically from the command line.

I've created two scripts, convert-mts-dvd.sh and convert-mts-web.sh which can be downloaded in the archive convert-mts.tgz. The scripts unpack into a bin directory.

In order to use the scripts you need to ensure you have the latest version of mplayer installed. My version reports:

MPlayer SVN-r29328-4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team

so I would suggest this version or later. The packaged version in the OpenSUSE 11.0 repository is not recent enough - I downloaded the latest source code using subversion and built it locally. The following commands download the latest version, configure and build it to /usr/local. The mplayer binary can then be found under /usr/local/bin so the last command ensures that you pick that version up in preference to a pre-packaged version that might be installed under /usr/bin for example.


svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
cd mplayer
svn update
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/
make install
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

The convert-mts-dvd.sh script is used to convert your HD video into DVD quality, suitable for directly burning to a DVD (for example using my command line tools described in a previous blog post). It contains the following commands:

rm -rf dvd/*
mkdir dvd
for f in *.mts
do
echo $f
mencoder -oac copy -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,hh
arddup -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=55
000:keyint=15:aspect=16/9:threads=4 $f -ofps 25 -fps 50 -o dvd/`basename $f .mts
`.mpg -demuxer lavf >>`basename $f .mts`.log 2>&1 &
done
wait

Once you have this command on your path, cd to a directory containing the files you wish to convert (which have the extension .mts) and run the command. Note that with the Panasonic Camcorder you can copy the files directly off the camera - you don't need to use the Windows utility provided. It will create a sub-directory called dvd and proceed to convert all the .mts files into DVD format. It creates a log file for each of the converted files giving any output or error messages.

Note the ampersand on the end and the wait command - this script is multi-threaded and will utilise all cores on a mult-core processor. I did some experimentation with versions of this script and found that on a machine with a decent amount of memory the most efficient way of transcoding the videos was to spawn off all the transcode commands at the same time, even when transcoding several tens of mpeg. On my quad-core machine this command completes the process almost exactly four times quicker than processing the command sequentially.

The only disadvantage of spawning all the transcodes at once is that you might impact other processes on the box (I noticed that video streaming would be interrupted for example). You could always use the nice command infront of the call to mencoder to run it at a lower priority, giving preference to existing tasks.

The convert-mts-web.sh provides the appropriate command line arguments for generating a video size 360x288 - it creates a directory called web and places the transcoded video files there.


rm -rf web/*
mkdir web
for f in *.mts
do
echo $f
mencoder -oac copy -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=360:288,harddup -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=1250:vbitrate=625:keyint=15:aspect=16/9:threads=4 $f -ofps 25 -fps 50 -o web/`basename $f .mts`.mpg -demuxer lavf >>`basename $f .mts`.log 2>&1 &
done
wait

Automatic Video DVD Creation under Linux using command line tools

2009-08-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Doing DVD creation properly is a pain. Firstly, you have to master a GUI creation tool. Secondly, every DVD you create seems to involve too much manual work. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just throw a load of mpeg files into a directory and run a couple of commands.

I couldn't find anything out there to fit the bill, so I rolled my own. You can download everything you need in dvd-create.tgz

The prerequisites are the dvdauthor, cdrtools and MPlayer packages. Use your linux distros' package manager to ensure they are installed and up-to-date.

Unpacking dvd-create.tgz gives you a directory dvd-create. Within the directory are three main control scripts: create.sh, burn.sh and play.sh.

Start by copying the mpeg files you want on your DVD into the dvd-create directory. The files will appear on the DVD in alphabetical order, so if required rename (or numerically prefix) them so that the directory listing shows them in the correct order. Then use the create.sh script to process the mpeg files, generate a dvd.xml control script for dvdauthor then run dvdauthor to create the DVD structure within the subdirectory dvd.


#!/bin/bash
rm -f dvd.xml dvd-body.xml
chapter=$(( 0 ))
for f in *.mpg
do
echo "          " >> dvd-body.xml
chapter=$(( $chapter+1 ))
done
cat dvd-head.xml dvd-body.xml dvd-foot.xml > dvd.xml
dvdauthor -o dvd -x dvd.xml

The second step is to burn the generated DVD structure to a DVD using the burn.sh script. If you dvd device is not located at /dev/cdrom you will need to edit the script to use the appropriate device.


#!/bin/bash
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/cdrom -dvd-video ./dvd/

The last step is to test the DVD you've just created using the play script, play.sh. This fires up the mplayer media player to view the contents of the freshly created DVD.


#!/bin/bash
mplayer dvd:// -dvd-device ./dvd

How quick was that!

Monitor your ADSL Connection for Outages & Uptime

2009-08-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

I had the misfortune of choosing demon as my ISP and for the first couple of months managed to exceed my fair use policy and experience extended outages. In an effort to document my issues I wrote a couple of scripts on a NetBSD box that monitor the connection and automatically create a graph using gnuplot of the uptime.

The scripts are driven by a crontab script:


        $ crontab -l
        SHELL=/bin/sh
        MAILTO=msw
        @hourly /home/msw/router/getstats
        5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /home/msw/router/ping-internet.sh
        5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /home/msw/router/plot-stats.sh
        0,15,30,45 * * * *      /home/msw/router/upload-stats.sh

Every five minutes the ping-internet.sh script attempts to ping one of the demon nameservers using its' IP address:


        #!/usr/pkg/bin/bash
        LOGFILE=/home/msw/router/ping-stats.txt
        TIME="`date +%C%y%m%d%H%M`"
        /sbin/ping -c 1 158.152.1.58 > /dev/null 2>&1
        if [ "$?" == "0" ]
        then
                STATUS=1
        else
                STATUS=0
        fi
        echo "$TIME $STATUS" >> $LOGFILE

This generates a line in the LOGFILE which looks like this:


        200907091945 1
        200907091950 1
        200907091955 1
        200907092005 1
        200907092010 1
        200907092015 1
        200907092020 1
        200907092025 1
        200907092030 1
        200907092035 1

where the first number is the date and time and the second number is a '1' if the ping was successful, or a '0' if it was not.

The plot-stats.sh script turns these numbers into a nice graph with the help of GnuPlot then puts the resulting jpeg onto the local apache webserver:


        #!/usr/pkg/bin/bash
        sleep 30
        export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/pkg/bin
        export RS=/home/msw/router
        export HTDOCS=/usr/pkg/share/httpd/htdocs
        export STATS_FILE=$RS/ping-stats.txt
        export JPG_FILE=ping-stats.jpg
        export SHARE_DIR=/usr/local/archive
        export HTTPD_DIR=/usr/pkg/share/httpd/htdocs
        cp $STATS_FILE $RS/ping-stats-copy.txt
        gnuplot $RS/plot-stats.gnuplot > $SHARE_DIR/$JPG_FILE
        cp $SHARE_DIR/$JPG_FILE $HTTPD_DIR

The gnuplot script plot-stats.gnuplot that works the magic:


        set terminal jpeg large size 1024, 600
        #set terminal dumb
        set title "Demon Internet HomeOffice 8000, hostname: waldo"
        set lmargin 10
        set rmargin 10
        set tmargin 5
        set bmargin 8
        set xdata time
        set format x "%d/%m"
        set xlabel "Date, 2009" offset 0,-2
        set ylabel "ADSL Status"
        set yrange [-1:2]
        set ytics 0,1,1 ("Off" 0, "On" 1)
        set mxtics 6
        set timefmt "%Y%m%d%H%M%S"
        plot "/home/msw/router/ping-stats-copy.txt" using 1:2 with lines title
        "Status at `date`"
        #set title "ADSL status" offset 0,-10
        # - generated on %Y%m%d %H%M"
        show title

Then once every 1/4 hour the upload-stats.sh script pushes the stats up to my remote web host (assuming the connection is up of course!)


        #!/usr/pkg/bin/bash
        cp /usr/local/archive/ping-stats.jpg /tmp
        cd /tmp
        ftp ftp://username:password@ftp.wickensonline.co.uk <<-END_OF_INPUT
                bin
                cd public_html
                put ping-stats.jpg
                dir
                bye
        END_OF_INPUT

The end result being this lovely image:

Java/Swing Mirrorbow Remote Control Program

2009-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

I wrote an application a while ago that I thought would be worth sharing with the world - it's a Java/Swing Application to drive a
Mirrorbow Ethernet IO Interface. I use the interface to control the power to a number of computers and peripherals in my attic, both to make remote operation possible and also to physically isolate them from the mains supply when not in use. I noted a while back that the VAX and Alpha both drew significant power from the mains even when the power supply switch was turned off.

The application looks like this when running:

You simply click on the button to toggle the power. The application mirrors the information displayed in this Swing panel on the built in LCD display of the mirrorbow:

The application is configured using an XML file:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<controller>
 <name>mirrorbow</name>
 <address>192.168.1.199</address>
 <port>
  <number>4</number>
  <pin>
   <number>1</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>DS10L</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>2</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>DEC3K600</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>3</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>VAX4K90</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>4</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>VAX4K60</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>5</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>EXTSCSI</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>6</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>ZX6000</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>7</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>LINUX</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
  <pin>
   <number>8</number>
   <equipment>
    <name>ANCIL</name>
   </equipment>
  </pin>
 </port>
</controller>

I tried to make the implementation as generic as possible. The source code, compiled classes and Windows/Unix command line scripts can be found in mirrorbow.zip

The unit all this controls was hand built using a equipment box, eight IDC connectors, a relay board bought off ebay, a 12 volt power module extracted from a plug in adapter and a mains lead:

VAX Macro in the 21st Century

2009-07-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

My good friend and work colleague Andrew Beacock posted a recent blog update http://blog.andrewbeacock.com/ with some very nice formatted code which turned out to be a Javascript based syntax highlighter by Alex Gorbatchev which you can find at http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter. Seeing as how I couldn't sleep after about 5:30 this morning, I thought I'd follow Alex's excellent instructions to create a new syntax highlighter for VAX Macro. I'd previously created a VAX Macro mode for jEdit and it was fairly straightforward to cut and paste the opcodes, macros and operands.

The syntax highlighter script file can be found here: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/scripts/shBrushVAXMacro32.js. Your source code must have open and close angle brackets converted into their html ampersand escaped equivalents. Just add this to your installation of Syntax Highlighter then you can call upon it to format you code, such as in this example.

OpenVMS distros...

2009-06-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

I managed to secure a large collection of OpenVMS distribution media from a University Lab who no longer wanted them - a large box arrived with what must have been about 20 boxes of shrink wrapped software - mostly quarterly updates of the Software Product Library, but also including a Compaq branded distribution of OpenVMS itself, and also one branded HP (7.3.2 for VAX and Alpha).

I had sold a few of the SPL packages without really looking in them and the remaining were still shrink wrapped until this evening when curiosity got the better of me. I'm glad I did, as you can see from the pictures the HP and Compaq OpenVMS packages contain a very nice CDROM case. The HP one is branded HP OpenVMS, the Compaq one Compaq OpenVMS.

I also had a copy of Netscape Enterprise Server from 1998 that I opened up, and you can see the contents. It was amazing to see so many 'modern' terms described in a product that is now 10 years old, although I can't say I liked the look of server-side Javascript that much! This box contains Windows NT and Unix versions, including Digital Unix 4.x which I happen to have running on my DEC AXP 3000/600. Possibly too much of a coincidence...

NetBSD, BBS and VAXen...

2009-04-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

NetBSD intrigues me. It runs on like a zillion platforms, and has supported VAX hardware for a lot of years. After several failed attempts I finally got my VAXstation 4000/90 to netboot. A triumph of bloody minded configuration. The problem is that the documentation, whilst very good, is out of date and doesn't quite get you far enough. So I thought I'd add my brief information to the mix.

First up, if you're serious about making this work then you'll need another platform to run NetBSD on which is easier to install from. For this read: doesn't require netbooting. I had my hand forced by my recent agreement to host the Retrochallenge BBS. The tarball that I was given wouldn't compile up under my SuSE 11 linux box without some serious hacking (within the nitty-gritty of the terminal-based IO code) so I enlisted the help of my aging but still solid Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop as a new host. The choice of the platform was driven by thee criteria: I own it already, it is small and it consumes little power. My wife is a little frazzled with my hardward collection. That covers the first two. Our electricity bill is obscene (but on a par with the neighbours). The Dell laptop consumes 15 watts when idle. I consider this very reasonable given that it will have to be on 24/7.

Anyway, the bit I was missing when netbooting the vax was that you need to have a custom DHCP server to tell the target VAX where it can find its' root NFS mount. This means turning off the DHCP server in your router and turning on the dhcp server on a suitable box - in this case my Dell 7500 which now runs all the time.

My dhcp.conf file looks like this:


      # Setting DHCPD global parameters
            allow unknown-clients;

            ddns-update-style ad-hoc;

            # Set parameters for the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet.
            subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
                    range 192.168.1.21 192.168.1.70;
                    default-lease-time 604800;
                    option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
                    option domain-name-servers 158.152.1.58, 158.152.1.43;
                    option domain-name "appsoftint.co.uk";
                    option routers 192.168.1.20;

                    host aleph {
                            hardware ethernet 08:00:2b:34:4d:6f;
                            fixed-address 192.168.1.248;
                            next-server 192.168.1.252;
                            option root-path "/export/aleph/root";
                    }

                    host mirrorbow {
                            hardware ethernet 00:04:a3:00:00:00;
                            fixed-address 192.168.1.199;
                    }

                    host netfs1020d {
                            hardware ethernet 00:c0:ee:d5:6c:ae;
                            fixed-address 192.168.1.198;
                    }

                    host xpsgen2 {
                            hardware ethernet 00:12:3F:D1:CA:46;
                            fixed-address 192.168.1.42;
                    }
            }

The host entry aleph is the VAX. The name aleph comes from a VAX connected to a cluster I worked with when I worked for Cyberscience Corporation between 1991 and 1993. I'm sure a wikipedia search will throw some light (well I thought this, but maybe not. The name aleph comes from a computer featured in the classic/cult TV show Blakes-7. There were three nodes in the cluster named after computers in Blakes-7: orac, aleph & zen). Host mirrorbow is documented in my other post about the Java/Swing controller app I use, netfs1020d is my Kyocera FS-1020D connected to the network and xpsgen2 is the Dell laptop I'm using right now.

I mention all this because it took several aborted attempts at net installing NetBSD on a VAX before I hit this piece of knowledge (a quick email exchange which, by its' very nature might not have happened).

Sun Java SE JRE/JDK 1.6.0 Update 12 Available for Itanium (IA64)

2009-02-26T06:46:00.000-08:00

Sun have just released Update 12 of the 1.6.0 Java SE JRE and JDK for Linux and Windows Itanium (IA64) platforms.

The installation packages can be downloaded from the main Update 12 download page here.

It installs and runs successfully on the Debian 5.0 IA64 port.

Netbeans 6.5 on Itanium (IA64) Debian 5.0

2009-02-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

Netbeans 6.5 installs and runs successfully on a Debian 5.0 Itanium distribution.

Debian 5.0 on Itanium IA64

2009-02-26T05:50:00.001-08:00

Debian 5.0 was released on February 14th, 2009. I believe it represents the state-of-the-art linux distribution that supports machines based around the Itanium processor family. Other distros including SuSE, Red Hat and Fedora are at least one major release behind with an IA64 based port.

I installed Debian 5.0 on my HP ZX6000 workstation which has two 1.3 GHz Madison-class Itanium 2 processors, an Ultra SCSI 320 storage backbone and 16GB of RAM. The installation was via a DVD image downloaded by Bittorrent (took about 7 hours to download the complete image). The installation was painless, and even initially could be driven via a serial terminal connected to the console port.

I have tested the distribution for two days and so far it has been flawless. It works out-of-the-box with both an ATI 7500 PCI video card and the originally supplied ATI Fire GL AGP graphics card.

Well done DEBIAN! Please keep up the good work...

msw@zx6000:~$ uname -a
Linux zx6000 2.6.26-1-mckinley #1 SMP Sat Jan 10 19:19:15 UTC 2009 ia64 GNU/Linux

Sun Releases Java 6 JDK on Itanium

2009-02-26T05:07:00.000-08:00

25th February 2009

After an announcement earlier last year that Sun and HP had teamed together to produce a fresh version of the SUN Java JRE & JDK, and a somewhat longer than predicted wait, a version is finally available.

The release notes are here. It can be downloaded by following the Java 6 Update 11 download link.

The latest version is Java 6 Update 11, although information on the Sun website indicates that an Update 12 version will be available shortly.

I downloaded the JDK and installed it on my recent Debian 5.0 installation, which is running on a HP ZX6000 2 x 1.3 Ghz Madison based box.

The JDK appears to be working correctly, and has been used to run various test programs, culminating in Netbeans 6.5 (see separate post).

Well done HP and SUN!

Retrochallenge 2009 Winter Warmup Entry

2008-12-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in the Retrochallenge 2009 Winter Warmup!

I will be using a VAX 4000/90 as my only computer during January 2009 and am planning on writing a character-cell terminal application.

The entry diary: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/retro/index.html.

The main Retrochallenge website: http://retrochallenge.net

UK DEC Meeting in North West, Autumn 2009 - expression of interest please

2008-12-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

I'm going to use my blog as a source of news on the UK DEC Meeting I'm trying to get sorted out.

Well, I've been banding this idea around to a few fellow DECheads in the UK, and thought it was about time I moved on to stage 2.

I am thinking about organising a meeting for people interested in the lines of computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation. It is likely that the meeting will be autumn next year, and would be run over a Saturday and Sunday in Windermere, Cumbria, UK.

This is in the very early stages of planning, and I'm initially looking to get an idea of numbers who might be interested. This is to ensure that I can organise the event without loss. In terms of numbers I would be looking for between 10 and 20 people to exhibit computers, and then another up to maybe 50 people as non-exhibitors. I'm sure we could get some interesting speakers involved.

Cost is likely to be in the order of GBP 10 for the two days, although we can discuss the option of providing catering if there is interest. I would be looking for firm commitment to buy a ticket say 3 months in advance.

So in the first instance, could anyone interested email me at: mark at wickensonline dot co dot uk. By emailing you agree for me to keep your email address on file so that I can inform you of any progress.

Please feel free to make suggestions either on this blog or direct by email.

Setting up OpenVMS DCPS for wide 132 column portrait printing to an LPD network printer

2008-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

Summary: by using DCPS and a custom ANSI setup you can print 132 column in portait mode to a postscript LPD printer. My Kyocera FS1020D has a network card installed and is setup as an LPD printer server. 132 column portrait is useful for printing compiler or assembler list files.

Install DCPS. For hobbyists the license is included: DCPS-OPEN

Configure DCPS by copying the template: SYS$STARTUP:DCPS$STARTUP.TEMPLATE to SYS$STARTUP:DCPS$STARTUP.COM

I made the following alterations:

Define the DCPS_LIB logical to point to the standard control library located in SYS$LIBRARY:DCPS$DEVCTL.TLB, and a user defined library (to be created in a minute) called SYS$LIBRARY:DCPS$SITE.TLB. The directory and file extensions are not specified in the logical, but we must specify that our custom library contains ANSI control sequences:

$ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXECUTIVE DCPS_LIB DCPS$DEVCTL, "DCPS$SITE /DATA=ANSI"

If in Europe define the default paper size as A4:

$ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXECUTIVE DCPS$SHEET_SIZE A4

Then define the printer execution queue:

$ IF .NOT. SETUP_MODE THEN @SYS$STARTUP:DCPS$EXECUTION_QUEUE -
SYS$PRINT - ! P1 - Execution queue name
"IP_LPD/192.168.1.198:lp1" -! P2 - Interconnect protocol/device name
DCPS_LIB - ! P3 - Logical name for library(ies)
"SIDES=2" - ! P4 - Default queue parameters
"/SEPARATE=(NOBURST,FLAG)" - ! P5 - Default queue qualifiers
"" - ! P6 - Communication speed (serial only)
"" - ! P7 - Device characteristics
"" ! P8 - Verify on/off

Significant parts of this file are the parameters:

P1 - if you specify this as SYS$PRINT you'll not need to specify a queue name when printing
P2 - protocol of IP_LPD specifies we are printing to an LPD printer - followed by the IP address and the name of the print queue (the default remote queue name is normally lp)
P3 - this is the logical name defining the form library(s) the queue users (the one we defined earlier in this file)
P4 - SIDES-2 my FS1020D is a duplex printer - this specifies duplex printing

You need to define a setup module and add it to a text library. The setup module is a string of ANSI control sequences that are interpreted by the DCPS print engine. The setup module can either be defined directly in the PRINT command using the /SETUP parameter or via a FORM definition.

The following text file sets up the printer for 132 character portrait printing:

$ type sys$library:wide132.txt
ESC[15mESC[11wESC[1;132s

where ESC is the escape code Ctrl-[. You can create escape characters within EVE by typing Ctrl-V Ctrl-[

Breakdown of the ANSI control string:

ESC[15m - select line printer font
ESC[11w - select horizontal pitch
ESC[1;132s - select left and right margins

To create the custom control library (initially empty):
$ library/create/text sys$library:dcps$site.tlb

To replace the module in the custom control library (note that the library extension .TLB and text file containing the ANSI control sequence .TXT are not specified):
$ set def sys$library
$ library/replace/text dcps$site wide132

(If previously created) delete the form to use:
$ delete/form wide132

Create a form using the /setup parameter to define the module to use. The /stock-default is required unless you are using a specific stock:
$ define/form/width=132/setup=wide132/stock=default wide132 2

You should now be able to print using the following:
$ print/form=wide132 myfile.lst

The DCPS$STARTUP.COM and form definition commands needs to be added to the SYS$STARTUP:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM file to get run automatically at startup.

Note: the only reference I could find to setting the horizontal pitch in relation to DCPS used the command ESC[4w which sets a pitch of 16.5 characters/inch. This apparently works on dot matrix printers but not on my Kyocera FS1020D because of the minimum margins imposed by the printable area (probably true of a number of laser printers). You get 131 character lines - very frustrating! The setting of ESC[11w uses a slighter tighter pitch of 17.1 characters/inch (which seems designed for this purpose in my opinion).

This is an excerpt from the the Digital ANSI-Compliant Printing Protocol Level 2 Programming Reference describing the horizontal pitch command:

DECSHORP—Set Horizontal Pitch
Selects character spacing for monospaced fonts.
Source: Application Destination: Levels 1, 2, 3
Format
CSI Ps w
9/11 *** 7/7
Description
The DECSHORP command determines the number of characters/inch (pitch)
that the device uses. This establishes the Horizontal Advance Increment
(HAI).
The selective parameters for DECSHORP are as follows:
Ps HAI Pitch
0 720 centipoints 10 characters/inch
1 720 centipoints 10 characters/inch
2 600 centipoints 12 characters/inch
3 545 centipoints 13.2 characters/inch
4 436 centipoints 16.5 characters/inch
5 1440 centipoints 5 characters/inch
6 1200 centipoints 6 characters/inch
7 1090 centipoints 6.6 characters/inch
8 872 centipoints 8.25 characters/inch
9 480 centipoints 15 characters/inch
11 420 centipoints Approximately 17.1 characters/inch or, more
accurately, 14/240 in.
12 840 centipoints Approximately 8.55 characters/inch or, more
accurately, 28/240 in.
13 400 centipoints 18 characters/inch
14 800 centipoints 9 characters/inch
15 720 centipoints 10 characters/inch

Links:
my DCPS$STARTUP.COM file
my WIDE132.TXT file

Power Consumption of Computer Equipment and Household Appliances

2008-09-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of the power consumed by random computer equipment and appliances littering the house:

AG Neovo F-419 19" LCD		30 W
Netgear Gigabit Switch		6 W
Vigor 2800 Router		10 W
IBM X60 power supply	disconnected	2 W
IBM X60 Tablet	charging	35 W
	booting	60 W
	idle	20 W
	80% CPU	35 W
	standby	3 W
VT520 terminal		30 W
Core 2 Duo 1.6Gz/3HD Server		100 W
HP ZX6000 2xItanium Workstation		370 W
Cambridge Audio Subwoofer	normal	15 W
Cambridge Audio Amp	normal	30-40 W
Arcam Alpha 9 Amp	quiet to loud	20-65 W
Sky+	standby	18 W
	on	22 W
Playstation 3	standby	4 W
	idle	110 W
	in game	135 W
Kettle		2500 W
Toaster		1550 W
Panasonic 50" Plasma	standby	4 W
	on	300-500 W
Dell 37" LCD TV	standby	3 W
	on	180 W
Bedside light		20 W
VAXstation 4000/VLC	idle	45 W
VAXstation 4000/90	idle	106 W
DEC 3000/600 AXP	idle	225 W
AlphaServer 300 4/266	idle	100 W
Digital 21" monitor	on	110 W
DS10L Alpha 1U Rackmount	idle	176 W
Quad Core 2 4GB Linux Server	idle	110 W
DECserver 90TL	on	10 W
CentreCOM MR820TR Router	on	10 W

Notes: most appliances seem to consume about 4 watts on standby. Power adapters that are plugged in but not connected to anything still draw about 2 W. The X60 provides a very good performance to power consumption ratio! The ZX6000 workstation doesn't!

Preconceptions: I thought the audio amp and subwoofer would use much more electricity. Clearly, they use more the louder the sound output but the average consumption will remain low.

Running a remote VNC OpenVMS CDE Desktop

2008-09-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

The HP Integrity ZX6000 workstation I bought recently is now running OpenVMS Version 8.3-1H1 flawlessly. The ZX6000 is the same as the RX2600 server except that it contains a combined AGP/PCI card cage instead of a straight PCI cage. The ATI AGP graphics card that it came with is not supported under OpenVMS. As an alternative I installed an ATI 7500 PCI card that was previously in an Alpha DS10L server, but the picture quality is really poor.

My day-to-day workstation runs SuSE 11. It will quite happily display OpenVMS terminals and applications via a remote X-Window configuration, and with a gigabit ethernet between the two network latency is not an issue. When I first started work in 1991 I remember running a complete window manager come session manager across a network and wondered if this might provide me with the remote desktop experience I was after.

Firstly, I started a vncserver on the linux box:

$ vncserver -geometry 1280x1024 -depth 24

In order that this vnc xserver session does not start it's own window manager (which in my case would normally default to KDE3) I edited my vnc xstartup file which is installed in my home directory:

$ vi ~/.vnc/xstartup

and removed the 'startkde' call at the end. This starts the vnc server with no window manager, but with a single xterm (undecorated of course).

I then start a vncviewer for that vncserver:

$ vncviewer linux:1

Then, I moved the vncviewer window to my 2nd kde desktop and maximised it. You can switch between the 1st and 2nd desktop in KDE using Ctrl-Tab.

As the viewer and server are on the same machine there is no network latency involved. Equally, however, if you want to view the vnc server session remotely there is nothing to stop this (and indeed this is what I am using now and it is certainly no slower than any other vnc connection I have used).

Within the single xterm enable your OpenVMS access to this display:

$ xhost +zx6000

In this case 'zx6000' should be replaced with your OpenVMS box hostname or IP address.
You can then login to your OpenVMS box normally using telnet and set the display back to the vncserver you have created:

$ set display/create/node=linux/server=1/trans=tcpip

The final step is to start the CDE session manager for this display. The logical CDE$SESSIONMAIN defines the command to start the CDE session manager:

$ show log cde$sessionmain
"CDE$SESSIONMAIN" = "mcr cde$system_defaults:[bin]dtsession" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)

Run this in the xterm:

$ mcr cde$system_defaults:[bin]dtsession

and voila, an OpenVMS CDE session as if you had just logged in to the machine directly.

Addendum: you can use a font server running on the OpenVMS box to serve up fonts not normally available on a unix machine (such as double width fonts).

Start the font server on the OpenVMS box (I'm sure there is a more elegent way of doing this via the server startup scripts, DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM is the place to look):

$ xfs :== "$sys$system:decw$xfs.exe"
$ xfs

You can check if the font server is running by trying to telnet to the server with the given port:

$ telnet zx6000 7100

a connection will be establised if the font server is running (hitting return a few times will drop you out of the telnet session, as you're not talking font server speak).

Then ensure that the font path is set to include the OpenVMS nodes' font server. Either edit the 'fontPath' variable in the vncserver script, or issue an xset command on the Linux box prior to connecting to the OpenVMS box:

$ xset +fp tcp/zx6000:7100

where zx6000 is the hostname of the OpenVMS box.

Update 2: If you are running the traditional DEC Windows session manager run
$ SYS$SYSTEM:DECW$SESSION.EXE

Fitting a Volvo XC90 Towbar

2008-08-10T00:14:00.000-07:00

Here are my top five tips to fitting a non-detachable towbar to an XC90. All the cheaper variants appear to be the same design.

You will need a 19mm open-ended spanner. The chassis hanger on the exhaust side uses three bolts - the front-most bolt is in a slot that will trap a ring spanner as you tighten the bolt. Elsewhere a ring spanner combined with ratchet 19mm spanner works well.
Take care with the age of the car - the wiring changed in April 2004 - the earlier model uses a cheaper vehicle specific wiring kit (approx. £40) whereas later models require a kit costing £120.
Expect the towbar fitting to take about 2 hours. It is a simple design - the crossbar fits inside the rear bumper and is secured with 10 bolts, but some of these are tricky to get to - you will need two people for about an hour whilst tightening the chassis bolts. Tighten the crossbar bolts on the left-hand side first (next to the exhaust) - these are more difficult to get to.
If you take the right-hand floor support out to fit a vehicle specific wiring kit leave it out whilst fitting the towbar. Access to the chassis bolts on the inside is easier.
Use the Volvo electric fitting instructions, available from the Volvo owners website. These tell you how to remove the internal trim without breaking it, and how to disassemble and reassemble the lower boot components to fit the wiring.

I wasn't sure whether to go for 7 or 13 pin electrics. I went for 13 pin electrics which will become the European standard in 2009 at the expense of being incompatible with existing twin 7 pin electrics. There are adapters available on eBay. Oh, and one last thing - wear glasses when tightening the chassis bolts next to the exhaust - all manner of stuff falls into your eyes otherwise!

Instructables

2008-08-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

If you haven't happened across the Instructables website I'd highly recommend it. It is a website devoted to communicating how to do things.

A large variety of topics are covered, but I was especially interested in a couple of descriptions as I have been looking at the issues around creating a display out of seven-segment digits. I bought a whole load off ebay a while back and am looking at creating a display comprising 10 rows of 8 characters.

The maxim chip MAX6951 uses a technique called Charlieplexing. It trades complexity of the driving logic for number of connections. I'd come across the chip (and the technique) before without knowing how it came about. Anyway, if you're interested an explanation can be found on instructables here.

I haven't found an easy way of providing a display with so many characters. Multiplexing breaks down as a technique past about 8 characters, and this in turn means the chip count goes up.