Hello, I'm a new OpenVMS hobbyist, I recently installed simh on a Linux computer and OpenVMS VAX 7.3 is installed on the emulated VAX and I can connect to my emulated VAX using telnet, everything that's needed to use DECwindows on a remote computer is installed and configured (TCPIP and XDM) but when I try to connect to my emulated VAX from another computer (a Windows computer using Cygwin/X(Xwin -ac- query "ipAdressOfMyVAX" ) ) i only get a black screen with a cross shaped pointer.
here's my XDM configuration files , 192.168.1.47 is the ip adress of my Windows computer :
XACCESS.TXT
# $XConsortium: Xaccess,v 1.5 91/08/26 11:52:51 rws Exp $
#
# Access control file for XDMCP connections
#
# To control Direct and Broadcast access:
#
# pattern
#
# To control Indirect queries:
#
# pattern list of hostnames and/or macros ...
#
# To define macros:
#
# %name list of hosts ...
#
# The first form tells xdm which displays to respond to itself.
# The second form tells xdm to forward indirect queries from hosts matching
# the specified pattern to the indicated list of hosts.
#
# In all cases, xdm uses the first entry which matches the terminal;
# for IndirectQuery messages only entries with right hand sides can
# match, for Direct and Broadcast Query messages, only entries without
# right hand sides can match.
#
* #any host can get a login window
#
# To hardwire a specific terminal to a specific host, you can
# leave the terminal sending indirect queries to this host, and
# use an entry of the form:
#
#terminal-a host-a
192.168.1.47
XSERVERS.TXT
# This file can be uses to suppport X terminals which do not support XDMCP.
#
# For each terminal, add a line that consists of
# DisplayName:0 foreign
#
# Where DisplayName is a IP name.
#
192.168.1.47:0 foreign
Now it's nearly working, I still have a black screen with a cross shaped pointer but my windows computer can connect to my openvms system here's the XDM's log
TCPIP$XDM_RUN.LOG;14 :
%SYSTEM-S-NORMAL, normal successful completion
%NONAME-F-NOMSG, Message number 00000004
xdm error (pid 531): Cannot convert Internet address 192.168.1.47 to host name
i does not understand at all what's the problem.
Edited by Florent on July 05 2011 02:28
The error message is sufficiently clear (IMHO): XDM tries to get a hostname for the IP address, but this fails. Though I can't explain why this is regarded as a fatal error, I've seen it happen. The solution that worked for me: create an entry for 192.168.1.47 in the TCP/IP hosts database using
$ TCPIP SET HOST anyhostname /ADDRESS=192.168.1.47
#
# To hardwire a specific terminal to a specific host, you can
# leave the terminal sending indirect queries to this host, and
# use an entry of the form:
#
1. See if you can just get DECW$CLOCK to display under Cygwin.
2. The ICO *ICO.EXE program is good for diagnosing X11 conditions.
I do not personally run XDM.
3. With X11, it is usually best to be running a local window manager instead of running the window manager on the remote host. I do not know if XDM gives you that option.
The ICO *ICO.EXE program is good for diagnosing X11 conditions.
To be precise, it's DECW$EXAMPLES:ICO.EXE.
Going back to basic things:
- Is the XDM server enabled? (Verify with TCPIP SHOW SERVICE; to enable it, execute @SYS$MANAGER:TCPIP$CONFIG.COM and select "Server components")
- Is TCP/IP configured as an X Windows transport? (Edit SYS$MANAGER:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM or copy it from the .TEMPLATE, and make sure it has TCPIP in the DECW$SERVER_TRANSPORTS line)
- The XDM config files are in SYS$SPECIFIC:[TCPIP$XDM] , right?
- Does the Cygwin/X log file (located at /var/log/xwin/XWin.0.log) contain any hints?
Does the file CDE$PATH:XSESSION.COM actually exist?
I don't think this is normally included in OpenVMS VAX. Certainly it is not in my installations. It does appear in the OpenVMS Alpha installations.
You may need to use SYS$SYSTEM:DECW$SESSION.EXE instead.
Or just send a login panel to the Windows machine. Sign onto the emulated VAX as SYSTEM and create a display definition that points to your windows X server.
$ SET DISPLAY/CREATE/TRANSPORT=TCPIP/NODE=ip-address-of-X-server/SERVER=X-server-session-number/PERMANENT
(note that the session number is determined by you when you start the server, and is usually 0 but can be another number--I believe you used 1 in an earlier example)
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM DECW$DISPLAY 'F$TRNLNM("DECW$DISPLAY")
(the above command converts the session-specific display definition to a system-wide one)
$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:DECW$STARTLOGIN.EXE
This should put a login panel onto the screen of the X server. If it does not, you should get some sort of error message explaining what happened. Most typically, it would be "failed to open display" or something of that sort, which means that the transport, address, or server are unavailable. Most often it's a security issue, and at least for early testing, you may find it helpful to start the X server with access control turned off. (Not a good idea unless you are behind a firewall or on a private subnet.) In Linux/UNIX this is done by adding "-ac" to the X command. I don't know about a Windows environment.
If the approach above works, you can turn it into a script and activate it remotely if necessary. No XDM is needed at all in this case. What I found was that XDM on the OpenVMS VAX 7.3 system has a number of flaws that make it difficult to use. Among other things, it seems to be unable to start a session at all if the server number is anything other than zero.
Edited by Altivo on July 22 2011 10:19
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses.
Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc.
Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
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