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E A wide variety of third-party widgets---SCSI and ATA (IDE) disks and F tapes, graphics controllers, etc---are obviously widely available and are used on various platforms.
@ If you purchase third-party "generic" SCSI or ATA (IDE) storage H devices, you and your device vendor will be responsible for the testing G and the support of the devices. In general, you can expect that Compaq G will address non-standards-compliance problems within OpenVMS (changes G that will also not prevent operations with other supported devices, of < course), but you and/or the device vendor and/or the device D manufacturer are responsible for finding and fixing problems in the 9 particular third-party device and or controller involved.
< In particular, realize that neither SCSI nor ATA (IDE) is a ? particularly standard interface, these interfaces tend to be a @ collection of optionally-implemented and standardized interface E features. You should not and can not simply assume that all SCSI nor E ATA (IDE) storage devices are interchangeable. If you want to try to D use a generic SCSI device, use V6.2 or later, or (better) V7.1-2 or H later. If you wish to try to use ATA (IDE), use OpenVMS V7.1-2 or later.
k On older OpenVMS releases, see the disk capacity limits ( Section 9.5).
C With SCSI disks on releases prior to V6.2, ensure that you have the G ARRE and ARWE settings configured correctly (disabled). (If not, you < will see DRVERR fatal drive errors and error log entries.)
B Some SCSI disks set the medium type byte as part of the SCSI size E field---this is a SET CAPACITY extension to SCSI specs. This problem # also applies to VAX V7.1 and later.
E Disks with SCSI disk sizes past 8.58 GB and/or with the SET CAPACITY E extension require ALPSCSI07 ECO or the OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 or later S release. (See Section 9.5 for further details.)
C Based on the displays of the (undocumented) SYS$ETC:SCSI_INFO tool; 1 this tool is present in OpenVMS V6.2 and later:
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" F Issuing 6-byte MODE SENSE QIOW to get current values for page 01h + Page Code ................. 01h A Page Name ................. Read-Write Error Recovery + Saveable .................. Yes * Size ...................... 10 ? Hex Data .................. E6 08 50 00 00 00 08 00 - 00 00 |
A The E6 indicates that the AWRE and ARRE bits are set, and this is K not acceptable on OpenVMS versions prior to V6.2. Further along in the ' SCSI_INFO display, if you also see:
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" I Issuing 6-byte MODE SENSE QIOW to get changeable values for page 81h + Page Code ................. 01h A Page Name ................. Read-Write Error Recovery + Saveable .................. Yes * Size ...................... 10 ? Hex Data .................. C0 08 50 00 00 00 08 00 - 00 00 |
? The C0 value means that the AWRE and ARRE values can be changed G on this particular SCSI device. (This is not always the case.) Use @ RZDISK from the OpenVMS Freeware, and reset the E6 flag byte K to hexadecimal 26 (or whatever the remaining mask when you remove bits C0) on page one.
E Each SCSI and ATA (IDE) host contains non-trivial SCSI and IDE driver E software, and each device contains equally non-trivial firmware--- E taken together with the mechanical and electronic components, this J software and firmware will determine whether or not a particular device will function as expected.
E Also note that various devices---such as various SCSI CD-R devices H ---can implement and can require vendor-specific protocol extensions, C and these extensions can require modifications to OpenVMS or the A addition of various utilities. In various of these cases, these F devices perform functions that will require them to use SCSI or ATA I (IDE) commands that are (hopefully) architecturally-compatible SCSI or ^ ATA (IDE) command extensions. (Also see Section 7.1 and 3 Section 9.7.)
@ In order for OpenVMS to officially support a particular device, D integration and testing work is mandated. There can be no certainty F that any particular device will operate as expected in any particular ? configuration without first performing this (non-trivial) work.
H It is quite possible to find two devices---both entirely compliant with < applicable standards or interface documents---that will not interoperate.
A The same general statement holds for OpenVMS bootstrapping on an B unsupported VAX or Alpha platform. It might or might not work. In F particular, please see the OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD) ? for the list of platforms supported by OpenVMS. OpenVMS is not G supported on the Personal Workstation -a series, on the Digital Server C series platforms, on the AlphaServer 2100 series 5/375 CPU, on the G Multia, on the AlphaServer DS20L, and on a variety of other platforms. D (You might or might not see success booting OpenVMS on any of these platforms.) R 14.26.1 Lists of third-party widgets on OpenVMS?
B Various folks have successfully used common third-party disk disk E devices with OpenVMS, such as the ATA (IDE) and SCSI variants of the $ Iomega Zip250 removable disk device.
H Common SCSI CD-R/CD-RW devices such as the Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32S SCSI B series and the HP DVD200i series (recording CD-R) have also been I successfully utilized with various AlphaStation and VAXstation systems, @ and with tools such as CDRECORD. (A Plextor PlexWriter burn of I 614400000 bytes (300000 sectors) requires just over six minutes at 12x, B using an AlphaStation XP1000 666 MHz EV67 system UltraSCSI host.)
E If you choose to attempt to use third-party devices, ensure that you F have the most current OpenVMS version and the most current ECO kit(s) D applied. In the specific case of the ATA (IDE) Iomega Zip250 drive, ? ensure that you have the most current revision of SYS$DQDRIVER
installed. Y 14.26.2 Are the 2X-KZPCA-AA and SN-KZPCA-AA LVD Ultra2 SCSI?
H Yes. Both of these controllers are Ultra2 low-voltage differential (LVD) SCSI controllers. I 14.26.3 Resolving DRVERR fatal device error?
H If this is on an OpenVMS version prior to V6.2, please see the AWRE and X ARRE information included in section Section 14.26. d 14.27 Looking for connector wiring pin-outs?
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" < The DECconnect DEC-423 Modified Modular Jack (MMJ) pin-out: 1: Data Terminal Ready (DTR) 2: Transmit (TXD) 3: Transmit Ground (TXD-) 4: Receive Ground (RXD-) 5: Receive (RXD) 6: Data Set Ready (DSR) +------------------+ | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | +------------+ ++ +____+ |
The PC-compatible DB9 I connector pin-out found on Alpha and Integrity COM serial ports follows:
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" 1: Data Carrier Detect (DCD) 2: Received Data 3: Transmit Data 4: Data Terminal Ready (DTR) 5: Ground 6: Data Set Ready (DSR) 7: Request To Send (RTS) 8: Clear To Send 9: floating |
The MicroVAX DB9 G console connector pin-out predates the PC-style DB9 pin-out (adapters f discussed in Section 14.28), and uses a then-common (and older) 1 standard pin-out, and uses the following EIA-232 series standard signals:
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" 1: Protective Ground 2: Transmited Data 3: Received Data 4: Request To Send (RTS) 5: Data Terminal Ready (DTR) 6: Data Set Ready (DSR) 7: Signal Ground 9 8: Shorted to pin 9 on MicroVAX and VAXstation 2000... 4 9: ...series systems, otherwise left floating. F When pin 8 is shorted to pin 9, this is a BCC08 (or variant) cable, A most commonly used as a console cable on the MicroVAX 2000 and B VAXstation 2000 series. (Other systems may or may not tolerate connecting pin 8 to pin 9.) |
> The BC16E-nn (where -nn indicates the cable length) cable key @ implicitly "flips over" (crosses-over) the signal wires, so all - DECconnect MMJ connectors are wired the same.
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" // . ---- ---- . | |---------------------------------| | . ---- ---- . \\ |
/ The BC16E-nn cross-over wiring looks like this:
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" . Terminal Host - MMJ MMJ 9 DTR 1 --->---------->----------->--- 6 DSR 9 TXD 2 --->---------->----------->--- 5 RXD , 3 ------------------------------ 4 , 4 ------------------------------ 3 9 RXD 5 ---<----------<-----------<--- 2 TXD 9 DSR 6 ---<----------<-----------<--- 1 DTR |
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" MMJ RJ45 1---------8 2---------2 3---------1 4---------3 5---------6 6---------7 |
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" MMJ RJ45 1---------7 2---------6 3---------3 4---------1 5---------2 6---------8 |
Also see:
? The H8571-B converts the (non-2000-series) MicroVAX DB9 to the C DECconnect DEC-423 Modified Modular Jack (MMJ) pin-out; to the MMJ DECconnect wiring system. H The MicroVAX 2000 and VAXstation 2000 requires a BCC08 cable (which has f the 8-9 short, see Section 14.27) and the H8571-C or the H8571-D , DB25-to-MMJ adapter for use with DECconnect.
H More recent HP (HP, Compaq or DIGITAL logo) systems will use either the A DECconnect MMJ wiring directly or---on most (all?) recent system H designs -- the PC-compatible DB9 9-pin pin-out; the PC-style COM serial port interface and connection.
F There are two DB9 9-pin pin-outs, that of the H8571-B and similar F for the MicroVAX and other and older systems, and that of the H8571-J D for the PC-style COM port, AlphaStation, Integrity, and other newer F systems. The older MicroVAX DB9 and the PC-style DB9 pin-outs are not compatible.
DECconnect MMJ adapters:
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" 4 Part: Converts BC16E MMJ male to fit into: R H8571-B Older MicroVAX (other than the MicroVAX 2000) DB9 EIA232 serial port D Note: Cannot be used on a PC/AT nor Alpha DB9 9-pin connector 3 H8571-C 25 pin DSUB Female to MMJ, Unfiltered . H8571-D EIA232 25 pin male (modem-wired) 1 H8571-E 25 pin DSUB Female to MMJ, Filtered Q H8571-J PC/AT, Alpha, Integrity 9 pin (DB9) male (PC-style COM serial port) E Note: Cannot be used on the older MicroVAX DB9 9-pin connector 4 H8572-0 BC16E MMJ double-female (MMJ extender) 0 H8575-A EIA232 DB25 25-pin female (common) R H8575-B Older MicroVAX (other than the MicroVAX 2000) DB9 EIA232 serial port D Note: Cannot be used on a PC/AT nor Alpha DB9 9-pin connector 4 H8575-D 25 Pin to MMJ W/EOS and ESD Protection * H8577-AA 6 pin Female MMJ to 8 pin MJ E BC16E-** MMJ cable with connectors, available in various lengths |
E Numerous additional adapters and cables are available from the _OPEN D DECconnect Building Wiring Components and Applications Catalog_, as / well as descriptions of the above-listed parts.
B The H8571-A and H8575-A are MMJ to DB25 (female) and are wired as follows:
A Also see the adapter-, cable- and pin-out-related discussions at:
G Jameco offers a USB-A to PS/2 Mini DIN 6 Adapter (as part 168751), for = those folks wishing to (try to) use PS/2 Keyboards via USB-A connections.
H The LK463 USB keyboard is also a potential option, for those wishing to @ connect an OpenVMS keyboard to USB systems or (via the provided ? adapter) to PS/2 systems. The LK463 provides a classic OpenVMS - keyboard, on USB-based system configurations.
D For information on the Alpha console COM port or on the VAX console D port, please see Section 14.3. h 14.29 What is flow control and how does it work?
% XON/XOFF is one kind of flow control.
D In ASCII, XON is the [CTRL/Q] character, and XOFF is the [CTRL/S].
G XON/XOFF flow control is typically associated with asynchronous serial G line communications. XON/XOFF is an in-band flow control, meaning that + the flow control is mixed in with the data.
A CTS/RTS is another type of flow control, and is sometimes called G hardware flow control. Out-of-band means that seperate lines/pins from < the data lines (pins) are used to carry the CTS/RTS signals.
H Both kinds of flow control are triggered when a threshold is reached in > the incoming buffer. The flow control is suppose to reach the E transmitter in time to have it stop transmitting before the receiver E buffer is full and data is lost. Later, after a sufficient amount of E the receiver's buffer is freed up, the resume flow control signal is ( sent to get the transmitter going again.
G DECnet Phase IV on OpenVMS VAX supports the use of asynchronous serial $ communications as a network line; of D asynch DECnet. The communication devices (eg. modems, and drivers) @ must not be configured for XON/XOFF flow control. The F incidence of these (unexpected) in-band characters will corrupt data H packets. Further, the serial line device drivers might normally remove H the XON and XOFF characters from the stream for terminal applications, B but DECnet configures the driver to pass all characters = through and requires that all characters be permitted. (The C communication devices must pass through not only the XON and XOFF H characters, they must pass all characters including the 8-bit E characters. If data compression is happening, it must reproduce the G source stream exactly. No addition or elimination of null characters, and full data transparency.
D An Ethernet network is rather different than an asynchronous serial F line. Ethernet specifies the control of data flow on a shared segment G using CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access, with Collision Detect) An G Ethernet station that is ready to transmit listens for a clear channel B (Carrier Sense). When the channel is clear, the station begins to G transmit by asserting a carrier and encoding the packet appropriately. B The station concurrently listens to its own signal, to permit the C station to detect if another station began to transmit at the same G time---this is called collision detection. (The collision corrupts the C signal in a way that can reliably be detected.) Upon detecting the G collision, both stations will stop transmitting, and will back off and E try again a little later. (You can see a log of this activity in the DECnet NCP network counters.)
DECnet H provides its own flow control, above and beyond the flow control of the E physical layer (if any). The end nodes handshake at the beginning to D establish a transmit window size---and a transmitter will only send G that much data before stopping and waiting for an acknowledgement. The H acknowledgement is only sent when the receiver has confirmed the packet D is valid. (A well-configured DECnet generally avoids triggering any 1 underlying (out-of-band) flow control mechanism.) _ 14.30 CD and DVD device requirements?
H Read access to DVD-ROM, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-ROM, and CD-R/RW devices on ATAPI (IDE) connections is G generally handled transparently by SYS$DQDRIVER, and SYS$DQDRIVER will G transparently de-block the media-native 2048 byte disk blocks with the C 512-byte blocks expected by OpenVMS and by native OpenVMS software.
H Read access to DVD-ROM, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-ROM, and CD-R/RW devices 3 on SCSI is handled by DKDRIVER, though SYS$DKDRIVER F will not transparently de-block the native 2048-byte disk blocks into H the 512-byte blocks expected by OpenVMS. The drive or external software F is expected to provide this de-blocking, thus either a 512-byte block G capable drive (such as all RRD-series SCSI CD-ROM drives) is required, F or host software is required for a 2048-byte block drive. Third-party H SCSI drives with UNIX references in their support documentation or with G explicit 512-byte selectors or swiches will generally (but not always, of course) operate with OpenVMS.
H At least some of the Plextor PlexWriter SCSI drives can be successfully " accessed (for read and write) from H OpenVMS, as can at least one Pioneer SCSI DVD drive (for CD media). The Pioneer B SCSI DVD drive switches to 2048 byte blocks for DVD media, and a I block-size conversion tool (written by Glenn Everhart) or other similar tool can be applied.
A OpenVMS also has supported HP DVD drives for the ATAPI (IDE) bus.
C For some related information (and details on a commercial DVDwrite package), please see:
C No device driver currently presently permits direct block-oriented ? recording on DVD-RAM nor DVD+RW media, nor other recordable or rewritable media.
H Recording (writing) of CD and DVD optical media requires a recording or = media mastering application or tool, and both commercial and H non-commercial options are available. Please see CDRECORD (both non-DVD G and DVD versions are available, and at least one commercial version is B available), and also see DVDwrite (commercial) or DVDRECORD (open H source). A port of CDRECORD is present in OpenVMS V7.3-1 and later; see SYS$MANAGER:CDRECORD.COM.
. For information on the GKDRIVER (SYS$GKDRIVER) 6 generic SCSI device driver and of the the IO$_DIAGNOSE C $qio[w] interfaces (of SYS$DKDRIVER, SYS$DNDRIVER and SYS$DQDRIVER) F that are utilized by most CD and DVD recording tools to send commands B to SCSI, USB or ATAPI devices (most USB and ATA devices---or more D correctly, most ATAPI devices---can use SCSI-like command packets), - please see the SYS$EXAMPLES:GKTEST.C example, - and see DECW$EXAMPLES:DECW$CDPLAYER.C example B and please see the various associated sections of the OpenVMS I/O User's Reference Manual.
F For information on creating bootable optical media on OpenVMS, please ; see Section 9.7.3.
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