Alphas and OpenVMS

[altivo]

Because SETI@Home keeps having a lot of apparent server problems, it is sometimes not possible to obtain work for BOINC. The only BOINC client I had for the Alpha machines was SETI@Home, which means they've sometimes sat idle for as much as 24 hours. That seems a waste. I scoured the available project list and found, finally, another project that has an Alpha client. That is SIMAP, a protein simulation program. The installation was clumsy because it required generating an xml file manually and figuring out a bunch of soft links that were needed, but SIMAP is now running as a second project on both my Alphas. Yay.

Received the OpenVMS for Alpha installation kit yesterday. It's a test copy for the new 8.3 release to hobbyists, and I promised to try it right away and report back. The good news, it seems to work. The bad news, it takes over an hour to install the base operating system. I guess, come to think of it, Linux took that long as well, but it's been a while since I ran the Linux install. Two error messages cropped up during the installation. One was a read error on a font file on the CD, which is probably not going to be a biggie but I'll report it. The other I don't quite understand. It's a read error for another file on the CD, and I have no idea whether the file is critical or not.

Now attempting to boot the installed OS. Looks like it's going to run... AUTOGEN phase, adjusting the pagefile size... Now the automatic reboot with the new parameters from AUTOGEN... And there's the login prompt. Made it!

Lots of configuration stuff to be done yet, but it appears to be working.

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

*drools and looks cross-eyed* Durrrrr...me know how to clicky things with a mouse. Me hit buttons on screen.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, you need about 27 years of experience in the field, then you can talk gibberish like me instead. ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I love it really, each industry has its own jargon and I love watching true artists of their craft :) Although there are a few crafts of course I'd avoid watching.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

What would you avoid watching? Brain surgery? Dish washing? Proctology? ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I'll leave that to you I think ;)