I am Peter Mantos from Albuquerque, NM. If you recognize the name MANTOS, it might be because my uncle Paul worked for DEC for many years (from the late 60's on) and his son Joe, worked out in Hudson.
My first machine was a PDP/8e (circa 1973) and I am presently restoring an AlphaServer 2100. I have a working MicroVax 3100-80 in my office. I have worked professionally in VMS as a software developer. I know system calls, RMS file structures, DBMS, and RDB very well. I have programmed in MACRO, BASIC, COBOL under VMS. My most recent VMS work was converting police records stored in an undocumented format in RMS files to M/S SQL for a city in Texas.
I am stuck on restoring the alpha server 2100 and will post a question soon. Basically, I have a strange system time and cannot reset it using the ECU. I thought the problem was the keyboard (got an Lk450), then the firmware (have successfully updated to 5.3, and today I put it a new DALLAS clock/battery chip.
I still get "Error: invalid system date or time, press any key ..." I'll post details and will welcome your advice.
Not Sure if this is relevant but I have similar date/time problem when trying to boot my Alphaservers 4100 and 4000 in that both are reluctant to boot up OVMS 8.3 unless I set the date/time using the DATE command from the SRM P00>>>
Strangely, the date/time data looks correct , except that the year appears as 2094 when using the same DATE command to request the stored time! (I assumed that a battery was the cause but was surprised that only the year was wrong - by one digit)
Oh and Hi to Peter - I plan to wrestle with TCPIP and compare a C++ prog under Ubuntu with the same prog under VMS, to retain some contact, tomorrow as it's going to be wet and miserable, probably much different to New Mexico! Just listening to a VMS roadmap talk and someone asked about upgrading the FORTRAN compiler - there is still hope!
Edited by somersdave on November 10 2014 12:15
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.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
, and today I put it a new DALLAS clock/battery chip.
