[Info-vax] Changed Boot behavior on XP1000 since 2013

[Hans Vlems]

On 30 jan, 15:45, Stephen Hoffman <seaoh... at hoffmanlabs.invalid>
wrote:
> On 2013-01-30 09:11:42 +0000, Joukj said:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> >> On 2013-01-29 11:07:50 +0000, Hans Vlems said:
>
> >>> The next question is : can we fix the error?
> >>> Very likely we won't get any support from HP, presumably there are very
> >>> few XP1000's or ALpha Server 1200's (let alone Digital Server 5305's)
> >>> covered by a
> >>> hardware maintenance contract.
>
> >> AlphaStation XP1000 is listed as a supported system for OpenVMS Alpha
> >> V8.4 <http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/spdalphaintegrity84.pdf>, so HP
> >> will either be changing the SPD here, or changing the firmware, or
> >> (likely) changing the OpenVMS Alpha code.
>
> > Given this listed support as mentoned above, does the following make sense?
> >     -I have a software contract with HP
> >     -I have NO hardware contract
> > Hp has to respond on the problems I see when booting OpenVMS (asking
> > for the date (I noticed that the time is always picked up correct even
> > if if it is not typed)
>
> Since my comments were apparently unclear, your contract status is
> irrelevant to my comments, beyond meaning that you likely won't gain
> access to any fixes at all quickly.
>
> Depending on what HP decides to do here — given this box is currently a
> supported platform — there'll be either a CPU-specific patch[1] and
> that'll probably eventually get rolled into an UPDATE kit, and some of
> those UPDATE kits do eventually seem to arrive in the recent download
> distros for hobbyists, and this presumes that the folks with
> AlphaStation XP1000 boxes can't make a case for early access to the
> CPU-specific patch or potentially the UPDATE.
>
> Or there's the other outcome for this, where HP decides to drop support
> for the box entirely, and all bets are off.
>
> Put another way, if HP patches this, you might be able to gain access
> to this particular fix in a year or three.  Pending that, it's NVRAM
> time...
>
> On a semi-related note, I did suggest to the HP folks that it would be
> reasonable to provide a way to purchase licenses and support on-line.
> It'd be nice if there was a way to easily buy a real yearly OpenVMS
> license and to buy support escalations or specific patches, but I don't
> see that happening.
>
> ————
> [1] probably some sort of a CPU2208 or CPU220B patch kit.  Some years
> back, there was a VMS721_CPU2208-V0100 patch for this box, for instance.
> [2] And can't use the NVRAM deposit workaround that was posted earlier.
>
> --
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC- Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht niet weergeven -
>
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Hoff, us white box alpha users were already quite used to an nvram
work-around....