[Info-vax] 8.4 and DECwindows CDE login box not coming up

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

> Get a list of the PQL* SYSGEN parameters from an earlier system disk. 
> Then a list from the 8.4 disk.  Compare them.

On 8.4, most are the same as on 7.3-2, some are larger.

> What you need to do is to find out what the problem is.  Now, I could be 
> wrong, but I doubt DECwindows requires more of anything on 8.4 than it 
> did on earlier versions of VMS.  I doubt anyone has touched the product 
> for years.

Right.  Well, probably no-one has touched it much.  This makes it all 
the more puzzling why it no longer works.

> Actually, if you get the total list of SYSGEN parameters from an earlier 
> system disk, and the list from the 8.4 disk, you can compare them for 
> lower values on the 8.4 disk.  Even write a program to search for lower 
> values.  That's a starting place.
> 
> What I'm thinking is the 8.4 distribution has a lower value for 
> something than what you had previously.

Comparing SETPARAMS.DAT, many are the same, some are (usually only 
slightly) larger on 8.4, some are a bit smaller on 8.4.  I don't think 
that using the previous values as MIN_ values for a newer version is a 
good idea.  VMS itself checks whether the parameters for DECwindows are 
sufficient, and sets MIN_ values during the upgrade.

Yes, if my system were badly configured, it could be a parameter 
problem, but a) it's not and b) in such cases there is usually an error 
message.

I'm thinking now it is some UAF parameters which need increasing.  Is 
SYSTEM or DEFAULT relevant?