[Info-vax] grey screen of death

[Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER]

In article <mjsarc$vvb$1 at news.kjsl.com>, helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de (Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)) writes:

According to what I remember having browsed in your threads, I think:

*) You have a dying X11 server on your Alpha
*) You haven't found DECW$SERVER*.DMP files or there are none
*) You haven't found related accounting records or there are none
*) Without an X11 server, you have no CDE login/greet process (of course
and no DECW$TE* terminal emulator process of DECterms of logged in user
and also not the interactive process of this logged in user
because you are not logged in via the CDE login screen at all) 
*) You are running OpenVMS V8.4 with all ECOs (or are in process to install
the latest VMS ECOs)
*) You are running TCPIP V5.7 ECO5 (or are in process to install ECO5)
*) You are running DECwindows MOTIF V1.2-7 w/o ECOs (because there are none)
*) You are not running DECnet (neither Ph4 nor DECnet-Plus/DECnet-OSI/Ph5)
*) You have working DECwindows client, as you could prove with an X11 server
on a remote system (like another of your OpenVMS systems with a working
X11 server or like a PC with a X11 server like eXcursion or eXceed or ...)
but you have not done so

My suggestion is:
*) Get yourself a PC with a working X11 server (and login via SSH/Putty
and X11 forwarding enabled and then CREATE/TERMINAL/DETACHED to get a DTTERM
or use the XDM functionality of the X11 server to login via DTGREET/DTLOGIN)
and prove that your problem is only your OpenVMS DECW$SERVER_0 process
*) Complete your upgrade activities (including DECnet installation ;-)
	and hope that the problem disappear (just as it appeared)
*) If the problem with the dying DECW$SERVER process is still there,
-) get more info
	check SYS$STARTUP:DECW$SERVER_0_ERROR.LOG
	check ACCOUNTING for data of DECW$SERVER_0 process (username SYSTEM)
-) increase debugging info
	by adding following lines to SYS$STARTUP:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM
	$ decw$server_connect_log == "T"
	$ decw$server_dump == "T"
	and by using AVAILMAN (and watch the process quotas)
-) increase your (DECW$SERVER_0 process and system) quotas
	by adding 2 lines to SYS$STARTUP:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM
	$ DEFINE/NOLOG DECW$SERVER_PAGE_FILE   <at least 370000>
	$ DEFINE/NOLOG DECW$SERVER_WSQUOTA     <at least 12288>
	and by considering the following lines for your MODPARAMS.DAT
	MIN_LNMSHASHTBL=512
	MIN_MAXPROCESSCNT=128
	MIN_PQL_DBYTLM=32768
	MIN_RESHASHTBL=512
	MIN_TTY_ALTYPAHD=2064
	MIN_TTY_ALTALARM=1600
	MIN_TTY_TYPAHDSZ=2064
	why I have in mine for eons (to fix various problems ;-)
-) reduce your X11 server to LOCAL transport only
        by changing the line in SYS$STARTUP:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM
	$ decw$server_transports == "LOCAL"
	and see if it makes a difference

Good luck
-- 
Peter "EPLAN" LANGSTÖGER
Network and OpenVMS system specialist
E-mail  Peter at LANGSTOeGER.at
A-1030 VIENNA  AUSTRIA              I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist