[Info-vax] OSes

[John E. Malmberg]

On 1/15/2016 3:34 AM, lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
>
> I got the impression this (DECwindows using X forwarding from VMS to a
> Linux X server) is not possible on SIMH. Has anybody gotten it to work?

The DEC/CPQ/HP TCP/IP services that are available to VAX/VMS does not 
have SSH, so SSH tunneling is not possible.

The Process Software Multinet which is also available under a free hobby 
license does have SSH.  I have not yet tried that combination.

Using a free X-Server such as in Linux, or Cygwin/X, etc. does 
absolutely work and I do it all the time.

You may have to adjust the firewall ports on the Linux system to allow 
the X11 protocols in.  And you will need to authorize the VAX system 
hostname or IP on the X11 display as the default is to deny access, 
since the assumption is that all X11 users are using SSH and no font 
servers.

The other wrinkle is that the Linux or Cygwin/X or other non-DEC 
X-Server will not have the fonts on it to properly render the text 
displayed from VAX/VMS.

VMS/ALPHA and VMS/IA64 have a font server that can be enabled to provide 
the fonts to non DEC X-Servers.  VAX/VMS does not, and I think that 
because the fonts are not in a compatible format, writing a VAX/VMS font 
server will not fix that.

Note: Cygwin/X changed their default configuration to disable X11 ssh 
tunneling, and some other defaults that essentially disabled using X11 
from remote systems. This can be reversed with the proper mystic rituals 
that are not exactly what is in the Cygwin/X FAQ.

Regards,
-John
wb8tyw at qsl.network