[Info-vax] Error mounting system device after cluster creation

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-07-07 15:34:16 +0000, Daniel Sundqvist said:

> Yes changing the disk label fixed the problem. The cluster is up and 
> running now.
> 
> Nice tip of how to translate the status code, Michael.

Yeah. Because we have:

%SYSINIT-E, error mounting system device, status = 007280B4

and we do not have:

%SYSINIT-E-FAIMOUBOO, failed to mount system bootstrap storage device
-SYSINIT-I-FORMORINF, for more info, use HELP /MESSAGE %x007280B4

FWIW, use of HELP /MESSAGE can be preferable to the use of EXIT here, 
as the former provides much more information than the sometimes-cryptic 
latter.

Why not display the translated output for the code?  The boot 
environment is limited in what it can do and what gets dragged along 
here.  Not that embedding the error messages is a particular problem in 
this current era and not that the EFI/UEFI boot environment isn't 
vastly more capable than the old home-grown stuff from earlier eras, 
but what the boot environment could do and what it could reasonably 
drag along was once limited.  The developer tossed out what they 
thought was a pretty good message at the time, too.

The downside of "working code" and "it's obvious to the experienced 
folks" often being that these messes are left to trip new and 
inexperienced users.  We've been bumping into this particular error and 
related volume mount errors for decades, and system managers have 
learned the cryptic commands to translate the error messages.

In the ensuing decades nobody has returned to this decision and 
reconsidered it.

OpenVMS is replete with these cases, though the experienced folks all 
know the work-arounds to make up for the issues.

There is never a right answer here and there are always competing 
priorities, of course. Simple is hard.  This all gets somewhere between 
very expensive and impossible when absolute compatibility is required, 
too.

> Sorry for the noob questions but the OpenVMS community needs new blood ;)

Yes, it does.  But that's a wider problem. The whole of the OpenVMS 
bootstrap environment messages and displays are clearly in need of 
overhauls and redesigns.  Same for the installation and configuration 
processes.

ps: Remember to search the archives of comp.os.vms for existing 
discussions.  We all forget stuff, too.  Searching for /%SYSINIT-E, 
error mounting system device, status = 007280B4/ finds 
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.os.vms/U-XO1oCBfU8/Utv-WwcIFqcJ


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