[Info-vax] running VMS on PWS (SRM console)

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

I have some notes on this, and there is some information here and in the 
group, but is there a definitive guide?

I understand that a good battery is essential to retain the settings
during a power cycle with longer downtime, and that at least a weak
battery is needed to retain the settings after a brief power cycle after
changing the settings.  However, even if the battery is completely dead,
should it always be possible to make the change (even if one can't save
it)?  In other words, I'd like to verify that the machine is physically
capable of booting from the SRM console before checking the battery
(which implies disassembly). 

With no graphic monitor, the console output is on COM1, which is the 
lower of the two ports, right?  Is it always visible if there is no 
graphics monitor attached, despite any console settings?

Testing three machines today, one doesn't show anything after the power 
cycle (though I think that it did at one time), one says "Please select 
the operating system to start:" but appears to offer only winnt.  At the 
"Press Enter to choose:" prompt, it says that the selection is invalid.

One machine gets to "F2: setup", but pressing F2 does nothing.

The console is a VT with the standard settings for use as console on a 
VMS system.  Should it be possible to switch to the SRM console with 
such a console terminal attached?  Or do I need a graphics monitor 
and/or PC-style keyboard?

I'm pretty sure that I had the SRM console on all three of these at one 
time.  Maybe I've forgotten how I got there, maybe something happened 
while they were shut down.