Any way to license openvms other than typing it in one character at a time

[soutbarr]

I finally got openvms successfully installed in vmware workstation. Now I'm trying to figure out is there any way to get the pak in without typing it into a .com file one character at a time?

[sms]

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> [...] any way to get the pak in without typing it into a .com file one
> character at a time?

   What, exactly, does "the pak" mean to you?  And where (and in what
form) is it now?

   If you downloaded the X86COMMUNITYPAK package from the Service
Platform, then you should have the file "x86community-20240401.zip",
and/or its contents, "X86Community-20240401.txt", which is a 32KB DCL
script containing 45 different PAKs.

   Getting that PAK file onto storage which VMS can read can be a
challenge.  Multiple ways exist, but the simplest one might be to
install the OPENVMS-X86-BOE PAK manually.  The BOE PAK bundle includes
VMS, DECnet, TCPIP, and more, so once that's installed (registered and
loaded), you should be able configure TCPIP, and then use something like
FTP to transfer the whole PAK file.  Then do:
     @ X86Community-20240401.txt

   To register one PAK, you could type or use copy+paste to put in the
relevant "LICENSE REGISTER" and "LICENSE LOAD" commands from the PAK
file.  Alternatively:
      @ sys$update:vmslicense.com
and type (or copy+paste) the info from the PAK file into that more
user-friendly procedure (which is left over from the days of paper PAK
certificates).  Usually the answers to its questions are easy enough to
extract/interpret from the commands.

   A Web/Forum search should find many similar discussions/suggestions.

[reinhardtjh]

Code: Select all

> [...] any way to get the pak in without typing it into a .com file one
> character at a time?

   What, exactly, does "the pak" mean to you?  And where (and in what
form) is it now?

   If you downloaded the X86COMMUNITYPAK package from the Service
Platform, then you should have the file "x86community-20240401.zip",
and/or its contents, "X86Community-20240401.txt", which is a 32KB DCL
script containing 45 different PAKs.

   Getting that PAK file onto storage which VMS can read can be a
challenge.  Multiple ways exist, but the simplest one might be to
install the OPENVMS-X86-BOE PAK manually.  The BOE PAK bundle includes
VMS, DECnet, TCPIP, and more, so once that's installed (registered and
loaded), you should be able configure TCPIP, and then use something like
FTP to transfer the whole PAK file.  Then do:
     @ X86Community-20240401.txt

   To register one PAK, you could type or use copy+paste to put in the
relevant "LICENSE REGISTER" and "LICENSE LOAD" commands from the PAK
file.  Alternatively:
      @ sys$update:vmslicense.com
and type (or copy+paste) the info from the PAK file into that more
user-friendly procedure (which is left over from the days of paper PAK
certificates).  Usually the answers to its questions are easy enough to
extract/interpret from the commands.

   A Web/Forum search should find many similar discussions/suggestions.

^^^^^^

That's what I do. IA64 and x86 are easy as they all have one PAK that enables the system and networking. Alpha is a litle harder as it required both PAKS (twice the work!). Take a minute to enter that one (or two) and you're set until you can FTP or copy the whole file over. If you're connected via a terminal window on a PC/Mac/Linux system then you can cut and paste the PAK info from the file VSI sends to the terminal window too so you don't have to type those fiddly checksum characters.

[hb]

You can also
- create a zip archive with the PAKs, that is, with the .TXT file - if you do not yet have one.
- create an ISO image with the zip archive
- attach the ISO image to the VM as CD/DVD
- on VMS, after logging in from the console for the first time, mount the CD/DVD and extract the .TXT file and run it as a command procedure.

Actually, you do not need the zip archive, but using one avoids fixing VMS file attributes. And you can also do this at installation time but then you have to ensure that the PAKs are registered in the license database on the target system.

If you use cut & paste, do it line by line. Otherwise you may see errors like

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%RMS-F-RER, file read error
-SYSTEM-W-DATAOVERUN, data overrun

They can be avoided and probably will by default in future versions of VMS.

[dgordon]

Copy & paste of PAKs -- There are two methods to make this work more easily:

If you're logged in at the console, and don't mind a reboot:

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$MC SYSGEN
SYSGEN> USE CURRENT
SYSGEN> SHOW TTY_TYPAHDSZ
SYSGEN> SET . 6330
SYSGEN> SHOW .
SYSGEN> WRITE CURRENT
SYSGEN> EXIT
$ REBOOT

which would allow you to
When the system reboots, you should be able to paste a lot more in a single go (6330 is just shy of 132*48)

If you're at the Boot Manager, then you can use conversational boot (set Bit 1 in the boot flags) and increase the value of TT_TYPAHDSZ in SYSBOOT. Similar to the above but omit USE/WRITE CURRENT and use CONTINUE instead of EXIT. Left as an exercise for the reader.

The default value of TTY_TYPAHDSZ will be increased in a future release.