Questions relating to DECwindows utilities (notepad and paint)

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dmjb
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Questions relating to DECwindows utilities (notepad and paint)

Post by dmjb » Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:28 am

I have been running the classic (i.e. not CDE, the one which uses the Motif Window Manager) DECwindows desktop on E9.2-1 using Xming installed on Windows. OpenVMS is installed on VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.1 on Windows 11, running on an AMD Ryzen 3950X CPU. Generally the old desktop works as it does on VAX or Alpha, but I have ran into two issues which I thought I would share.

The first is that the Notepad application does not start, and attempting to run RUN DECW$NOTEPAD.EXE from DCL yields the following crash dump:

Code: Select all

$ R DECW$NOTEPAD
X Toolkit Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Menu-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*
-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
X Toolkit Warning:
    Name: Help
    Class: XmPushButton
    Illegal mnemonic character;  Could not convert X KEYSYM to a keycode

X Toolkit Warning:
    Name: Help
    Class: XmPushButton
    Illegal mnemonic character;  Could not convert X KEYSYM to a keycode

X Toolkit Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Terminal-Medium-R-Narrow--*-140-*-*
-C-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=04, virtual address=000000000000
0000, PC=FFFF8300097EF73D, PS=0000001B

  Improperly handled condition, image exit forced.
    Signal arguments:   Number = 0000000000000005
                        Name   = 000000000000000C
                                 0000000000000004
                                 0000000000000000
                                 FFFF8300097EF73D
                                 000000000000001B
    Register dump:
    RAX = 0000000000000000  RDI = 000000000016CBF0  RSI = 000000000016CBF4
    RDX = 0000000000200B40  RCX = 0000000000000000  R8  = 0000000000172700
    R9  = 00000000000D3680  RBX = 0000000000003180  RBP = 000000007ACBB190
    R10 = 0000000000000006  R11 = 0000000000000246  R12 = 000000000012A100
    R13 = 0000000000200051  R14 = 0000000000000000  R15 = 0000000000200051
    RIP = FFFF8300097EF73D  RSP = 000000007ACBB180  SS  = 000000000000001B
The other issue I've ran into concerns the "Paint" program. If I run RUN DECW$PAINT.EXE through DCL, I get the following error:

Code: Select all

$ R DECW$PAINT
X Toolkit Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Menu-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-
-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
Error: Visual Not Supported
Supported Visuals are {PseudoColor, GrayScale, StaticGray}
Doing some Googling, I see the following advice discussed in the release notes of some of the HP-era VMS releases:

Code: Select all

6.9.10 Pixel Depth for Read/Write Color Map
By default, the RADEON 7500 provides a pixel depth of 24 planes with a read-only, TrueColor color map. Some applications, such as DECwindows Paint, require a read/write color map. If Paint is run with a read-only color map, it fails with the following error message:

Error: Visual Not Supported Supported Visuals are {PseudoColor, GrayScale, StaticGray} 

To use a read/write color map, edit the file SYS$MANAGER:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM (or, if this file does not exist, create it from SYS$MANAGER:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.TEMPLATE) and add the following logical name definition to the file:

$ DEFINE/EXECUTIVE/SYSTEM/NOLOG DECW$SERVER_PIXEL_DEPTH 8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8 

Then restart DECwindows using the following command:

$ @SYS$MANAGER:DECW$STARTUP RESTART 

This change sets the pixel depth to 8 planes (on up to 8 graphics cards, which allows for a multiple-card configuration) and allows the server to provide a PseudoColor visual.
(source http://odl.sysworks.biz/disk$axpdocjun0 ... o_013.html)

I have attempted to follow this advice even though I am x-forwarding instead of running directly on a Radeon graphics card... however, the DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.TEMPLATE file mentioned in this documentation does not exist in SYS$MANAGER on E9.2-1. Attempting to create a PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM file by hand, or running that define command in the same terminal where I am attempting to start the paint program does not fix the error. Any ideas what might be going on?

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volkerhalle
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Re: Questions relating to DECwindows utilities (notepad and paint)

Post by volkerhalle » Mon Apr 17, 2023 11:27 am

When using the 'old desktop', I can reproduce the Notepad problem. If trying to start Notepad from the Session Manager, a new window opens for a split of a second and then disappears. After enabling image accounting ($ SET ACC/ENA=IMAGE) and retrying to start notepad, one can see an image accounting entry like this:

17-APR-2023 17:10:48 IMAGE DECW$NOTEPA SYSTEM 00000434 MBA81: 1000000C

Notepad exits due to an ACCVIO -> a software bug. Reproducable by manually running DECW$NOTEPAD.EXE

When trying to start Paint from Session Manager, I see a message pop-up: The Exclude Files field contents are invalid. File specification syntax error.

re: DECW$PRINT and SYS$MANAGER:DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM

The OpenVMS x86-64 system is the DECwindows client, not the DECwindows server - it does not have a graphics card, so there is no such command file. The X11 server in this case is Xming.

Volker.

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