From: dongray@GENRAD.COM (Derek Dongray)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Window manager???
Date: 25 Jan 93 21:14:30 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Internet

> We are a small lab using a VAX 11/780 running VMS 4.7.  We are in the
> process of moving onto a VAXstation 3100 running VMS 5.4-1.
> Currently, I am the only person who logs on/uses that machine.  There
> is something particularly disturbing about this machine.  I leave it
> idle overnight, and when I go into work the next morning I find
> thatthe window manager has crashed!  (I attribute it to the window
> manager because I can log in from another terminal and everything
> works fine).  The message I see on the console is that it is verifying
> the mounting of the system disk (dka300) and sometimes another
> (dka200) as well.  The only remedy I have at the moment is to reboot
> the system.
[stuff deleted]

I suspect that what you are seeing is not a window manager crash but the
appearance of the "operator window". This takes up about the top third of
the screen and is not part of the decwindows set up; i.e. it uses the same
driver as when the system boots. It gets opened whenever OPCOM (the operator
notification program) wants to report something. While it's open the normal
window system cannot do anything.

Have you tried CTRL-F2, which should toggle the open/close state of the
operator window?

As a permanent fix, you should put put

	$ define/sys opc$opa0_enable false

into sys$manager:sylogicals.com. This will turn off the use of OPA0 (the
operator window) for the machine. Of course, the downside is that operator
messages are then only logged to a file unless you execute a reply/enable in
a DECterm window.

> Other clues:
> On rebooting I found that the time was off by 12 hours (failing
> battery back-up?)

If the battery was faulty it would simply ask for the time again (we have
had this happen). I suspect someone just set the clock wrong!

> I was backing some stuff up to a 1.3Gb 4mm SCSI tape drive and crashed
> the manager because I had absent-mindedly forgotten to insert the
> cassette (same sort of error message - verifying mount of the tape
> drive mka500)

As above, OPCOM is trying to tell the operator (who it assumes is at the
console) of a problem. BTW, I'd investigate why you are getting disk mount
verification errors. Do you have a faulty SCSI connection? Faulty drives?

> I would appreciate any comments/suggestions/fixes on the topic.  Many
> thanks in advance...
>
> - Raj
>   rdj@neuro.tch.harvard.edu
>   rdj@acs.bu.edu

Hope this helps.

P.S: BTW, a window manager crash also only has the effect that all the windows
become deiconized and lose their borders/buttons etc. Now if you have a
*server* crash (process DECW$SERVER_0 dies) then you can restart it with

	$ @sys$startup:decw$startup restart

from SYSTEM or another privileged account. My bet's on the operator window!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Derek Dongray, Systems Manager, GenRad Ltd.
Phone : 061 486 1511 ext 166
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