Programs off limits, without passwords
August 20, 2007
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the HP 3000 diagnostics you cannot use — at least you can't if you're not an HP support customer. These programs reside on your HP 3000 disk, if you've installed a version of MPE/iX during the past seven years.
(And if you haven't, well, you don't really need diagnostics, do you? You've got a stable system, genuine faith in your disc drives — not to mention lots of luck.)
For the rest of the community, those self-maintaining or using third-party support, these diagnostics require a password. The question is, which diagnostics? Stan Sieler, HP's most recent recipient of the "e3000 Contributor of the Year" award, reports on the state of HP 3000 diagnostics.
The online diagnostics come in two flavors:
- Older releases of MPE/iX have online diagnostics accessed via SYSDIAG.PUB.SYS (which is a script that runs DUI.DIAG.SYS). (MPE/iX 6.0 and earlier, possibly MPE/iX 6.5 (I’m not sure))
- Newer releases of MPE/iX have online diagnostics accessed via CSTM.PUB.SYS (which is a script that runs /usr/sbin/stm/ui/bin/stmc).
Both are, well, difficult to use. (HP-UX also switched from sysdiag to stm.) Both have some modules that require passwords, and some that don’t.
The offline diagnostics are on a bootable CD or tape. The lastest offline diagnostics CD (for PA-RISC) that I could find was labelled “2004”.
It has seven diagnostics/utilities. I tried running all of them on an A-Class system. The “ODE” one is special; it’s a program that itself hosts a number of diagnostics/utilities (some of which require passwords).
(I’m not saying “password protected”, because that implies they need protecting ... “password restricted” or “password deprived” might be a more accurate phrase :)
Sieler reported on the details of the "non-ODE" diagnostics. Just a sample of what you can use, and what will be waiting for HP to unlock once the vendor gets out of the 3000 support business:
filename type start size created
=====================================================
XMAP -12960 832 1568 04/08/10 17:12:26
ODE -12960 2400 880 04/08/10 17:12:26
EDBC -12960 31344 1696 04/08/10 17:12:26
EDPROC -12960 33040 6928 04/08/10 17:12:26
MULTIDIAG -12960 39968 6256 04/08/10 17:12:26
TDIAG -12960 46224 7216 04/08/10 17:12:26
CLKUTIL -12960 53440 240 04/08/10 17:12:26
ISL> tdiag
...probably doesn't require a password (can't run on A-Class)
ISL> clkutil
no password
ISL> edproc
...probably doesn't require a password (can't run on A-Class)
ISL> edbc
...probably doesn't require a password (can't run on A-Class)
ISL> xmap
...probably doesn't require a password (can't run on A-Class)
ISL> multidiag
****** MULTIDIAG ******
****** Version A.01.12 ******
Enter password or a <CR> to exit:
Tomorrow, we'll let Sieler cover the ODE diagnostics, which HP has tucked away behind a password.