[HECnet] VMS on zx6000 - argh?

[Mark Benson]

On 8 Jul 2011, at 10:13, Mark Wickens wrote:

I dunno, I got to sleep for a few hours and all this activity happens, close to my heart ;)

You should get up earlier, I only posted that this morning :P 

RE: keyboards, yeah, those trap exceptions sure are helpful messages. WTF!

I also get a couple of trap exceptions associated with the VMS-not-booting because-it-hates-my-graphical-console issue too. It's not so much the trap messages, it's the noise the machine makes sometimes. Sounds like it's in it's death-throws! It's only a keyboard error, calm down! :)

It was the first problem I had with my ZX6000, and it would have convinced me the machine was a dudd, had it not been for a single post on t'internet about the keyboard being wrong.

I must have fluked with the Belkin USB adapter and it worked fine from the get-go. It was only when I plugged the input into the wrong port (I think) it spat it's dummy out. When switched to the USB KVM I discovered it was prone to spitting it's dummy out on any occasion of not having the right keyboard. Testing has shown it's rather fussy, so yeah.

I bought a bog-standard HP keyboard after that, which works fine, and I also ended up getting an LK464, which is nice ;)

By 'Bog Standard' do you mean any old HP consumer PC keyboard? might try my Logitech keyboard attached directly to it (not practical long term as it's my USB KVM keyboard on a USB KVM that's also very picky about keyboards, especially Apple ones!) 

Not tried with KVMs, but am 100% sure that milage will vary considerably.

Yes. I am sure it will too. KVMs vary wildly. I have a 4-port Startech PS/2+VGA KVM that works flawlessly on SGIs but hates my Belklin PS/2 to USB adapters. I have a Compaq PS/2+VGA KVM that hates SGIs bourt works fine with the Belkin USB adapters, and I have a Startech DVI+USB KVM that works fine with a Logitech Keyboard and Mouse but the USB kept disconnecting when I use a Microsoft Mouse and Apple Keyboard. Ahh... aren't 'standards' great ;)

Anyhoo - it seems to tolerate the Belkin USB KVM adapter for now so I'll go with that.


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