OpenVMS 9.2-3 x64 now has local console on OPA0

(This is a guest post by Antoni Sawicki aka Tenox)

I perviously covered x64 OpenVMS release on VMware. This was insanely cool achievement for the operating system. While it had no practical ramification there was one small annoyance. The OS console was on a serial port. In VMware it meant another VM connected via named pipe.

Now OpenVMS x64 supports (limited?) local console on OPA0. To enable it you have to type opa0 before boot in the bootmgr prompt:

Once the system boots your will be greeted with a login prompt on the local VGA console!

Does it support clear screen, cursor movement, etc? Yes! You can even run a text editor locally!

The default terminal size is 80×24. You can make it bigger by typing

$ set term /width=140 /page=70

This means we can have aclock on x64 OpenVMS local console!

Prior aclock binaries for VMS were compiled using Unix Curses library. To celebrate all this, I have created a new version using the native SMG$ screen management routines. So this is now a truly native VMS app. The binary is here. The source code here.

Have fun with virtualization!

Atari System V UNIX (ASV) virtualized under Hatari

(This is a guest post by Antoni Sawicki aka Tenox)

Some 12 years ago I ran a short series of articles about my efforts to run Atari Unix on an actual Atari TT 030 machine. Which by itself is not an easy task, as it requires specific late models of TT (or hardware fixes by Atari), copious amounts of TT RAM and a high resolution mono framebuffer graphics (which requires a very special monochrome monitor or an adapter which I had to build instead). I have later exhibited my ASV setup on VCF West:

Atari System V Unix (ASV) running on Atari TT on VCF West

Behold! This time I present ASV virtualized under Hatari!

Atari System V Unix (ASV) Running under Hatari by Plamen

This work is not mine, all credit goes to Plamen! This is absolutely amazing as now more people can experience this legendary OS. The works is still in progress. Will post updates and more screenshots regularly!

Update: X11, screenshot courtesy of Andrew W:

Atari System V Unix (ASV) Running under Hatari by Andrew W

Update: Complete setup available here!