GUI Desktop Environment (CDE)
This page shows you how to run the CDE GUI in a remote X session.
You need an OpenVMS installation with networking, which can be the hobbyist program's FreeAXP from VSI if you're on Windows, or AXPbox on other operating systems.
If you install OpenVMS you will be asked if you want to install the GUI, during the installation. If you've answered NO there, you can download the PDF from the VSI product site to install it in your OpenVMS installation.
You can find Remy's installation guide for OpenVMS with networking here, it sets up a networked OpenVMS installation in AXPbox which is the basis for this guide. This wiki also has a guide on installing OpenVMS and on network setup
The GUI runs in a remote X session. On linux I prefer to use Xephyr, which is what I'll use in this guide. On Windows you can use xming, here on this topic you can find a few pictures of their settings.
On Ubuntu you can install Xephyr with apt from the repository:
apt install xserver-xephyr
The network in AXPbox is not as stable as it can be, it took me a few times, rebooting AXPbox, before I got a stable GUI. But, when I had one, it was rock solid.
In this guide I assume the IP of the OpenVMS machine to be 10.0.2.25 and the IP
of the linux machine running the X server 10.0.2.15.
On your linux machine fire up an X server with Xephyr:
Xephyr -screen 1024x768 :1 -ac -listen tcp
If you use Windows, you can use xming, here and here are tips to set that up. On Mac OS X there is XQuartz.
On your OpenVMS machine you must first enable the remote display to your local linux machine's X server:
set display/create/node=10.0.2.15/transport=tcpip/server=1/exec
Replace the IP address by your local linux machine. The server=1 part must match
the :1 display number on your X server.
Start the CDE desktop login manager with the following command:
run sys$system:decw$startlogin.exe
If you run VSI OpenVMS 8.4-2, this is the login screen:
If you run HP OpenVMS 8.4 or 8.3, the logo is different:
If you run COMPAQ OpenVMS 7.3 (on Alpha), the logo is from Compaq:
After entering a correct username and password, a blue screen with one line of
text (Starting the New Desktop for OpenVMS) pops up while the desktop is
loading:
When you're logged in, the desktop appears with a help window. This is how it looks:
Click around and open up a few programs. There is not much pre-installed, you have a terminal, file manager, text editor, calendar, clock and a few more utilities. Here is a screenshot with some programs open:
You can play around with the GUI, on the OpenVMS Freeware CD is a bunch more software you can run. Remy has written a guide for Tetris and that page also has more screenshots. Astr0baby/DrCranium has a guide on compiling prBoom (DOOM) on OpenVMS.