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OpenVMS 9.2 for x86 is finally available for hobbyists!

Published: 09-04-2023 23:59 | Last update: 11-04-2023 22:29 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article



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OpenVMS x86 is now available for (most) hobbyists! Almost a year after the official release most hobbyists can now login to the Service Portal to download their copy of OpenVMS 9.2 for x86, X86E921OE.ZIP and the PAK (license) files (x86community-20240401.zip), valid until April 2024.

You can read all my OpenVMS articles here.

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OpenVMS 9.2 for Hobbyists

This is just a quick blog post to notify people of the availability for hobbyists registered in the VMS Software INC program. I received an email from another hobbyist notifying me of the release and where to download it, using my existing credentials for the hobbyist program:

Hello, Letting you know, from one hobbyist to another, that VSI has started rolling out OpenVMS for hobbyists slowly. You don't need to re-register from the Community license website if you have a license for Alpha/Integrity already, but if you didn't get an email yet (they're releasing it out in batches) you can try to log in manually in https://sp.vmssoftware.com (yes, they shifted the community program into the Service Platform for downloads as well. Hooray, no more slow SFTP downloads!) Try the email you used to enter an Alpha/Integrity community license. If it says "invalid password", reset your password and you should be able to get in early (worked for me, even though I didn't get the email yet). If it says that your user can't be found, wait for an email. Cheers!

I've downloaded the C++ compiler and the OpenVMS WEBUI, can't wait to get started. Expect more posts on OpenVMS x86 on this site in the future!

Here is a screenshot of the downloads available:

downloads on sp.vmssoftware.com

No XSAVE instruction available

I'm not able to provide a full guide right now, but my installation fails due to Hyper-V being active and Virtualbox / OpenVMS not liking that:

xsave

It seems that disabling Hyper-V resolves this error, but disabling it makes WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux) not work anymore, which I do require for work-related tasks.

Will post an update soon though!

Getting Started with OpenVMS 9.2 guide

Update: the first part of my Getting Started guide is finished, read that to see how to install OpenVMS on VirtualBox.

Tags: alpha , blog , dec , itanium , openvms , pdp , vax , vms , vsi , x86