CHARON-TB version 4.0 for Windows/32 build 122-04 (Production) Release notes

Please review the Release Notes and refer to the User Manual before proceeding with installation or upgrade of CHARON-TB

1. Emulated hardware models 

• PDP-11/93 (QBUS)
• PDP-11/94 (UNIBUS)
• MicroVAX II
• MicroVAX 3600
• MicroVAX 3600 with 512 MB memory extension
• VAX Server 3600
• VAX Server 3600 with 512 MB memory extension
• VAX 4000/106
• VAX 6000/310 

2. Emulated hardware components

• RQDX3 MSCP disk controller
• TQK50 TMSCP tape controller
• DHV11/DHU11/DHW42AA/DHW42BA/DHW42CA serial line multiplexers
• UART/DL11 serial line controllers
• QUART/DZV11/DZQ11/DZ11 serial line controllers
• DELQA/DESQA/DEQNA QBUS network adapters
• DEUNA/DELUA UNIBUS network adapters
• UDA50 MSCP disk controller
• TUK50 TMSCP tape controller
• DEBNI BI Ethernet controller
• KDB50 BI MSCP disk controller

3. Supported Serial line ports

• Standard host system COM port
• TCP/IP port
• Ethernet to Serial: MOXA NPort 5210 box port

4. CHAPI (CHARON Application Program Interface)

CHAPI is an API to CHARON-TB emulated QBUS and could be used to create custom emulated QBUS devices to function with CHARON-TB. Please refer to CHARON-TB design manual for the details.

Supported librtaries:

• General CHAPI support library
• Serial I/O CHAPI support library
• Storage I/O CHAPI support library
• Hardware abstraction CHAPI support library
• Industrial I/O CHAPI support library mapped to SENSORAY 2601/2608

Unsupported CHAPI components for PDP-11 and VAX systems (limited testing has been performed):

• CHAPI DH11 UNIBUS serial line multiplexer
• CHAPI DHV11 QBUS serial line multiplexer
• CHAPI DHU11 UNIBUS serial line multiplexer
• CHAPI DLV11/DL11 serial line controller
• CHAPI DRV11-WA parallel I/O controller mapped to TLC DCI-1100 board
• CHAPI LPV11/LP11 parallel port
• CHAPI RLV12/RL11 disk controller
• CHAPI TSV05/TS11 tape controller
• CHAPI VCB02 video subsystem controller
• CHAPI bus adapter - CHAPI_QBUS mapped to TLC BCI-2104 hardware
• CHAPI bus adapter - CHAPI_UNIBUS mapped to TLC BCI-2004 hardware
• CHAPI DRV11/DR11-C mapped to PCI Sensoray 621 board
• CHAPI DRV11-WA parallel I/O controller mapped to PCI Sensoray 621 board
• CHAPI VT30-H video terminal emulation
• CHAPI DPV11 Sync serial line mapped to PCI SEALEVEL-5102S board
• CHAPI MRV11 ROM
• CHAPI IAV1S-AA/C/CA implementation of industrial DAC
• CHAPI IAV1S-D implementation of industrial DAC

CHAPI device creation wizard

• The CHAPI Device Creation Wizard itself and templates for it are available on request. Please contact Stromasys

5. Supported hosting software platforms

• Windows XP Professional (SP3), 32 bit version
• New! Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate Editions, 32 bit version

6. Hosting hardware requirements

• Dual core (Intel or AMD) CPU 2 GHz or above
• 1GB RAM (2GB on Windows 7)
• Intel Core 2 or Core I series; AMD Opteron series recommended for optimal CHARON-TB performance

7. New functionality introduced in version 4.0

• New version level 4.0
• CHARON-TB supports Windows 7 32bit
• The Network Control Center configuration assistant supports all types of PDP-11 and VAX network interfaces available to CHARON-TB
• PMAD-AA TurboChannel Ethernet Adapter for VAXstation 4000 Model 90 is added
• Now it is possible to use virtial tapes for emulated SCSI controllers exactly as it was implemented for TMSCP
• The CHARON-TB utilities support simplified Chinese
• The emulator opens log files in append mode
• The 'repeated messages' logging filter is enabled by default
• The MkDisk utility has been expanded to handle .VDISK metadata
• The installation procedure can disable all unnecessary services. Note that this operation disables host networking completely to make it a platform fully dedicated to CHARON-TB.
• The CHARON-TB executables are able to automatically configure DEP settings during installation
• The installation product directory can be freely chosen
• A full deinstallation removes all traces of the product
• The "io_delay_ms" parameter has been added to all the CHARON-TB products for "virtual_scsi_disk"
• The HASP_HL_VIEW utility has been added. It is able to display both HASP-HL and HASP-SRM license key content. The user interface of HASP_HL_VIEW has been improved as well as its functionality
• The HOSTPrint utility has been updated: now the maximum length of each line is adjusted automatically.
• The installation log now lists all attributes of installed files, including size, product and file version, modification date, etc.

8. Configuration changes required when upgrading from previous versions of CHARON-TB to version 4.0

• Build 122-04 supports only HASP license dongles. All customers with active support contracts should contact their Stromasys resellers to organize a dongle exchange from HARDLOCK to HASP dongles.
• The user that runs CHARON-TB must have local administrator privileges and be a member of CHARON-GRP group (which is created during the CHARON-VAX installation)
• CHARON-TB executables, libraries, and data (container files/disks) should be excluded from all the antivirus checks, including on the fly checks and scheduled scans
• HT (Hyper-Threading Technology) should be disabled on the hosting server if using Intel CPUs capable of HT.
• DEP (Data Execution Prevention) should be set to: "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
• Addresses for CHAPI devices in configuration file must be 18 bit for UNIBUS system and 22 bit for QBUS system.
• Power management and screen saver should be switched off on the hosting server
• Sharing an Ethernet adapter between the host system and CHARON-TB is not recommended in production mode
• If CHARON-TB can't boot OS from a bootable disk image, make sure that the disk image is not write-protected on Windows
• If CHARON-TB is being moved to another hosting platform and the direct SCSI access method is used to access some SCSI devices (mainly disks), the new hosting platfrom SCSI drivers should support the SCSIport method. If drivers supporting the SCSIport method are not available, direct SCSI access couldn't be used. This mostly applies to Windows 7 disk controller drivers.
  This restriction mainly applies to the disk access. Most tape drivers currently support SCSIport. When direct SCSI access is used for devices without Windows drivers, this restriction does not apply.
  The recommended workaround is to use CHARON-TB disk container files or \\.\PhysicalDriveX method.
  Please refer to this knowledge base article for additional information
• Please note that the actual network communication speed and mode is determined by the Windows network speed and mode settings.
• When changing the hosting platform from Windows XP to Windows 7, the NDIS6 driver should be used instead of NDIS5. For example:
  a CHARON configuration file line:
  load ndis5_chpack_port/chnetwrk EWA0 interface="..."
  Should be replaced with:
  load ndis6_chpack_port/chnetwrk EWA0 interface="..."
• Intelligent packet processing should be switched off for the network ports dedicated to CHARON-TB. Below are examples of the correct settings -- the exact naming of the parameters depends on the network adapter driver:
  Offload receive Ip checksum = off
  Offload receive tcp ckecksum = off
  Offload Transmit Ip checksum = off
  Offload Transmit TCP checksum = off

9. Problems fixed in version 4.0

• CHAPI serial line can be mapped to COM10 and greater
• A problem with DELUA in initialization phase has been fixed
• Incorrect log messages about unconfigured serial lines were removed
• SCSIcheck utility does not recognize iSCSI volumes correctly (ID#2448)
• CHARON-VAX Service does not stop on Windows Server 2008/Vista/7 if configured for a certain stop time in the CHARON Service Manager (ID#2424)
• Fail to copy log messages from Charon Service Manager (ID#2417)
• Remove extra spaces from Virtual Disk Table and Virtual Disk Metadata files (ID#2596)
• Windows registry keys to be removed on complete deinstallation (ID#2572)
• Ticket #8029: Mounting disks is happening slower than in the previous releases (ID#2566)
• "sst.h:906 assert(immediate_ssts == 0)" happens from time to time when running VAX 6610  (ID#2560)
• When trying to run CHARON-TB executables the following error message is displayed: "The procedure entry point SetThreadStackGuarantee could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll" (ID#2615)
• Install Wizard crush (ID#2643)
• The charon.rom file cannot be created (ID#2440)
• VMS 6.1 and below does not install from standalone backup and does not boot (ID#2438)
• POST errors in TEST Subtest (ID#2307)
• Chinese-Simplified locale makes CHARON-TB process non-operational (ID#2697)
• Problem using CDrom on HP 465c blade server connected via USB (ID#2651)
• CHARON-TB crashed with incorrect configuration file (network part) (ID#2622)
• The default CFG file produces error messages about missing serial devices TTA0, TTA1 and TTA2 (ID#2338)
• DAT72 tape problem: "error in tape label processing" and "tape is not valid ANSI format" error messages (ID#2213)
• Windows Server 2008 CN: "Invisible" Installation Log (empty log file) (ID#2678)
• A file "mkdisk.vtable" is absent in the kit -- it prevents the MKDISK from starting normally (ID#2589).
• Incorrect text encoding in the NetDiag help on Chinese systems (ID#2373).
• Install procedure does not inform when unsupported host platform is attempted (ID#2431).
• Putty Console does not work (no proper session is available) when CHARON-TB runs as a service (ID#2452).
• ID#2471 - Ticket #7687: Pressing "F6" button terminates emulator. The default reaction must be changed to "none"
• Network Control Center utility does not recognize teamed interfaces (ID#2331)
• Some license messages are absent in the LOG file, for example "the license is expired" (ID#2040)
• Grammatik error in message text: some typos should be corrected (ID#2428)
• log_method="append" does not work if specified separately from the other configuration commands for the logging definition (ID#2450).
• Utilities help does not start when "F1" is pressed on Windows 7 operating systems (ID#2498)
• Ticket #7774: Problems NDIS6 driver - memory leak is found (ID#2490)
• Many question marks sometimes displayed in the Network Control Center Chinese help file (ID#2373)
• "EXA0: Failed to create symbolic link to the packet driver" error prevents using CHARON-TB networking despite the configuration is correct (ID#2554)
• "Back" button does not always work during installation
• An error message could appear during uninstallation of CHARON-TB through Control Panel
• CHARON-TB may wrongly report that no license is present if the correct license is present
• Too many scheduled starts and stops of CHARON-TB service in a short period of time could cause CHARON-TB crash
• SHOW DEV shows no UQSSP devices after VMS shutdown (ID#2877)
• "%MOUNT-F-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available" is reported sometimes when booting VAX/VMS V7.3 with DSSI disk drives (emulation timing issue) (ID#2873)
• Truncated DMA transfer errors happen when booting VAX/VMS V7.3 from DSSI disk drive (ID#2872)
• Setting "MI,TF85" parameter for HSD50 tape device causes CHARON to exit (ID#2830)
• Incorrect "OS Environment" content is reported in CHARON log file on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 (ID#2820)
• FEPROM content is not preserved if CHARON exits abnormally or runs as service (ID#2777)
• OpenVMS hangs at shutdown if certain CHARON configurations are used (OPCCRASH hangs) (ID#2508)

10. Known restrictions of version 4.0

• HARDLOCK license dongles are not supported. In the future only HASP dongles will be supported
• CHAPI_UNIBUS: unable to boot from BCI connected SCSI CDU720/TM disk.
• KW11-P timer at 1000Hz and 500Hz can works some slow.
• Problem with RT11 installation from the tape backup in some cases.
• PDP-11 year 2010 problem. PDP ROM set default 1990 at power up.
• Network transfer from real Alpha to emulated PDP can be slow in some cases.
• CHAPI serial line can work improperly if noise is present on input signal lines.
• Emulated devices cannot do DMA to real devices memory range installed to real QBUS via Bus Adapter.
• CHARON-TB does not emulate VGA adapters, thus OPA0 is always a system console. Applications hardcoded to use graphical hardware as their own interfaces may not function correctly
• Only Windows SCSI devices with a driver that uses SCSIport method could be used with the direct SCSI access. Those include most of the device drivers on Windows XP, and most non disk devices on Windows 7. If SCSIport is not supported (and Storport method is used instead), direct SCSI access couldn't be used.
  This is most likely to be the case for Windows 7 disk controller drivers.
  This restriction mainly applies to the disk access. Most part of tape drivers currently support SCSIport. When direct SCSI access is used for devices without Windows drivers, this restriction does not apply
• The message "MODEL NOT INSTALLED" occurs when trying to start Charon on Windows 7 via the Launcher utility. Workaround: Run the "Launcher.exe" utility from Administrator (right click of the mouse on the executable, "run from Administrator" option). (ID#2557)
• There is a problem to stop CHARON if it runs as service in the "automatic" mode with the CHARON Service Manager utility. Workaround: Run the "CharonManager.exe" utility from Administrator (right click of the mouse on the executable, "run from Administrator" option). (ID#2624)
• CHARON-TB has limited support for teamed network adapters. They could be used only if the MAC address of the virtual VMS network adapter is not changed during CHARON-TB session. In this case the desired MAC address should be set manually in the properties of the network team and in the CHARON-TB configuration file by "station_address=XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX" configuration option.
• CHARON-TB does not support virtual network adapters (i.e. MS bridges, etc).
• Network speed auto negotiation works with some restrictions. It is always recommended to use full duplex mode on the hosting server.
• UETP fails on a tape image if CHARON runs on VMware (ID#2427)
• The firmware does not support the history of commands called with the up/down arrow keys.< li> The MUX network driver is not supported in a production environemnt. The virtual network adapter works incorrectly on Win2003-64: some duplicate packets are found on PING operation, "SET HOST" does not work, etc. (ID#2364).
• Do not include a terminal emulator startup in the CHARON-TB configuration file if using it a service. The terminal emulator wouldn't start as there would be no console session available. Configure a TCP/IP port instead. This is the only way for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista to get a console once CHARON-AXP is configured as a service.
• VMS 7.x Monitor utility shows the maximum CPU quantity instead of actually configured quantity. It is VMS 7.x restriction, does not apply to VMS 8.x.
• A Telnet session from OpenVMS running on emulated host freezes console output. The console output can hang when the virtual serial line sends XOFF/XON sequence. The TELNET client sends XOFF to the remote node's TELNET server to suspend output, but for unknown reason XON is discarded and remote node's TELNET server has no chances to resume output. The console remains "frozen". As the remote site is not sending any output to it. When that happens, the local node is reachable over network, and can be unlocked by typing the 'break' character - usually "Ctrl-]" and exiting telnet session by typeing "exit" at "TELNET>" prompt.
• Emacs hangs if the OPA0 console is used. Emacs works fine over an SSH connection.
• Running as a Service may be compromised as the Service manager may not be able to identify all configured disks.
• VMS command START/CPU does not start an emulated CPU if it had been previously stopped with STOP/CPU command. This problem will be fixed in the next CHARON-TB release.
• CHARON-TB Service Manager and Network Control Center could show some minor problems on Simplified Chinese version of Windows.
• The correct license must be available to enable the CHARON-TB to start. The software may wrongly report that no license is present if the correct license is not present. Check the capability of your license by using the utility HASP_HL_VIEW which is available for download from Stromasys website.
• If installed on VMware, sometimes the POST tests report errors for emulated VAX models 4106 and 4108.

11. New functionality introduced in the previous Production versions

Please refer to the release notes of CHARON-TB version 1.3 build 96 for the information.

12. Distribution and Installation