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General Description

The CHARON Launcher is used to start CHARON and install it as a Windows service. It provides a more convenient way to run CHARON to debug your specific configuration, because it is able to display CHARON log updates in real time.

To start the CHARON Launcher click on its icon in the "Start" menu:

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Running Charon

In the Launcher main interface press the "Browse" button to select a CHARON configuration:

Select the desired configuration file:

The Launcher will display the CHARON model specified in the selected configuration file:

Now it is possible to run CHARON. Press the "Run selected configuration" button.

When CHARON is executed the Launcher will display CHARON log file:

Log messages have the following colors:

Color

Error level

lightyellow

Information

cyan

Warning

red

Error

It is possible to scroll the log file to analyze possible problems.

Note that the Launcher is not able to stop CHARON execution. To do that use the following methods:

Configuration with no changes to the template configuration file
- Right click on CHARON icon in the system tray menu, choose "Stop & Exit":
- Using this menu, it is also possible to halt, reset or show the virtual VAX/PDP11 console, if it has been closed.

Configuration file updated to enable "F6" button in configuration file to trigger exit from CHARON:

#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Uncomment to allow 'F6' to terminate the running emulator.
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------

set OPA0 stop_on = F6

To exit, press "F6" in the console window
Use CHARON icon tray menu as shown above

Before stopping the CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP service, shutdown the operating system running in CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP.

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Installation of CHARON as a service

Load the CHARON configuration file as it is described above:

Press the "Edit CFG file" button and edit (with a standard "Notepad" program) the chosen configuration file as decribed previously and make sure that the following pre-requisites are met:

Use only absolute paths for the log, toy clock, nvram files and all the other data such as disk images etc. The names of the references files must be unique too, for example
...
set session log="C:\My Services\my_mv3k6.log"
set toy container="C:\My Services\my_mv3k6.dat"
load RQDX3/RQDX3 DUA
set DUA container[0]="C:\My Services\mv3k6_daemon_boot_disk.vdisk"
...
Make sure the same physical devices are not used by other CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP services

Save the configuration file with the "Notepad" save feature and then exit from it.

Run the configuration to confirm it is ready to be installed as a Windows service; stop CHARON (see above).

Press the "Install / Update service" button in the Launcher:

A special dialog for adding new CHARON services will appear:

Enter a new service name (in the example above it is "charon-3100") and press the "Install" button. If the service has been installed correctly, a configration dialog box will appear:

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Modification of CHARON service

Note that it is not enough just to modify the CHARON configuration file associated with a given CHARON service to apply the changes. In advance you need to update the CHARON service with the "Launcher" utility.

Press the "Install / Update service" button:

The install / update dialog will appear:

Press "Update existing service" button:

Select the service to update with the "Installed services list" drop-down box and press the "Update" button to apply.

Please note that before updating a CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP service, it must first be stopped

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Sending problem reports

The CHARON Launcher allows fragments of the log file to be copied to the clipboard. Select the fragment to be copied and press the "Copy selection to clipboard" button. Then select the folder and filename where it is to be saved:

To collect information for a problem report press the "Send Problem Report" button and save the information for customer support to a specific file. Then send the file along with detailed description of the problem to STROMASYS.

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