Paul:

I checked four different systems and none of them have SYSSTART.PUB.SYS
locked or open for exclusive read access. You need to find out what is
holding this file open - check the udc's of the users - there is no good
reason (imo) for this file 1) to be open like this and 2) to be open by
users after the system has been started, unless it's being edited.

Check also to see if there is a pending request on the console - perhaps
some udc or other process tries to store this file.

NOSYSSTART on boot up simply tells the loader to not execute the commands in
SYSSTART.PUB.SYS - this does nothing to prevent udc's from executing.

Start the system again, go ahead and use the NOSYSSTART option, but this
time *do not* set the user to automatically log on. The system will try to
log on as the operator, so either supply the necessary passwords for that
log on or simply press return through it to avoid logging on as operator.

Then, log on as system manager with command to avoid executing log on udc's
(email me privately for this - I don't want to publish on the Internet the
method, even though it's probably out there already and why circulate it
again, is my view).

That way you can log on as the system manager without any udc's executing
and see if that prevents the sysstart file from being "locked".

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