The first action the user should take after invoking PADE is to start the PVM console. The console may be started with a hostfile if the virtual machine is not already running or without one if the VM has been started. The user is strongly encouraged to keep the xterm window containing the PVM console open as long as PADE is running. One advantage of this is that, if the user executes a parallel application and it hangs, then PADE will hang. The only way to remedy this in many situations is to halt the VM. This can be done from the PVM console simply by typing halt at the prompt.
To start the PVM console from within PADE, choose the PVM console menu-entry from the PVM menu in the main window. A PADE Question dialog box will appear (if no PVM hostfile has been previously chosen) asking whether the user wishes to start PVM with or without a hostfile. The user should then choose appropriately, whereupon an xterm window should appear unless there is trouble starting PVM. If there is, the user may want to run the pvmtidy utility. Choose the pvmtidy menu-entry from the PVM menu in the PADE main window. PADE will launch an xterm window in which pvmtidy is run. After this, the user should try to start the PVM console again. If this is still not successful, there may be something more serious wrong the the user's virtual machine. Consult the PVM man pages in this case (some of which can be accessed from the PADE Help menu). Hereafter, it will be assumed that the user's VM is in good working order.