Configuration How To HOME DEVICE DOES NOT EXIST

Description

A common problem that people have who are trying to configure VistA is a message:

HOME DEVICE DOES NOT EXIST IN THE DEVICE FILE
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SYSTEM MANAGER!

This means that VA Kernel ran into a problem when trying to output information to a $IO device.

The most common situation is that the Configuration did not have a proper setup in the VA FileMan DEVICE File, specifically for the current MUMPS level $IO device.

Troubleshooting

Make sure you have all of the devices listed on the Standard VistA Devices. A VistA based system requires all of them to be setup properly.

Step by Step

1. login using the device
2. enter programming mode (if not part of login process)
3. use the MUMPS command
   1. <mcode>WRITE "<<",$IO,">>",!</mcode>
4. go into programmer's FileMan
   1. <mcode>DO P^DI</mcode>
5. lookup the device specified in the VA FileMan DEVICE File.
   1. VA FileMan 22.0
   2. Select OPTION: INQUIRE TO FILE ENTRIES
   3. OUTPUT FROM WHAT FILE: NEW PERSON// DEVICE (32 entries)
   4. Select DEVICE NAME:
6. input the name of the device printed above (between the << and >> )
7. if it is found, make sure the field SIGN-ON/SYSTEM DEVICE: is set to YES
8. if it is not found, decide if the DEVICE should be a virtual device or not, and then add it to the VA FileMan DEVICE File.

Technical Details

This message occurs because the device name fails in a ^DIC lookup in the DEVICE file. Normally, devices have the field SIGN-ON/SYSTEM DEVICE set to YES, and they are virtual devices. So the code progressively takes letters off the end of the lookup variable storing the device name, and tries to find them in the G crossref of the DEVICE File, ie: ^%ZIS(1,"G","SYS.."_something