The procedure described in the article you referred to explained it quite well.

Basically, it requires you to make a service call to IBM,provide the serial number of the HMC concerned, and request a one-day password to be able to access a regular shell. From this regular shell you are able to perform the command 'su' to switch user to root.

My experience is that they only provide the special password when there are problems in the 'regular' use of the HMC that cannot be solved using the standard interface. One example is starting a particular diagnostic program to get additional log reporting to assist in resolving a problem, or error message, that a standard program is reporting.

In other words, IBM support is not suppossed to give you a password because you request it but because there is another call already open that needs extra information that might be available to you as root. Generally, they will have a list of commands for you to perform as root as well.

Not sure if they will even give you a PE password for this. That password only works 24 hours btw.
 AFAIK: it is not an intended function of the HMC. There may be a way around the 'security' settings of the HMC - I assume there is actually - but I am neither inclined nor willing to recommend using the HMC as an X server.

Another option for X on a Windows PC is CygWin http://www.cygwin.com. It is a Linux compatible API for Windows (implemented as a DLL). It runs X and has most of the the major GNU tools ported to it. I've used it in the past and it's a great way to add X to a Windows box for free.

There are always ways around things. I have heard of a few, and the article you present is certainly one of the more 'official-like' looking ones.

However, it is not what work the HMC is intended to do. As an instructor of AIX classes I aknowledge to students that hacks exist, but I strongly discourage them - especially if you want IBM support to assist you with hardware errors, HMC problems, etc..

As I understand it - the HMC is not a modified Linux box that you are free to modify. As installed and/or delivered the HMC is part of the LIC (Licensed Internal Code) used to manage the hardware - just as Hypervisor is part of the Power5 firware is also LIC - and is used to manage the hardware.

Especially if you are meaning it for Oracle management - continue using your PC solution, or possibly create a double boot PC (with Linux as second boot) if you are not wanting to continue paying license fees for Exceed.

Actually, if the problem is license fees for Exceed or any PC based X-server software there are sure to be others here on the forum with suggestions for "free" solutions.

One I have used within secure networks is vnc. On the Bull software site there is a vnc.server package for AIX. And there are many vnc clients for PC's available.

Using VNC the solution would be:
1) download package from Bull
2) install package (freeware.vnc is package name I believe, or vnc.freeware) using installp
3) run vncserver. Note that vncserver doesnt like hostnames with domainname included. the command hostname shold return a shortname (as www, rather than www.rootvg.net).
4) download and install a vnc client on a PC
5) connect to AIX system using vnc_client.
6) it should look on PC as if you had a hardware graphics card installed (e.g. Dt can be used, or just straight X11).

I"ll try to get access to an HMC tomorrow. But as I have hinted, the answer is probably no - so there will not be a "Howto".

You wont be able to use the HMC as an X11 server afaik.

Your two commands (export DISPLAY, and xhost) are two very different things.

export DISPLAY is a "client" operation in that it tells the client where to connect to an X server.

xhost is a server operation that makes it possible for clients to connect. Without this, the server denies the client request to connect.

So, for it to work you would need to:

On AIX system:
$ export DISPLAY=hmc_hostname:0.0

On HMC
$ xhost aix_hostname
or
$ xhost +

But, as I mentioned above, I do not think that xhost is an authorized command on an hmc.

Using your exceed window use:

wsm -host hmc_hostname

Or, download the wsm_client to your PC using:

http://hmc_hostname/remote_client.html

For the latter you will need to authenticate with the hmc system before the client download dialog will start.