Admin Alert: Cracking the Obscure CWBLM0029 PC5250 Error

October 20, 2004 Joe Hertvik

One of the strangest iSeries or Client Access for Windows’ PC5250 errors you will ever run into is the CWBLM0029 error. This error stops a user from signing on to an i5, iSeries, or AS/400 machine, providing only an obscure message box that reads, “CWBLM0029–The product or release level is incorrect for 5769XE1.” Needless to say, this isn’t very helpful.

In my experience, CWBLM0029 usually occurs when there’s a problem with the user profile trying to sign on. It’s more likely to occur with the PC5250 program provided with older Client Access Express for Windows configurations than with the newer iSeries Access for Windows desktops. There are other situations–such as some authority issues or a possible corrupted license program installation–that can cause this error. But this article will focus on troubleshooting when this problem occurs because of errors in a user profile configuration.

Troubleshooting this issue for user profile problems involves the following steps.

STEP 1

Go to the troubled machine and try starting a session by using a “good” user profile. A good profile is one that you can successfully sign on to the target iSeries or i5 box with from any 5250 terminal session. If the profile can successfully start a PC5250 session on the problem machine, chances are good that the CWBLM0029 problem lies in the user profile configuration, not in the machine’s iSeries Access or Client Access configuration.

STEP 2

If you’re unable to go over to the problem desktop because you’re in a remote location, such as a help desk in another building, you can easily troubleshoot a suspected user profile from afar. Do this by retrieving the troubled user’s user profile and password and try using that sign-on to start a PC5250 session on another machine at the same PC5250 level (a “good” machine). If you’re able to start a session with that user profile on a good machine, the problem is likely the user’s PC5250 configuration, and a reinstallation or configuration change may be in order. If you are unable to sign on with his user profile, or get an error message when the user signs on, you’ve verified that there’s bad data in his user profile.

STEP 3

If you’ve verified that there’s a problem with the user profile, try signing on again with the bad profile and look for a green-screen error message generated by the 5250 session itself (not iSeries Access). You may also see error messages regarding that job in your system operator message queue. It may be something as simple as OS/400 telling you which field in the user profile is bad. You can also use Telnet, rather than PC5250, to test the bad profile by signing on to the target system with the profile through a Telnet session. Using Telnet by itself will bypass any PC5250 issues, and, if you’re able to sign on without Client Access, you may be able to find additional information about the user profile sign-on in your system operator message queue.

STEP 4

Once you’ve determined that the problem is the user profile, check the following user profile parameters for correct entries for your system. Chances are good that one of these parameters is invalid:

• Check all user profile parameters that point to a specific object and library. Make sure those objects actually exist in the library specified in each parameter. You may also find that a library name associated with a parameter is misspelled, and that may be preventing sign-on. The following user profile parameters point to objects that contain library specifications: Initial program to call, Initial menu, Job description, Message queue, Output queue, Attention program, Sort sequence.

• Look for misspellings in other parameter values, especially in parameter defaults. I once found a user profile that couldn’t sign on because its “sort sequence” parameter contained the literal SYSVAL instead of the default value of *SYSVAL.

• If you can’t find an error in the user profile description, check the job description associated with that user profile. If there’s an invalid entry in the job description, such as an entry in the description’s library list that no longer exists, that can also trigger an error when the user signs on.

If all else fails, and you’ve established that there aren’t any problems with your user profile, it’s probably best to seek IBM’s help or take your question to one of the online forums that deal with OS/400 issues, such as the IT Jungle Forums.