will also set the new values for the master daemon if you are on host fry and do a pvm hostfile (the pvmd will figure out that fry can not be started twice)
PVM startup problems: True, the "Can't start pvmd" message is not very helpful. Basic testing should be done before invoking PVM.
First you should make sure that the rshd functionality is given. A rsh remote-nt pathtopvmroot\lib\win32\pvmd3.exe (e.g: rsh remote-nt c:\pvm3.4\lib\win32\pvmd3.exe) should print out a socket string. In this case, a rsh remote-nt pathtopvmroot\lib\win32\pvm.exe will bring up an already running message and you can halt the machine.
Start the pvm-shell (pvm.exe) and wait for the prompt. Then you have
to use the add hostname command.
pvm> add hostname
will then add host 'hostname' to your virtual machine.
If you get back the "Can't Start pvmd" message, make sure your
rshd works. Check the 'Things go wrong' info above.