grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (07/12/89)
One of the patches from the Support Center included this description of problems with the terminal drivers: > TIP > --- > {dhu.o,dmb.o,dmf.o,dz.o,fc.o,sh.o,ss.o,tty.o} > > V3.0 included a bug that broke part of DEC Standard 52 for modems. > This will show up if a false call comes into the modem, it should > drop the line after 30 seconds. The software doesn't correctly > drop DTR. This is also apparent if you attempt to use a modem with > the DMF32 ports 0 or 1. In this case, the system may allow another > user to gain access to the system without logging in, by accessing > a previously opened port. Is there anyone who can explain just what was wrong and how it was fixed? Was the problem also implemented in the dh driver and not fixed by this patch? It appears that the modems I have running off of a 3-rd party DH11 emulator no longer reliably disconnect when you logout, etc... Also, can someone explain the import of this mysterious DEC standard 52 as it applies to the Ultrix drivers? Looking in /sys/data/*.c, it seems that each of the "supported" drivers has a compile time (but patchable) option as to whether or not to support "DS52"... for whether or not to implement -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
davew@gvgpsa.GVG.TEK.COM (David C. White) (07/13/89)
In article <7270@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: >One of the patches from the Support Center included this description >of problems with the terminal drivers: How does one go about getting patches from the Support Center? The last time I was talking to them about a problem they mentioned a patch tape that I should have and when I asked how to get it, I was told to talk to my sales rep. I tried that and both of the DEC sales reps that I deal with coudn't find any reference at all to any patch tape. I also see that a lot of people are running 3.1 now. Our software is under contract, but 3.1 still hasn't shown up yet. What gives? -- David White Grass Valley Group, Inc. VOICE: +1 916.478.3052 P.O. Box 1114 Grass Valley, CA 95945 FAX: +1 916.478.3778
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (07/13/89)
In article <1214@gvgpsa.GVG.TEK.COM> davew@gvgpsa.gvg.tek.com (David C. White) writes: > > How does one go about getting patches from the Support Center? The > last time I was talking to them about a problem they mentioned a patch > tape that I should have and when I asked how to get it, I was told to > talk to my sales rep. I tried that and both of the DEC sales reps that > I deal with coudn't find any reference at all to any patch tape. I > also see that a lot of people are running 3.1 now. Our software is > under contract, but 3.1 still hasn't shown up yet. What gives? Assuming you you have a software maintenance contract, you just ask the support center for a copy of the "current patch tape". I've done this a couple of times without any problems. It may help if you can represent that you actually have one problems the tape is alleged to fix. One of the real problems I see with the Support Center/DSIN setup is there is no obvious way to find out that there is a patch tape or a new patch tape for a particular release. Problems with the current DEC software support mechanism: 1) Known problems are not reliably posted to DSIN. Any support center inquiry that doesn't resolve to "known problem" or "user error" should show up. 2) No announcements are made of the availability of patch tapes 3) DSIN does not give you any way to scan for "new" problems or observe all the problems for a given product. The only user mechanism is a selective keyword search, which means you can only find a problem if you can guess the right keyword. 4) There is no detailed description of changes / bugs fixed in new releases. 5) Even trivial problems described in the release notes don't get fixed until the next release. There should be a patch tape so the user can if need be fix any of the problems described in the release notes, short of catch-22 messes. 6) DEC is failing its responsibility to advise users about security problems. If you install 3.0 today, you install a grossly insecure system and unless you ask DEC point-blank about security problems you'd never know that you have a problem or what to fix. A large part of system administration / maintenance task is resolving user vs system problems. Doing a effective job requires knowing about the system problems either before they are encountered or before you spend a lot of time trying to define and document them. When there is a large enough base of installed software, it turns out that almost all problems are known by the time you encounter them, and thus almost all the time you spend internally on problem definition and resolution is wasted. Avoiding this waste of time is mostly a matter of having access to an adequate problem database. I don't see what's really so hard about this. DEC seems quite proud of a system that follows the forms of a software support mechanism, but doesn't deliver what the customer is paying for. IBM has an excellent problem search and retrieval system (mostly used by their software support engineers). Sun has a highly variable support function but at least manages to clearly document bugs changes and fixes and deliver this to the user. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
hoyt@shodha.dec.com (Kurt Hoyt) (07/18/89)
In article <1214@gvgpsa.GVG.TEK.COM>, davew@gvgpsa.GVG.TEK.COM (David C. White) writes: > How does one go about getting patches from the Support Center? The The support center usually sends out patch tapes -- at least that is how it is done now. > also see that a lot of people are running 3.1 now. Our software is > under contract, but 3.1 still hasn't shown up yet. What gives? 3.1 has been shipping for almost a month. 3.0's patches should be part of the 3.1 release. Kurt Hoyt hoyt@devnul.dec.com