info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/17/85)
From: Ron Tencati <TENCATI@JPL-VLSI.ARPA> What does that floppy that came with my 4.0 s/w marked V4 Manditory Update (or something like that) do exactly? What happens if I don't do it? Can I upgrade to 4.1 first, and then apply it? Thanx, Ron ------
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/17/85)
From: Gail Rubin <grubin@bbn-spca> I believe the mandatory update is like other minor upgrades - fixes bugs. Sort of 4.05. I don't know which images it patches and whether any of those images are also patched by 4.1. It's not that much trouble to do it; why do you want to do it in the wrong order? I think that doing 4.1 before the mandatory patch is like upgrading to 4.2 from 4.0 and then going back and applying the 4.1 upgrade. There may very well be later patches in the 4.1 upgrade to code that was also patched to fix different problems in the mandatory update and doing them in the wrong order sounds like a way to get a slightly broken image or two. If you are asking because you accidentally forgot the mandatory update and have already done 4.1, then forgive my tone; I misunderstood. If that is your problem, the paranoid method would be to back out your 4.1 update and do the mandatory update, then re-do 4.1. To avoid that, you would need to find out every file that is patched by each of these and see if there are any overlaps or not. Since I hear there are a good number of patches in 4.1, you may be out of luck. -- Gail Rubin grubin@bbn-spca or @bbn-unix
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/18/85)
From: (Stephen Tihor) <TIHOR@NYU-CMCL1.ARPA> All the manditory upgrades with which I am familiar, since VMSINSTAL, have been included in the next regular upgrade as well. Also VMSINSTAL kits, except for some text files which are edited (such as some .HLP files), can be safely reapplied or applied late, although I would not recomend it. Note in particular that I check the VMS V4.0 Manditory upgrade's contents recently when I was working on a new system by doing: V4.0, V4.1, V4.0 MUP and all the MUP items were rejected as already in place. \\ Stephen Tihor / CIMS / NYU / 251 Mercer Street / New York, NY 10012 // (( DEC Enet: RHEA::DECWRL::"""TIHOR@NYU-CMCL1.ARPA""" NYUnet: TIHOR.CMCL1 )) // ARPAnet: Tihor@NYU-CMCL1 UUCPnet address: ...!ihnp4!cmcl2!cmcl1!tihor \\ -------
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/18/85)
From: LEICHTER <Leichter@YALE.ARPA>
What does that floppy that came with my 4.0 s/w marked V4 Manditory Update
(or something like that) do exactly?
It applies a total of 7 patches to various pieces of the system. One of the
"patches" actually adds an image that is missing from the V4.0 kit.
What happens if I don't do it?
Depends on your processor. 780's have been known to overheat. There are
reports that 785's, which use faster technologies, can explode. No one has
dared to try this on a 8600. Smaller VAXes, you should be ok on.
Seriously, "Mandatory" MEANS "Mandatory". The system may not work, or it
may exhibit serious bugs. It's expensive to create and ship the mandatory
update; if it were not the case that at least one patch on there was consi-
dered essential, DEC would not have gone to the expense and bother of produ-
cing it. (If you installed VMS V3.0, left off ITS Mandatory Update, and
turned on DECnet, you would find that DECnet security was non-existent -
anyone could create a process with all privilege bits turned on, trivially.)
For the truely curious, I've attached the update record produced from instal-
ling the upgrade on a MicroVAX.
Can I upgrade to 4.1 first, and then apply it?
In general, no. Patches have to be applied in the right order, for obvious
reasons. Further, even when no files are patched in both updates, it's
possible that the 4.1 update produces an image that assumes something in the
4.0 Mandatory has already taken place.
You might get away with it, but what's the point?
Thanx,
Ron
-- Jerry
1) DCL (patch image)
! DCL.EXE
!
! ECO001 HWS 18-Sep-1984
! MODULE: STATUS
! Remove special handling of forced exit and exceeded cpu
! errors.
!
!
!
! Patch STATUS
!
2) F11BXQP (patch image)
! F11BXQP.EXE
!
! ECO01 (Used in VMS V4.1)
!
! ECO02 ACG0470 27-Sep-1984
! MODULE: RWATTR
! Correct the file access checks related to ACL modification.
!
3) JOBCTL (patch image)
! JOBCTL.EXE
!
! ECO01 JAK0001 20-SEP-1984
! MODULE: EXECUTOR
! Allow a process 5 seconds to be rundown before reissuing the
! forced exit call in the next higher access mode.
4) NETACP (patch image)
! NETACP.EXE
!
! ECO01 PRB0001 18-SEP-1984 21:35
! MODULE: NETCONECT.MAR
! Use EPID, not IPID, in type 1 NCBs. This way, EPID will
! appear in SYS$NET.
5) SDLNPARSE (new image)
! SDLNPARSE.EXE
!
! ECO01 KDM0001 10-OCT-1984
! Provide image left off MicroVMS PROG kit.
!
6) SYS (patch image)
! SYS.EXE
!
! ECO03 ACG0469 21-Sep-1984
! MODULE: SYSDASSGN
! When waiting for pending I/O to finish on a channel
! being deassigned, reverify the channel on each check.
! Failing to do so could result in the channel being
! deassigned twice, resulting in a negative reference
! count on the device.
!
7) VMSKITBLD (new file)
! VMSKITBLD.DAT
!
! ECO01 KDM0001 10-OCT-1984
! Add SDLNPARSE.EXE to PROG_I option for MicroVMS.
!
-------info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/18/85)
From: Tony Li <Tli@Usc-Eclb> In fact, there are several patches in the V4.0 mandatory upgrade that are duplicated in the V4.1 patch. I got several 'ECO level already set' when applying the 4.1 update. You should definitely perform the V4.0 Mandatory Upgrade though..... ;-)
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (04/18/85)
From: Tony Li <Tli@Usc-Eclb>
From: LEICHTER <Leichter at YALE.ARPA>
To: TENCATI at JPL-VLSI
cc: info-vax at sri-kl
What happens if I don't do it?
Depends on your processor. 780's have been known to overheat. There are
reports that 785's, which use faster technologies, can explode. No one has
dared to try this on a 8600. Smaller VAXes, you should be ok on.
Not quite... On a 750 without the Mandatory Update, your cache is
disabled, and you go S L O W. Sigh.
;-)