OpenVMS ALPBOOT12_062 Alpha V6.2 BOOT ECO Summary

NOTE: An OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file is stored on the Internet in a self-expanding compressed file. The name of the compressed file will be kit_name-dcx_vaxexe for OpenVMS VAX or kit_name-dcx_axpexe for OpenVMS Alpha. Once the file is copied to your system, it can be expanded by typing RUN compressed_file. The resultant file will be the OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file which can be used to install the ECO. Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1998. All rights reserved. OP/SYS: DIGITAL OpenVMS Alpha COMPONENT: BOOT SOURCE: Digital Equipment Corporation ECO INFORMATION: ECO Kit Name: ALPBOOT12_062 ECO Kits Superseded by This ECO Kit: ALPBOOT11_062 ALPBOOT10_062 ALPBOOT09_062 ALPBOOT08_062 ALPBOOT07_062 (Never Released for Consumption) ALPBOOT06_062 ALPBOOT05_062 ALPBOOT04_062 ALPBOOT03_062 ALPBOOT02_062 ALPBOOT01_062 ALPAPB01_062 (ALPAPB) ECO Kit Approximate Size: 1350 Blocks Kit Applies To: OpenVMS Alpha V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3 System/Cluster Reboot Necessary: Yes Rolling Reboot Supported: Yes Installation Rating: 3 - To be installed on all systems running the listed versions of OpenVMS which are experiencing the problems described. Kit Dependencies: The following remedial kit(s) must be installed BEFORE installation of this kit: ALPCLUSIO01_062 In order to receive all the corrections listed in this kit, the following remedial kits should also be installed: None NOTE: There are no new ECO problem corrections in this kit. If you have installed the ALPBOOT10_062 or ALPBOOT11_062 remedial kit, you do not need to install the ALPBOOT12_062 remedial kit. ECO KIT SUMMARY: An ECO kit exists for BOOT on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 through V6.2-1H3. This kit addresses the following problems: Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT12_062 Kit: o The formatting of the section titled "Support the use of the "dump_dev" environmental variable." was incorrect, which made the section unreadable. This formatting has been fixed. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT11_062 Kit: o The ALPBOOT10_062 remedial kit required that the ALPCLUSIO01_062 kit be installed. If the user tried to install the ALPBOOT10_062 kit on a system that had both the ALPCLUSIO01_062 and OpenVMS Alpha Y2K remedial kits installed, the ALPBOOT10_062 kit did not recognize that the ALPCLUSIO01_062 kit had been installed. This caused the ALPBOOT10_062 installation to fail. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT10_062 Kit: o Some images in the the ALPBOOT09_062 kit had an installation conflict with the ALPCLUSIO01_062 remedial kit. This kit resolves that conflict. Since the ALPCLUSIO01_062 kit contained newer images, the images in question have been removed from the ALPBOOT10_062 kit. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT09_062 Kit: o If a system is upgraded from V6.1 from V6.2, the KITINSTAL.COM procedure in kits that require the ALPCLUSIO01_062 remedial kit to be installed first do not properly verify that the ALPCLUSIO01_062 remedial kit has previously been installed. o While booting, the system crashes during driver loading. This is caused by a corrupt driver prologue table for a previously loaded driver. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT08_062 Kit: o The ALPBOOT07_062 kit contained incorrect build identifications within the images which could have prevented the images from being installed. This kit, ALPBOOT08_062, contains the correct build identifications and fixes the problem. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT07_062 Kit: o KITINSTAL does not insure that the ALPCLUSIO01_062 kit is installed on the system. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT06_062 Kit: o This kit provides the necessary files to support the DE500-AA Fast EtherWORKS PCI 10/100 adapter under the OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 Operating System and the associated V6.2 hardware releases. These hardware releases include OpenVMS Alpha V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, and V6.2-1H3. This allows OpenVMS Alpha V6.2* users to take advantage of the newest generation Fast Ethernet adapter from Digital Equipment Corporation without requiring a total operating system upgrade. The DE500-AA supersedes the DE500-XA which is currently supported by OpenVMS Alpha V6.2. Note: OpenVMS Alpha V7.1 also includes support for the DE500-AA. The DE500-XA will be retired by the end of March, 1997. (Please refer to the ALPHA qualified options list to confirm support for your particular CPU.) The combination of this TIMA kit and the DE500-AA provides a form, fit, and functionally equivalent PCI to Fast Ethernet adapter to the DE500-XA on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 host CPUs. In addition, the DE500-AA adapter implements industry standard auto-negotiation for 10 or 100 Mbps and for half or full duplex, and includes a socket for optional ROM support. Both the DE500-XA and the DE500-AA utilize a single RJ45 connector for connection to either a 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet network. These adapters support full duplex Ethernet communication when connected to a cooperating full duplex-compatible device. You must ensure that the connected device supports full duplex mode before forcing this feature, or serious network problems can result. If auto-negotiate mode is used, this is not a concern, as the hardware will determine the duplex capability of the connected device. DE500-AA Boot Device Driver (SYS$EWBTDRIVER.EXE) This driver adds support for the DE500-AA and continues to support the PCI Ethernet adapters that were previously supported by OpenVMS Alpha V6.2. This includes the DE500-XA, DE450, and the DE435. All these devices show up under the Operating System as EWx0, where x is the controller letter (e.g., A, B, C). This new driver supports DE500-AA booting over twisted pair media at speeds of 10 and 100 mbits/sec, full or half duplex, and with auto negotiation. The DE500-XA supports booting over twisted pair media at speeds of 10 and 100 mbits/sec half duplex. For each EW device recognized by the console there is a console environment variable called EWx0_MODE that must be correctly set to select the appropriate operating mode. The environment variable is set with the console command: >>> SET EWx0_MODE media_selection Where x is the controller letter (e.g., A, B, C) and media_selection is one of the following: Twisted-Pair Full Duplex, Twisted-Pair AUI BNC Fast FastFD (Full Duplex) Auto-Negotiate Note: An Alpha system console may assign a controller letter to an adapter differently from OpenVMS. It is recommended that the user issue a SHOW CONFIGURATION command at the console to determine the correct letter designation for each adapter. Restrictions ------------ 1. The ALPBOOT06_062 kit CANNOT be installed if the ALPCLUSIO01_062 Cluster Compatibility Kit for mixed V6.2 and V7.1 systems was previously installed. If it is, driver functionality will be lost. The Cluster Compatibility Kit is currently under development and will be released at a later date. 2. If the ALPBOOT06_062 kit is installed the ALPLAN04_062 kit MUST also be installed. 3. The system firmware must be at a revision level that supports the DE500-AA for boot support. The Alpha Firmware CD V3.8 or later has the required support for each applicable system type. o The ALPBOOT05_062 kit had an error in the .VUI file that was used to install the EXEC_INIT.EXE image. This error did not affect installation of this image but could have had an impact as future kits were released. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT05_062 Kit: o The ALPBOOT04_062 kit experienced errors during the installation process that kept some images from being moved to their final directory locations. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT04_062 Kit: o Alpha 8200/8400 systems are not generating crash dumps to FDDI-served system disks. This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT03_062 Kit: o $UNWIND sometimes unwinds to the last program counter. This problem will be seen by customers who use ACMSxp on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2. This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0 o This kit contains images that support the use of the "dump_dev" environmental variable. This variable is used to locate the system disk, when the crash dump file must be written. If the variable is not populated, or does not exist, the current behavior of using the "booted_dev" as the device to access the sysdump.dmp file is used. The "bootdef_dev" variable should list both paths to the system boot device. Therefore if the boot device should move between controllers, the console will be able to locate it and boot the system. The "dump_dev" variable should also list both paths to the system boot device, as the "bootdef_dev" variable does. This will enable the bug check code to locate the boot device. If the system disk is a two member shadow set, both paths to both devices should be stored in "dump_dev" and in "bootdef_dev". For example, shown below is the results of executing the "sho dev" and "show *" commands, with a two member shadowed system disk: >>> sho dev polling for units on cixcd0, slot 2, xmi0... Resetting IO subsystem... � � � dua206.4.0.2.3 $4$DUA206 (RED70A) RA72 dua229.4.0.2.3 $4$DUA229 (RED70A) RA72 � � � polling for units on cixcd1, slot 4, xmi0... dub206.7.0.4.3 $4$DUA206 (GRN70A) RA72 � � � polling for units on cixcd1, slot 4, xmi0... dub229.4.0.4.3 $4$DUA229 (GRN70B) RA72 >>> >>> show * auto_action HALT � � � bootdef_dev dub206.7.0.4.3,dua206.4.0.2.3,dua229.4.0.2.` dub229.4.0.4.3 � � � dump_dev dub206.7.0.4.3,dua206.4.0.2.3,dua229.4.0.2.` dub229.4.0.4.3 � � � version T4.3-4740 Jun 14 1995 15:16:38 >>> Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT02_062 Kit: o The DE205 boot driver periodically requires a timeout and reset. This causes boot times to be extended by a factor of 20. o Shutting down or forcing a crash on a satellite that is booted from a shadowed system disk produces the following error message but no dump file: **** Cannot use unit 0, not the master member of the system disk shadow set o Crash dumps will not occur if DUMP_DEV is specified but SYSINIT has not yet run to complete the system disk data. o When a system disk fails over to an alternate path (HSC), crashdumps are not written, but the system reboots successfully. Problems Addressed in the ALPBOOT01_062 Kit for OpenVMS Alpha V6.2: o Digital has determined that a condition exists in some PCI-Ethernet interfaces in which there is an extremely remote possibility for data corruption during network transmission. Digital has received no customer complaints to date, but rather first encountered the problem during internal product testing and analysis. This specific condition exists when the PCI interface is set to a DMA burst length of 0 or 32 longwords. Using a DMA burst length of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 longwords will eliminate this condition. To address this concern, Digital is making available a driver patch and considers its installation mandatory for all affected systems and options to optimize data integrity. No hardware modification or replacement is necessary. This condition only exists under the Digital UNIX operating system V3.2C and OpenVMS Alpha V6.1 (and variants, i.e. V6.1-1H1, V6.1-1H2) and V6.2. Higher-level protocols and layered applications may, in fact, detect the corruption and retry the data transmission with some negligible affect on data throughput. Windows NT has a default setting of 16 longwords for the DMA burst length. This does not pose a risk unless a customer were to change this setting. The system and option products from Digital that are impacted by this condition include: DE434 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 400 system DE435 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 1000 system DE450 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 2000 system AlphaStation 200 system AlphaServer 2100 system AlphaStation 250 system AlphaServer 8200 system AlphaStation 400 system AlphaServer 8400 system AlphaStation 600 system For OpenVMS Alpha users, this condition exists in V6.1 (and variants) and V6.2. Digital plans on providing the corrected driver in all OpenVMS Alpha factory installed software as of early December and in the V6.2-1H1 hardware release and the V7.0 release scheduled for distribution in January 1996, as well. Because the OpenVMS operating system drivers have this parameter hard coded, it is not possible to change it without loading a new driver. o The selection of 10 and 100 megabits/second and full-duplex operation using LANCP does not work. Normally, the device driver autoselects the speed, first attempting 100 and then switching to 10 megabit operation on failure. If no cable is connected, 10 megabit operation is selected and a LANCP SET SPEED command is necessary to force 100 megabit operation. The device driver does not implement the SET SPEED command correctly. In addition, it does not implement the SET DEVICE/FULL_DUPLEX command correctly, thus does not allow the selection of full-duplex operation. These problems are corrected for the DE500 driver, to allow speed and full-duplex settings to be modified via LANCP commands. This problem is fixed in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. o The media autoselection for the DE450, between twisted pair (10baseT), thinwire (10base2), and thickwire (10base5), does not work for any selection other than twisted pair. Note that the device driver the DE450 driver does autoselection of the media connection, selecting twisted pair, then thickwire, then thinwire, switching on failure. If no cable is connected, the driver selects thinwire. To change the cable selection, refer to the LANCP documentation for the SET DEVICE/MEDIA command. This problem is fixed in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. o Add DE450 and DE500 boot support. Note that the DE450 does not use a jumper to switch between 10base2 (thinwire) and 10base5 (thickwire). To select thinwire at the console prompt for boot purposes, set the EWA0_MODE console environment variable to BNC. To select thickwire, set the variable to AUI. This problem is fixed in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. o Add DE203, DE204, DE205 boot support for the AlphaStation 200 and 400 systems. Booting is supported only for a module set to the default parameters, I/O port address of 300 (hex) and memory base address of D0000 (hex). This problem is fixed in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. Problems Addressed in the ALPAPB01_062 Kit for OpenVMS Alpha V6.2: o The primitive file system used during booting of OpenVMS Alpha cannot locate files whose file number is greater than 65536. Depending on the phase of the boot, this can result in an access violation (ACCVIO) or a message such as: %SYSINIT-F-LOADERR,error loading RMS.EXE status=00000044 This problem is fixed in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. INSTALLATION NOTES: The images in this kit will not take effect until the system is rebooted. If you have other nodes in your VMS cluster, they must also be rebooted in order to make use of the new image(s). If it is not possible or convenient to reboot the entire cluster at this time, a

This patch can be found at any of these sites:

Files on this server are as follows:

alpboot12_062.README
alpboot12_062.CHKSUM
alpboot12_062.CVRLET_TXT
alpboot12_062.a-dcx_axpexe