1    Release Notes

This chapter provides important information that you need in order to work with the Tru64 UNIX 5.0A and TruCluster 5.0A Patch Kit-0003.

1.1    Patch Process Resources

Compaq provides Web sites to help you with the patching process:

1.2    Required Storage Space

The following storage space is required to successfully install this patch kit:

Base Operating System

TruCluster Server

1.3    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 75.00

SysMan Station does not dynamically update changes to a device name. If you use dsfmgr(8) to change the base_name of a device while smsd(8) is running, any SysMan Station clients that connect to the running smsd(8) will reflect the old base_name in their views.

To obtain a correct view, restart the SysMan Station daemon smsd(8) by performing the following steps. If you are on a cluster, perform these steps on all affected cluster members.

  1. Close all open SysMan Station client sessions.

  2. Enter the following command:

    # /sbin/init.d/smsd restart

1.4    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 307.00

This section contains release notes for Tru64 UNIX Patch 307.00.

1.4.1    3DLabs Oxygen VXI Driver Support

This patch provides the driver support for the 3DLabs Oxygen VX1 PCI graphics card. In order to obtain full support for this graphics card, you must also select Patch 315.00, which is the X server portion of the patch.

If you have a system with this new graphics card, you will need to reconfigure and rebuild the kernel after installing this patch.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Shut down the system:

    # /usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

  2. Boot genvmunix to single-user mode:

    >>> boot -fi genvmunix -fl s

  3. After the system boots to single-user mode, mount the file systems, run the update command, and activate the swap partition:

    # /sbin/bcheckrc

    # /sbin/update

    # /sbin/swapon -a

  4. Run doconfig to create a new kernel configuration file and rebuild the kernel:

    # /usr/sbin/doconfig

    Note

    Do not specify the -c option to doconfig. If you do, doconfig will use the existing kernel configuration file which will not have the appropriate controller entry for the new graphics card.

  5. Save the old /vmunix file and move the new kernel to /vmunix.

  6. Shut down the system:

    # /usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

  7. Boot the new kernel:

    >>> boot

If you remove this patch from your system after you have rebuilt the kernel to incorporate support for the new Ethernet card as described previously, you will need to rebuild the kernel. To do this, follow the steps given previously.

Unpatched genvmunix will not recognize the 3DLabs Oxygen VX1 PCI graphics card and will include generic VGA graphics support in the resulting kernel.

1.4.2    DEGPA-TA Gigabit Ethernet Device

This patch provides support for DEGPA-TA (1000BaseT) Gigabit Ethernet device. If you have a system with this new Ethernet device, you will need to reconfigure and rebuild the kernel after installing this patch.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Shut down the system:

    # /usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

  2. Boot genvmunix to single-user mode:

    >>> boot -fi genvmunix -fl s

  3. After the system boots to single-user mode, mount the file systems, run the update command, and activate the swap partition:

    # /sbin/bcheckrc

    # /sbin/update

    # /sbin/swapon -a

  4. Run doconfig to create a new kernel configuration file and rebuild the kernel:

    # /usr/sbin/doconfig

    Note

    Do not specify the -c option to doconfig. If you do, doconfig will use the existing kernel configuration file which will not have the appropriate controller entry for the new graphics card.

  5. Save the old /vmunix file and move the new kernel to /vmunix.

  6. Shut down the system:

    # /usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

  7. Boot the new kernel:

    >>> boot

If you remove this patch from your system after you have rebuilt the kernel to incorporate support for the new Ethernet card as described previously, you will need to rebuild the kernel. To do this, follow the steps given previously.

Unpatched genvmunix will not recognize the new Ethernet card and will include generic VGA graphics support in the resulting kernel.

1.5    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 312.00

This release note describes changes to the rexecd reference page.

OPTIONS
 
  -s  Causes rexecd to check for the ptys keyword in the /etc/securettys file
      and to deny execution of the request if it is from root and on a pseu-
      doterminal.
 
DESCRIPTION
 
   6.  The rexecd server then validates the user as is done at login time
       and, if started with the -s option, verifies that the /etc/securettys
       file is not setup to deny the user.  If the authentication was suc-
       cessful, rexecd changes to the user's home directory, and establishes
       the user and group protections for the user.  If any of these steps
       fail, the connection is aborted with a diagnostic message returned.
 

1.6    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 315.00

This patch provides the X server support for the new 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1 PCI graphics card. In order to obtain full support for this graphics card, you must also select Patch 307.00, which is the driver portion of the patch. A list of supported platforms is available on the following web page:

http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/products/options.html

1.7    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 407.00

This patch contains a solution for the following issue:

Compaq has advised owners of DS10, DS10L, ES40 AlphaServers, and XP900 AlphaStations that Compaq has determined in laboratory testing that there is a theoretical possibility that during read and write operations to the floppy disk on these systems, a single byte of data may be inaccurately read or written without notice to the user or system. The potential for this anomaly exists only if floppy disk read or write operations are attempted while there is extremely heavy traffic on these Alpha systems' internal input/output busses.

Although Compaq has observed the anomaly only in laboratory tests designed to create atypical system stresses, including almost constant use of the floppy disk drive, Compaq has informed owners of the remote possibility that the anomaly could occur so that they may take precautions to prevent it.

Compaq recommends that the solution be installed by all DS10, DS10L, ES40 AlphaServers, and XP900 AlphaStation customers.

The solution to this issue is also available as an individual, manually installed patch named floppy_CSP_v51.tar.gz, available from:

http://ftp1.support.compaq.com/public/unix/v5.1

1.8    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 428.00

In laboratory testing Compaq has observed that, under certain circumstances, a possibility exists that inconsistent data may be written to disk on some Tru64 UNIX V5.0A and V5.1 systems running AdvFS and direct I/O.

Compaq became aware of this possibility only during laboratory testing. To our knowledge, no customer has experienced this problem. Compaq is alerting customers to this potential problem as a precautionary measure.

The conditions under which this potential problem may occur are as follows:

Invalid data could occur when a single direct I/O write spans multiple AdvFS pages, and some, but not all, of the pages are still in the UBC. If the file has been opened only for direct I/O and remains open for direct I/O, the problem does not exist.

Applications that use direct I/O, such as Oracle, could be affected.

Configurations Affected

The potential problem may affect the following systems:

Only V5.0A and V5.1 systems running an application that uses direct I/O could experience this potential problem. Any application using direct I/O must request this feature explicitly.

The following Oracle versions use direct I/O and may therefore be affected:

In addition, the AdvFS file system that is used for any of the following Oracle files:

An Oracle environment meeting the above criteria could experience this potential problem.

Oracle running on raw partitions exclusively or running LSM on raw partitions exclusively are not affected.

Some customers write their own applications that use direct I/O. These customers should be aware of the detailed circumstances under which this problem could occur. The problem could occur as follows:

Under these circumstances, the data written at the start of the total write is the original data, offset by the amount of data written to the last page.

Tru64 UNIX versions V4.* and V5.0 are NOT affected.

The potential problem is fixed in future Tru64 UNIX versions and in V5.0A Patch Kit-0003 and V5.1 Patch Kit-0003.

Problem

If Oracle customers are running one of the affected Oracle configurations, Oracle may have already detected an inconsistency in the database and reported errors similar to the following in the alert log and trace file: 

ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 1, block # 100)
ORA-01119: data file 1: '/scratch/820/qa/dbs/t_db1.f'
 
 


ORA-00368: checksum error in redo block
ORA-00354: Log corruption near block #231
 
 

Oracle customers that have run the dbverify (dbv) utility may have encountered an error message similar to the following: 

***
  Corrupt block relative dba: 0x0040900b (file 0, block 36875)
  Bad header found during dbv:
  Data in bad block -
   type: 27 format: 2 rdba: 0x0040900d
   last change scn: 0x0000.0001349a seq: 0x2 flg: 0x04
   consistency value in tail: 0x349a1b02
   check value in block header: 0xa377, computed block checksum: 0x0
   spare1: 0x0, spare2: 0x0, spare3: 0x0
  ***
 
 

1.9    Release Note for Tru64 UNIX Patch 420.00

This patch delivers Version 1.0-032 of the libots3 library. Version 2.0 of libots3 library is delivered with the Compaq FORTRAN Compiler, Versions 5.3 ECO1 and 5.4, or the Developers Tool Kit (DTK) (OTABASE subset). If libots3 V2.0 is already installed on your system, and you install this patch, you will receive the following informational message:

Problem installing:

- Tru64_UNIX_V5.0A / Software Development Environment Patches:

Patch 00420.00 - Fix for parallel processing support library

./usr/shlib/libots3.so: is installed by:

OTABASE212

and can not be replaced by this patch.

This patch will not be installed.

To determine what version of libots3 library is installed on your system, execute the following command:

# what /usr/shlib/libots3.so

libots3.a V2.0-094 GEM 27 Feb 2001

1.10    Release Note for TruCluster Server

If you are installing only TCR patches, you MUST rebuild the kernel and reboot the machine for the changes to take effect. If removing only TCR patches, you MUST also rebuild the kernel and reboot the machine for the changes to take effect.