®
As of November 7, 2001 IRIX 6.5.14 is releasing with
all new systems shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers.
The IRIX 6.5.14 release contains updates for both the maintenance
(6.5.14m) and feature (6.5.14f) streams. This release continues the
focus on stability, reliability and compatibility required in the
IRIX 6.5.X quarterly release process.
Approximately 113 customer reported incidents are fixed in this release.
In addition to bug fixes, the IRIX 6.5.14 maintenance path delivers
several software enhancements and additional installation improvements.
Since a major goal of the IRIX 6.5.X release process is to provide a
feature stream as stable as the maintenance stream, the same bug fixes
and software enhancements are also applied to the IRIX 6.5.14 feature path.
The general distribution process is through the online ordering system.
IRIX 6.5.14m and 6.5.14f images are also available for download off Supportfolio.
Summary of Software Enhancements Delivered by IRIX 6.5.14
IRIX 6.5.14 Feature Stream:
Filesystems
- The CXFS GUI has been enhanced in the IRIX 6.5.14 release as follows:
- CXFS Manager and CXFS Cluster View windows are now combined into one
window called CXFS Manager.
- Tasks can now be launched by clicking the right mouse button over the
tree-view area, or by selecting Tasks on the menu bar.
- Command line interfaces (CLIs) that the GUI runs can be viewed from a
new File > Show SALog menu item.
- You can now partially mount filesystems on just a subset of nodes, using
the Define Filesystem and Modify Filesystem tasks.
- A new Find text field helps you find items within the displayed tree-view
area.
- Filesystem status and cluster status update faster.
- The structure of the CXFS filesystem configuration was changed with the
release of IRIX 6.5.13f. Backward compatibility with earlier versions is
no longer maintained as of IRIX 6.5.14f, since all nodes in the cluster
must be running the same or adjacent releases.
- If you are upgrading from 6.5.13f to 6.5.14f or later, there is no
further impact.
- If you intend to run a mixture of 6.5.13f and 6.5.14f nodes, you must
turn off backward compatibility.
- If you are upgrading from 6.5.12f or earlier without first installing
and running 6.5.13f, you must perform a one-time manual conversion of
your CXFS filesystem definitions.
- For CXFS customers, if you install IRIX 6.5.14f including sysadm_base on
a cluster node where the the 6.5.13f version of CXFS is installed, you
will need to upgrade to the 6.5.14f verion CXFS (sysadm_cxfs) and install
6.5.14f sysadm_cluster.
IRIX 6.5.14 Maintenance and Feature Stream:
Filesystems
- In the IRIX 6.5.5 release, SGI introduced a new optional directory format
for XFS filesystems, referred to as the "version 2" directory format in
mkfs output.
XFS filesystems with a version 2 directory format can provide improved
reliability and performance over filesystems with a version 1 directory
format in some applications, particularly for applications that use NFS
exported XFS filesystems.
The directory format for an XFS filesystem is specified with the -n
parameter of the mkfs command. The default directory format is currently
the original version 1 directory format.
Beginning with the IRIX 6.5.14 release, version 2 directories of XFS will
be the default for all new filesystems created with mkfs.
Version 1 directory filesystem creation will still be supported, but this
will require that you specify the -n version=1 parameter of the mkfs
command.
SGI recommends that all new XFS filesystems be created with version 2
directories. IRIX releases older than IRIX 6.5.5, however, will not be
able to mount a filesystem created with a version 2 directory and will
issue the following message when a mount is attempted:
Wrong filesystem type: xfs
Many SGI customers are currently running production servers with version
2 directories. If you want to format filesystems with the version 2
directory format prior to the 6.5.14 release, you can specify the
following option of mkfs:
mkfs -n version=2
There is no means for converting a filesystem, in place, between version
1 and version 2 directories. A filesystem can be converted between version
1 and version 2 directories by means of an xfsdump/mkfs/xfsrestore sequence.
System Availability
- For FailSafe customers, if you install IRIX 6.5.14, including sysadm_base,
on a cluster node where FailSafe 2.1.1 is installed, you will need to
upgrade to FailSafe 2.1.2 (sysadm_failsafe2) and install 6.5.14
sysadm_cluster.
Scalability
- Adds a -q cpuset_name -p option to the cpuset command that allows you to
see the properties of particular cpuset, such as, the number of processes
and CPUs associated with the specified cpuset.
- Added cpusetGetProperties() and cpusetFreeProperties() functions to the
Cpuset System library .The cpusetGetProperties() function allows you to
retrieve various properties associated with a cpuset.
The cpusetFreeProperties() functions allows you to release the memory used
by a cpuset_Properties_t structure. Any programmer that uses the cpuset
API from IRIX 6.5.14, and later, can use these functions. For information,
see chapter 4, "Cpuset System", in the IRIX Admin: Resource Administration
manual and the cpusetGetProperties(3x) and cpusetFreeProperties(3x) man
pages.
Graphics workstations
- Parts of the IRIX Interactive Desktop have been refreshed in IRIX 6.5.14.
While functionality has not changed, the navigation, imagery, and graphics
design have been enhanced in the following areas:
- The main IRIX login window (clogin) has a new design using new SGI
colors, font, and logo. The product is called sysadmdesktop and appears
automatically at boot when root has "chkconfig noiconlogin on".
- EZsetup has a new layout and login icon using new SGI colors, font, and
logo. The product is called sysadmdesktop and is launched by logging
into EZsetup account from main IRIX login window.
- The System Manager main window uses new SGI colors, font, and logo.
The product is sysadmdesktop and is launched from the System toolchest.
- The Welcome to SGI web pages have new navigation and new SGI colors,
font, and logo. The product is Welcome. Launch from Find toolchest,
select WhatsNew, double-click the Welcome_to_SGI icon.
- The Background Setting panel includes seven new desktop patterns using
the new SGI logo and font: Camouflage, Citrus Citrus, Iron, Midnight,
Reef, Sand, and Sprinkle. Note: You may notice slow performance when
previewing all but the Sprinkle background, but not when switching desks
(see the background(1) man page). Old backgrounds are still available.
The product is desktop_eoe and is launched from the Desktop toolchest,
select Customize, then Backgrounds.
SGI Origin 300 server
- Support for the SGI Origin 300 server series is included in 6.5.14. This
includes support for the Origin 300 Base Module in 2, 4, and 8 processor
sizes, the addition of a NUMAlink Module for scaling up to 32 processors,
and the TP900 Storage Module.
SGI software product life cycle management
- In accordance with the SGI software product life cycle management strategy
announced in November 2000, SGI will announce support mode changes for
various software products on a quarterly basis. To view customer letters
containing support mode changes announced since November 2000, as well as
the latest IRIX Support Policy documents, visit the IRIX Support Policy Web
page located at:
http://support.sgi.com/news/support/index.html
Licensing software
- Added command to dump all possible lmhostid values for partitioned
Origin 3000 systems. (See "IRIX 6.5.X Lookahead" below for important
Partitioned FLEXlm licensing change planned for IRIX 6.5.15.)
Applications CD
- The following products were updated with bug fixes only:
- Bug fix update for SGImeeting 2.0.1
- Final bug fix update for Color Management
- Bug fix update for Internet Gateway 3.2
- Security and other bug fixes for NEdit 5.1.1b
- Minor fixes for Appletalk 10.01
- Netscape Communicator 4.78
By default, version 4.78 will install the new N32 version of the browser.
Any existing third-party plugins for the browser that are O32 will no
longer function. Support for the Macromedia Flash plugin is also included.
For more information, see http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/main.tmpl
- The following products contain enhancements or new features:
Other IRIX Software Changes
- IRIX OS Bundled Software:
- SCSL 1.4
SCSL is a collection of high-performance mathematical and numerical
libraries that are widely used in scientific and technical compute
intensive applications. An iterative solver for sparse systems of
linear equations, as well a direct solver for sparse complex symmetric
systems of linear equations, have been added to the SCSL 1.4 release.
Additional features added to SCSL for this release are as follows:
- A thread-safe parallel random number generator
- Fortran90 interfaces to the BLAS
- A parallel implementation of the solve phase for the out-of-core
sparse solver
- Removal of all entry points to the CHALLENGEcomplib FFT routines
- Performance enhancements and rollup bug fixes from SCSL 1.3.
For more information on SCSL, see the SCSL page
For customers who do not have web access and are enrolled under a valid
support contract, CD media can be requested free of charge from their
local support center. Non-contract customers can order SCSL from their
local sales representative.
For more information about the bundled software that is included with this
release, see CD Contents and the Bundled Software and Licenses web page that
you can access from the Welcome web page.
For more information on support modes, see the Support Policy page at
http://www.support.sgi.com/news/support/index.html#support_policy
IRIX 6.5 Application Compatibility Mandate
For those providers asking about quarterly recertification of
applications, please take a moment and become acquainted with the
application compatibility protections offered by IRIX 6.5. This is a
very powerful mandate that allows an application to be developed under
IRIX 6.5.X and be run on any IRIX 6.5.Y, regardless of whether
Y > X, Y == X, or Y < x.
The Mandate of Application Compatibility in SGI IRIX 6.5 is at URL:
http://techpubs.sgi.com/tpl.cgi/view/SGI_Developer/mandate_IRIX
Caveats to Read Before You Upgrade
Users are reminded to review the special "Caveats to Read Before You
Upgrade" section of the online Start Here document. Visit the the
"Caveat and Release Note Updates" link at:
http://support.sgi.com/6.5/caveat_updates.html
for any late-breaking information.
IRIX 6.5.X Lookahead
IRIX 6.5.15 is in development and is planned to release mid-February, 2002
SGI Origin 3000 server (Onyx 3000 server)
