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As of November 3, 2004 IRIX® 6.5.26 is releasing with all new systems shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers.
The IRIX 6.5.26 release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.xx quarterly release process.
The IRIX 6.5.26 release delivers several software enhancements, extensions and improvements requested by our customers. Approximately 68 customer reported incidents are also resolved in this release.
The general distribution process is through the online ordering system. IRIX 6.5.26 images are also available for download off Supportfolio™.
IRIX 6.5.26 Highlights
As of IRIX 6.5.26, the data area of an XVM-labeled disk starts on a 32-sector boundary. All XVM slices are created on 32-sector boundaries on the disk and are some multiple of 32 sectors in length. In addition, XVM stripe units must be a multiple of 32 512-byte blocks. In the cases of both stripes and slices, you can explicitly remove this restriction. Existing XVM physvols and volumes will continue to work and do not need to be recreated.
rtmon records for received signals now include from what process the signal was sent. System administrators and developers can use this feature to help track down why certain signals are being sent. This information is printed out as part of rtmon-dump and par reports.
The fuser command can display usage information for particular vnodes. System administrators may use this to find out more information about vnodes identified in bufview that don't have names listed there.
The clock_prtimeout() function has been added. This makes timeouts at the system's maximum resolution available to drivers. Driver authors can use this function when very precise timeouts are required.
New media formats recognized
- mediaconvert recognizes Alias files even if they do not have a .pix filename extension
- dmconvert recognizes Abekas YUV format as a supported media type
- CDplayer and mount now support enhanced multisession CDs
- Extended freedb support (added in 6.5.24) includes multiple match selection
- sfplay supports automatic sampling rate conversion for unsupported
- Hardware sampling rates and for situations when the port is in use
- Better desktop recognition is provided for QuickTime® files
- A new device type for IBM® 3592 tape devices was added to the list of hinv tape devices
The default behavior of crontab has been changed so that core files are no longer removed from the system automatically.
rpc.mountd is run from a network startup script and not from inetd. If rpc.mountd is killed, it will not be restarted automatically.
The snoop(1m) command has enhanced support for decoding the STATMON and NFSAUTH protocols.
Default quota limits can now be set
The nfsdctl command includes a -t option to shut down TCP connections on an NFS server.
telnetd can display the contents of /etc/issue.net before displaying the login prompt.
SGI Software Product Life Cycle Management
IRIX support policy
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
Changes to Support Mode Status
The following workstations, graphics and scalable server systems have transitioned to retired support mode for the IRIX® 6.5.23 release. IRIX 6.5.23 and beyond do not support installation on these systems.
- Challenge® S, Challenge® M, Challenge® DM, Challenge® L, Challenge® XL
- Indigo®, Indigo2™, Indigo2™ Extreme, Indigo2 Impact™, Indy®
- Power Challenge™, Power Indigo2™, Power Onyx™
- Onyx®
The following product has transitioned to retired support for the IRIX 6.5.23 release:
Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) / Distributed File System (DFS)
Contact your local sales representative to discuss options for replacement or upgrade products.
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 Welcome document. Visit the "Caveat and Release Note Updates" for any late-breaking information.
Important note if you do live installs of the IRIX quarterly releases
Installation
- Updated Inst program
New installation features were used starting with IRIX® 6.5.21 that necessitate an updated version of the Inst program. If you plan to install using the miniroot, then you may do so by the usual method. However, if you plan to upgrade by 'live' install and are running IRIX® 6.5.19 or earlier, you must first install patch 5086.
IRIX 6.5.xx Lookahead
IRIX® 6.5.27 is in development and is planned to release mid-February, 2005.
