IRIX® Operating System 6.5.27 Release Announcement

As of February 2, 2005 IRIX® 6.5.27 is releasing with new IRIX 6.5 based systems shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers.

The IRIX 6.5.27 release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.xx release process.

The IRIX 6.5.27 release delivers several software enhancements, extensions and improvements requested by our customers. Approximately 48 customer reported incidents are also resolved in this release.

The general distribution process is through the online ordering system. IRIX 6.5.27 images are available for download off Supportfolio™.

IRIX 6.5.27 Highlights

  • Volatile cpusets

    • The IRIX 6.5.27 release supports volatile cpusets, which are cpusets that can be configured, created, and destroyed by regular users. Users thatneed to isolate work in non-batch environments can use this feature to achieve their needs without root access or the scheduling.

  • Tracking priority inheritance

    • Enabling the "scheduler" event-mask logs priority inheritance actions to rtmon logs. Developers can use these new trace records to analyze the real-time behavior of their applications.

  • NFS over IPv6

    • NFS over IPv6 is supported for both client and server.

  • OpenSSH version 3.9p1

    • The OpenSSH protocol suite has been upgraded to version 3.9p1.

  • Motif version 2.1.32

    • Motif 2.1.20 has been upgraded to Motif 2.1.32. This version is a bug fix and compatibility update.

  • New cpuset_tobind systune parameter

    • A new system tuneable variable, cpuset_tobind, has been added. This variable limits how the runon command and the sysmp system call with MP_MUSTRUN command can be used.

    Setting this variable to 1 indicates that for a thread to bind to a CPU using runon, sysmp MP_MUSTRUN, or a related operation, the CPU must be restricted, isolated, or part of a cpuset.

  • New parameters to manage highest available file descriptor

    • New boolean system tuneable parameters rlimit_nofile_cur_clamps_setrlimit and rlimit_nofile_cur_clamps_fdhi have been added.

    The rlimit_nofile_cur_clamps_setrlimit variable controls the behavior of the setrlimit and setrlimit64 system calls. A call to setrlimit with a value above the(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlimit) where rlimit.rlim_cur will result in leaving open file descriptors with values above the new limit will result in a return of EINVAL.

    The rlimit_nofile_cur_clamps_fdhi variable affects the behavior of the getdtablehi system call. In this case if there are open file descriptors with values above the current process limit, then the current process limit is returned.

    In addition to the new system tuning variables, the F_CLOSEM command has been added to the fcntl system call. The F_CLOSEM command will close all file descriptors greater than or equal to the file descriptor number supplied by the caller.

  • PAM authentication support for SUNOS C2 security NIS master server

    • User authentication using PAM now supports IRIX as a client of Sun NIS master servers with C2 security using passwd.adjunct NIS maps.

  • pam_tally module added for login tallying

    • The pam_tally module can be used to maintain a count of unsuccessful login attempts and deny access if a threshold is reached.

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/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi/0650/bks/SGI_Developer/books/mandate_IRIX/sgi_html/pr01.html

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® 6.5.28 is in development and is planned to release mid-August, 2005.