[1633] in Release_7.7_team
notes, 2/2
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Barker)
Wed Feb 3 11:05:30 1999
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 11:01:15 -0500
To: release-team@MIT.EDU
From: Mike Barker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Attending: Greg Hudson, Heather Anne, Jonathon Weiss, Miki Lusztig, Oliver
Thomas, Robert Basch, Abby Fox, Bill Cattey, Mike Barker
1. Solaris 2.7 will be delayed because there is no AFS available. Transarc
has not even begun development of a beta. We may consider an IAP release.
The question is what is the demand -- are there applications that require
Solaris 7?
The other issue with Solaris 2.7 is 64-bit vs. 32-bit. 64-bit is only
available for Ultras. We expect to stick with 32-bit during Sun4m lifetime.
We could investigate dual booting -- support both. However, this is high
effort to make sure it works, and a continuing complexity in keeping two
environments "synchronized." Unless there is significant demand, we don't
expect to do this.
We expect to tell Transarc that we need the 32-bit AFS ASAP (to have a
stable version by IAP). We also think they should start work on the 64-bit
version so that when we need to support 64-bit due to applications or for
specific private machines, there is a stable 64-bit version.
2. 8.2.17 is going out. Greg will take charge of the early letter
including information about the script. Karl will send out the one-day
warning and handle the actual update.
3. The Elmer hack to delete tickets will be put in. This is a possible fix
for the Netscape-expired tickets-SGI kills AFS servers bug. This will be
8.2.18. (We will skip the sun 8.2.18 and regain sync with 8.2.19)
4. SGI install. Online books take 45 minutes. We expect to replace this
with symlinks at the individual file level, which will allow local
installation.
5. With increasing use of online documentation in HTML form (Solaris 2.7
moves most of their documentation to SGML, with a server that translate on
the fly; SGI is moving in similar directions) we should investigate and
consider the possibility of providing documentation servers and mirror sites
locally.
6. The schedule:
March 1 crash and learn
April 1 Alpha
May 1 Beta
June 1 early
July 1 release
Somewhat dated, but http://Web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/porting/release.html
helps to explain what these steps in the release process are.
7. We are looking at Irix 6.5.3 and Solaris 2.6 for the summer release.
8. Y2K status: Irix 6.5 is Y2K compliant. Solaris 2.6 also is compliant.
However, Irix 6.2/6.3 require a patch set for y2k. We know that there is a
license server run by Athena operations which needs to be upgraded, although
there are complications because the licenses are tied to the specific
machine ID.
To release a "y2k patch release" using Irix 6.2/6.3 for people who do not
want to accept the summer upgrade may be possible. We need to examine how
much work is involved, what would convince us to make the decision to invest
this work, etc. we may want to discuss this with the Y2K team. We may also
need to consider what our SGI outreach planning is, especially to private
workstation owners.
