[2601] in Release_7.7_team
Re: Sun Patches for Athena
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Cattey)
Wed Feb 21 18:43:37 2001
Message-ID: <AuZ5_VNz0001153QV=@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 23:43:29 +0000 ()
From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: Tom Cavin <tec@ai.MIT.EDU>
CC: release-team@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <14996.20565.168386.398535@vivaldi.mit.edu>
Hi Tom,
I've shifted responsibility so that I almost NEVER get into the nuts
and bolts of what patches are and are not live.
I have a faint recollection of a Sun package that presumed to analyze
the patch levels of an installed system that produced misleading and
incorrect output. But perhaps that has nothing to do with what you ran.
Athena DEFINITELY works to keep current with patches.
We try to synchronize in major releases with the published Sun
recommended patch set. We are somewhat hampered in our patching
because we don't want to introduce too many user visible changes
during the term.
Still, sometimes there are valuable patches that we don't know about
until some customer calls our attention to them. Sending Email to
release-team@mit.edu is the best way to call attention to the possiblity
that Athena may need some more patches.
In fact, release-team, rather than wdc is a better place to send
questions such as the one you have now. Often there is a reader of
the list who can just answer your question. Often I am not competent
at finding the person who can answer it. Generally I just forward stuff
to release-team myself. :-)
I'm copying this reply (along with your original note) to release-team.
Do indeed send your analysis of the Explorer report to release-team.
Be prepared for an answer either of the form:
"Ah! Thanks we'll review these pathes."
or
"Oh that! Don't be fooled by the ravings of that buggy utility."
Cheers,
-wdc
---- original message ----
From: Tom Cavin <tec@ai.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 18:33:41 -0500 (EST)
To: Bill Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>
Cc: Tom Cavin <tec@ai.mit.edu>
Subject: Sun Patches for Athena
Hi Bill,
I've been having hardware problems with one of my private Athena
workstations. (An Ultra10 named Francine.mit.edu.) And I'm having a
Sun tech come out for a look on Friday. As a preliminary to it, I ran
their Explorer package on the system (SUNWexplo). It found a lot of
things to complain about and I'm wondering if you know about them.
Are you familiar with the SUNWexplo package?
Does Athena keep up with their patches? Or do you have to unpack them
and apply just the necessary items for the base systems that are under
Athena?
I have the analyzed Explorer report if you want it. The hardware tech
seemed to think that some of the patches listed as missing might cause
some problems with the hardware, but he didn't seem very familiar with
the software and had never heard of Athena, so I'm not certain how
well founded his opinion is on this.
Anyway, I thought I'd pose the question and see what answers I get.
Thanks,
--Tom
--
Tom Cavin Phone: (617) 258 - 7806
WCCF Computer Operations Manager Email: tec@ai.mit.edu
