From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: 4.0.5 confusion (again, still)
Date: 20 Aug 92 05:14:57 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <Bt8v7K.28I@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> sysmark@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt) writes:

| We've ordered an R4K Indigo, and have arranged to have the disk and
| software pre-shipped (long story, don't ask), and they arrived today.
| Unfortunately, we got 4.0.5A, whereas it's my understanding that we
| really want 4.0.5D.  That's OK, mistakes get made, I'll work it out
| with our sales folks.

Of course they have 4.0.5A!  4.0.5D isn't released yet, nor is
the r4k indigo itself.  I don't know how you arranged to get
the disk, etc. early, but clearly the person with whom you
arranged it misunderstood either you, or the situation.

| Bob's comment implies (well, sort of implies; depends on how you
| interpret "other platforms") that for our other systems, we want
| 4.0.5C (we do want this, since the C release fixes the NFS lockd
| bug).  And that we want 4.0.5D for our R4K Indigos.  What about
| a vanilla R3K Indigo (entry graphics or XS/XS24/Elan)?  C or D?
| At first, I took the comment to mean that D wouldn't run on the
| R3K Indigo.  However, in response to a question of mine ...
...
| Does this means that *all* Indigos, regardless of whether they have
| an R3K or R4K CPU, and regardless of whether they have the lowest-end
| or highest-end graphics, are supported by 4.0.5D?

4.0.5D supports the r3k indigo, as well as r4k, and not surprisingly,
has the 4.0.5C fixes in it.

| Finally, one last question:  Of the various flavours of 4.0.5 releases
| (A,C,D), is it only the eoe1 and eoe2 subsystems which differ?  On my
| 4.0.5A CD, only the eoe[12] subsystems have any sort of alphabetic suffix
| after the version number.

No.  It may be everything that is different, or just a few things.
As I recall, 4.0.5D has everything different except for motif_eoe
and other 'non-OS' things, such as nck, netls, explorer, and 
inventor_eoe.  Hmm; let me say that differently.  In general, there
is no rule.  It all depends on what was fixed.  I think that for
4.0.5A, just eoe1 and eoe2 had differences from 4.0.5.  I'm not
at all sure what the story is for 4.0.5C.

| PS:  Whoops, one more question:  If 4.0.5C fixes two allegedly "nasty"
| bugs, why is 4.0.5A the one that's shipping from manufacturing with all
| non-RE/non-R4K-Indigo systems?  Or does Bob's comment about 4.0.5C mean
| that the NFS lockd bug is present only on the Crimson?  (The statement,
| as worded, is ambiguous.)

The lockd bug is on all platforms.  I think the idea is simply
to ship it fix on fail, rather than freaking out all of the
VAR's, etc. by shipping yet another 4.0.5 that they haven't
tested against.  I'm just guessing on the motivation.  If  you
think something is wrong with our testing/beta process, then
I (personally, not speaking for the company) would have to 
agree with you.  Complain about it when you talk to the TAC
(but don't take it out on them, the people on the phones aren't
responsible for the problems!).

| Sorry if I seem rather dense about all this, but I am rather confused
| about what's the most recent officially-supported release for some of
| our hardware configurations.

You aren't the only one, by a long shot.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com