SUMMARY: installupdate & kernel options.

From: Tony McElhill <tony.mcelhill_at_uk.airsysatm.thomson-csf.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 17:19:30 +0000

Hi everyone,

Sorry this took so long - I just forgot about it, but was reminded by
Mr. Mollel's (a.k.a. Tru64user) question: "Fresh Install vs. Upgrade to
5.0A".

Having done it both ways - I think installupdate was easier than the
fresh installs, it just caught me out a bit. This was ONLY from 4.0D to
4.0F though.
BTW I didn't use genvmunix - I used the new vmunix and doconfig -c after
adding the "tuning bits" - I just overlooked the missing "options".
My solution was to add the missing options to the config file
(/sys/conf/HOSTNAME) and do a doconfig -c HOSTNAME again.
In future (with the remaining 4.0D boxes) I will get as much as I can
into sysconfigtab and leave the config file as standard as possible.

My question in brief was:

If you run installupdate, do you need to manually add non-standard
options already in your existing kernel afterwards (or use the -i flag
to choose additional kernel options at update time?).

Thanks to Dr. Tom Blinn for the answer (below).

It appears that:
a) It's better to have all "tuning" parameters in /etc/sysconfigtab
b) Know which additional options you have to add them at installupdate
time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom said:

The simple answer is "yes", you need to select the options; in V4.x, you

can use the "-i" flag. When you get to V5.x the rules change a bit.

You do NOT want to run a "genvmunix" kernel as your production kernel,
trust me on this. It is NOT supportable. Built a kernel that has the
options you need, and KEEP TRACK of what you've chosen. Don't depend
on being able to just use the same config file, in general manual edits
are a bad thing unless you REALLY know what you are doing. Move as much

of the tuning stuff into /etc/sysconfigtab as you can (where it WILL be
preserved during installupdates), just use the menu to select the stuff
that needs to be built in.

Trust me on this.. Been there, know the temptation, but also know the
risks of trying to short-cut things.

Oh, yes, patch kits are often incompatible with running the old
genvmunix
and the new one on the patch kit may not work very well in production,
it
never gets tested for that purpose.

Tom
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



My question In more detail was:

I have recently upgraded some machines using "installupdate", and I have

noticed that some options included in the original configuration file
were not carried forward.
The boxes in question were mainly DPW500au (some AStn 200s) - all going
from 4.0D to 4.0F.
I used installupdate /cdrom and I gathered that the generic kernel is
used but that the environment itself was preserved in that many files
(e.g. /etc/services) would remain intact or be merged using the
original. This has a lot of advantages for me against a fresh
installation as I do not need to restore lots of customised files.
After the installupdate I applied patch kit 3 and after that I made some

additions to the config file to increase shmmax, maxusers and a few
other values that needed to be increased from the default. (though I
could have used sysconfig here).
What I didn't expect was that kernel options that had been added
originally (in the config file after ident = "HOSTNAME") would not be
carried forwards (see below).
It was the lack of XTISO, TIMOD and TIRDWR that drew this to my
attention, but there are a few others also.

Any ideas anyone?

Regards and TIF,

Tony.


Before install update:
#head -50 /sys/conf/HCI11.b4.40f
ident "HCI11"

options UERF
options OSF
options _LMF_
options BIN_COMPAT
options COMPAT_43
options MACH
options MACH_IPC_TCACHE
options MACH_IPC_WWA
options MACH_IPC_XXXHACK
options BUFCACHE_STATS
options INOCACHE_STATS
options STAT_TIME
options VAGUE_STATS
options UFS
options NFS
options NFS_SERVER
options MSFS
options ATM
options UNI3X
options ATM
options ATMIP
options ATM
options LANE
options ATM
options ATMIFMP
options ATM
options STRKINFO
options STREAMS
options LDTTY
options RPTY
options INET
options UIPC
options SYSV_COFF
options QUOTA
options LABELS
options SL
options SNMPINFO
options DLI
options BSD_TTY
options BPARM
options DEC_ACL
options DEC_AUDIT
options CDFS
options FFM_FS
options XTISO
options TIMOD
options TIRDWR
options DLB
options PCKT
options PPP
options PACKETFILTER
options KDEBUG
options PROCFS
options NTP_TIME
options FFM_FS

#
# Standard options.
#
options UNIX_LOCKS
options SER_COMPAT
options RT_PREEMPT
options

After the installupdate:

#head -50 /sys/conf/HCI11
ident "HCI11"

options UERF
options OSF
options _LMF_
options BIN_COMPAT
options COMPAT_43
options MACH
options MACH_IPC_TCACHE
options MACH_IPC_WWA
options MACH_IPC_XXXHACK
options BUFCACHE_STATS
options INOCACHE_STATS
options STAT_TIME
options VAGUE_STATS
options UFS
options NFS
options NFS_SERVER
options MSFS
options STRKINFO
options STREAMS
options LDTTY
options RPTY
options INET
options UIPC
options SYSV_COFF
options QUOTA
options LABELS
options SL
options SNMPINFO
options DLI
options BSD_TTY
options BPARM
options FFM_FS
options DLB
options PROCFS

#
# Standard options.
#
options UNIX_LOCKS
options SER_COMPAT
options RT_PREEMPT
options RT_SCHED
options RT_SCHED_RQ
options RT_PML
options RT_TIMER
options RT_SEM
options RT_CSEM
options RT_IPC
--
--
           \\\\ ////
           (  _at_ _at_  )
  -------oOOo-(_)-oOOo-------------------------------
  Tony McElhill
  Development Support Engineer, Airsys ATM,
  Oakcroft Road, Chessington, Surrey KT9 1QZ England.
  Tel: 020-8391-6438
  Fax: 020-8391-6137
  e-mail: tony.mcelhill_at_uk.airsysatm.thomson-csf.com
  ----------------Oooo-------------------------------
         oooO    (   )
         (   )    ) /
          \ (    (_/
           \_)
"The box said 'Windows 95 or better', so I installed Linux"
Received on Thu Nov 30 2000 - 17:23:49 NZDT

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