[Info-vax] satellite one hour ahead

[Hans Bachner]

David Froble schrieb am 26.10.2016 um 19:33:
> Hans Bachner wrote:
>> Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) schrieb am 26.10.2016 um 08:22:
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> I have a cluster with three bootservers, each with its own system disk,
>>> and a satellite which boots off of one of the disks.  All machines have
>>> a graphics monitor and a VT as the serial console.  I upgraded one of
>>> the bootservers to 8.4 and DECwindows stopped working in that the CDE
>>> login doesn't come up.  It gets as far as the grey screen then stops.
>>> Thus, there is apparently some problem with my 8.4 (which is the
>>> hobbyist image).  Thus, I don't want to upgrade to 8.4 for fear of
>>> losing DECwindows/CDE.
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> I've done upgrades several times, and the upgrade to 8.4 was
>>> straightforward.  Then DECwindows/CDE stopped working.  So, it's pretty
>>> clear that there is a problem there somewhere.  Have I found it?  Not
>>> yet.  It might be that the problem doesn't always occur.  In particular,
>>> it might not occur after a fresh install.
>>> [snip]
>>
>> Probably not.
>>
>> I just recently did a fresh install of V8.4 on an AlphaStation DS15
>> without applying any patches because my only goal was to upgrade to
>> VSI's Alpha evaluation kit. CDE worked just fine out of the box.
>>
>> Hans.
>
> So, one could speculate that Phillip's problem could be some "junk" from
> constantly upgrading VMS from some ancient version, rather than a fresh
> install periodically.  That was another recent topic, doing a fresh
> install periodically to avoid just such "junk".
>
> Because of this problem, Phillip still has a V7.3-2 system, which he
> won't give up because of the DECwindows problem.
>
> And now Phillip has a time problem, perhaps because of some old "junk".
>
> [snip]

I still believe that the DECwindows problem and probably also the time 
problem are specific to Phillip's configurations and not to grumpy old 
software. In my lab, I have several 7.3-2 systems running without time 
problems and also a system running 8.2 that has been upgraded over time 
from 6.2[-something] which runs DECwindows just fine. Some day, I will 
take it to 8.4[-x].

Scratch installs are usually suggested (or even required) for many other 
operating systems, but in the 30+ years I've been managing OpenVSM 
systems I've never had serious problems with upgrades except when 
undocumented interfaces were used. If it was a production system, of 
course the applications were tested in the new environment (OS & Layered 
Products) in a test (or less important) configuration.

Hans.