Error with VMS732_Update v14 Install

[Rick Dyson]

All of my systems in this case are v7.3-2 with all patches applied prior to Update v14 EXCEPT the LAT v2, which I then skipped since it was listed as being included in Update v14. I also applied Verify v2. Sometimes before Update, sometimes after.

As for ACRTL:

product show history *acrtl*
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------
PRODUCT KIT TYPE OPERATION DATE AND TIME
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------
DEC AXPVMS VMS732_ACRTL V3.0 Patch Install 08-MAY-2006 00:40:12
DEC AXPVMS VMS732_ACRTL V2.0 Patch Install 09-JAN-2006 01:12:56
DEC AXPVMS VMS732_ACRTL V1.0 Patch Install 13-OCT-2005 16:00:36
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------


Since May 2006, I have about 3 screens (~75 lines) of Product installs and removes. Is it plausible all of those installs did not use STARLET? Way outside my knowledge base!

I will get a call logged for this, too.

[John Gillings]

STARLET.OLB causes way more than its fair share of problems for installations and upgrades. It's a pity because although it's frequently referenced (ie: in just about every LINK command), it's very rarely actually used, because most LINK references are resolved from shareable image libraries, rather than the object library. Most systems would run quite happily with a dummy (empty) STARLET.OLB.

Also, don't forget to decompress those libraries! LIBRARY/COMPRESS is a throwback to the days when system disks were sub 100MB, so it was worth the additional CPU to save a handful of blocks. These days it's a silly tradeoff. It sounds like the only useful purpose for /COMPRESS is as a kind of "/VERIFY_AND_REPAIR".

[Jon Pinkley]

@John

$ @SYS$UPDATE:LIBDECOMP REDUCE STARLET.OLB ! DATA compressed with DCX

is not the same as

$ LIBR/COMPRESS STARLET.OLB ! create new version of STARTLET.OLB without deleted members.

The second is similar to MAIL> COMPRESS

Doing a LIBRARY/COMPRESS STARTLET.OLB will not change the way the elements are stored (whether they are REDUCED or EXPANDED).

John's recommendation to use sys$update:libdecomp to decompress the data is valid for libraries that are used. Almost certainly, the help libraries should be expanded. On the other hand, for libraries that are never used, it really makes little difference.

Attached is example log demonstrating the above claims, using the smallest library that LIBDECOMP knows about (NTA.TLB).

Jon

[Volker Halle]

Rick,

$ LIBR/LIS=x.x/HIS/FULL SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET.OLB will show you the Library Update History entries at the tail of the x.x listing file.

If modules had been deleted and replaced you should be able to match the date/time of the history entries with the PROD SHOW HIST dates. This way you can find out, which update has replaced modules in your STARLET.OLB. This may help OpenVMS engineering figure out, which update may have corrupted your STARLET.OLB

Volker.

[Steve Schultz_1]

Rick,
Update V14 does not include LAT v2. If you look at the release notes, you will see it contains LAT v1. The master ECO list does say that the update kit has LAT v2, but this is wrong. After installing the update kit myself, I did verify that LAT v2 was not part of the kit.

[George_145]

The Master List has a typo. That has been corrected and will appear tonight when the ITRC run to load changes is done.

George Pagliarulo
ECO Release Process
OpenVMS Sustaining Engineering
Hewlett-Packard Company
e-mail: george.pagliarulo@hp.com

[Rick Dyson]

Ouch! I seem to recall (ice storm here and not at work) that required a reboot and I just had my maint window last Monday...

rick

[Rick Dyson]

I was able to apply the suggested workarounds to compress the Starlet library (and address the corruption) and then when I ran the ECO install again later, it was successful.

As mentioned, HP Engineering is looking into this (I logged a formal support call with them, too).

Thank you all for the help and I will watch for a formal fix later.

Lots of us still at v7.3-2... :)

Rick

[Volker Halle]

Rick,

this problem has been fixed in VMS732_LIBRAR-V0100 (released 4-APR-2008).

NOTE: The new images in this kit will prevent this problem from occurring in the future but will not fix an already corrupted STARLET.OLB. To fix any existing corruption, this patch kit will also perform a
LIBRARY/COMPRESS on STARLET.OLB which will eliminate the corruption.

Volker.