IRIX 6.5.13 Key New Features

The following changes have been incorporated into the core 6.5.13 overlay CDs and the Applications CD.

New Software Features - Feature Stream Only:

Filesystems

• With 6.5.13, the structure of the CXFS filesystem configuration has been changed. CXFS filesystems can now be defined, modified, managed and deleted independently of each other, and of the cluster definition. (Previously, the CXFS filesystems were defined as attributes to the cluster definition.) To accommodate clusters mixing nodes running 6.5.12 and 6.5.13, backwards compatibility is enforced by default in 6.5.13. For more information, see the CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide.
• The XVM Volume Manager can be used when layered with the CXFS filesystem. The XVM Volume Manager can also be used as a standalone volume manager; this requires that you be running the 6.5.13f release leg of the IRIX operating system. The 6.5.13m leg does not support XVM as a standalone volume manager; this support will be added in a later release. For information on CXFS filesystems, see CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide.
• Added support for the use of mirrors in XVM logical volumes. The mirroring feature of XVM requires the XFS Volume Plexing software option. Customers running CXFS and who want to run mirrors will need to purchase this license. XLV customers with plexing licenses can upgrade to XVM without having to acquire a new license.

New Software Enhancements - Maintenance and Feature Stream:

Filesystems

• The xfsrestore command returns an incorrect exit code when it encounters a media error; improving this process lets a system administrator intelligently react to these conditions.
• Improved exit codes for the xfsrestore and xfsdump commands. This lets a system administrator correctly respond to end-of-media or operator interrupt conditions.
• Changed the mkfs command to allow you to specify the size of an XFS allocation group, as an alternative to specifying the total number of allocation groups. You use the -d agsize= option for this. For information, see the mkfs_xfs man page and IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.
• Changed the mkfs command to allow you to specify the size of a stripe unit and the size of a stripe width in bytes or in filesystem blocks, as an alternative to specifying these values in 512-byte block units. You use the -d su= and the -d sw= options for this. For information, see the mkfs_xfs man page and IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.
• Changed the default size of an XFS allocation group; larger filesystems will result in larger default allocation group sizes.
• The xfsdump and xfsrestore commands will provide the VSN of the tape that reached its end-of-volume (or the VSN of a new tape that needs to be mounted) and pass this VSN to the media_change_alert_program specified with the -c option. This lets system administrators send commands to a tape jukebox to mount the next tape.
• Changed the default size of an XFS log. The default log size grows with the size of the filesystem up to the maximum log size, 128 megabytes, on a 1 terabyte filesystem. For information on the default values of XFS allocation groups and XFS log sizes, see IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.

Scalability

• Added cpusetAttachPID() and cpusetDetachPID() functions to the Cpuset System library. The cpusetAttachPID() function allows a programmer to attach a currently running program to an existing cpuset. The cpusetDetachPID() function allows a programmer to detach a currently running program to an existing cpuset. Any programmer that uses the cpuset API from Irix 6.5.13, and later, can use these functions. For information, see chapter 4, "Cpuset System", in the IRIX Admin: Resource Administration manual and the cpusetAttachPID(3x)and cpusetDetachPID(3x) man pages.

Networking

• The following features have been moved from Enhanced DHCP to standard DHCP:
  • Ping check before an address is leased to insure it is not already in use
  • MAC address filtering; clients whose MAC address is listed in a file will be unable to obtain a lease and/or accesses from these clients will be logged.

  For more information, see the dhcp_bootp man page.

• Added implementation of End Sequence to Scheduled Transfer Protocol. The upper layer protocol or applications can now terminate a transfer and restart another one without taking down virtual connection.

Graphics workstations

• VPro for Octane/OpenGL performance improvements have been added as follows:
  • Improved X window performance by 25 percent based on x11perf
  • Iproved performance of OpenGL glCopypixel() function

SGI Origin 3000 servers

• The following new system controller features have been implemented for the SGI Origin 3000 server series:
  • Enabled router port security, which prevents unauthorized enabling of additional router ports on router bricks in the SGI Origin/Onyx 3400 server series
  • Enabled system serial number security, which prevents unauthorized changes to the system serial number
  • Completely redesigned the graphical interface for the front-panel display of the SGI 3400 and 3800 servers
• Added hotplug attach feature that allows Gigabit Ethernet cards to be installed on a running system. A system administrator can use the pciconfig command to add cards to an Origin 3000 system and the ifconfig command to configure the cards for networking. For more information, see the pciconfig and ifconfig man pages.
• Added Origin 3000 system partitioning support in the eoe.sw.partition software package. This feature improves how system partitioning software is installed, enabled, and disabled. It also eliminates the need to manually edit configuration files.

System performance

• Efficiency improvements have been made to the BTE driver layer to reduce both latency and contention. This feature is a performance improvement to the existing functionality that is used internally by the system.
• The tools that report CPU utilization have been modified to correct the sampling of %WIO to omit idle time in line with industry standards. See the sar(1) man page for details.

Licensing software

• Updated FLEXlm v7.2f support from GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc. The license manager daemon and the floating license server are built in V5 compatibility mode. For backwards compatibility, the client libraries and header files are still based on FLEXlm v6.1g. For more information, see the FLEXlm End User Manual and the associated man pages.

Applications CD:

The following products were updated with bug fixes only:

• SGI Web Server, based on the Apache 1.3.20

  For details on how to change your default web server and configure and administer the SGI Web Server, see Caveats to Read After You Upgrade.

• IRIX Interactive Desktop System Administration
• Information Searching Execution Environment
• InSight Online Doc Viewer 4.4
• Netscape Communicator 4.77

  By default, version 4.77 will install the new N32 version of the browser. Any existing third-party plugins for the browser that are O32 will no longer function. Support for the Macromedia Flash plugin is also included. For more information, see http://home.netscape.com/communicator/v4.5/tour/index.html.

The following products contain enhancements or new features:

• WebSetup 3.3 has been updated to support the SGI web server based on Apache 1.3.20 and an administration GUI has been added.
• Impressario 2.9.5 to supports a new HP6300 Scanner driver and an Epson PPD bug fix.

Other IRIX Software Changes

IRIX OS Bundled Software:

• Removed Out of Box Experience (OOBE) CD
• Removed Hot Mix CD

For more information about the bundled software that is included with this release, see CD Contents and the Bundled Software and Licenses web page that you can access from the Welcome web page.

System Platform Bundles

No changes have been made to the demonstration software CDs developed for the specific system platforms.

Freeware CDs:

The following changes have been incorporated for the IRIX 6.5.13 release time frame.

• New freeware list
  • cyrus-sasl
  • db3
  • junkbuster
• Updated
  • apache
  • groff
  • mpg123
  • mutt
  • ntp (formerly called fw_xntp)
  • OpenLDAP
  • procmail
  • proftpd
  • sox
  • texinfo
  • vim
  • zsh
• Omitted
  • None

For more information about the freeware that is included with this release, including a complete list of the freeware packages, see http://freeware.sgi.com/ .

Documentation

The following manuals have been revised for the significant new features incorporated into this release. See the front of each manual for a description of the new features and major documentation changes covered in these revised manuals.

• IRIX operating system
  • 007-2825-008, IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems
  • 007-2859-016, IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation
  • 07-3700-008, IRIX Admin: Resource Administration
• Filesystems and Volume Managers
  • 007-4003-007, XVM Volume Manager Administrator's Guide
  • 007-4016-009, CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide

The following manuals were revised in conjunction with the IRIX 6.5.13 release. See the front of each manual for a description of the new features and major documentation changes covered in these revised manuals.

• Trusted IRIX
  • 007-3299-005, Trusted IRIX/CMW Security Administrator's Guide
• Origin and Onyx servers
  • 007-3430-003, Origin2000 and Onyx2 Performance Tuning and Optimization Guide
• System Support
  • 007-4065-006, Embedded Support Partner User Guide