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Caveats to Read Before Upgrading

This page documents caveats that can significantly affect the installation process. (This is not a complete list of all known bugs, workarounds, or changes, which are documented in the Release Notes for each individual product.)

General Caveats to Read Before Upgrading (All Platforms)

Wait to Upgrade if You Have Important Compatibility Issues
This notice is also Step 2 of the Preparation Checklist because it is important. For example, if you rely on any of the following, do not upgrade to 6.5 until you can also install the 6.5-compatible version:
- HIPPI: An upgrade to version 3.2 or later is needed to run on 6.5. To find out how to upgrade, see www.sgi.com/products (under Networking, click HIPPI).
- ATM for Challenge systems: An upgrade to version 2.3.1 or later is needed to run on 6.5.
- Intranet Junction: An upgrade to version 1.0.2 or later is needed to run on 6.5.
- ClearCase: ClearCase is a 3rd-party product. See the RATIONAL Software site for information on purchasing a version of ClearCase that runs on 6.5.
Upgrading from Netscape 3.x to Netscape Communicator 4.05 will clear your preferences files
We are working on a version of Netscape 4.05a or 4.05b that avoids this problem, which we will make available on our Download Cool Software page sometime in June or July. Check to see if this version is available before performing the IRIX 6.5 upgrade. If it is, you can upgrade your version of Netscape first from the web, then do the IRIX 6.5 upgrade. Otherwise, if you upgrade to the Netscape Communicator 4.05 on the IRIX CDs, expect to have to reset all of your preferences, including identity, proxies, mail preferences, etc.
Read This If You Have Been Using MediaMail
MediaMail is no longer available from Silicon Graphics for IRIX 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5. The Netscape® mail program, which is bundled with Netscape Communicator, is the new default installed e-mail program for all Silicon Graphics systems. We recommend a transition to Netscape e-mail (Netscape Messenger) and have included software with Netscape that enables conversion of MediaMail mail to Netscape e-mail format.

When you transition from MediaMail to Netscape mail:
- Be sure to check your home directory for a .forward file. If you have one that contains a line that mentions /usr/lib/Zmail/bin/reassembler, remove or rename the .forward file IMMEDIATELY BEFORE OR AFTER THE INSTALLATION, in order to prevent problems with mail delivery to your account. On multi-user systems, each user should check for this file within their own home directory.
- To learn about getting started with Netscape Mail, see About Netscape Mail (you can also access this page by choosing Find > WebTools from the Toolchest, and double-clicking the AboutNetscapeMail icon).
Note: If you still require MediaMail, please contact NetManage, Inc. for product and sales information: http://www.netmanage.com. (Note that NetManage's Z-Mail for UNIX product is the same as MediaMail.) Please be aware that MediaMail is no longer officially supported on IRIX.
Do Not Deselect Patches From the Installation Tools CD
There are necessary patches on the Installation Tools CD. Inst automatically selects these for installation; do not deselect them.
Appletalk Will Not Work on Diskless Systems
Appletalk (Xinet Macintosh Connectivity) won't work on a diskless system because appletalk installs files into /usr/adm.
XFS Filesystem is Strongly Recommended
To install IRIX 6.5, you should have an XFS filesystem. If you want to move a disk with a 6.5 filesystem to a pre-6.5 system, use the -d unwritten=0 option when you run mkfs. (Support for filesystems mkfs'ed on 6.5 with default options is expected via patches for 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 in June or July 1998.)
COFF Binaries No Longer Supported
If you are running IRIX 5.3 (or earlier version), you may want to run the coffcheck script on this CD. This script checks for COFF programs, which will not run on IRIX 6.5 (COFF programs don't run on IRIX 6.2 or later). Silicon Graphics strongly recommends that you run the startup script in order to identify any programs that you might depend on before you upgrade your system. If you are running IRIX 6.2 (or later) you may also want to run the script to identify any stale COFF binaries that you no longer use.

The coffcheck script identifies COFF programs on locally mounted (not NFS) filesystems and lists these programs (and the names of other programs that should be replaced) in one or more files for your review. Review the list before proceeding with the installation. Do not proceed if you determine that the list contains necessary COFF programs for which you have no replacement.

Execute the script before starting your upgrade from IRIX 5.3, while running in normal multi-user mode. To do so, insert the Installation Tools CD, open a shell and enter: /CDROM/coffcheck
Certain Netscape Installation Error Messages Can Be Ignored
Netscape error messages appear if you are installing onto a clean disk, or installing the 6.5 versions of license_eoe.sw.license_eoe or mbase_client.sw.base onto a system that has not previously had Netscape installed.
If these messages appear during installation, they can be ignored:
The Netscape Web Browser is not installed. Please add the following information to the mailcap file for your Web browser.
application/x-enterlicense; /usr/etc/enterlicense %s; \
application/x-licensemgr; /usr/etc/LicenseManager %s; \ description="Software License Installation"
The Netscape Web Browser is not installed. Please add the following information to the mime.types file for your Web browser.
type=application/x-enterlicense exts=lic
type=application/x-licensemgr exts=licmgr

mbase_client.sw.base: ($rbase/usr/mbase/sbin/streamplayer.exitop)
streamplayer.exitop: /usr/local/lib/netscape/mailcap not found
During installation: inocuous error message
You may see the follow error during installation:
/proc/pinfo/: no such file or directory

You can ignore this message.

Platform-Specific Caveats to Read Before Upgrading

If you have an Indigo R4000, Indigo2, or O2, please check the relevant caveats below before you begin your installation.

Indigo R4000 and Indigo2 R4000 Systems

If the system you are upgrading has a separate filesystem for / and /usr, then the / filesystem must be at least 25MB in order to do the upgrade. Systems shipped with IRIX 4.0.x were shipped with separate / filesystems of approximately 16MB, which is too small for IRIX 6.5.

To check, use the command df -k /

% df -k /

If the output looks similar to this...

`Filesystem`	`Type`	`kbytes`	`use`	`avail`	`%use`	`Mounted on`
`/dev/root`	`efs`	`15275`	`9492`	`5783`	`62%`	`/`

...the disk will need to be backed up, and repartitioned with the fx command before IRIX 6.5 can be installed. See the online book IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing, Troubleshooting section, Using fx to Restore the Swap Partition, for how to do this with the fx command.
Important: Before you do this, make sure you back up important data! And, instead of the last step, label/create/boot, use the command /repartition/root, then press Enter in answer to the prompt.

fx/repartition/rootdrive: type of data partition = (xfs)

Next, answer "yes" to a warning that looks like this:

Warning: you will need to re-install all software and restore user data from backups after changing the partition layout. Changing partitions will cause all data on the drive to be lost. Be sure you have the drive backed up if it contains any user data. Continue?

The kbytes number should be at least 25600 in order to install IRIX 6.5, and it is recommended that it be at least 40MB, particularly on systems that support running 64 bit address executables (systems where uname -s returns IRIX64, on systems running IRIX 6.2 and later).

Indigo2 Systems

The EISA Token Ring driver is not yet available for the Indigo2. It will be provided in a 6.5 maintenance release.

O2 Systems

If you program device drivers for the O2 PCI expansion slot, you must use the routines (pciio_pio_*()) described in Chapter 22 of the 6.5 Device Driver Programmers Guide, under the section"PCI Drivers for the IP32 (O2) Platform," to perform PIO (Program IO) accesses. You must use the pciio_pio_* routines for all PIO access to the device, including the PCI config space. These routines have also been made available in 6.3 via patch2801 (if your PCI device driver is already using these routines then there is nothing more you need to do).
Do not install cachefs on O2 R10000 systems. The cachefs program does not work on O2 R10000 systems. When installing IRIX 6.5 on O2 R10000, enter keep cachefs last during the installation selection step of the IRIX 6.5 upgrade (the keep command tells Inst not to install cachefs). If cachefs is already installed on your O2 R10000, use Software Manager [swmgr(1M)] or inst(1M) to remove it.

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