Netware Super Library/Netware Super Library.iso/app_note/tecbltn1/tb.138

Text File | 1986-07-01 | 11.6 KB | 264 lines

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NetWare Release and Update InformationMay 28, 1986

Novell is beginning a new program with this release of
software concerning updates.  Mass mailings of updates
through distribution channels to cover all serial numbers of
software will no longer be attempted (field reports indicate
few made it to the end user).  End users who have
conscientiously sent in their Warranty Registration cards
will receive information about bugs and fixes and can
request those they need.  The Warranty Registration cards
are being re-worded to indicate they will serve this
function as motivation for users to return them.  Dealers
must request updates for their inventories.

The 2.0a Update and Release

     This is a no charge update for all users who have NetWare 2.0.
The owner must make a request to receive it.  Requests should be
sent to:  Novell, Inc.; 1170 North Industrial Park Drive; Orem, Utah
84057; Attention:  Distribution Sales 2.0a Update Request.  The
software serial number must be supplied as well as whether the
update is for Advanced NetWare 68, 86, 286 or 286A, and Novell
would appreciate a carefully completed Warranty Registration Card
from those who have not returned that card.


List of 2.0a Enhancements:

IBM Token Ring Device Driver:  This is an addition and only
affects those who wish to run NetWare on IBM's new
Token Ring topology.

IBM PCN  Device Driver:  An enhanced device driver for those
running NetWare on IBM's PCN hardware has been created.
A Novell written hardware driver provides dramatic speed
improvements and increases user handling capacity to 100
users.  This addition only affects those with IBM's PC
Network hardware.  The older, generic PCN device driver
is still included where applicable for use with non-IBM
NetBios such as Sytek and Ungermann-Bass Net-One.

Allen-Bradley Vista LAN/PC Device Driver:  A device driver for
those using this hardware has been added.

Gateway G-NET Device Driver:  The 2.0a device driver for this
hardware is substantially faster than the device driver for
2.0.

NetWare Operating System Speed Improvement:  The way FAT
tables are maintained in the File Servers RAM has been
improved to provide a performance increase during file
reads.

Increased Work-station Interrupt Performance:  A rewrite of a
section of the shell has produced a substantial improvement
in the rate the shell can process hardware interrupts with
version 2.0a.

Improved MS NET Compatibility:  The MS NET program can be
run with a Novell work-station shell.  MS NET utilities
such as NETUSE will work on a Novell network.

NetBios Compatibility Improvement:  NetBios checks for access
interrupts 5Ch and 2Ah and for Novell's IPX interface and
only loads what is not found.  This allows Novell's NetBios
to work in environments where portions of the more
complete interface are already present.

List of fixed 'Bugs' and Improvements from 2.0 to 2.0a:

Novell intended 2.0 users to no longer have to run FDISK when
operating with an IBM internal hard disk in an AT or PC
Server.  However, the partition loader in INSTALL.EXE did
not replace the old procedure of running FDISK on a new
drive (FDISK must be run after a low level format, starting
at some cylinder other than 0, typically 10 to avoid
destroying the bad block table, and place partition
information on the drive).  This problem is easily worked
around using FDISK and should never be seen after the
initial installation.  2.0a works as intended and the
instructions to use FDISK at installation can be discarded.

The transient portion of COMMAND.COM would not
automatically load from the File Server with version 2.0.
Users who have limited memory in their work-stations for
their application are the only ones this will affect.
Because of this bug in COMSPEC (a login script command),
if the transient portion of COMMAND.COM is over-written
COMMAND.COM must be loaded from a local drive (usually
floppy drive A) even though the login script is correctly
set-up to get COMMAND.COM from the Server.  2.0a has a
corrected COMSPEC command.

On-Line tape back-up for users of NetWare 86 non-dedicated
Servers may not work with 2.0 because a software
semaphore necessary for archive and restore utilities to
share hardware with the network operating system was
inadvertently left out of NetWare 86 version 2.0.  This only
affects users who install the tape system in the File
Server.  The semaphore is restored in version 2.0a.

Using FILER.EXE to change the name of files can have an
unwanted side effect if the user changes directories inside
FILER.  The re-named file would be moved to the directory
the user was in when he entered FILER.  Upon exiting
FILER the user could find the file in a different directory
and wonder how it got there.  The DOS rename command
works fine to change file names.  Version 2.0a has a
repaired FILER utility.
Users of NetWare Remote found they could not change the
default settings for their remote link.  The program to
change these settings was simply left off the diskettes.
ARCONFIG.EXE is back on the diskettes with the 2.0a
release.

The new menu utilities produced a nonsense selection option
with some .MNU files.  The MENU.EXE program displayed
the ^Z at the end of the file (the end of file marker) as a
selection option.  Selection of the option did no harm, the
user was merely informed he had chosen an invalid
selection.  The MENU.EXE program in 2.0a no longer
displays the ^Z.

The menu programs would not run in the stand-alone
environment (not connected to the File Server).  Though
Novell strongly supports networking PC's, this was regarded
as a program deficiency and the new menu utilities in 2.0a
will work without the File Server.

Immediately after the release of NetWare 2.0, Novell found it
would only support one AT internal hard disk.  A single
byte had to be changed (the patch is explained in technical
bulletin 133, use debug to change byte 3000h from the
location in the CS register from 73 to 76) to allow a
second hard disk which can be in an AT or compatible to
be used as part of the Servers resources.  It's correct in
the 2.0a release.

Some users of Novell's new 286A Server had problems setting
the time correctly.  The Novell supplied SETUP.EXE
program would not set-up the machines internal clock.
The user had to use an IBM AT diagnostic diskette or boot
the Server and use the SET TIME console command.
Version 2.0a gets this bug.

Those who put 10 or more megabytes of extension memory in
their Novell 286A or 286B Server also found that the
SETUP utility lost the most significant digit in the memory
display (10625 would be displayed as 0625).  The memory
was correctly set up.  Version 2.0a corrects this display
problem with SETUP.EXE.

Applications which use the physical record lock could stop the
File Server if they issued a command to lock a record with
a beginning or ending byte offset into the file greater than
7FFFFFF hex.  The Server will now handle such a request.

Users of multiple Servers could cause files to be left open that
could only be closed by going to the console if they re-
booted and re-attached to the Server using ATTACH or
MAP.  Some programs allow other programs to be used
without leaving the original program.  Chaining more than
2 deep this way and re-booting without logging out could
cause this problem.  2.0a is a little more rugged than 2.0
was.

Remote Reset users (PC booting from the Server without a
floppy drive) who also used a floppy drive are now able to
read the local drive correctly the first time (the first read
used to produce garbage with subsequent reads working
correctly) after re-booting their PC with the 2.0a release.
The NetWare utility MAP.COM would return an error if the
current (default) drive were a local drive and an attempt
was made to map to a network drive giving a complete
path name.  Version 2.0a MAP works from a local drive.

Novell provided a menu program (SYSCON) to allow users to
change passwords and rights.  Some users liked the
convenience of quick single purpose utilities to perform
some of these functions, so the utility SETPASS.COM has
been placed back in the new release.

When NetWare is first installed with INSTALL.EXE the operating
system is placed in contiguous blocks on the hard disk.
Updates made with a running system could result in the
program being spread out on the disk, with the possibility
of a subsequent boot failure due to an inability of the
loader program to find a fragmented file (it was still
possible to boot from a floppy).  The 2.0a loader can now
find and load a fragmented file on the hard disk.

NetWare 286 version 2.0 COMPSURF.EXE would not format the
inner-most track of the hard disk, resulting in some wasted
disk space.  The 2.0a COMPSURF.EXE correctly formats
this track.

Users of disk systems supplied by vendors other than Novell
(applies only to NetWare 86) would have an unreadable
controller type displayed when using COMPSURF on those
drives.  The new COMPSURF does not attempt to display
the third party controller type.

Screen updating has been slowed in the 2.0a SYSCHECK.EXE
program to improve the way it works with some color
monitors.  These monitors would go blank with the faster
update speed.

A system request (control C or control BREAK) during the time
a file was loading from the Server would result in the
work-station hanging.  Release 2.0a supports a system
request during the down-load process.

Some users of Corvus experienced work-station hangs because of
a re-entrancy problem with the Corvus device driver.  This
has been fixed with 2.0a.

NetWare 86 and 286 File Servers could stop due to a DMA
handling problem in the 2.0 operating system.  This
problem has been alleviated.

Terminate and Stay Resident programs would have the data at
their program location 15E hex modified when initially
loaded by the work-station shell.  This problem no longer
exists with the release of version 2.0a.

The 80286 processor can produce an invalid "general protection
interrupt" error at the Novell 286A server console.
NetWare version 2.0a for Novell's proprietary servers
contains code to trap the invalid error and continue
operating.

The size of the process stack which controls operations
pertaining to the File Server's monitor display has been
increased.  It was possible in the prior release to overflow
this stack on a very heavily loaded Server.  The overflow
could only occur if the 'monitor' display was on.

The Proteon device driver contains a special system interrupt
vector to support a system monitor function.  This
interrupt has been changed from 63 to 7B to avoid
conflicts with programs such as Display Write III.

When using programs that allow exiting to DOS to execute
secondary programs (the secondary DOS environment is
sometimes called a spawned processes), redirection in the
spawned process could cause the work-station to hang.
Version 2.0a allows this function.

General Protection Interrupt could result if a NetWare 286 File
Server had more than 2 megabytes of RAM available for
disk caching and the cache buffer size was set to 2048 or
less (during install).  Version 2.0a corrects this condition.

Volumes (defined during install) greater than 64 megabytes in
size ran a risk of having files handled incorrectly if a file
was truncated.  The truncation could be performed on the
wrong file, and could result in a General Protection
Interrupt error or the file server hanging.

Multiple physical record locks on the same physical record could
result in errors during an attempt to unlock those records.
Version 2.0a corrects this condition.
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