John Burke wrote:
> Here is the setting. MPE/iX 6.5 PP3+. I'm trying to install the latest
> TurboIMAGE patch, TIXMCX3B, by staging it.

I assume that was the only patch that you installed, and that
your system was not booted from any other staging area, but
from a (committed) base ?

> Of course I downloaded the latest version of Patch/iX (you have to now

Would you let us know which version you got ?

>  ERROR  - from hpdir_find_path in stage_get_syslib_ufid
>           status - subsys: #518  info: # -1
> File name = /SYS/hpstage/TIXMXC3B/NL.PUB.SYS
> Cannot find NL in the new staging area.
> Use ISL> STARTBASE NORECOVERY to recover.
>
> SYSTEM ABORT 16 FROM SUBSYSTEM 146
> SECONDARY STATUS:  INFO = -1, SUBSYS = 518
> SYSTEM HALT 7, $0010
>
> I reboot and at the ISL prompt I go into stageisl and set the stage back to
> BASE, cross my fingers, do a start norecovery and I'm back in business as if
> nothing had happened (one of the nice features of Stage/iX). Sure enough, I
> look in the staging area and there is no NL.PUB.SYS.
>
> Patch/iX gave no errors. In fact during the initial process, it shows
> NL.PUB.SYS being copied into INSTALL.SYS. However, when it gets to the point
> of creating the staging area, while it mentions SL.PUB.SYS and XL.PUB.SYS,
> it does not say anything about NL.PUB.SYS (I know because I went through the
> entire process again from scratch looking for any mention of NL).
>
> Anyone ever see something like this before?

Not exactly like that, no.
A similar SA16 would occur if the /SYS/hpstage directory was
relocated off LDEV 1 (during a INSTALL/RELOAD), but that only
happened back in MPE 5.5 days. Since 6.0 /SYS/hpstage has a
volume restriction pinning it to LDEV 1 when recoverd by a
RESTORE.
I know of a defect where Patch/iX missed to build a new NL
and START on a subsys_only patch, when that patch was installed
'cumulative' on top of an exisiting (and booted from) stage,
but IIRC this was fixed long ago. AFAIR that only happened
with patches that had no system library components (e.g.
Linkedit or FTP).

It is relatively seldom that Patch/iX(+ Stage/iX) is used to install
just one non_NL patch, so it is possible that this is a defect
that has not been uncovered so far.

Design-wise I believe it should be possible to stage pure SUBSYS
patches which do not require a new NL and a new START image: either
the code should be smart enough to detect a 'non_NL' stage and use
the original, unmodified START/NL files, or it should be smart enough
to always copy the NL and make a new START image ( a bit of a waste
of disk space on the latter approach, IMO).

Assuming that you can still produce such a NL-missing stage after
re-initializing your staging areas (stageman uninstall + init) then
please report this to your Resonse Center, and have your support
contact pass this on as an investigation about a possible defect
to the Expert Center for MPE.

HTH,
Goetz.

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