This past weekend I had an interesting experience installing FTPGDY8A to our 979KS400 box. This even stumped the guy at the HP-RC.

Because I was only installing one patch, and because I always seem to have trouble downloading UNPACKP from the ITRC, my ASE told me to order a patch tape and use AUTOPAT. I've used this many times so it is not a big deal; however, the instructions were slightly different that what I was used to using. In the past I've always done:

      SETCATALOG;SYSTEM
      SETCATALOG;ACCOUNT

to disable our UDCs for MANAGER.SYS. The instructions told me to rename the COMMAND.PUB.SYS file to some other name during the patch install and to write down the name so I could rename it back after I was done. Okay, that sounds easy enough. BUT.....

I ran XEQ AUTOPAT.PATCHXL.TELESUP just like the instructions said, entered all the information requested. This patch did not require creation of a CSLT tape, so the next thing to do is to 

     STREAM PATINSTLPATCHXL.SYS

Guess what? I could NOT stream a job! I got the prompt back, but no job number. When you rename COMMAND.PUB.SYS, the streams facility just vanishes. It took almost 30 minutes of trying things with the HP-RC before it dawned on me that I used to do the SETCATALOG sequence. As soon as I renamed the COMMAND.PUB.SYS file back to the correct name and ran through the SETCATALOG sequence, I was able to stream jobs again. And the patch did install just fine.

Very weird. Even more strange that the HP-RC did not know about this quirk. Surprise, too, I even got ahold of someone who knew MPE on a Sunday!

Has anyone else run across this little gem?



Cynthia Bridges-Fowler
HP3000 Senior System Administrator
North American Salt Company
a division of Compass Minerals Group
[log in to unmask]
http://www.compassminerals.com/    

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *