Re: Genera 8.1 CD-ROM Problem

[Dodds@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Douglas Dodds)]

Just a short addendum to my message on this subject.

    Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 12:08 EDT
    From: Dodds@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Douglas Dodds)

	Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 08:54 EDT
	From: delaney@xn.ll.mit.edu (John R. Delaney)

	Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there still some sort of problem with
	the CD-ROM-related software that prevents one from using a CD-ROM on a SUN
	for system source storage? 

    The short answer is "yes".  But let me specify this carefully.  There
    are two separate operations involving CD-ROM in Genera 8.1 (and later).

    The primary thing is software installation from a CD-ROM distribution.
    This is what the recent question and my answer were all about.  All the
    steps of installation, including restoring worlds and restoring source
    distributions, can be done on any of the supported CD-ROM
    configurations; this includes having a Sun CD-ROM mounted on a Sun Unix
    on the local network.

    The secondary thing that can be done with the Genera CD-ROM is to use it
    as the SYS: host.  This is a new, added feature that can allow a site to
    access its Genera sources from the >SYS> directory hierarchy on the
    CD-ROM, rather than restoring the sources to a local hard disk.  This
    comes, of course, at the cost of tying up the CD-ROM drive most of the
    time for this purpose.

Just a reminder here that this second feature didn't quite work in 8.1
as distributed, due to a bug discovered very late in the process.  That
bug is fixed in Genera 8.1 ECO #1 (a.k.a. Genera 8.1.1), which will be
begin shipping in a couple of weeks.  It is also corrected for 8.1 by a
patch that has been available since 8.1 came out, as discussed on this
list before.  Anybody who needs this patch should contact Symbolics
Software Support.

    It is the latter thing that can be done if the CD-ROM drive is connected
    to an XL or a MacIvory, but unfortunately can't be done if the CD-ROM
    drive is on a Sun.  This is due to the two-level translation of
    pathnames that would be necessary for Genera to get at an ISO9660
    pathname in the guise of a Unix pathname.  But note that this limitation
    affects only the CD-ROM-as-SYS-host amenity, and not basic Genera
    installation.

The bug in basic 8.1 mentioned in the reminder above also affected only
the CD-ROM-as-SYS-host amenity, and not basic Genera installation.

    It's not impossible to fix this deficiency, but we haven't been able to
    give it enough priority yet.  I hope we can correct it for a future
    release.