WARNING 3B1 ATTFixDisk breaks HDB

[Robert J. Granvin]

>> One of the files the fixdisk replaced was
>> 
>> 	/usr/lib/uucp/uucico
>> 
>> it's no wonder that UUCP stopped working for you.
>
>In the above, the uucico was a Version 2, which overwrote HDB uucico.
>
>The above example is why I have formed the habit of examining the
>contents of an archive (disk or otherwise) and save things I am unsure
>about before I let it overwrite anything.  In the case of cpio
>archives on floppies, this is by doing (from a shell prompt):
>
>cpio -iBctv </dev/rfp021
>
>and watching the listing.  The "t" option prevents an actual write,
>and causes a listing instead, the "v" makes the listing in long form.

To repeat...

In the case of the AT&T Fixdisks, it is not necessary to go through
any convoluted gyrations or "pre-verifications".  Each fix is a
separate and completely user controlled installation.  Each
installation of each fix requires the installer to answer "yes" to the
request of whether he or she wants it.

Each fix also comes with a short description of the fix, and why not
to install it, should that be a concern.

While not foolproof, or always complete, it's there none-the-less.

In the case of HDB, receiving it knowing that it is an unsupported
unreleased software package, should at least have been a hint that a
UUCP fix would probably be damaging, even if there were no notes about
HDB with it.

>If its an "auto-install", I also like to extract into a test
>directory, and look over the install script before I commit and
>actually install the package.  This has saved me headaches on a number
>of occasions.  Even if "Install" scripts save things, often it is not
>complete, so by doing this I get a chance to save - usually as a tar
>file - anything I may want to recover if the install doesn't go as
>expected.

Not an unwise thing to do when you are unaware of the contents or
installation.

But back to the fixdisks, if you read what is made available on the
screen, you won't make a mistake (and if you do make a mistake, you're
not as familiar with your system anyways, so you'd still make the same
mistake even IF you looked at the archive (how's that for a run-on
sentence? :-))

-- 
________Robert J. Granvin________        INTERNET: rjg at sialis.mn.org
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