Cover Letter for POLYCENTER Software Installation Utility for OpenVMS Alpha

May 2000

Dear OpenVMS Customer,

The VMS62TO71U2_PCSI V2.0 remedial kit updates the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility for OpenVMS Alpha, including associated command procedures and help text. After installation of this kit, the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility will be functionally equivalent to that provided by OpenVMS Alpha V7.2 with the addition of several corrections to the utility. The file name of the kit is DEC-AXPVMS-VMS62TO71U2_PCSI-V0200--4.PCSI.

This remedial kit can be applied to OpenVMS Alpha V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3, V7.1, V7.1-1H1, and V7.1-1H2 systems. To install it, enter a command similar to the following:

$ PRODUCT INSTALL VMS62TO71U2_PCSI /SOURCE=dev:[dir]

No reboot is required after successful installation of this kit. However, you will need to log out and then log on again before using the PRODUCT command.

For more information about this remedial kit, please read the release notes. The release notes are placed in SYS$HELP: during installation, but you can extract the file from the remedial kit for viewing prior to installation. To copy the release notes from the kit to your default directory, enter a command similar to the following:

$ PRODUCT EXTRACT RELEASE_NOTES VMS62TO71U2_PCSI /SOURCE=dev:[dir]

Important Note About Reverting to Prior Versions
After installaton of this remedial kit, your system will use the new features provided by this version of the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility. If a layered product is installed that makes use of this new functionality, then it may not be possible to revert back to an older version of the utility. This restriction occurs because there may be records in the software product database that the older version of the utility will not be able to interpret. This scenario may occur after an OpenVMS upgrade to a version of OpenVMS Alpha prior to V7.1-2. For example, this situation occurs if you:

1. Install this remedial kit on OpenVMS V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3, V7.1, V7.1-1H1, or V7.1-1H2
2. Install DECwindows Motif V1.2-5
3. Upgrade to (or reinstall) OpenVMS V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3, V7.1, V7.1-1H1, or V7.1-1H2

The upgrade to any of the versions listed in step 3 above may fail (or other PRODUCT command operations on the product database may fail) with one of the following errors:

%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, ...

%PCSI-E-UNSDOCENC, unsupported product document encoding version

To prevent these failures after installing this remedial kit and the DECwindows Motif product (in the example above), do the following:

1. Remove DECwindows Motif using the command:

   $ PRODUCT REMOVE DWMOTIF

2. Upgrade to (or reinstall) OpenVMS V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3, V7.1, V7.1-1H1, or V7.1-1H2
3. Reinstall this remedial kit
4. Reinstall DECwindows Motif V1.2-5

This workaround is not needed if you are upgrading to OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 or later. OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 and later versions already include the functionality provided by this remedial kit. <COPYRIGHT_STATEMENT>(2000)