This patch is now obsolete. Please see the OPENSTEP Current Patch List, TIL article 70033 , for information on the most current patches for OPENSTEP and Enterprise Objects Framework. This obsolete patch is provided here as a convenience to our customers who have not yet upgraded to the most current patch level.

About This Patch

This patch is obsolete; please see the OPENSTEP Current Patch List, TIL article 70033 , for information on the most current patches for OPENSTEP and Enterprise Objects Framework. This patch was an updated version of OPENSTEP 4.2 Patch 2. This patch included all of the bug fixes and features from that patch, including corrections for some Year 2000 issues, improved support for the Euro currency symbol, support for large hard drives on OPENSTEP systems, and a VESA VBE driver. In addition, this patch corrected some issues with file permissions on OPENSTEP for Mach systems. For more information on these topics, please see the appropriate section of this document.


Installing OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach Patch 3

1. Download the Mach version of the patch from Apple's FTP site at ftp.info.apple.com. The file is located at:

/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/MultiCountry/Enterprise/openstep/

patches/4.2Mach_Patch3.pkg.tar

2. Uncompress the Mach package file. Your web browser or FTP client may perform this step for you.

3. Log in as root . If you're not sure how to log in as root, see your system administrator.

4. Double-click on the 4.2_Mach_Patch3.pkg file. Make sure that no OPENSTEP applications are running before you do this step.

5. Click the Install button in the Installer package window. An Install Package panel will open.

6. Click 'Install' in the Install Package panel and, when prompted for confirmation, click OK to proceed. The Installer window displays information about the progress of the installation, which may take several minutes.

New Features

New in OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach Patch 2

VBE VESA Driver

This patch installs a VBE video driver. This driver allows an OPENSTEP 4.2 system to use any display adapter which conforms to version 2.0 of the VESA BIOS extension standard. Use of the VBE driver requires updating the kernel and the booter. The updated kernel and booter are also compatible with all other video drivers, and both are included in this patch. For more information, see the VESA VBE OPENSTEP Driver Overview, TIL article 70026 .

New Booter Features

The new booter included in this patch includes two new features:

1. If you are using the new VESA VBE driver, you can specify a VBE video mode at boot time . Specify "VBE Check"=Yes at the boot prompt to get a list of available VBE video modes. Then use "VBE Mode"=xxx to specify the mode number you want to use. The mode number is the three-digit number listed before each mode. For example, if one of the listed video modes was:

257=640x480x256

you would type "VBE Mode"=257 at the booter prompt to boot with 640x480, 256-color VESA graphics.

2. The new booter allows you to step through your boot drivers , choosing which to load and which to skip. Specify Query=Yes at the boot prompt, and the booter will prompt before loading each boot driver.



Issues Fixed

Corrected in OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach Patch 3

Permissions issues in system files
Apple reference # 2318668

ISSUE:
Certain system files included in OPENSTEP 4.2 Patch 2 had incorrect permissions settings. This caused issues with sendmail and some other system resources.

RESOLUTION:
These permissions have been corrected in this patch.

Corrected in OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach Patch 2

No Euro symbol support in OPENSTEP
Apple reference # 2265776

ISSUE:
OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach did not include Euro currency symbol support.

RESOLUTION:
Support was added for the Euro currency symbol. Typing a Euro currency symbol character will require a modified keyboard keymapping. The currency character is encoded as symbol 0xA0 in the keyboard symbol encoding. Use /NextDeveloper/Demos/Keyboard.app to bind the desired key to symbol 0xA0 in your keymapping and you will be able to type the Euro currency symbol.


No Euro glyph support in OPENSTEP rulebooks
Apple reference # 2265773

ISSUE:
The AppKit rulebooks did not support the Euro currency character.

RESOLUTION:
The rulebooks have been updated to provide support for the Euro currency symbol, U+20AC. The encoding tables in Foundation have also been updated to support this character. You will still need to obtain and install fonts which include the Euro character in order to generate the character itself.


NSDateFormatter interprets year "00" as "Current Year"
Apple reference # 2278598

ISSUE:
NSCalendarDate would interpret year "0" or "00" as "current year", rather than "2000", which was inconsistent with the interpretation of two-digit years in UNIX and not Year 2000 compliant.

RESOLUTION:
NSCalendarDate now interprets "0" or "00" year values as "2000"


Date formatter handles two digit year inappropriately
Apple reference # 2290369

ISSUE:
NSCalendarDate would treat any two-digit year as a 20th century year.

RESOLUTION:
NSCalendarDate now treats two-digit year values less than 30 as 21st century years.


adjtime() does not affect system time
Apple reference # 2231714

ISSUE:
The adjtime() system function, intended to allow the synchronization of the system clock, actually had no effect. This would cause issues with network time synchronization under OPENSTEP for Mach.

RESOLUTION:
The adjtime() function now correctly adjusts the system clock.


System panic while writing disk label
Apple reference # 2279630

ISSUE:
Writing a disk label would cause a kernel panic in some circumstances.

RESOLUTION:
The system has been modified to eliminate these kernel panics.


Sound input gain preferences behaves oddly
Apple reference # 2272986

ISSUE:
In the OPENSTEP for Mach sound preferences panel, requests to set the right input channel gain on the sound input device would be ignored. This would produce strange behavior in the sound preferences panel input gain sliders.

RESOLUTION:
The sound preferences panel sliders now behave as expected.


Restrictive nbuf limit in kernel
Apple reference # 2296405

ISSUE:
The OPENSTEP Mach kernel was previously restricted to use at most 255 buffers.

RESOLUTION:
This restriction has been removed. You can specify nbuf=xxx at the boot prompt or in the System.config/Instance0.table file to use any number of buffers. If no value is specified, the default is still limited to 255. NOTE: If you choose too large a value, your system may panic at boot time; however, as long as your system will boot, you will experience no instability as a result of a large nbuf value.


Euro glyph doesn't display correctly
Apple reference # 2298782

ISSUE:
The NSTextView's -insertText: method would not handle mutable attributed strings correctly under OPENSTEP for Mach and Windows NT. This would result in display issues for certain characters, including the Euro currency symbol.

RESOLUTION:
This method now handles attributed strings as well as ordinary strings correctly.


Can't install OPENSTEP on partitions beginning after 4GB
Apple reference # 2265513

ISSUE:
The disk command was not able to initialize an OPENSTEP for Mach partition beginning at a large offset on the drive, and would not correctly partition a large fdisk slice on EIDE drives.

RESOLUTION:
The 'disk' command can now initialize partitions at any offset.


mfks fails with a write error
Apple reference # 2284310
ISSUE:
While building a new OPENSTEP for Mach filesystem, the 'mkfs' command would fail with a write error for some combinations of disk geometry and filesystem options.

RESOLUTION:
The mfks command will now lay out these filesystems correctly.


fdisk disk cylinder limit
Apple reference # 2305698

ISSUE:
With some BIOS versions, the 'fdisk' command was unable to process disks with more than 2^10 cylinders.

RESOLUTION:
The limit has been increased to 2^16 cylinders.

Corrected in OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach Patch 1

Four Digit Year Entry with /bin/date
Apple reference # : 2179467

ISSUE:
Certain dates could not be input using the Unix /bin/date command which shipped with OPENSTEP 4.2.

RESOLUTION:
The /bin/date command now correctly handles 2-, 3-, and 4-digit years for dates in the valid Unix range (1 Jan 1970 - 31 Dec 2037). This patch allows four-digit year entry through /bin/date. In addition, input dates are now checked for validity and out-of-range dates are rejected.

New RCS Package
Apple reference # : 2249097

ISSUE:
The version of RCS which shipped with OPENSTEP 4.2 did not handle dates after 1999 correctly in some commands.

RESOLUTION:
This patch installs RCS version 5.7, a much more recent version which does not experience this date issue. Please see the RCS documentation for a complete list of new and updated features in this release.

Hardware Clock Setting
Apple reference # : 2253935, 2258123

ISSUE:
Previously, setting a date after 1999 with /bin/date or with the OPENSTEP Preferences application would cause an illegal value to be stored in the hardware clock of Intel and NeXT-branded Motorola hardware systems. As a result, some systems would show an incorrect year after reboot.

RESOLUTION:
With this patch, the hardware clock is now set correctly for dates after 1999.

Date handling in ftpd
Apple reference # : 2251927

ISSUE:
The ftp daemon's MDTM command did not handle dates after 1999 correctly.

RESOLUTION:
The ftp daemon has been updated to handle these dates correctly.

tmac Macro Date Handling
Apple reference # : 2256331

ISSUE:
Previously, default dates generated by the tmac macros used for troff and nroff typesetting were not correct for years after 1999.

RESOLUTION:
The various man, me, and ms macros now generate default dates after 1999 correctly.

Date reporting in atq
Apple reference # : 2258151

ISSUE:
In OPENSTEP 4.2, the atq command displayed the job date incorrectly for jobs created with the at command after 1999.

RESOLUTION:
The atq command has been modified to correctly represent jobs scheduled from 1970 through 2037.

Job scheduling and execution with at and atrun
Apple reference # : 2263271

ISSUE:
Under certain circumstances, atrun did not correctly handle jobs scheduled with at after 1999.

RESOLUTION:
The at and atrun commands have been modified to correctly and consistently handle the scheduling and execution of jobs regardless of date.

Date display in /usr/ucb/mail
Apple reference # : 2259253

ISSUE:
In OPENSTEP 4.2, the Date: header of email messages written by /usr/lib/sendmail used a two-digit year in the creation time. This issue affected email created and read with the /bin/mail and /usr/ucb/mail programs.

RESOLUTION:
sendmail has been modified to write four-digit years in the date header.

ntpd Error Messaging
Apple reference # : 2260775

ISSUE:
Under OPENSTEP 4.2, the error message returned when an excessive offset was encountered did not report the year correctly for years after 1999.

RESOLUTION:
This error message now reports the year correctly.

Disclaimer

THE SOFTWARE PATCH PROVIDED FROM APPLE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. APPLE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS OR ANY INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WHETHER RESULTING FROM IMPAIRED OR LOST DATA, SOFTWARE OR COMPUTER FAILURE OR ANY OTHER CAUSE, EVEN IF APPLE IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY OTHER CLAIM BY CUSTOMER OR FOR ANY THIRD PARTY CLAIM.