SysInfoTM 4.2 Release Notes

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Supported Systems

The following table indicates what platforms are supported for this release of SysInfo. This platform list is subject to change with each dot dot release of SysInfo.

Supported Class Information
OS Mfg Hard-
ware
Gen Ker Sys Dev SW Part Prt GUI Notes
AIX 4.1.4 - 5.1IBMrs6000 YNYYYYYY AIX 3.2 - 5.1 (aka AIX 5i) and releases after 5.1 should work, but are untested.
BSD/OS 3.1 - 4.2BSDix86 YYYYNYYY  
FreeBSD 3.2 - 4.5 x86 YYYYNYYY See Platform Notes
HP-UX 10.20 - 11.11HPhp9000 YYNYYYYY Versions prior to 10.20 should work but are untested. Version 11.11 is also known as 11i.
IRIX 6.5SGIMIPS YNYYYYYY IRIX 6.5 tested. IRIX 5.x - 6.4 may no longer work.
Linux 2.2, 2.4 (glibc 2.1 and later) x86 YYYYYYYY Supported Distributions: Red Hat 6.0 and later. Other distributions with Linux kernel 2.2 + glibc 2.1 and later should work. See Platform Notes
Solaris 2.5.1 - 9SunSPARC YYYYYYYY See Platform Notes
Solaris 7 - 8Sunx86 YYYYYYYY Tested on limited hardware.
KEY:
Y - Yes, it's supported
N - No, it's not supported
P - Planned
SUPPORTED CLASS INFORMATION KEY:
Gen - General Information (-class general)
Ker - Kernel Information (-class kernel)
Sys - SysConf Information (-class sysconf)
Dev - Device Information (-class device)
SW - Software Information (-class software)
Part - Partition Information (-class partition)
Prt - Printer Information (-class printer)
GUI - Graphical User Interface

System Requirements

The following are the system requirements for binary (precompiled) distributions:

License Information

The SysInfo license scheme allows no-cost use by fully accredited educational institutions. Government and military organizations, including research institutions primarily funded by government sources, are not eligible for free licenses. All other customers need to purchase the proper license. More information, including pricing is available by clicking here.

SysInfo will automatically allow 60-days of free use (with all features) for demonstration purposes when installed with no license. Just download and install it.

MagniCompTM offers FREE SysInfo licenses to educational institutions. SysInfo will automatically detect if it's being run on a system in a domain known to be an education domain. This includes the following domains:

where CC is a country code. Please click here for more information on MagniCompTM's Free Educational License Program.

Major New Features/Improvements

Changes added to 4.2

This release contains the following significant new features:

Platform Specific Changes

AIX
  • SCSI probes are now supported providing much more detailed information about SCSI devices.
  • Device classification has being completely revamped providing more accurate device typing.
HP-UX
  • Software class information is once again fully supported.
Linux
  • Improved RAID device recognition has been implemented. Support for recognizing Compaq Smart Arrays as well as other general SCSI based RAID arrays has been added.
  • Detailed information on monitors is now supported using VESA/DDC data.
  • System memory is now accurately reported using DMI data.
  • USB device identification is now provided.
  • Improve detection of SCSI devices.
  • Detect floppy disk drives.
SGI
  • IRIX device classification has being completely revamped providing more accurate device typing.
  • Various device definition updates.
Sun
  • Memory bank information is now reported on Exx00 and Fire MidFrame systems.
  • Various device definition updates.

New Platform Support

AIX 5.1 (5L) SysInfo now supports AIX 5.1 (aka 5L)
HP-UX 11.11 (11i) SysInfo now supports HP-UX 11.11 (aka 11i)

Additional Changes

See the CHANGES file for a more complete list of specific changes/bug fixes in this release.

Changes added to 4.1

This release contains the following significant new features:

The following is a list of major bug fixes and changes:

See the CHANGES file for a list of specific changes/bug fixes in this release.

We recommend upgrading from all previous versions if you wish to use any of the new features or are affected by any of the above mentioned bugs.

Changes added to 4.0.2

This is a bug fix release. While we recommend you always run the latest version we specifically recommend you upgrade to this release for the following specific reasons:

See the CHANGES file for a list of specific changes/bug fixes in this release.

New Platform Support

AIX 4.3 SysInfo now supports AIX 4.3
Linux 2.2 on x86 This release adds Device class support for Linux systems.
Solaris 8 (SunOS 5.8) Full support for all Solaris 8 systems, including 64-bit (UltraSPARC) systems.

Changes added to 4.0.1

This is a bug fix release. While we recommend you always run the latest version we specifically recommend you upgrade to this release for the following specific reasons:

See the CHANGES file for a list of specific changes/bug fixes in this release.

Changes added to 4.0

Changes from Previous Releases

Please see the Version 3.5 Release Notes for information about that release.

Platform Specific Notes

AIX (IBM) Support for querying SCSI devices has been added as of SysInfo version 4.2. However, devices in use - especially disks in use - will not contain the additional SCSI data because AIX (through at least version 4.3.3) does not provide a means of querying a SCSI device which is already in use.
HP-UX When obtaining software class information on HP-UX, SysInfo may appear to be sluggish taking several minutes to gather information depending on the speed and hardware configuration of the system. It may also use lots of memory (20-70MB). These problems are due to the use of the HP-UX swlist command which is both slow in outputting information and copious in its output.
Solaris 7 and later Special compilation care is required on Solaris 7 and later. See the Solaris 7 and later compilation notes in the Installation documentation.
Sun/SPARC EDID VESA Extend Display Identification Data (EDID) for monitors appears to only be available from Creator Series 2 (FFB2) and later Creator frame buffers. No sign of EDID data on any other Sun framebuffer so far.
Linux Support for device class information is provided for Linux systems which run the Linux 2.2 or later kernel. Only devices connected to the PCI bus will be recognized by SysInfo even if Linux recognizes the device. Devices connected to ISA, EISA, MicroChannel, or other legacy buses will not be identified by SysInfo.
FreeBSD On FreeBSD 4.0 and later, devices on PCI buses are recognized. On releases prior to 4.0, both PCI and ISA bus devices are recognized. There is no EISA support.

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