( ESNUG 355 Item 1 ) --------------------------------------------- [7/26/00]
From: "David T. Witkowski" <david.witkowski@tropian.com>
Subject: Customers Not Happy With Cadence Tech Support & New Install System
Not sure if any of y'all have tried to use Cadence's "new and improved"
software download system yet. If not, you're in for a treat. The old
scripts/CDROM site no longer exists. I've successfully downloaded
files from the new site, but haven't figured out how to use them. It is,
shall we say, rather bizarrely implemented.
First of all, why is the tar being extracted to a hidden directory? It's
putting things into a directory './.build' which doesn't make a whole lot
of sense. Is there a reason it should be invisible?
Second of all, in the older system, there was an obvious point (./CDROM)
that Softload would reference. In this new system, there is no CDROM dir.
I tried using ./.build/install/IMAGES.DIR but Softload doesn't like this.
In the past, running SETUP.SH would launch Softload with the necessary
paths. This is no longer the case, and as mentioned the correct path is
unobvious. There's a whole assload of stuff in ./.build/install/bin.sun4v,
including of course Softload, but no "uber-script" which controls/sets
paths etc.
What are all the subdirectories under ./.build for? There's a bunch of
choice_inNNN and choice_outNNN entries, plus prodNNN. (Where NNN is some
integral number, not necessarily 3 digits.) Each of these seems to have
their own install subdirectories. Do I need to run each one, or does
Softload handle this for me?
And last but not least, why is there no documentation on this new system?
Where is the README file that explains all this?
A serious problem with the new download site is that you have no idea which
ISR you're looking at. The date/time is not part of the filename anymore.
If I download one, then go to the site a week later, how do I know if the
ISR has changed or not? There's a "timecode" file which contains a file
listing, and the line "The timecode of this IC443/sun4v ISR is 20" but what
does that mean? If I have an install, and I run "icfb -W" to get
subversions, how does that map to this "timecode"?
The old system worked fine. I'm sure they had their reasons for making the
change, but where's the transition info/doc? I'm rather honked off, to be
honest. I'm here at 11:30pm on a Sunday trying to do an ISR before the
work-week begins and I can't even get Softload to recognize the install
files. What a pain in the butt.
- David Witkowski
Tropian
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> The old system worked fine. I'm sure they had their reasons for making the
> change, but where's the transition info/doc? I'm rather honked off, to be
> honest. I'm here at 11:30pm on a Sunday trying to do an ISR before the
> work-week begins and I can't even get Softload to recognize the install
> files. What a pain in the butt.
From: Gary Helbig <ghelbiggh@mailcity.com>
That was the problem. No revenue for Design Methodology Services with the
old system.
- Gary Helbig
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From: "David Witkowski" <david.witkowski@tropian.com>
Well, I've asked two different AEs and neither of them seem to know how to
make the new stuff work. Weird.
- David Witkowski
Tropian
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From: Gary Helbig <ghelbiggh@mailcity.com>
Truth is, they didn't know how to make the old stuff work either.
For example, if you -don't- follow the instructions, you can make a
self-installing LDV30 disk. Follow the instructions, and you have to do
the install by hand.
And their install routine requires a -seperate- "share" folder for each
product. With identical contents. HUH?????
They're running DMS (tech support to the rest of the world) as a profit
center. Changes their priorities. (See the March 19,2000 Dilbert comic
strip for a full explanation)
- Gary Helbig
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: "David Witkowski" <david.witkowski@tropian.com>
That's an annoying thing, to be sure. Depending on how I set my paths, I
get various copies of lmstat/lmdown/whatever.
- David Witkowski
Tropian
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From: Gary Helbig <ghelbiggh@mailcity.com>
OH, MY, GAWD! Do -not- get me started on Cadence/flexlm issues. The
diatribe will go on for -days-.
Do yourself a favor. Trot on over to www.globetrotter.com and learn
something about flexlm.
In less than an hour, you will know more than the entire Cadence staff, and
will be able to set it up properly.
Now if only they could learn how to cut license files...
- Gary Helbig
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: "David Witkowski" <david.witkowski@tropian.com>
> Do yourself a favor. Trot on over to www.globetrotter.com and learn
> something about flexlm.
Will do.
FYI, the download system appears to be working now. However, they're still
posting the files in an odd manner. Each "cdrom" is a separate tarball, and
there's no instruction that says "put these here files into separate
directories." But if you know to untar "1of2" into ./CDROM1, etc then
you'll be fine.
- David Witkowski
Tropian
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