Version: 1 - Published: Feb 19, 2024 

Contents

Relevant Products

Charon-PAR 3.0.15.

This document also contains information about older versions. However, please always refer to the documentation for your product version.

Software and Hardware Requirements

See Software Product Description and Charon-PAR 3.0 for Linux - User's Guide.

Information about Version 3.0.15

Problems Fixed and Other Updates in Version 3.0.15 Build 23100

• Incorrect serial port baud rate set on TTY mode (ID#100368).

• CRTSCTS not working on serial line TTY mode (ID#100369).

• Update End User License Agreement (EULA) to version issued on 16 February 2024.

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.15

Charon-PAR version 3.0.15 has the following known caveats:

• SSH-based data transfer performance and overall CPU load on the guest system are influenced by the SSH encryption method used. On Rocky Linux 8, a higher level encryption is used by default which can lead to a lower performance of the guest system when compared to older guest operating system versions. Possible workaround: configure SSH with less demanding parameters
  (e.g.,  -o 'Ciphers aes128-ctr' -o 'MACs umac-64-etm@openssh.com'). Caveat: this also makes the connection somewhat less secure.

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).

• If running the Charon emulator host in a Nutanix VM, it must be ensured that Nutanix host partitioning be configured in a way that the emulator's domain (node) does not conflict with or share any resources with other nodes. Failing to do so can cause low performance and instability.

• There may be a problem loading additional modules into the expansion slots of rp34xx and rp44xx models. If you encounter this problem, please contact Stromasys support for a workaround.

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• The emulator sets the default physical serial line parameters during boot unless set explicitly by HP-UX (ID#100245). Workaround: use the port_defaults parameter in the configuration file to set the correct parameters.

• Text mode curses applications (for example smh) may not work correctly on the serial console (ID#100252). Console is not recognized as a serial line supporting terminal control functions. Possible workarounds: configure getty on another serial line, or access the emulator via telnet or SSH.

• Maximum size for SCSI disks is currently 2TB (ID#100258).

• Unexpected halt during Oracle test on HP-UX 11.31 (ID#100262).

• Unexpected unicode/non-ascii symbols in the HPCPUNAME (ID#100266).

• A 32-bit HP-UX guest system may crash under high network load because the RX/TX interrupt frequency of the 10 Mbit LAN card becomes too high (ID#100269). Possible workaround: configure a traffic shaper on the Linux host level if the system encounters this problem.

• If a VE license is used, the emulator must always be run as root (ID#100314).

• Under rare conditions, an emulated dec21x4x network controller shows an error (DMA failure) on the HP-UX boot and the guest system has no network connectivity (ID#100318). The cause could be an incomplete system reset (ID#100321).

• Under high network load, the HP-UX guest system may become unresponsive for short periods of time (ID#100338).

Information about Version 3.0.14

New Features in Version 3.0.14

• Artificial model 720 with SMP that can be configured with up to 15 CPUs and up to 3840MB of RAM. HP-UX limitations: 9.x supports 1 CPU and up to 768Mbyte of RAM; 10.20 and 11.00 support 4 CPUs and up to 3840MB of RAM.

• Artificial model B132l with SMP that can be configured with up to 16 CPUs and up to 3840MB RAM. HP-UX limitations: 10.20 supports 16 CPUs; 11.00 and 11.11 support 15 CPUs. 10.20, 11.00 and 11.11 support up to 3840MB RAM.

Problems Fixed in Version 3.0.14 Build 23000

• Incorrect CPU number reported on B132L-16 (ID#100363).

• Network traffic can trigger crash on 32-bit model (ID#100364).

• Improved DIT translation error handling (ID#100366).

• Stromasys EULA updated (ID#100367).

• Incorrect counters output (ID#100358).

• Increase emulated memory on 32-bit systems (ID#100361).

• Updated configuration options for Ethernet device in configuration file templates (ID#100365). Replaced deprecated bridgectl command with ip commands; added MACVTAP details.

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.14

Charon-PAR version 3.0.14 has the following known caveats:

• SSH-based data transfer performance and overall CPU load on the guest system are influenced by the SSH encryption method used. On Rocky Linux 8, a higher level encryption is used by default which can lead to a lower performance of the guest system when compared to older guest operating system versions. Possible workaround: configure SSH with less demanding parameters
  (e.g.,  -o 'Ciphers aes128-ctr' -o 'MACs umac-64-etm@openssh.com'). Caveat: this also makes the connection somewhat less secure.

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).

• If running the Charon emulator host in a Nutanix VM, it must be ensured that Nutanix host partitioning be configured in a way that the emulator's domain (node) does not conflict with or share any resources with other nodes. Failing to do so can cause low performance and instability.

• There may be a problem loading additional modules into the expansion slots of rp34xx and rp44xx models. If you encounter this problem, please contact Stromasys support for a workaround.

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• The emulator sets the default physical serial line parameters during boot unless set explicitly by HP-UX (ID#100245). Workaround: use the port_defaults parameter in the configuration file to set the correct parameters.

• Text mode curses applications (for example smh) may not work correctly on the serial console (ID#100252). Console is not recognized as a serial line supporting terminal control functions. Possible workarounds: configure getty on another serial line, or access the emulator via telnet or SSH.

• Maximum size for SCSI disks is currently 2TB (ID#100258).

• Unexpected halt during Oracle test on HP-UX 11.31 (ID#100262).

• Unexpected unicode/non-ascii symbols in the HPCPUNAME (ID#100266).

• A 32-bit HP-UX guest system may crash under high network load because the RX/TX interrupt frequency of the 10 Mbit LAN card becomes too high (ID#100269). Possible workaround: configure a traffic shaper on the Linux host level if the system encounters this problem.

• If a VE license is used, the emulator must always be run as root (ID#100314).

• Under rare conditions, an emulated dec21x4x network controller shows an error (DMA failure) on the HP-UX boot and the guest system has no network connectivity (ID#100318). The cause could be an incomplete system reset (ID#100321).

• Under high network load, the HP-UX guest system may become unresponsive for short periods of time (ID#100338).

Information about Version 3.0.13

New Features in Version 3.0.13

• The parameter system.stop_on_halt was replaced by system.stop_on_halt_timeout to configure the time in seconds before emulator stops after guest system has been shut down (ID#100341). A timeout value of 0 disables the emulator stop.

• Artificial model 720 with SMP that can be configured with up to 4 CPUs (ID#100352). Currently only works for HP-UX 11.0.

• Small performance improvements (workload dependent).

• Dependency detection improved in emulator installation packages (ID#100356).

Problems Fixed in Version 3.0.13 Build 22900

• Network NS_LS_DRIVER Disaster message if system is overloaded by network protocols without flow control (ID#100324). This caused the network to be stuck and required an interface restart. 

• Network NS_LS_DRIVER Warning 3020, pid [ICS] and 82596 bug messages (ID#100336).

• LAN driver crash caused HP-UX crash in PA9-32 models (ID#100348).

• Ethernet DUMMY interface configuration caused 100% CPU usage on PA9-32 models (ID#100353).

• Several DIT improvements (ID#100339, ID#100340, ID#100342).

• TLB page index optimization (ID#100347).

• Fast-FPU (Charon-PAR parameter -F) is now supported in DIT context (ID#100349).

• Fatal CPU assertion error (ID#100345).

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.13

Charon-PAR version 3.0.13 has the following known caveats:

• SSH-based data transfer performance and overall CPU load on the guest system are influenced by the SSH encryption method used. On Rocky Linux 8, a higher level encryption is used by default which can lead to a lower performance of the guest system when compared to older guest operating system versions. Possible workaround: configure SSH with less demanding parameters
  (e.g.,  -o 'Ciphers aes128-ctr' -o 'MACs umac-64-etm@openssh.com'). Caveat: this also makes the connection somewhat less secure.

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).

• If running the Charon emulator host in a Nutanix VM, it must be ensured that Nutanix host partitioning be configured in a way that the emulator's domain (node) does not conflict with or share any resources with other nodes. Failing to do so can cause low performance and instability.

• There may be a problem loading additional modules into the expansion slots of rp34xx and rp44xx models. If you encounter this problem, please contact Stromasys support for a workaround.

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• The emulator sets the default physical serial line parameters during boot unless set explicitly by HP-UX (ID#100245). Workaround: use the port_defaults parameter in the configuration file to set the correct parameters.

• Text mode curses applications (for example smh) may not work correctly on the serial console (ID#100252). Console is not recognized as a serial line supporting terminal control functions. Possible workarounds: configure getty on another serial line, or access the emulator via telnet or SSH.

• Maximum size for SCSI disks is currently 2TB (ID#100258).

• Unexpected halt during Oracle test on HP-UX 11.31 (ID#100262).

• Unexpected unicode/non-ascii symbols in the HPCPUNAME (ID#100266).

• A 32-bit HP-UX guest system may crash under high network load because the RX/TX interrupt frequency of the 10 Mbit LAN card becomes too high (ID#100269). Possible workaround: configure a traffic shaper on the Linux host level if the system encounters this problem.

• If a VE license is used, the emulator must always be run as root (ID#100314).

• Under rare conditions, an emulated dec21x4x network controller shows an error (DMA failure) on the HP-UX boot and the guest system has no network connectivity (ID#100318). The cause could be an incomplete system reset (ID#100321).

• Under high network load, the HP-UX guest system may become unresponsive for short periods of time (ID#100338).

Information about Version 3.0.12

Problems Fixed in Patch Release 3.0.12 Build 22801

• Updated end-user license agreement (EULA).

• VE Licensing related:

  • Double deallocation problem in license stop process.

  • Proper error log message if there is a certificate mismatch between client and server.

  • Additional small, non user-visible improvements.

Problems Fixed in Version 3.0.12 Build 22800

• In case of intensive I/O, host LAN adapter emulation could get stuck waiting for necessary resources which resulted in error messages similar to the following:
  Failed to write channel (-1/318): Resource temporarily unavailable (ID#100315).

• Transmit packets could be lost when using a MACVTAP interface (ID#100334). This error could also lead to the Resource temporarily unavailable log message.

• Under certain conditions (VMware, heavy flood-ping network traffic), the emulator can produce a network related crash (ID#100317).

• DIT missing symbol error in interrupt initiation corrected (ID#100333).

• If process affinity is set via the taskset command, the do_affinity command in the emulator configuration no longer works as expected (ID#100335).

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.12

Charon-PAR version 3.0.12 has the following known caveats:

• SSH-based data transfer performance and overall CPU load on the guest system are influenced by the SSH encryption method used. On Rocky Linux 8, a higher level encryption is used by default which can lead to a lower performance of the guest system when compared to older guest operating system versions. Possible workaround: configure SSH with less demanding parameters
  (e.g.,  -o 'Ciphers aes128-ctr' -o 'MACs umac-64-etm@openssh.com'). Caveat: this also makes the connection somewhat less secure.

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).

• If running the Charon emulator host in a Nutanix VM, it must be ensured that Nutanix host partitioning be configured in a way that the emulator's domain (node) does not conflict with or share any resources with other nodes. Failing to do so can cause low performance and instability.

• There may be a problem loading additional modules into the expansion slots of rp34xx and rp44xx models. If you encounter this problem, please contact Stromasys support for a workaround.

• When configuring the emulator to use TAP interfaces, 32-bit models cannot use an already existing TAP interface. In such cases, the emulator will exit with an error message (Unable to open TAP device).

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• The emulator sets the default physical serial line parameters during boot unless set explicitly by HP-UX (ID#100245). Workaround: use the port_defaults parameter in the configuration file to set the correct parameters.

• Text mode curses applications (for example smh) may not work correctly on the serial console (ID#100252). Console is not recognized as a serial line supporting terminal control functions. Possible workarounds: configure getty on another serial line, or access the emulator via telnet or SSH.

• Maximum size for SCSI disks is currently 2TB (ID#100258).

• Unexpected halt during Oracle test on HP-UX 11.31 (ID#100262).

• Unexpected unicode/non-ascii symbols in the HPCPUNAME (ID#100266).

• A 32-bit HP-UX guest system may crash under high network load because the RX/TX interrupt frequency of the 10 Mbit LAN card becomes too high (ID#100269). Possible workaround: configure a traffic shaper on the Linux host level if the system encounters this problem.

• If a VE license is used, the emulator must always be run as root (ID#100314).

• Under rare conditions, an emulated dec21x4x network controller shows an error (DMA failure) on the HP-UX boot and the guest system has no network connectivity (ID#100318). The cause could be an incomplete system reset (ID#100321).

• Network NS_LS_DRIVER Disaster message if system is overloaded by network protocols without flow control (ID#100324). This causes the network to be stuck and requires an interface restart. 

Information about Version 3.0.11

New Features in Version 3.0.11

Charon-PAR 3.0.11 includes the following new features:

• Updated packaging: there is now one self-extracting shell archive per Linux main version (one archive each for el7, el8, and el9).

• Updated VE licensing with custom certificate support.

• Updated end-user license agreement (EULA).

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.11

Charon-PAR version 3.0.11 has the following known caveats:

• SSH-based data transfer performance and overall CPU load on the guest system are influenced by the SSH encryption method used. On Rocky Linux 8, a higher level encryption is used by default which can lead to a lower performance of the guest system when compared to older guest operating system versions. Possible workaround: configure SSH with less demanding parameters
  (e.g.,  -o 'Ciphers aes128-ctr' -o 'MACs umac-64-etm@openssh.com'). Caveat: this also makes the connection somewhat less secure.

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).

• If running the Charon emulator host in a Nutanix VM, it must be ensured that Nutanix host partitioning be configured in a way that the emulator's domain (node) does not conflict with or share any resources with other nodes. Failing to do so can cause low performance and instability.

• There may be a problem loading additional modules into the expansion slots of rp34xx and rp44xx models. If you encounter this problem, please contact Stromasys support for a workaround.

• When configuring the emulator to use TAP interfaces, 32-bit models cannot use an already existing TAP interface. In such cases, the emulator will exit with an error message (Unable to open TAP device).

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• The emulator sets the default physical serial line parameters during boot unless set explicitly by HP-UX (ID#100245). Workaround: use the port_defaults parameter in the configuration file to set the correct parameters.

• Text mode curses applications (for example smh) may not work correctly on the serial console (ID#100252). Console is not recognized as a serial line supporting terminal control functions. Possible workarounds: configure getty on another serial line, or access the emulator via telnet or SSH.

• Maximum size for SCSI disks is currently 2TB (ID#100258).

• Unexpected halt during Oracle test on HP-UX 11.31 (ID#100262).

• Unexpected unicode/non-ascii symbols in the HPCPUNAME (ID#100266).

• A 32-bit HP-UX guest system may crash under high network load because the RX/TX interrupt frequency of the 10 Mbit LAN card becomes too high (ID#100269). Possible workaround: configure a traffic shaper on the Linux host level if the system encounters this problem.

• If a VE license is used, the emulator must always be run as root (ID#100314).

• Message Failed to write channel: resource temporary unavailable on Ethernet interface when system has a high I/O load and the adapter is waiting for resources (ID#100315). Workaround: use MACVTAP interface type instead of RAW.

• Under certain conditions (VMware, heavy flood-ping network traffic), the emulator can produce a network related crash (ID#100317).

• Under rare conditions, an emulated dec21x4x network controller shows an error (DMA failure) on the HP-UX boot and the guest system has no network connectivity (ID#100318). The cause could be an incomplete system reset (ID#100321).

• Network NS_LS_DRIVER Disaster message if system is overloaded by network protocols without flow control (ID#100324). This causes the network to be stuck and requires an interface restart. 

Problems Fixed in Version 3.0.11 Build 22700

• Unexpected disk size increase due to rounding error in CHS (cylininder, head, sector) calculation (ID#100329).

Information about Version 3.0.10

New Features in Version 3.0.10

Charon-PAR 3.0.10 includes the following new features:

• New packaging:

  • All RPMs are included in a self-extracting shell archive.

  • Archive also contains end-user license agreement (EULA) which must be accepted by the user before RPM packages are unpacked.

  • New mandatory charon-license RPM which installs the EULA in /opt/charon/doc.

  • HASP licensing libraries and utilities are now in a separate RPM (charon-license-hasp) to avoid installation conflicts with other emulator products.

Known Caveats in Version 3.0.10

Charon-PAR version 3.0.10 has the following known caveats:

• HP-UX 11.31 is only supported on specific models. Server models: rp34xx, rp44xx, rp7405, rp7410, rp7420, rp8420, rp6440, rp8440; workstation models: с8000 (ID#100098). Of these models, the current version of Charon-PAR supports rp34xx and rp44xx.

• Ctrl+c in the Charon-PAR console is passed to the emulator's child processes and kills the PuTTY console process (ID#100188). To prevent this behavior, the emulator serial line configuration can be changed as follows:

  • Modify the default configuration serial.uart0.device.command="putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

    • either to: serial.uart0.device.command="trap '' SIGINT ; putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost", or

    • to: serial.uart0.device.command="setsid putty -telnet -P 30000 localhost"

• Low network performance, particular in Google cloud environments, when a dedicated NIC is configured for the guest OS (ID#100117). This is related to the cloud environment not properly disabling offloading for the NIC as configured on the Linux level. Workaround: use the MACVTAP interface configuration or (on GCP) configure the instance with gVNIC interfaces.

• HP-UX 11.11 lpmc_em CPU errors (ID#100084). Should this problem occur, the following workaround can be implemented:

  # Stop diagnostics daemon
# /sbin/init.d/diagnostic stop
# Set config to disable diagnostics
# echo "DIAGNOSTICS=0" >> /etc/rc.config

• TOC in HP-UX on an emulated rp7400 system when the configuration contains SCSI controllers on the second system bus (ID#100221, duplicate of ID#100298).

• HP-UX 11.11, "btlan: Invalid connection type in SROM" reported in dmesg. This message does not affect network operation (ID: 100118).

• MPE Virtual tape errors/timeouts when restoring large backup (ID#100130). Workaround:
  Force the store to use sequential (instead of index read. Enter the following command before restoring the backup:
  :setvar hpfastsearch false.

• The emulator currently has no serial port flow control protocol on telnet port (ID#100080).

• When installing the aksusbd package version 8.13 in some CentOS 7.x environments it was observed that the aksusbd service did not start automatically after a new installation or an upgrade. The following error was displayed during the installation: Failed to restart aksusbd.service: Access denied. If this happens, uninstall the aksusbd package and reboot the system. After rebooting the system, re-install the package. The cause of this sporadic problem has not yet been identified.

• Repeated MMU assist off messages may be displayed. This message means that the MMU assistance module detected an unsupported guest OS. It is normal to see these messages during a reset and when the guest OS is starting (when the guest OS is not available).