Thursday we had a surprise roll out to the RC channels of the main grid. The package was a fix for a security exploit. Friday early in the morning the update rolled to the main channel of the grid.

2016.0220

So, what was going on? The details were published by April Linden ‎2016-02-19 11:18 AM in the SL Forum/Blog. See: Why the Friday Grid Roll?

This exploit was in part of Linux system software. The Linux developers made the patch. The Lindens had to figure out what it would do to the Second Life(TM) system. Was it needed? Yes, crackers could exploit SL. Would the patch break anything in the SL system? Nobody knew. They had to find out. So, the Lindens put a lot of effort into getting this exploit resolved.

We were not expecting any updates this week. But, we got one. The RC channels have been updated in a surprise roll out. We will likely see the package roll to the main grid as soon as the Lindens are confident the software is working well.

Jail

This departure from schedule is due to a security exploit.

As of now the Lindens are not talking about the exploit. But, they seldom do. We might hear a bit after it rolls to the main channel. But, I won’t be holding my breath.

There are no rollouts this week to either the main or RC channels. As there are no RC updates this week there will be no update to the main channel next week (7). There is no information I am aware of about new packages for the RC channels for next week.

This must be Heaven…

You may remember that last week’s server updates were about fixing problems that appear when server run for more than a week. I was speculating that this week they would be testing those fixes. They have already had QA and testing on the RC channels that make up about 20% of the main grid. Now they are getting a test as the ‘production’ software.

By this time next week we will know how well they did.

Comments in various places have me thinking the majority of the Lab’s effort on Second Life is now on the Project Bento. But, I suspect some changes will be needed on the server side. After all, the project only runs on certain servers in the ADITI (preview) grid. So, it could be that all server changes and fixes are being built for the Bento capable packages. As they need a break in the rollouts to test long term server stability, it may be saving them some work. Rather than build changes for the pre-Bento servers just build the fixes for Bento capable packages.

Some time ago the Lindens added the ability to enable and disable new features in the servers. So, our next server rollouts could be Bento capable, but with the feature disabled… or not. We’ll have to wait and see.

Tuesday a new server package rolled out to the main channel. This is the package that was running in two versions on the RC channels last week. It includes:

• Fix for BUG-1313 “LSL llSetPosin root prim of attachment behaves differently at high altitudes – viewer does not show updates”
• Internal fixes

I love the bunny Computer

The internal fixes were described as fixes for problems that appear when the servers run for more than a week. If these fixes do what they are supposed to do, servers can run longer without problems.

RC Channels

The RC channels are all running this same package as the main channel. There will be no update Wednesday.

We are told that there will be no server upgrades for a short time, couple of weeks or so. The Lindens are working on something else. They weren’t willing to say what or whether people had been moved to Project Bento. So, we are left to speculate.

I suppose this pause will also test the fixes in this last package…

Today, Tuesday, a new update rolled to the main grid. The reported changes are; Feature request: new llGetObjectDetails() functionality to get the parent_id of any task in the region (OBJECT_REZZER_KEY) and a Simulator crash fix.

{ Frozen }

RC Packages

There are two new updates rolling to the RC channels Wednesday. Blue Steel will get a package that has a fix for BUG-1313 “LSL llSetPos in root prim of attachment behaves differently at high altitudes – viewer does not show updates” and some unspecified internal fixes.

Le Tigre and Magnum will get a package that has the BUG-1313 fix and a simulator crash fix.

I think this is the first time in a while that we have seen two packages roll.