KERMIT 95 UPGRADE PATCHES

[ K95 Home ] [ Kermit Home ]

Most Recent Update: Wed Jul 24 15:12:51 2002

Kermit 95 2.0 is available to registered users of Kermit as an upgrade installation. CLICK HERE to upgrade your current Kermit 95 version to 2.0 and ignore the rest of this page.

Version 1.1.21 of Kermit 95 is available to registered users of Kermit 95 for Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT/2000/XP as a downloadable patch to Version 1.1.20 of 31 March 2000 or to Version 1.1.17 of 15 June 1998. You may download the patch from the Kermit Project website and apply it as described below IF:

  1. You have a shrinkwrapped retail copy of K-95; OR:
  2. You have an academic site or bulk right-to-copy K-95 license that is either less than one year old, or for which the annual maintenance payments are up to date; OR:
  3. You have an academic site license that was converted to "lifetime" status (mailing of 8 February 2002).

You may not download and apply the patch if you have a bulk right-to-copy or non-lifetime academic site license that is more than one year old and whose annual maintenance has expired.

LINKS

CONTENTS


DOWNLOAD AND APPLY THE PATCH

There is no longer a command line based patch process. The K95 1.1.21 upgrade patches are in GUI-based "EZPATCH" self-applying format. There are three different patch files; you must pick the one that is appropriate for you, as explained just below, download it to the Kermit 95 program directory on your PC, and then execute it.

STEP 1: PREREQUISITES

Before you can apply the 1.1.21 patch:

  1. Your current Kermit 95 version must be 1.1.17 or 1.1.20. If you have any other version of K95, you MUST PATCH UP TO VERSION 1.1.17 OR 1.1.20 before you can install the 1.1.21 patch. If there is some reason you can't do this, contact us at kermit-support@columbia.edu and we will help you.

  2. Your PC must have an Intel or compatible processor and the operating system must be Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP. The Alpha and PowerPC versions of Windows NT are no longer supported; Windows NT 3.51 and earlier are no longer supported. The OS/2 version is not yet ready (CLICK HERE for more about OS/2).

STEP 2: CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE PATCH

CLICK HERE if you have trouble downloading a patch file. The patch files are:

i17-21.exe
Patches a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.17 to non-secure 1.1.21.
i20-21.exe
Patches a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.20 to non-secure 1.1.21.
i17-21c.exe
Patches a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.17 to secure 1.1.21.
i20-21c.exe
Patches a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.20 to secure 1.1.21.
i17c-21c.exe
Patches a secure copy of K95 1.1.17 to secure 1.1.21.
i20c-21c.exe
Patches a secure copy of K95 1.1.20 to secure 1.1.21.

If you are in Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria or Cuba... You must apply the appropriate NO STRONG ENCRYPTION patch:
1.1.17 to 1.1.21:
Via FTP: ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/k95/patches/i17-21.exe
Via HTTP: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95patch/i17-21.exe
1.1.20 to 1.1.21:
Via FTP: ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/k95/patches/i20-21.exe
Via HTTP: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95patch/i20-21.exe

If you are NOT in Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria or Cuba...
You have your choice of secure or non-secure patches. The non-secure patch upgrades a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.17 or 1.1.20 to a non-secure copy of K95 1.1.21. The secure patches convert non-secure and secure copies of 1.1.17 or 1.1.20 to a secure version of 1.1.21, including its new SSH client. Before choosing a patch, you must know whether your current copy of K95 has or does not have the security patches installed. If you don't know, type the following commands at the K95 prompt:

  K-95> define test if available encryption echo Secure
  K-95> test

If K95 echoes "Secure" then you have the security patch.

STEP 3: APPLY THE PATCH

After downloading the patch file, i17-21.exe, i17-21c.exe, i17c-21c.exe, i20-21.exe, i20-21c.exe, or i20c-21c.exe:

  1. Make sure it is in your Kermit 95 program directory; that is, the same directory where K95.EXE is. If it is not, move it there. The patch doesn't work if you run it from any other directory.

  2. Close all Kermit 95 windows and applications.

  3. To apply the patch, simply execute the patch file. You can do this in any of the following ways:

Your Kermit 95 version should now be upgraded to 1.1.21. Note that the Secure Version of 1.1.21 does not support the KFTP.EXE program that was distributed with secure versions of K95 1.1.20. KFTP.EXE is not compatible with the security libraries shipped with 1.1.21 and is deleted when the patch is applied. A secure and scriptable FTP client is now built into K95.

If patching was not successful, please read the following sections.


HOW DOES THE PATCH PROCESS WORK?

A patch file contains all the differences between two versions of the same program: the old version currently installed on your PC and the new version you wish to install. It does this for each Kermit 95 file. When the patch program is run it looks for each file that was stored in the patch:

These messages are either non-fatal (the patch process will continue) or fatal (the process will be rewound) depending on the file being patched. Errors patching the following files are fatal:

Errors patching all other files result in non-fatal warning messages.

If a fatal error occurs it is most likely because:

Double check the version in both the Dialer's Help..About dialog and the K95 VERSION command.

Non-fatal errors occur either because you deleted or replaced a file in the distribution or accidently altered it while reading the file with NOTEPAD or other editor.

If there is not an error, the patch program applies the patches from the patch file to each old file, creating the new version of the file, and placing the old copy in a BACKUP subdirectory, which it creates if necessary.

The results of the patch process are recorded in a file called PATCH.ERR. If you experience problems applying patches that are not explained below, then send a report by email to kermit-support@columbia.edu, enclosing a copy of the PATCH.ERR file.


MICROSOFT DLLS REQUIRED ON WINDOWS

Kermit 95 1.1.12 and later on Windows requires the Microsoft CTL3D32.DLL library for the 3-D controls used in the Dialer. It should be included as part of all Windows versions, but isn't, and so is generally installed whenever you install a GUI application. As of 1.1.13, this DLL is installed for you automatically by the patch process if you need it.

Kermit 95 1.1.18 and later on Windows 95 and NT require the Microsoft MSVCRT.DLL library. It should be included as part of Windows, but isn't, and so is generally installed whenever you install an application. As of 1.1.19, this DLL is installed for you automatically by the patch process if you need it.


POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

If any files fail to be patched for any of the foregoing reasons (or any other reason), and you can rectify the problem, then you can rerun the patch procedure to patch the files that were missed the first time.


BACKING OUT OF PATCHES

If you experience problems after applying patches to Kermit 95, report them by email to kermit-support@columbia.edu.

You can back out of a patch and restore your previous version as follows:

  1. Open a Command window
  2. CD to your Kermit 95 directory.
  3. CD BACKUP
  4. REN UNPATCH.BAK UNPATCH.BAT
  5. UNPATCH

If you applied more than one patch, or you tried applying the same patch multiple times, there will be several different UNPATCH.BAT files, but with different (and perhaps nonsensical) names, starting with "UNPAT". Thus to back out to any particular level, you'll need to run the UNPAT*.BAT files in reverse chronological order, as indicated by their file dates, shown by:

  DIR /O-D

After you have satisfied yourself that your patched version of Kermit 95 is working satisfactorily, you may safely remove the contents of the Kermit 95 BACKUP directory.

[ Top ] [ K95 Home ] [ Kermit Home ]


Kermit 95 Upgrade Patches / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 24 July 2002