The upgrade fails because Solaris Web Start cannot find an IA boot partition. Solaris Web Start consequently attempts to perform an initial upgrade. Ultimately, the message: 

Please choose another installation option, 
see the Solaris install Documentation for more 
details.
# 

You cannot use Solaris Web Start to upgrade to Solaris 8 from Solaris 7 or earlier versions of the Solaris operating environment because it uses a different method to install Solaris software (a separate 10-Mbyte IA boot partition).

You must instead use the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program, which is described in more detail in "Using the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program" in Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide.

If your system's BIOS supports the changing of the default boot device from one device to another: 

1. Add a second disk to the system and manually create a Solaris fdisk partition and IA boot partition greater than or equal to 10 Mbytes on the second disk.

    

   ---

   Note -

   The second disk must either be LBA enabled (logical block address enabled--that is, sectors on the disk are mapped and addressed linearly) or contain fewer than 1024 cylinders. To determine if the second disk is LBA enabled or CHS enabled (cylinder/head/sector enabled--that is, addressing of the disk is by cylinder, head, and sector number), type:

   # prtconf -pv | grep lba

   If lba-access-ok is displayed, the second disk is LBA enabled. If lba-access-ok is not displayed, the second disk is CHS enabled.

   ---

2. Use your system's BIOS setup tool to identify the second disk as the default boot device.

3. Format the Solaris partition so that it contains a swap slice that is large enough to hold the Solaris software (a minimum of 256 Mbytes is required, but 512 Mbytes is recommended; a minimum of 320 Mbytes is required for Solaris 8 Installation Multilingual Intel Platform Edition).

4. Upgrade the Solaris software on the first disk by booting from the second disk.

The upgrade fails because the installation program could not mount metadevices on the system. 

Metadevices cannot be upgraded automatically. Instructions are included in the "Upgrading to Other Solaris Versions" in the Solstice DiskSuite 4.2 Reference Guide.

The upgrade option is not presented even though there is a version of Solaris software that can be upgraded on the system. 

Reason 1: The /var/sadm directory is a symbolic link or it is mounted from another file system.

Solution for Reason 1: Move the /var/sadm directory into the root (/) or /var file system.

Reason 2: The /var/sadm/softinfo/INST_RELEASE file is missing.

Solution for Reason 2: Create a new INST_RELEASE file by using the following template:

OS=Solaris
VERSION=2.x 
REV=0

where x is the version of Solaris software on the system.

The upgrade fails for reasons beyond your control, such as a power failure or a network connection failure, and the system is left in an unbootable state.

1. Reboot the system from the Solaris 8 Installation English Intel Platform Edition or Solaris 8 Installation Multilingual Intel Platform Edition CD, or from the network.

2. Choose the upgrade option for installation.

Solaris Web Start determines if the system has been partially upgraded and will continue the upgrade where it left off. 

The upgrade fails because the installation program could not mount a file system. During an upgrade, the installation program attempts to mount all the file systems listed in the system's /etc/vfstab file on the root (/) file system being upgraded. If the installation program cannot mount a file system, it fails and exits.

Make sure all file systems in the system's /etc/vfstab file can be mounted. Comment out any file systems in the /etc/vfstab file that cannot be mounted or that might cause the problem, so the installation program doesn't try to mount them during the upgrade.

Any system-based file systems that contain software to be upgraded (for example, /usr) cannot be commented out.

There is not enough space on the system for the upgrade. See if you can fix this problem without using auto-layout to rearrange space, by checking the following reasons for the space problem:

Reason 1: Since the automounter is not active during an upgrade, the installation program installs any files or directories in a package that are symbolic links to automounted file systems. If a symbolic link is overwritten, the upgrade might fail because of insufficient disk space.

The /var/mail and /var/news directories, which usually reside on an automounted file system, are not affected by an upgrade.

Solution for Reason 1: During the upgrade, delete software packages that will create files or directories on the automounted file systems. Then the installation program does not overwrite the symbolic link with the files or directories in the package.

Reason 2: New software has been added to the software group that you are upgrading or some of the existing software has increased in size. During an upgrade, the installation program installs any new software that is part of the software group previously installed on the system, and it also upgrades any existing packages on the system.

Solution for Reason 2: During the upgrade, delete software packages that are installed in the file systems that need more space. Especially look for any new packages that have been added to the Solaris software that you don't need.