Installing Solaris 8 (Upgrade)

No upgradeable disks

Bug ID: 1191792 

A swap entry in the /etc/vfstab file is causing the upgrade to fail.

Comment out the following lines in the /etc/vfstab file:

• All swap files and slices on disks not being upgraded

• Swap files that are no longer present

• Any unused swap slices

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

Metadevices cannot be upgraded automatically. Instructions are provided in Solstice DiskSuite 4.2 Reference Guide.

Bug ID: 1170953 

The upgrade option is not presented even though there is a version of Solaris software that's upgradable on the system. 

The following specific reasons might cause this problem: 

Reason 1: The /var/sadm directory is a symlink 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 cannot be soft-booted.

1. Reboot the system from the Solaris 8 Installation CD, the Solaris 8 Software 1 of 2 CD for your platform or from the network.

2. Choose the upgrade option for installation.

The Solaris installation program determines if the system has been partially upgraded and continues the upgrade. 

The upgrade fails because the Solaris installation program cannot mount a file system. During an upgrade, the script 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 script 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 can't be mounted or that might cause the problem so the Solaris 8 Interactive 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. Check the following reasons for the space problem and see if you can fix it without using auto-layout to reallocate space:

Reason 1: Since the automounter is not active during an upgrade, the Solaris 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 are usually located on an automounted file system, are not affected by an upgrade.

Solution for Reason 1: During the upgrade, delete software packages in the Customize Software screen that create files or directories on the automounted file systems. Then the Solaris 8 Interactive 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 Solaris 8 Interactive 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 in the Customize Software screen that install into the file systems that need more space. Especially look for any new packages that have been added to the Solaris release that the system doesn't need.

During an upgrade, a message is displayed regarding some of the packages (including SUNWolrte, SUNWoldcv, SUNWoldte, SUNWolaud).

An example of this message is:  

Doing pkgadd of SUNWolrte to /

This message indicates an attempt to install the same architecture and version of a package that is already installed.  

Installation of SUNWolrte was successful...

No action is required; this message is informational only.