Chapter 2 Installation Issues

This chapter describes known problems relating to the installation of the Solaris 7 software environment.

The information in this chapter supersedes any information listed in the installation_bugs file that is part of the SUNWrdm package on the Solaris 7 CD. If you boot from the Solaris 7 CD, the installation_bugs file is located in the directory:

/cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s0/Solaris_2.7/Docs/release_info/C

The default installed location for the installation_bugs file is located in the directory:

/usr/share/release_info/Solaris_2.7/C

The name of this product is Solaris 7 but code and path or package path names may use Solaris 2.7 or SunOS 5.7. Always follow the code or path as it is written.

Solaris Web Start Issues

This section only describes known installation issues that may occur when using Solaris Web Start, the browser-based program that enables you to install both the Solaris software and co-packaged software. These problems do not occur when using the Solaris Interactive Installation program.

Limited Browser Support In Client-Server Mode

To use the client-server mode of Solaris Web Start, you must have one of the following software configurations installed on the client:

• Solaris 2.6 or Solaris 7 with its accompanying version of the HotJava^TM or Netscape Navigator^TM 4.0 browser

• Windows 95 with the HotJava or Netscape Navigator 4.0 browser

Solaris Web Start may not run or display properly with older versions of HotJava, older versions of the Navigator browser, or with Internet Explorer.

Solaris Web Start Bugs

This section only describes known installation bugs that may occur when using Solaris Web Start, the browser-based program that enables you to install both the Solaris software and copackaged software. These problems do not occur when using the Solaris Interactive Installation program.

Cannot Move The Root Partition (4046659)

You can choose a system disk in Solaris Web Start but you cannot move the root partition off the system disk afterwards.

Workaround: If you need to do this, use the Solaris Interactive Installation program instead of Solaris Web Start.

Products May Not Use All Reserved Space (4059182)

Solaris Web Start reserves disk space based on the total requirements of all the products that you install. If you check disk space allocation after installing but before using the products, you may find a substantial amount of apparently unused space. Some of this space may be taken up when you run the software; some of it may remain unused.

Workaround: If you want to allocate less total disk space than Solaris Web Start requires, use the Solaris Interactive Installation program instead.

Interactive Installation Issues

New JumpStart Behavior

When you turn on a system with the JumpStart^TM software already installed (this includes new systems and preinstalled systems on which another installation has been performed) in the Solaris 7 as well as the Solaris 2.6 operating environments, Solaris Web Start's introductory screen is displayed. You can now exit Solaris Web Start and perform a JumpStart installation.

Solaris dtlogin Screen

The Solaris 7 as well as the Solaris 2.6 operating environments default to a login screen when you initially boot your workstation, regardless of which desktop you are using. You can select your desktop from the login screen. The login screen requires the user's name and password. Your desktop is displayed upon authentification of your login name and password. For more information about the login screen, see the dtlogin man page (provided with the Solaris Common Desktop Environment (CDE) man pages) or the Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide.

dtlogin Notes For System Administrators

A system administrator who is new to CDE needs to know about CDE's graphical login program, dtlogin. Review the dtconfig man pages.

Interactive Installation Bugs

Installation Fails With A False Non-Mountable File System Error (4164303)

The following message may be displayed:

The Solaris operating environment on slice c0t0d0s0 cannot be upgraded.A file system listed in the file system table (vfstab) could not be mounted.

The installation software may interpret inodes that are stored on striped DiskSuite^TM meta devices for root inodes and attempt to mount the meta devices as upgradable slices. When this problem occurs, the mounts fail and the installation aborts.

TotalNET Advanced Server (SunLink) Drivers Cause Panic After A Reboot (4121961)

Warning: mod_install: MT-unsafe driver 'tnatp' rejected panic[cpu0] / thread=7051e040:mutex-enter:bad_mutex lp=1046aa20 owner=7051e040 thread=7051e040

An upgrade to TotalNET Advanced Server (SunLink^TM) version 5.2 is required with the Solaris 7 operating environment because of a driver conflict. Version 5.0 and version 5.1 for the TotalNET Advanced Server cause the Solaris 7 operating environment to not boot correctly.

Workaround: Before you install the Solaris 7 operating environment, you must upgrade all installations to version 5.2 for the TotalNET Advanced Server, which is available on the Solaris Easy Access Server 2.0 CD. Follow the instructions provided to upgrade existing TotalNET Advanced Server installations.

Installation Bugs That Occur During an Interactive Installation

Erroneous Messages Indicating Packages Added A Second Time (1235464)

This appears as an attempt to install the same architecture and version of a package that is already installed. This installation overwrites this package.

When upgrading a system with the Entire Distribution plus OEM Cluster, the following packages seem to be added twice:

• SUNWolinc

• SUNWxwdim

• SUNWxwinc

• SUNWxwman

• SUNWxwpmn

• SUNWxwsrc

• SUNWolbk

• SUNWoldim

• SUNWolman

• SUNWolsrc

Installation Progress Bar May Be Inaccurate (1266156)

The "Installing Solaris Software - Progress" bar sometimes indicates that an installation is complete when it is still in progress. The install program may add packages for several minutes after the progress bar has indicated that the installation is complete. Do not rely on the progress bar to indicate that the installation is complete. The installation displays the following message when the program has completed all installation operations:

Installation complete

JumpStart Installs on Wrong Default Boot Disk (4027156)

JumpStart does not install the default boot on the current default boot disk under some conditions. A condition under which the problem has been observed involves using a fully automated install on a SPARCstation^TM 5 with two hard disk drives. Therefore, the previous version of the Solaris operating environment is booted instead of the current one when you reboot.

Workaround: Install the Solaris operating environment without JumpStart^TM.

Installation of Diskless Client Does Not Preserve Changes In The dfstab File On A Server (4045544)

When you upgrade the Solaris operating environment on a server with diskless clients, the options on the dfstab line are not preserved for /usr. For example, if you entered the following in the dfstab file:

share -F nfs -o rw /export/exec/Solaris_2.7_sparc.all/usr

then this entry is automatically replaced with the following entry during the upgrade:

share -F nfs -o ro /export/exec/Solaris_2.7_sparc.all/usr

Workaround: Before you attempt to upgrade the Solaris operating environment on an OS server that has a diskless client or Solstice^TM AutoClient^TM, back up the /etc/dfs/dfstab file for the clients.

Installation Bugs That May Occur During an Upgrade

Multiple Architecture Server Cannot Be Patched (1249343)

After upgrading a server with diskless clients of more than one SPARC kernel architecture, such as a sun4u server with diskless sun4c, sun4d, and sun4m clients, the SUNWkvm packages for clients whose kernel architectures differ from that of the server cannot be patched.

Workaround: Manually add all of the SUNWkvm packages before applying any patches that affect them.

# pkgadd -d  SUNWkvm.*

Disk Space Requirements Can Be Exaggerated By The Upgrade Process (4041733)

The upgrade program can exaggerate by as much as 30 percent the amount of space required for upgrades to systems with the Solaris software. Therefore, it prevents many systems from being upgraded without deselecting packages or finding more space.

Workaround: You can manually reallocate disk space among file systems or use the Software Customization menu to remove software packages that are not needed.

sun4m Solstice AutoClients Fail to Mount Cache After an Upgrade from the Solaris 2.6 Hardware: 3/98 Release (4121951)

The Solstice^TM AutoClients^TM display the following message when rebooting:

fsck -F cachefs: Cache directory /.cache/rootcache does not exist.mount -F cachefs: cache fsck mount failedfsck -F cachefs: Cache directory /.cache/rootcache does not exist.mount -F cachefs: cache fsck mount failed

This directive indicates to the kernel that the root file system is of type cachefs. To determine whether or not a specific Solstice AutoClient can be affected by this problem before you attempt an upgrade, examine the directory /export/root/client-name/var/sadm/pkg on the server (this is the Solstice AutoClient's /var/sadm/pkg directory). If this directory contains a subdirectory called TADcar, the Solstice AutoClients may be affected.

Workaround: Edit the /etc/system file for the Solstice AutoClients after the upgrade by appending the following line:

rootfs:cachefs

The Solstice AutoClients' /etc/system file is stored on the server as /export/root/client-name/etc/system.

64-Bit Solaris Issues

This section describes installation-related 64-bit Solaris issues.

Sun UltraSPARC System (sun4u) May Need Flash PROM (Open Boot) Upgrade

If you want to run the 64-bit Solaris operating environment on an UltraSPARC system, you may need to upgrade its Flash PROM firmware. The Solaris 7 installation programs have a new checkbox for adding 64-bit support. This new 64-bit support is selected by default when installing on Sun UltraSPARC systems.

If you choose to run the 32-bit Solaris operating environment on any Sun or UltraSPARC system, the Flash PROM upgrade is not needed.

The following table lists the UltraSPARC (sun4u) systems that are affected and the minimum firmware versions needed. "System type" is the equivalent of the output of the uname -i command. You can tell what firmware version you are currently running by using the prtconf -V command.

If the system is not listed in the above table, it does not need a Boot PROM upgrade.

For instructions on performing the Flash PROM update using the Solaris CD, refer to the Solaris 7 Sun Hardware Platform Guide. If you do not have this manual, it can be obtained at http://docs.sun.com.

64-Bit Solaris Bugs

adbgen Reports Errors When Using The -m lp64 Flag (4164583)

ld: fatal:  file /usr/lib/adb/sparcv9/adbsub.o:

adbgen is not working when you attempt to generate 64-bit macros because /usr/lib/adb/sparcv9/adbgen.o has not been built correctly to be linked in 64-bit programs above 4 GBytes by default.

Workaround: A patch is needed.