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_x86/s2/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 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.

The Root (/) Partition Extends Beyond HBA Cylinder 1023 (4062008)

If a manual file system layout is used in Solaris Web Start on IDE systems, an error message may display after the start of an installation because too much space has been allocated in the root (/) partition.

Workaround: Restart Solaris Web Start and use the Automatic File System Layout.

Interactive Installation Issues

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 Before the Start of an Interactive Installation

Be sure to read bug description ID 4121281 before you start upgrading your x86 based system to the Solaris 7 operating environment.

DiskSuite May Cause Data Loss (4121281)

If you are running DiskSuite^TM and upgrading to Solaris 7, you must also upgrade to DiskSuite 4.2. The DiskSuite 4.2 distribution includes a script called metacvt that automates removal and replacement of the metadb replicas. You can use that script to change the SCSI driver name stored in the replicas from cmdk to sd when you upgrade to Solaris 7 and DiskSuite 4.2.

Workaround: To avoid potential data loss during upgrades to the Solaris 7 operating environment, you must save the system's meta device configurations in text files and remove their metadb replicas before upgrading any x86 based system that is running DiskSuite. After you finish upgrading your x86 based system, you must restore the meta device configurations by using the DiskSuite command line interface.

The DiskSuite Version 4.2 Release Notes contain a procedure for saving metadb configurations, removing metadb replicas, upgrading x86 based systems to the Solaris 7 operating environment, upgrading DiskSuite to version 4.2, and restoring meta device configurations. Bourne shell scripts that automate the procedure are available for the Solaris 7 operating environment.

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 You Need to Know About Before the Start of an Upgrade

Be sure to read bug description ID 4121281 mentioned in"Installation Bugs That Occur Before the Start of an Interactive Installation" earlier in this chapter as well as any other bug description listed in this section before you start upgrading your x86 based system to the Solaris 7 operating environment. This problem may cause data loss.

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.