x86: Problems With Solaris Live Upgrade When You Use GRUB

The following errors can occur when you use Solaris Live Upgrade and the GRUB boot loader on an x86 based system.

ERROR: The media product tools installation directory path-to-installation-directory does not exist.

ERROR: The media dirctory does not contain an operating system upgrade image.

Description:

The error messages are seen when using the luupgrade command to upgrade a new boot environment.

Cause:

An older version of Solaris Live Upgrade is being used. The Solaris Live Upgrade packages you have installed on your system are incompatible with the media and the release on that media.

Solution:

Always use the Solaris Live Upgrade packages from the release you are upgrading to.

Example:

In the following example, the error message indicates that the Solaris Live Upgrade packages on the system are not the same version as on the media.

# luupgrade -u -n s10u1 -s /mnt Validating the contents of the media </mnt>. The media is a standard Solaris media. ERROR: The media product tools installation directory </mnt/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot/usr/sbin/install.d/install_config> does not exist. ERROR: The media </mnt> does not contain an operating system upgrade image.

ERROR: Cannot find or is not executable: </sbin/biosdev>.

ERROR: One or more patches required by Solaris Live Upgrade has not been installed.

Cause:

One or more patches required by Solaris Live Upgrade are not installed on your system. Beware that this error message does not catch all missing patches.

Solution:

Before using Solaris Live Upgrade, always install all the required patches. Ensure that you have the most recently updated patch list by consulting http://sunsolve.sun.com. Search for the info doc 72099 on the SunSolve web site.

ERROR: Device mapping command </sbin/biosdev> failed. Please reboot and try again.

Cause:

Reason 1: Solaris Live Upgrade is unable to map devices because of previous administrative tasks.

Solution:

Reason 1: Reboot the system and try Solaris Live Upgrade again

Cause:

Reason 2: If you reboot your system and get the same error message, you have two or more identical disks. The device mapping command is unable to distinguish between them.

Solution:

Reason 2: Create a new dummy fdisk partition on one of the disks. See the fdisk(1M) man page. Then reboot the system.

Cannot delete the boot environment that contains the GRUB menu

Cause:

Solaris Live Upgrade imposes the restriction that a boot environment cannot be deleted if the boot environment contains the GRUB menu.

Solution:

Use lumake(1M) or luupgrade(1M) commands to reuse that boot environment.

The file system containing the GRUB menu was accidentally remade. However, the disk has the same slices as before. For example, the disk was not re-sliced.

Cause:

The file system that contains the GRUB menu is critical to keeping the system bootable. Solaris Live Upgrade commands do not destroy the GRUB menu. But, if you accidentally remake or otherwise destroy the file system containing the GRUB menu with a command other than a Solaris Live Upgrade command, the recovery software attempts to reinstall the GRUB menu. The recovery software puts the GRUB menu back in the same file system at the next reboot. For example, you might have used the newfs or mkfs commands on the file system and accidentally destroyed the GRUB menu. To restore the GRUB menu correctly, the slice must adhere to the following conditions:

• Contain a mountable file system

• Remain a part of the same Solaris Live Upgrade boot environment where the slice resided previously

Before rebooting the system, make any necessary corrective actions on the slice.

Solution:

Reboot the system. A backup copy of the GRUB menu is automatically installed.

The GRUB menu's menu.lst file was accidentally deleted.

Solution:

Reboot the system. A backup copy of the GRUB menu is automatically installed.