x86: Upgrade Option Is Not Available When Upgrading to Solaris Express 3/06 OS (6386504 )

The upgrade operation fails when upgrading the OS to the Solaris Express 3/06 OS as follows:

• For the Solaris installation program, the upgrade option is unavailable.

• For the custom JumpStart^TM program, the upgrade fails.

This problem is due to an unused boot partition that must deleted. The problem occurs under the following circumstances:

• You have performed an initial installation from the Solaris 8, 9, or 10 3/05 release. An x86 boot partition was created during installation.

• You have performed an initial installation from the Solaris 10 1/06 release or Solaris Express release that supports GRUB. The x86 boot partition is preserved, but is not used.

• You try to upgrade to the Solaris Express 3/06 OS.

The following error will be in/tmp/install_log:

# more /tmp/install_log
kdmconfig:  The following warning was noted:
Error while executing loadkeys command.
Checking c1d0s0 for an upgradeable Solaris image.
The x86 Boot fdisk partition is missing /a/boot/solaris/bootenv.rc

Workaround:

• If you are upgrading with the Solaris installation program, delete the unused boot partition using the format or fdisk command. Repartition before you upgrade.

• If you are upgrading with JumpStart, specify the disk that contains the root (/) file system to be upgraded with the root_device keyword. For example, the profile would contain the following keywords.

  • install_type upgrade

  • root_device c1t0d0s0