Here's the summary; my original question is first followed by the answers I
received.
I checked out everything, but nothing could force the install program to let
me upgrade, I guess there was just something about this system it didn't
like. Couldn't have been the version of OS I was using (5/99) because it
worked perfectly on other machines in my lab. We are a group of developers
and everybody has root on the machines; I can't even guess what changes
could have been made to the machine in question since I last set it up.
Anyway, what I ended up doing was creating an include file to use with tar,
which listed all the important config files for the system (like
/etc/resolv.conf, nsswitch.conf, etc.) Then I created a tarfile of them,
and saved them to a non-root disk which I preserved, and then performed an
initial install. Then I restored the config files from tar. The one
problem we ran into was that DNS has changed with Solaris 7 and one of my
colleagues who is better-versed in DNS had to work on the config files
before DNS would work again.
I can't thank all of you enough for your quick response. Even though none
of the tips actually fixed my problem, it was so helpful to be able to tell
management that I had contacted my peers in the industry and now had many
ideas to try, rather than just saying I was working on it. This is a
wonderful list and is well worth all the traffic.
Deborah Wazir
Electronic Data Systems
248.265.0071
pager 248.873.1844
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I am upgrading an E-450 from Solaris 2.6 to Solaris 7. When I boot from
CDROM, after the system id stuff, the install program bypasses the part
about asking if I want to upgrade, and goes ahead and informs me that I'll
be doing an initial install. This behavior is documented in the Solaris 7
Advanced Installation Guide, p. 43 as 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 reasons given for this condition do not
apply to my machine. I've tried searching sunsolve and haven't found
anything yet, I've checked the sunmanagers archives with no luck. I'm in
the process of re-subscribing to sunmanagers so I can post there.
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Do they have a patch out for this?
If so, and if you have the space, you could setup a jumpstart
server using the /cdrom/cdrom0/s0/Solaris_2.7/Tools/add_install_server
script.
After that you cna use patchadd -C and patch the image. You could
also force an upgrade using jumpstart scripts, but it's been a while
since I've done jumpstart ugrades.
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Use 11/99 Release of Solaris 7
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Check /etc/vfstab.
Remove all references to file systems that are not supported while booting
from
CD. vxfs file systems are often the culprits.
I have found that by mounting only the file systems that the OS upgrade
needs
(beware of links if you have moved stuff like /var/spool, etc) I will always
get
the upgrade option back.
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Check that you have an /etc/release file and that it is valid. Also, make
sure you have enough space (obvious) avail. for the install.
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Yes, had and have the same problem going to 2.8. Solaris install routine
has some built-in but not-necissarilly-published rules for qualifying a host
for the upgrade. Things like swap-file size & placement, c0t0d0 layout,
that sort of stuff. I've never found it written down but yo ucan get the
info by calling your VAR or Sun Support.
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I had the same problem a few versions back. There were some log files in
/var/sadm which
the installation kit looks for to determine if the machine can be upgraded.
We had deleted them
to make more room. Also, there was a bug/feature in SUN's code which
imposed a limit of
1024 characters per line in the /var/sadm/install/contents file. We ended
up removing a package,
shortening the line, and then re-adding the package after the upgrade. SUN
refused to approve
this action, but it worked.
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I could remember having a situation like that. See if you have a file named
"dsr_recovery.file"
it should be located under /var/sadm/system/admin. This file get created on
the system when
we start an upgrade and kind break out of it without finishing so when you
try going back to it
and restart the upgrade the new install sees this file left there and kind
of think that
you don't want to and upgrade and will skip it and just will not allow you
to do anything else
but a fresh install.
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My advice is NOT to upgrade, to a JumpStart or an initial install
but BACKUP first!!!
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