[geeks] Installing Solaris 10 x86: "Disc you inserted is not a Solaris OS CD/DVD"

[Micah R Ledbetter]

This post includes a problem description and workaround -- for the  
future, in case any one else runs in to this (or in case it happens to  
me again :] ). I tried to keep the initial description of problem and  
my workaround separate from the details and reasoning.


THE PROBLEM
When installing Solaris 10 on x86 platforms, after the "Identifying  
the system" phase, and at the part where you select installation type  
(flash archive, install, upgrade) and source (CD/DVD or network), the  
error "Disc you inserted is not a Solaris OS CD/DVD" is received and  
the install process quits to a shell.

This happened to me on a burned & verified copy of Solaris 5/08, but I  
also got a similar error (different wording though) at the same point  
in the install process from my Solaris 10 1/06 copy which I got for  
free directly from Sun.

SOLUTIONS
My workaround was to burn a CD (just the first, bootable one) *and*  
DVD of Solaris 5/08, put the CD in the system drive (which was  
attached via IDE), and the DVD into a different drive attached via  
USB2. Booting from the *CD* -- and I'm fairly certain about that,  
because my system wouldn't boot from the USB drive when I tried to  
make it -- the copy-files-to-disk part of the install process used the  
*DVD* as its source. Not only was the disc not ejecting when I pressed  
the hardware eject button on the drive, but during the actual install,  
the USB-attached drive with the DVD in it was spun up and blinking its  
light the entire time, while the IDE-attached drive with the CD in it  
wasn't.

Other solutions seemed to work for different people. Here are some  
threads I found:
- <http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=51694>
- <http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10107667>
- <http://archive.netbsd.se/?ml=opensolaris-help&a=2006-04&t=1925052>

And here are some solutions contained in those threads:
> If you boot the ISO image (I'm using the DVD image) then press "e" at
> the grub menu, then "e" again, you can edit the kernel line to change:
>
> kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -B install_media=cdrom
>
> to:
>
> kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -B install_media=cdrom,atapi-cd-
> dma-enabled=0

and:
> You can also insert the Solaris OS CD/DVD in the second CD-ROM after  
> the error.
> Type this command to mount the second cdrom:
> mount -F hsfs /dev/dsk/c1t1d0p0 /cdrom
> Type this command to restart the install:
> /sbin/install-solaris


The annoying thing was, this second solution worked for me the *first*  
time I installed Solaris, but when I reinstalled, it didn't work at  
all. Here's what happened:

- the installer gave the error and pit me out to a shell.
- running `mount` revealed that the disc was indeed not mounted.
- prtvtoc /dev/dsk/<cdrom> showed only one partition besides the  
"whole disc" partition, and it was flagged "01" ("unmountable").
- I put the disc into the secondary, USB DVD drive and attached the  
USB cable.
- The first time I installed Solaris, this worked as expected -- I  
mounted the device onto /cdrom and ran /sbin/install-solaris, and  
everything was dandy.
- The second and subsequent times I tried to install Solaris, however,  
it failed:

     # ls /dev/dsk/<usb-dvdrom>
     /dev/dsk/<usb-dvdrom>
     # mount /dev/dsk/<usb-dvdrom>
     /dev/dsk/<usb-dvdrom>: file not found

This is why I needed to use the previously mentioned method to work  
around this issue.


Well... I can't say that I understand what's happening, but I'm glad  
it's finally working. Any insight into the reasons behind the events  
would be great, and I hope this helps someone else, because damn have  
I been annoyed by all of this shit :).

  - Micah