[geeks] Solaris 10 U6: install failure

[Lionel Peterson]

On Apr 5, 2009, at 8:09 PM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>  
wrote:

> Today I wasted a good few hours trying to upgrade to Solaris 10 U6.
>
> I need that release because it improves Intel e1000 support, has  
> mirrored ZFS root, and other things I want and need.
>
> However, Sun removed the working sata_nv driver and replaced it with  
> one that only does AHCI.  Technically it is supposed to be able to  
> do non AHCI too, but that part is still broken.
>
> Sun is aware of the issue, and their response is that they have no  
> idea at present what is wrong.  It affects even some Sun branded  
> servers.
>
> The new driver seems OK for hard drives, so if you can work around  
> the boot/install issue, it should be OK.
>
> For example, I can boot from the install DVD, but Solaris U6 is then  
> unable to mount it.
>
> That said...
>
> I need to find some way to get this installed, so I'm looking for  
> ideas.
>
> The current setup is an 80GB root drive and a 400GB drive as a zpool  
> with the data.
>
> I was planning to install a pair of 320GB drives to use as a  
> mirrored root.
>
> All of the data is backed up to the 400GB zpool and external NAS  
> storage, so the plan was to start with the new drives and then copy  
> data back.
>
> Is it possible to boot from the U4 DVD (which works great) and then  
> install from the U6 DVD?
>
> Any ideas appreciated.
>
> I suppose I could end the pain by buying a new server that has full  
> AHCI support, and just move the CPU, memory, and drives over.
>
> I only paid $350 for the server, and all my upgrades should run fine  
> on a new AM2.

BTW, I saw the Barcelona Opteron 1356 for $99 (after coupon code) at  
newegg.com, if anyone else wants to update their T105...

The coupon was on spoofee.com, I don't have it handy right now (on  
iPhone, no cut and paste - thanks Steve Jobs!).

Lionel