Sun

I'm attempting a network install of Solaris 9 to my SS20 from a Linux server. Everything works: rarp, bootp, tftp, nfs... the kernel's loaded, the boot partition's loaded, devices discovered, etc. It then attempts to load the installer and fails with:

/sbin/startup: /dev/fbs: does not exist

...and drops to the console.

This occurs with both install commands:

boot net -v - install
boot net -v - text

Any ideas?

(BTW: This all started with attempting to install Sun Studio mentioned in another thread. The machine had a 9GB drive with an awful partition setup so there was no room to install. I've installed a 36GB drive and will pay better attention to the partitioning.)

looks like the directory /dev/fbs isn't getting mounted. MAKEDEV?

strong_epoxy wrote: /sbin/startup: /dev/fbs: does not exist
...and drops to the console.

Try again, and look carefully at the messages. Did one of them mention something about 'devfsadm' failing in /usr/lib/devfsadm/linkmod ? (or something like that).

If yes, I've had something similar in 7 & 8 while net-installing from Linux NFS; for some reason devfsadm fails to load the drivers from the above location on NFS. Since /sbin/startup is a script on the server, you can patch it there to add something like:

#####
mkdir /tmp/linkmod
cp -f /usr/lib/devfsadm/linkmod/* /tmp/linkmod/
devfsadm -l /tmp/linkmod/
######

somewhere in the script prior to the failing point. This will load the drivers, and you should get the missing devices.

Goog luck & cordially,

Edit: typo

I, an anonymous internets user, hereby grant thee, Melkhior, 1,000,000 Internet points which makes you the winner of the Internet today! Just Wednesday mind you. Oh and there's only a couple hours left of the day. And there's no other prize.

That worked! I'm a little uncomfortable with all this 'modifying startup script' voodoo, but I'll get over it I think.

If you don't mind I'd like to post my problem and your solution to my blog. I'll reference this thread in the blog.

Thanks for your help!

strong_epoxy wrote: I, an anonymous internets user, hereby grant thee, Melkhior, 1,000,000 Internet points which makes you the winner of the Internet today! Just Wednesday mind you. Oh and there's only a couple hours left of the day. And there's no other prize.

... and since I'm in France it was already Thursday anyway

That worked! I'm a little uncomfortable with all this 'modifying startup script' voodoo, but I'll get over it I think.

IIRC, for 7 i was able to do it interactively when the installer dropped me into a shell after not finding any drive. But for 8, the missing /dev/fbs made it worse and I had to patch the startup script... ugly yes but it works, so...

If you don't mind I'd like to post my problem and your solution to my blog. I'll reference this thread in the blog. Thanks for your help!

No problem & glad I could help.

Cordially