this is what i got from
sunhelp@sunhelp.org
"after untarring the 8_Recommended patches, did you read the "readme"
files for each patch?
many patches have dependencies and unless those dependency patches are
loaded first, the pathc will fail. the readme files list any dependency
(and there are a lot of patches with dependencies)."
according to this guy, the patch cluster is not the solver-of-all-problems.
you need to apply dependant patches before you run the patch cluster.
i was told that the patch cluster will install all patches in order so that you won't have these issues. but this guy is telling me otherwise.