Solaris

I am trying to install Solaris 9.0.4 to SUN Server V210 that does not have the CD/DVD drive. To use net install, I am preparing a target directory on SUN workstation running Solaris 9 x86.
1. Insert the SUN Sol 9 CD 1 ( not the Install CD)
2. I created a target directory_path on SUN Workstation to hold my Installation Software. (I am following the SUN documentation)
3. While executing the following command I am getting error message

/cdrom/sol_9_904_sparc/Solaris_9/Tools
# ./setup_install_server -b /export/install/sol_9

ERROR: Install boot image /cdrom/sol_9_904_sparc/Solaris_9/Tools/Boot does not exist Check that boot image exists, or use [-t] to specify a valid boot image elsewhere.

The Boot file on the CD is a link file pointing to some non existing file ->../../../S1 and there is no such file S1 on the CD.
My question is 2 fold.
Where to find such boot file?
Should I be better off getting a CD/DVD for the server?
Thanks

ashah99, Gollum is not quite ready to tackle a question of this nature. So I moved the thread and deleted the Gollum posts.

There is no need to get a cd/dvd for you 210. Jumpstart installation is really easy to get going for sparc systems.

If you are loopback mounting an image of the Solaris CD 1 you will not be able to see the second slice (s1), or if you have an incorrectly burned cd. s1 is a UFS filesystem on the cd.

You can either burn another copy or using the iso of disk one do the following:

(1) Get a copy of the VTOC (Virtual Table of Contents) from the ISO image:

# dd if=sol-9-u1-sparc-v1.iso of=vtoc bs=512 count=1

1+0 records in
1+0 records out


(2) Now find where Slice 1 starts in the image and how long it is. The starting cylinder for slice 1 is located at offset 452 (decimal) into the VTOC; the length in blocks is at offset 456, with both being 4 bytes long.

# od -D -j 452 -N 8 < vtoc
0000000 0000000888 0000546560
0000010


Slice 1 starts on cylinder 888, and is 546,560 blocks long. The CDs for the Solaris OS always have a fixed 640 blocks per cylinder, which means that one can calculate the starting block of slice 1 using the following:

# echo 888*640 | bc
568320


Slice one starts at block 568320 and is 546560 blocks long.

(3) Copy slice one into a separate file:

# dd if=sol-9-u1-sparc-v1.iso of=sol-9-u1-sparc-v1-s1.iso \
bs=512 skip=568320 count=546560

546560+0 records in
546560+0 records out


(4) Mount both slice 0 and slice 1. The setup_install_server script expects to find these two mounted beside each other, with slice 1 in a directory called "s1"
# mkdir /cd
# mkdir /cd/s0
# mkdir /cd/s1
# lofiadm -a /path_to/sol-9-u1-sparc-v1.iso
/dev/lofi/1
# lofiadm -a /path_to/sol-9-u1-sparc-v1-s1.iso
/dev/lofi/2
# mount -F hsfs -o ro /dev/lofi/1 /cd/s0
# mount -F ufs -o ro /dev/lofi/2 /cd/s1
# cd /cd/s0/Solaris_9/Tools/
# ./setup_install_server /destination_dir

Thanks for the response. When I followed the commands you gave, I come up with following:
# od -D -j 452 -N 8 < vtoc
0000000 4194500608 2153515520
0000010
and i don't get
0000000 0000000888 0000546560
0000010per your reply. How can I create sol-9-u1-sparc-v1-s1?
Thanks.

It looks like either you did the dd incorrectly or you have a corrupt image.

The numbers will probably be different, but not that different, then should still be in the same ball park.

Thanks. My ISO image may not have burn correctly.

Hi,

I have a server with an old version of Solaris 9 (2002). So I loaded the last version of Solaris 9 on the SUN site : 3 CD.

I made all what you explain in this topic, all works perfectly and I have now an image of the installation CD on my server.

But now ... I suppose that I have to boot on this pseudo CD, but how can I proceed ? Could you help me on this point, because I don't find anythnig on the SUN site.

Thanks in advance.

Alain