---------- X-Sun-Data-Type: text X-Sun-Data-Description: text X-Sun-Data-Name: text X-Sun-Charset: us-ascii X-Sun-Content-Lines: 83 I recently asked :- **************************************************************************** I have a server running Solaris 2.4 (sun4m). This supports sun4m and sun4c dataless clients. I now need support for Solaris 2.5 (for Ultra) and so will need sun4m, sun4c and sun4u architectures. I have used swmtool to add support for each of these from the 2.5 CD. THE PROBLEM : How do I apply patches to the different versions of /usr on the server (each held in /export/exec/......). I do not seem to be able to do this from the server. The README that comes with patches says to run the installpatch script on the clients involved. This fails because a dataless client only has the root packages installed and so cannot apply patches to things normally found under /usr (e.g. the Openwindows packages). Sun tell me that this CANNOT be done from the server and yet it cannot be done from the client either. **************************************************************************** Thanks to all who replied (see below). There were two main streams of response. One group said just run 'installpatch' on the client and give r/w access to the server copy of /usr so that the client can modify it. THIS DOES NOT WORK BECAUSE THE PACKAGES ARE NOT INSTALLED ON THE CLIENT AND CANNOT THEREFORE BE PATCHED. The second group agreed that this was indeed a problem but had found workarounds of sorts. None appeared to be too elegant and could cause problems in the future. I was however resigned to the the fact that I would end up using one of these suggestions in desperation. The Sun support engineer who took on this problem left the company midway through the call. (Was it really such a good question?). Since being told that what I was trying to do was NOT supported, I found the page in the Sysadmin manual which clearly states that it IS supported. The engineer who took over the call called me back within 24 hours and said that he had been able to do what I wanted. He gave me the details of what he had done and, when I tried it, it all worked a treat. For all those who have been struggling along with workarounds, the answer is to be found below. 'installpatch' will work but needs the '-S Solaris_2.4' option selecting. A package installation patch is also required under 2.4 before this will work properly. Many thanks to Steve D. White at Sun support for this solution. Thanks also to the following for suggestions :- anderson@neon.mitre.org casper@holland.Sun.COM garcia@sr5.chinalake.navy.mil george@biomed.abdn.ac.uk jgotobed@LPL.Arizona.EDU Juergen.Schreiner@teefax.mch.sni.de Regards Dave *************************************************************************** Dr. Dave G. Checketts | E-Mail d.g.checketts@bham.ac.uk Computer Officer | School of Elec. & Elec. Eng., | University of Birmingham | Telephone: 0121 414 4322 Birmingham, B15 2TT, | Fax: 0121 414 4291 England ***************************************************************************" ---------- X-Sun-Data-Type: default X-Sun-Data-Description: default X-Sun-Data-Name: stw X-Sun-Charset: us-ascii X-Sun-Content-Lines: 138 --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- --=-- Loaded a Solaris 2.4 machine as a server, full OS install. Lots of space in /export and the whole os under /. Using swmtool added Solaris 2.5 as a package, to provide dataless client support. Using setup_install_server loaded Solaris 2.5 image Using add_install_client added client boot net on client install as dataless client from the server using 2.5 booted client attempted to install a patch that changes only the root partition on the client, installed oK (check test) attempted to install a patch on the client which patched only /usr - reported # ./installpatch . None of the packages to patch are installed on this system. Installpatch is terminating. Attempted the same patch (103241-01) on the server # ./installpatch -S Solaris_2.5 . ERROR: This Solaris 2.4 server requires the following patch before it can apply a patch to a Solaris 2.5 client. patch base number : 102039 patch version number : 04 or higher. Installpatch is terminating. installed 102039-04 on the server # ./installpatch . @(#) installpatch 5.0 95/09/07 SMI Generating list of files to be patched... Creating patch archive area... Saving a copy of existing files to be patched... 2976 blocks File compression used Installing patch packages... Doing pkgadd of SUNWarc package: Installation of was successful. Doing pkgadd of SUNWcsu package: Installation of was successful. Patch packages installed: SUNWarc SUNWcsu Patch installation completed. for good measure, rebooted the server # cd /share/patches/patchdb/sunos/5.5/103241-01 # ./installpatch -S Solaris_2.5 . Generating list of files to be patched... Verifying sufficient filesystem capacity (exhaustive method) ... Installing patch packages... Patch number 103241-01 has been installed. Patch packages installed: SUNWbcp This means that I was able to apply the Solaris 2.5 patch to the 2.5 /usr partition while running on the Solaris 2.4 machine. I can verify the patches that have been installed by running # ./installpatch -p -S Solaris_2.5 Patch: 103241-01 Obsoletes: Packages: SUNWbcp So, now to find a patch which has patches both in the /usr and root directories... the client has the following packages applied SUNWadmr SUNWcg6 SUNWcsr SUNWlpmsg SUNWnisr SUNWvolr SUNWcar SUNWcsd SUNWdfb SUNWlpr SUNWscpr SUNWxwmod and this patch patches some but not others in the root... 103242-02/SUNWcsr: 103242-02/SUNWcsu: 103242-02/SUNWhea: 103242-02/SUNWtoo: This should prove tricky, as the patch modifies the following files /etc/lib/ld.so.1 /usr/ccs/bin/ld /usr/include/sys/link.h /usr/lib/ld.so.1 /usr/lib/libld.so.2 /usr/lib/liblddbg.so.3 /usr/lib/libldstab.so.1 The server first... # cd 103242* # ls Install.info SUNWcsr SUNWhea backoutpatch README.103242-02 SUNWcsu SUNWtoo installpatch # ./installpatch -S Solaris_2.5 . Generating list of files to be patched... Verifying sufficient filesystem capacity (exhaustive method) ... Installing patch packages... Patch number 103242-02 has been installed. Patch packages installed: SUNWcsu SUNWhea SUNWtoo and now the client... # ./installpatch . Generating list of files to be patched... Verifying sufficient filesystem capacity (exhaustive method) ... Installing patch packages... Patch number 103242-02 has been installed. Patch packages installed: SUNWcsr