Installation of Solaris on an Ultra 80 or Enterprise 420R (same system
board as an Ultra 80) may fail with 

  boot: cannot open kernel/unix
  Enter filename [kernel/unix]: 

Supported Releases
------------------

  Solaris 8     -- All releases of Solaris 8.
  
  Solaris 7     -- Requires Solaris 7 8/99 or Solaris 7 11/99.  The FCS, 3/99
	           and 5/99 releases do not support the Ultra 80/E420R.
  
  Solaris 2.6   -- Requires 2.6 HW 5/98 and installed via the Solaris 
		   Operating Environment Installation CD -- more notes below.
  
  Solaris 2.5.1 -- Requires 2.5.1 HW 11/97 and installed via the Solaris
		   Operating Environment Installation CD -- more notes below.

E420R Special Note
------------------

One of the differences in the E420R compared to the Ultra 80 is the 
support for hot swappable disks and power supply.  This led to a delay 
in the compliance testing which means that in some documentation, 
only 2.6 HW 5/98 is quoted as supported.  This information is now
out of date -- Solaris 2.5.1 HW 11/97 is supported.

Solaris 2.5.1/Solaris 2.6 Installation
--------------------------------------

The traditional method of providing new platform support in current
releases of Solaris has been to produce a Hardware or SHWP Release,
eg Solaris 2.5.1 HW 11/97, or Solaris 2.6 HW 5/98

With the introduction of "Solaris Updates" with Solaris 7, there will
be no further Hardware or SHWP Releases of Solaris for existing releases.

Installation of Solaris 2.5.1 or Solaris 2.6 on Ultra 80/E420R's requires 
the use of:

  Solaris Operating Environment Installation CD, aka "CD0"

There have been 4 releases of this CD:

  April 1999		PN 704-6657-10 
  May 1999		PN 704-6657-11
  September 1999	PN 704-6914-10
  February 2000		PN 704-7076-10

CD0 Release Review
------------------

  April 1999
  First release of the Solaris Operating Environment Installation
  CD.  Installation using a graphics head/Xserver only.

  May 1999
  The "modify_install_server" script introduced for network installs
  of 2.5.1 HW 11/97 or 2.6 HW 5/98.  Ultra 80/E420R installs work
  for local graphics head/Xserver only.  A buggy modify_install_server
  script means a workaround is required for network installs on
  these platforms.

  September 1999
  Terminal mode (non graphics head/Xserver) installation support added.

  February 2000
  The modify_install_server/network installs fixed for Ultra 80/E420R.

Ultra 80/E420R Network Install Work Arounds
-------------------------------------------

Once a network install has been created using:

  setup_install_server

from the Solaris CD, and then had:

  modify_install_server

run from the Solaris Operating Environment Installation CD, as detailed
above, unless done with the February 2000 disk, it will fail on
the subsequent boot with:

  boot: cannot open kernel/unix
  Enter filename [kernel/unix]: 

There are 3 choices available here.  The first is the "quick and
dirty" approach to use if you have attempted to install and the
subsequent boot has failed.  The second approach simply works around
the problem with "brute force" -- install *everything*.  And
finally, the last workaround provides a long term solution.

Quick and Dirty
---------------

When presented with:

  boot: cannot open kernel/unix
  Enter filename [kernel/unix]: 

At this point, enter:

  /platform/sun4u/kernel/unix

The machine will then boot.  Install the packages:

  SUNWvplr.u	SMCC sun4u new platform links
  SUNWvplu.u	SMCC sun4u new usr/platform links

from the appropriate Solaris CD.

Apply one of the following two patches accordingly:

  107496-01	SunOS 5.5.1: sun4u platform links patch
  107497-01	SunOS 5.6: sun4u platform links patch

Brute Force
-----------

As the "sun4u platform links" patch will only apply if the above 2
packages are installed, an alternative approach is to select the:

  Entire Distribution plus OEM support

installation.  This includes these packages, which means that during
the prepatch phase of the installation, the "sun4u platform links"
patch will successfully install.

Long Term
---------

The February 2000 disk modifies the script:

  2.5.1:	
  export/exec/sparc.Solaris_2.5.1/sbin/install.d/dynamic_test/SMCCplatformtest

  2.6
  Solaris_2.6/Tools/Boot/usr/sbin/install.d/dynamic_test/SMCCplatformtest

Such that during the network install, Ultra 80/E420R's are identified
and the packages:

  SUNWvplr.u	SMCC sun4u new platform links
  SUNWvplu.u	SMCC sun4u new usr/platform links

are added to the installation.  With these packages in place, the
prepatching phase of the installation will succeed in applying one
of the following:

  107496-01	SunOS 5.5.1: sun4u platform links patch
  107497-01	SunOS 5.6: sun4u platform links patch

As a long term solution, add the line:

  SUNW,Ultra-80)   exit 0;;

to the collection of cases in the SMCCplatformtest script.  This works
for E420R's as they identify themselves as Ultra 80's due to using the
same system board:

  {2} ok banner
  Sun Enterprise 420R (2 X UltraSPARC-II 450MHz), No Keyboard
  OpenBoot 3.23, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #11286574.
  Ethernet address 8:0:20:ac:38:2e, Host ID: 80ac382e.

  {2} ok go
  # uname -i
  SUNW,Ultra-80