Config Assistant Failover to boot interpreter

Question

Toshiba Satellite 2805-S302 PIII 750 128MB Solaris 2.8 Feb 2000 no patches loaded/Linux/NT4
This is what I am getting from boot:
SunOS Secondary Boot version 3.00
Solaris Intel Platform Edition Booting System
Running Configuration Assistant...
error: Assertion failure: = "((unsigned long)ttx * sizeof (devtrans)) <=0xFFF0UL", "devdb.c" line 1060
The root filesystem is not mounted and the configuration assistant has exited prematurely. Booting is unlikely to succeed.
CTL-ALT-DEL may be used to reset the machine.
Failover to boot interpreter - type ctrl-d to resume boot
>
I set verbose on and type ctrl-d here
<<< Current Boot Parameters>>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@5,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
Copyright 1983-2000 Sun Microsystems, Inc, All rights reserved.
WARNING: rootnex: isa resource setup failed
Cannot assemble drivers for root /pci@0,0/pci-ide@5,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Cannot mount root on /pci@0,0/pci-ide@5,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a fstype ufs
panic[cpu0]/thread-fec17440: vfs_mountroot: cannot mount root
fec12adc genunix:vfs_mountroot+5c (fec09650, fec01e3c)
fec12aec genunix:main+78 ()
skipping system dump - no dump device configured
rebooting...
I then booted from cd and told configuration assistant to load solaris from hard drive. It worked and I could log in. So I reboot from just the hard drive and I get the same failover to boot interpreter message as above but when I ctrl-d to continue I see:
getprop: bootpath not found
<<< Current Boot Parameters>>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@5,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
Copyright 1983-2000 Sun Microsystems, Inc, All rights reserved.
Cannot load drivers for
(Can't load the root filesystem)
Press any key to continue
I can still boot the hard drive if I start from the CD or floppy. So it looks like the boot interpreter is having problems? Can I manually reset some properties in the interpreter or must I reinstall all of Solaris or maybe just the boot interpreter?? This machine is triple-booting Linux and NT with lilo being the main boot manager and then going to the Solaris boot manager screen and has been running fine for 3 months. This happened after reinstalling some software that I know replaces /etc/bootrc and some other files and requiring a reboot. I have run this OS (mostly single-booting Solaris) and software on several other x86 machines for a year and have never had this kind of problem. I really do not want to reinstall Solaris but if I do I want to make sure I dont step on Linux or NT. The way its installed I believe it will be safe, all Solaris knows about according to format is the root, swap, backup, boot and alternates slices. I'm thinking that since all slices are within one partition the installer won't mess with anything outside of that partition, including lilo when making the boot slice. Is this correct? My partition table looks like this from Linux:
hda1________Primary__FAT16_________2097.45
_____________________Unusable__________0.49
hda2__Boot__Primary__Solaris__________4404.37
____________Logical__Free Space_________3.91
hda5________Logical__Linux___________9121.84
hda6________Logical__Linux Swap_______172.74
hda4________Primary__FAT16__________4203.12
If anyone can explain what could have caused this problem in the first place that would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

I had exactly the same problem.
Try booting directly from the Solaris CD 1 / 2
(without bootdisk).
This worked for me.I tried booting from CD 1 and I got the error message "cannot find boot.bin ". Now I have switched to another motherboard and install CD boots fine but now I have issue with installer software copying to hard disk, after mini.root and platform specific files copy I get the following error message on reboot attempt., "fdisk: cannot stat device /dev/rdsk/c0d0
" Thanks for any help in advance"