Fun and games installing Oracle ...

Question

For various reasons we still use Oracle 8.1.7.4 on Solaris 8 (yes yes I know ... it was the version that Noah used to run the Ark but I am stuck with it so please no suggestions about upgrading :-) )
I decided to attempt to install Oracle 8.1.7.4 on a Sol 8 branded zone running on a Solaris 10 10/09 host from CD.
Configured the zone to "see" the cdrom :
# zonecfg -z s8-zone
zonecfg:s8-zone>add device
zonecfg:s8-zone>set dir=/cdrom
zonecfg:s8-zone>set special=/cdrom
zonecfg:s8-zone>set type=lofs
zonecfg:s8-zone>set options=[nodevices]
zonecfg:s8-zone>end
And then bounced the zone
Excellent ... Saw the CD, mounted it and then ran runInstaller and stated the Oracle installation ...
All went well until I needed to change the CD. At which point the damn thing would NOT eject, whether from the runInstaller, the zone or the global,
"eject" failed with "device busy", a bent paper-clip in the small hole ... everything failed. SO I aborted the installation and went to plan B
Made a pair of ISOs from the two CDs and copied them across to the branded zone ....
Firstly had to give the zone access to lofi:
add device
set match=/dev/lofictl
end
add device
set match=/dev/lofi/*
end
add device
set match=/dev/rlofi/*
end
and bounced the zone ...
Now I tried (within the zone) to mount the images ..
# lofiadm -a `pwd`/oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso
lofiadm: could not map file /appc/oracle8_iso/oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso: Invalid argument
Hmm ...
# file oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso
oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso: commands text
Not good
Quick check in the global:
# file /sol8zone1-zones/sol8zone/root/appc/oracle8_iso/oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso
/sol8zone1-zones/sol8zone/root/appc/oracle8_iso/oracle.8.1.7.4.disk1.iso: ISO 9660 filesystem image
Looks as if lofiadm is not recognizing the ISO .....
At which point on Friday I gave up, went home and thither to the pub .....
Any clues to proceed with either Plan A or Plan B ????
P

Answer 1

Hmm, a wild guess here is that the lofi interface is rather kernel specific, so that the SunOS 5.8 lofiadm can't understand a SunOS 5.10 lofi device.. Which would cause the rather wierd lofiadm messages.
Can you mount the ISO from the global zone? I.e:
global# lofiadm -a /path/to/some/file.iso
global# mount -F hsfs /dev/lofi/1 /zones/<<zone>/mnt
Or was that something which only worked for LX branded zones..?
.7/M.