Very Computer

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5.53) Patch installation often fails with "checkinstall" errors.

    When installing a patch, the Solaris 2.5+ patch installation
    procedure will execute the script "checkinstall" with uid nobody.

    If any of the patch files cannot be read by nobody or if any part
    of the path leading up to the patch directory an error similar to
    the following will appear:

    ./installpatch .
    Generating list of files to be patched...
    Verifying sufficient filesystem capacity (exhaustive method) ...
    Installing patch packages...
    pkgadd: ERROR: checkinstall script did not complete successfully
    ....

    You can workaround this in two ways, one is to make sure that
    nobody can read all patch files and execute a "pwd" in the patch
    directory or add an account "install" to /etc/passwd:

        install:x:0:1:installpatch braindamage:/:/bin/true

    Installpatch uses "nobody" as a fallback if it cannot find the "install"
    user.

    --- end of excerpt from the FAQ

Questions marked with a * or + have been changed or added since
the FAQ was last posted

The most recently posted version of the FAQ is available from
<http://www.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2/>
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions.  They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

this sounds like the very entertaining bug in which parts of
the patch tree aren't world readable.  yeah, i know you're
doing it as root, but it'll still get ya.  check that.  it may
be something else.  i remember the mode/permissions was hard to
find because the messages didn't point at the right problem.
this is the only thing i can think of offhand.
j.
--
Jay Scott               512-835-3553

Applied Research Labs, Computer Science Div.
University of Texas at Austin