SRDB ID: 18480

SYNOPSIS: pmconfig failure message on boot
DETAIL DESCRIPTION:
Booting Solaris produces:

  /usr/sbin/pmconfig: /etc/power.conf line (20) failed to convert
  mount point to prom name: Invalid argument

SOLUTION SUMMARY: 

This is the power management "suspend and resume" (CPR) subsystem
failing to initialise correctly.  

When a machine is suspended, the CPR subsystem
copies the current main memory into a "statefile".  On resumption
of the system, CPR copies the contents of the statefile back into
memory, before bring the various components of the previously
running system to life.

The /etc/power.conf file specifies the location of the CPR statefile:

  statefile               /.CPR

The rc boot script "/etc/rc2.d/S85power" will ensure that power.conf
always contains an entry for "statefile".  It selects the location
by choosing which of "/", "/usr", "/var" and "/export/home"
has the most free disk space.

When the system is being resumed, the CPR subsystem can only read the
the statefile if it resides on a device which is visible at the PROM 
level.  For this reason, the statefile can not be placed on a DiskSuite 
metadevice, or a Veritas Volume.  

On boot, the power management software checks the statefile configuration
and will complain if it is unusable for resumption and will fail with:

  /usr/sbin/pmconfig: /etc/power.conf line (20) failed to convert mount point
to prom name: Invalid argument

Mirroring/encapsulating the root filesystem will produce this failure.

With this knowledge, there are 3 main choices:

  1. Ignore the message.

     The message means that CPR will not be available.  Chances are that
     with DiskSuite/Veritas present, the system is not a candidate for
     shutting down anyway.

  2. Remove the package.

     Following on from the previous option, if CPR is not wanted on
     a system, then remove "SUNWpmu".  This is the package which contains
     "pmconfig", "SUNWpmowu" depends on package, but the dependency can
     be overruled, either that, or remove all the packages related to
     power management:

       SUNWpmu          Power Management Framework
       SUNWpmr          Power Management Framework
       SUNWcpr          Power Management Suspend/Resume (CPR)
       SUNWpmowu        OpenWindow Power Management
       SUNWpmowr        OpenWindow Power Management
       SUNWpmowm        Online Manual Pages

  3. Locate the statefile on a "physical" device.

     If CPR is required, then the statefile needs to reside on a physical
     device, ie something which begins "/dev/dsk".

     For example, on the following system:

       $ df -lk
       Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
       /proc                      0       0       0     0%    /proc
       /dev/md/dsk/d0       1851974 1506714  289701    84%    /
       fd                         0       0       0     0%    /dev/fd
       swap                  120024     352  119672     1%    /tmp
       /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7    1869279 1669946  143255    93%    /export/local

     Then "/export/local/.CPR" is a valid location for the CPR statefile.

SOLARIS 7 NOTE:

  Solaris 7 also has the statefile location limitation.  However, unlike
  2.6, it does not produce the error message, but CPR still remains unuseable.

APPLIES TO: Hardware, Operating Systems/Solaris/Solaris 2.6 




-Pointed out by: Tim Lavin