bosboot: missing proto file: /usr/lib/drivers/pci/sissas64_dd

I just upgraded my AIX6.1 NIM server to AIX7 with a DVD I received from my vendor. I noticed that I got an AIX7 TL0 SP1 DVD, which is quite old, so I hoped not to have too much trouble upgrading. Alas.

As the upgrade nearly finished, it asked to load DVD #2, but when I did that, it barfed an error message about some drivers not being able to load. As I had booted from the first DVD, I suspected an error on DVD2 (maybe it was corrupt ?) and switched back to DVD1. Once that was loaded, I was greeted with the following error message :

0301-154 bosboot: missing proto file: /usr/lib/drivers/pci/sissas64_dd

The installation stopped, and I had no other choice than rebooting. But as the bosboot command had failed, no bootable disks were found. Panic ! The only choice I had, it seemed, was to revert to the AIX6 mksysb I luckily had prepared before the upgrade, but I decided to boot the lpar from the AIX7 DVD in maintenance mode and see what I could rescue. After all, only the bootblock was missing.

The missing driver in /usr/lib/drivers/pci/sissas64_dd was indeed missing from the DVD, and it seems that this is a bug in the AIX7 TL0. Fix was provided in TL0SP3.

I decided to try some last command, by copying the /usr/lib/drivers/pci/sissas_dd to sissas64_dd, after which the bosboot command wonderfully worked ! After rebooting the LPAR again, it booted nicely from the bootdisk and I was greeted with the AIX7 login prompt. Pffew !