A common cause for swinstall hanging is a clash with Measure Ware. To stop this happening, do the following:

 1. disable MeasureWare from starting (/etc/rc.config.d/mwa)
 2. shut MWA - /sbin/init.d/mwa stop
 3. kill rpcd daemon
 4. export DMS_FORCEOFF=1
 5. run /opt/dce/sbin/rpcd
 6. restart swagentd

Can also try using udp instead of tcp e.g.

swinstall - x rpc_binding_info=ncadg_ip_udp -s depot_location

The following permanent changes can be made in /var/adm/sw/defaults

  swinstall.rpc_binding_info=ncan_ip_udp swinstall.rpc_timeout=5
  swinstall.retry_rpc=9 swinstall.agent_timeout_minutes=10
  swinstall.polling_interval=60

Once the changes have been made, execute swagentd -r to reread the parameters. It is also worthwhile installing the latest SD-UX cumulative patch.