Thanks Jeff,
I haven't used ODMA yet.
The reason I was copying the files was that that way init parameters will be there before the install and I was "hoping" that when during the install of 8.1.7 Oracle finds the init files, it will use those to Upgrade the database.
If I do a clean install, (no /software/oracle/dbs directory in the begining), I am not sure how ODMA will react.
I think in that case I must copy the init, listener etc. file later (after the 8.1.7 install) and then run ODMA.

- Rajeev