Solaris 9.0 x86 Installation Experience

SOLARIS9 x86 attracts a growing number of users for its reliability, security, high availability, and low price (free for non-commercial use).

Recently, the author in the installation of Solaris9 X86, encountered some problems, after some setbacks, finally solved these problems. This article will introduce the solutions to these problems for your reference. Come on!

Test environment:

The installation environment I tested was Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 Notebook and Dell GX110 Desktop. The software is the Solaris 9 x86, where 4/03 is installed on Toshiba M10, and 12/02 is on the Dell GX110 version. Before installing, check on the internet first, found that Dell's GX110 belong to the reported to work list. and Toshiba M10 is not in the list range.

But its own network card Intel pro/100 ve and Toshiba Tecra S1 the same, the latter has reported to work. It is noteworthy that for this NIC driver Info, there are comments: Add iprb "pci8086,103d" to/etc/driver_aliase.

1. USB device compatibility issues.

1 Problem description and solution

The installation on the Dell GX110 went well, but there was a problem with the initial installation on Toshiba M10. The installation process stops at the device Configuration Assistant phase, and after troubleshooting the installation disk quality problem, the FAQ checks to see that the Solaris 9 X86 does not currently support USB 2.0 EHCI, and Toshiba M10 is using the USB2.0 interface. It's easy to find a solution to the problem. The installation process is normal when the USB device is disable from the Toshiba console with Toshiba.

2) related knowledge-solaris supported USB interface type:

There are three types of USB host controllers (USB hosts Controller), while SOLARIS9 x86 only supports one of them.

USB 1.1 Uhci:solaris x86 support, but Solaris SPARC does not support it.

USB 1.1 Ohci:solaris x86 is not supported, but Solaris SPARC support (requires Solaris USB DDK v0.8a).

USB 2.0 EHCI: Solaris 9 is not currently supported. Perhaps the future Solaris release will support it.

3 related knowledge-how to identify your USB interface type in Solaris:

Run Command "PRTCONF-PV | grep 000c03 ". If the output is empty, it means that your machine does not have a USB:-(. If there is an action:

"Class-code:000c0300", stating that your USB is UHCI type, if it is "class-code:000c0310", the description is OHCI USB interface, if it is

The "class-code:000c0320" description is a EHCI USB interface (USB2.0).

2. Display Setup Issues

During installation, you are prompted for the video card driver type and display resolution and refresh rate. At this time, the graphics driver has not been installed, so it is necessary to set the general graphics driver and display resolution.

If the display settings are not configured correctly, the system will not function correctly.

Here are some of the reference settings in my installation process:

1) Video Devices:vesa Generic Driver for vesa-compatible video Cards

2 Monitor type:notebook LCD SVGA 35.5Khz ...

3) Screen Size:15-inch

4 resolution/color/refreshrate resolution 1024*768,256 color, refresh frequency Hz. It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the color do not choose too high (graphics driver has not been installed).

3. NIC installation problem

1) Problem description

After the system was installed into the CDE environment for the first time, the command ifconfig-a was run, and both machines found only the Lo0 interface, not the desired ELXL or IPRB interface. Access to directory/dev, there are still no files or links about ELXL or iprb.

Note: The DELL GX110 is pre-installed with a 3com 3C905C-TX network adapter, and Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 is pre-installed with the Intel pro/100 ve network card.

You must remember the comments about driver info in the Hardware Compatibility List mentioned earlier, but how do you do that?

For the convenience of everyone, I hereby take the Toshiba M10 's Intel pro/100 ve network card as an example, the solution is a simple introduction.

2) Introduction to the solution method

.1) with VI Open File/etc/driver_aliases, add a line as follows:

IPRB "pci8086,1030"

.2) with VI Open File/boot/solaris/devicedb/master, add a line as follows:

pci8086,103d pci8086,103d Net PCI iprb.bef "Intel pro/100 VE Network Adapter"

.3) Run command: devlinks

.4) Run command: touch/reconfigure

.5) Reboot (You can use command init 6)

.6 Enter/dev directory, great! Found the/DEV/IPRB (of course, this time with the IFCONFIG-A command screen is not working properly)

.7 The next thing is simple, with the VI edit/etc/hostname.iprb0, the file content is your host name. (If you are using IPV6, then edit the hostname6.iprb0 file)

.8) Restart again

3) Related knowledge-about master files

When the master file is opened, there is a detailed explanation of the data format, which is briefly described here:

<dev ids> <name> <dev type> <bus> <realmode driver> <dev desc>

pci8086,103d pci8086,103d Net PCI iprb.bef "Intel pro/100 VE Network Adapter"

Here <dev ids> in the pci8086, what is the meaning of 103d? 8086 is Intel's vender number, 103d is the device number. So where can we find these numbers? One way to do this is to observe the BIOS Summary screen (after the IDE device is detected) while rebooting the machine, and notice the two four digits of the NIC inside.

Another way is to search for relevant information on the web, such as the previous one in the hardware Compatibility List. The device number of the Intel pro/100 ve network card is 103d.

Note: For the Dell GX110 3COM 3C905C-TX network card,

/ETC/DRIVER_ALIASES:ELXL "pci10b7,9200"

/boot/solaris/devicedb/master:pci10b7,9200 pci10b7,9200 Net PCI elxl.bef "3Com 3c905c-tx-m El XL 10/100"

Step ditto.

In addition, for everyone's convenience, here is also a list of some of the interface name meaning:

elxl:3com EtherLink Network card

Iprb:intel Pro Network card

Nei:10baset NE2000 compatible PCI nic (Linksys, at/lantic)

Note: There is a more detailed description of the problem on the FAQ.

4. DHCP Configuration Issues

1) Problem Description:

In some environments, laptops or desktops need to configure DHCP rather than fixed IP. The author referred to the Solaris IP Services Manual "How to Configure a Solaris DHCP Client" method, but did not succeed.

The reason for this is that the method needs to run the Sys-unconfig command, which causes the previously configured KDM settings and NIC settings to be lost. After study, finally finished.

2) Resolution method

.1) Enter/etc directory, run: Touch hostname.<devno> for example: touch/etc/hostname.elxl0

.2) Touch dhcp.<devno>

.3) Configure DomainName, you can use the DomainName command, such as DomainName prc.sun.com, and then edit the/etc/defaultdomain file to join the configured domain name.

.4) Run Ypinit-c

.5) Run/usr/lib/netsvc/ypbind-broadcast

.6) Run/usr/lib/netsvc/ypstart

.7 Reboot the machine (you can use command init 6)