Everything Solaris Solaris Tips and Tricks

So you just installed Solaris 10... Now what?! Here's some tips and suggestions for a first time install

The first thing you notice after you choose CDE or JDS is; the Sun Update Manager will launch.   Basic updates are free and you don't need a subscription.  If you don't have an account you can use the link provided to sign up for a free Sun account.  Most of the patching is straight forward, but every know and then you'll run into a patch the needs a little TLC.  More on that in future posts.

After patching I recommend disabling unneeded services.  Two commands come in handy here:  'svcs' lists active services and 'svcadm' is the service command tool. 

Open a terminal window use the 'svcs' command to list active services.  If you chose the JDS UI system (I recommend it)  then it is safe to disable the following:  cde-calendar-manager cde-printinfo.  My default list is svcadm disable cde-calendar-manager cde-printinfo rfc1179 sendmail'.  This will save you a little RAM and boot time.

I also do Launch->Preferences->Desktop Preferences->Session and un-check the "Show Splash Screen on Login" box.  This will speed up login as well as any remote X11 SSH session logins.

Next I usually create a user account, other then root.  To do this open your terminal back up and type 'smc &'  A new window will pop up, this usually takes a while the first time you start it.  SMC is the Solaris Management Console.  It is a very powerful tool, and is also the easiest graphical way to create accounts.  After a bit, two different options should show up under the Toolboxes title.  You want to chose 'This Computer (<hostname>)' and click open.  Navigate to System Configuration->Users->User Accounts.  Now click on the icon that looks like a person with a '*' by it's foot.  Follow the on screen instructions.

A tool I like to add is 'top', the linux resource management tool.  Solaris has 'ps' but I just come to prefer top over the years.  You need to go to http://sunfreeware.com  and download the top pkg file.  Once done you need to install it.  Use the following command as root: pkgadd -d <package name>.  To launch top simply type: /usr/local/bin/top

 These are a few notes on creating a functional Soalrs 10 basic install.  Check back in the near future for more information.

 

Posted at 12:49AM May 25, 2007 by Andrew Neumann in Sun  |  Comments[3]