..bits & bytes teleported

The following commands, with their various switches enable you to know more about your Solaris installation:

1. uname
   
2. arch (do a 'man arch')
   
3. mach (do a 'man mach')
   

According to its website , Meld is a visual diff and merge tool.

I am using it to see it to see the 'diff' between the contents of the revisions of code fragments. Setting it up on OpenSolaris was a breeze.

1. Make sure you have Python in '/usr/bin/python'
2. D/l the source from http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/meld/1.1/meld-1.1.5.tar.gz
3. untar it
4. 'cd' to the source directory
5. run the 'meld' executable: ./meld
   

Quick Steps (for system wide installation):

1. D/l the source from https://launchpad.net/bzr/1.5/1.5/+download/bzr-1.5.tar.gz
2. Untar it
3. 'cd' to the source directory
   
4. switch to root- su
5. python setup.py install
   

I have got Python 2.4.4 in /usr/bin/python

Installing bzr-gtk

bzr-gtk is a plugin for Bazaar that aims to provide GTK+ interfaces to most Bazaar operations.

1. D/l the source from here
   
2. untar it
3. 'cd' to the source directory
   
4. switch to super user mode- su
5. python setup.py install
   

Further Information:

• http://bazaar-vcs.org/

1. Download the Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6 binary for Solaris from here
2. Untar it
3. You will get 3 files- autoresponse, VirtualBox-1.6.0-SunOS-x86-r30421.pkg, ReadMe.txt
   
4. The 'ReadMe.txt' file has got the quickie steps to install VirtualBox
1. Login as root using the "su" command
2. Run the command: pkgadd -d VirtualBox-1.6.0-SunOS-x86-r30421.pkg
3. The installer would then ask you to "Select package(s) you wish to process"- enter "1" or "all"
   
4. Then type "y" when asked about continuing with the installation.
   

Now all the necessary files would be installed on your system

Now type 'VirtualBox' at the terminal:

Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6 is up and running on OpenSolaris 2008.05.

Is it usable? I shall explore that soon.

OpenSolaris 2008.05 ships with a graphical front end to the Image Packaging System (IPS), called the Package Manager:

A quick look revealed the following features of the GUI :

• Install/Remove packages
• Search for packages in the repository
• Package Information

As of now, the GUI wraps very few of the features that IPS provides.

I also noticed that I could use the CLI as well as the GUI simultaneously which struck me, since all the package management systems such as 'apt-get', allow only a single instance of the package manager running. I fired a query to the pkg-discuss list and found that the locking mechanism is not yet in place. (See here for more information).

Links to know more about IPS:

• Image Packaging System (project page)
  
• IPS Documentation
  
• Observations on the Image Packaging System