Sunday Dec 14, 2008
For installing OpenSolaris 2008.11 on a USB stick (installation on a 250 GB USB drive worked fine for me), please be aware of bug 4755 which leads to a GRUB> prompt after attempting to boot from a newly installed OpenSolaris 2008.11 USB stick.
Here's how it worked for me, on a Intel D201GLY2A system with 1 GB RAM:
- Change your BIOS so that it will boot from USB or CD, if present
- Boot from the OpenSolaris 2008.11 CD
- After the system as booted, plug in a USB stick with at least 4 GB (in my case 8 GB) capacity and wait until a new symbol shows up on the desktop
- Double click on the "Install Solaris" icon, select the USB stick, use the "use whole disk" setting, proceed through the rest of the installation customizing and press the appropriate button to start the installation.
- Wait until the installation has completed, but do not press the "Reboot" button!
- Follow this advice:
- Download this file (76.8 kB)
- unzip and untar it to /tmp, using command
cd /tmp
gzip -d grub_zfs_devid.tar.gz | tar -xf -
(will create two files: stage1 and stage2)
- run
zpool status
to find out the device name of the newly created pool on the USB stick. Let's assume the device name shown is /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0.
- and install the two files from the tar file on that device:
installgrub /tmp/stage1 /tmp/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0
- Then, press the reboot button. Take out the OpenSolaris CD when the system starts booting, so that it will boot from the USB stick. According to the bug, booting might fail if the boot order is changed in the BIOS, so until the bug is fixed, you should keep the boot order as it was during the installation.
Wednesday Dec 10, 2008
For those of you that want to install a web server in an OpenSolaris 2008.11 zone (e.g. for separating a web server from a file server while using the same hardware), here's a short howto. The procedure is a bit different from previous OpenSolaris releases as the zone files are not immediately available after the zone is installed - might have something to do with the new ipkg zone brand. The zone installation is now much faster than before. Here's how I got it installed:
- Create a parent zfs filesystem for the zone's root, if it does not yet exist:
$ zfs create -o mountpoint=/zones rpool/zones
- Create a zone configuration file:
$ cat > /var/tmp/webserv-z.cfg
create
set zonepath=/zones/webserv-z
set autoboot=true
add net
set address=192.168.0.20/24
set physical=ADAPTER
set defrouter=192.168.0.1
end
verify
commit
exit
Please replace ADAPTER by the name of your network adapter (can be seen in the output of ifconfig -a | nawk '!/^[\t]/&&!/lo/{gsub (":", "");print $1}' or just ifconfig -a, for example). In my case, it was sfe0 on one system and bge0 on another.
Then, configure the new zone:$ zonecfg -z webserv-z -f /var/tmp/webserv-z.cfg
- Install the new zone:
$ zoneadm -z webserv-z install
A ZFS file system has been created for this zone.
Authority: Using http://pkg.opensolaris.org/release/.
Image: Preparing at /zones/webserv-z/root ...
Cache: Using /var/pkg/download.
Installing: (output follows)
Refreshing Catalog 1/1 opensolaris.org
Creating Plan /
DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB)
SUNWPython 6/52 213/7862 1.71/72.41
Completed 52/52 7862/7862 72.41/72.41
PHASE ACTIONS
Install Phase 3637/12939
- Wait! Before booting the zone, mount it first:
zoneadm -z webserv-z mount
- Create a configuration file with the name sysidcfg (for sample files and a detailed explanation on the syntax, see: this link on http://docs.sun.com) in directory /zones/webserv-z/root/etc so you don't have to go through all the configuration screens after connecting to the new zone the first time:
$ cat > /zones/webserv-z/root/etc/sysidcfg
system_locale=C
timezone=Europe/Berlin
terminal=xterms
security_policy=NONE
timeserver=localhost
root_password=PASSWD_STRING
name_service=dns {domain_name=DOMAIN.TLD
name_server=DNS_IP_ADDR_1,DNS_IP_ADDR_2
search=DOMAIN.TLD
}
network_interface=primary {hostname=webserv-z
ip_address=192.168.0.20
netmask=255.255.255.0
protocol_ipv6=yes
default_route=192.168.0.1
}
nfs4_domain=dynamic
Before proceeding, please replace the placeholders DOMAIN.TLD, DNS_IP_ADDR_1, and DNS_IP_ADDR_2 by the names or addresses of your choice! For PASSWD_STRING (root_password parameter), you may use the old (short) password string from a Solaris 10 /etc/shadow file. If you do not use the root_password parameter in the sysidcfg file, you will be asked for the root password during initial zone boot.
- Wait! Before booting the zone, unmount it first:
zoneadm -z webserv-z unmount
- Now you can boot the zone:
$ zoneadm -z webserv-z boot
- Log in to the zone:
root@soly:/# zlogin -C webserv-z
[Connected to zone 'webserv-z' console]
Loading smf(5) service descriptions: 27/68
...
68/68
Reading ZFS config: done.
Mounting ZFS filesystems: (5/5)
Creating new rsa public/private host key pair
Creating new dsa public/private host key pair
Configuring network interface addresses: sfe0.
After a while, a series of screens will be displayed which ask you to select missing system configuration information. Use the <F2> key or <esc> 2 to go from one screen to the next. After that, a login prompt will be displayed, and you can login to the newly created zone:
webserv-z console login: root
Password:
Dec 8 10:12:14 webserv-z login: ROOT LOGIN /dev/console
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_101b November 2008
The output of the df -k command should display the following file systems (probably with slightly different values in the "used" column and totally different values in the "avail" column (depends on your disk and swap space size):
root@webserv-z:~# df -k
Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on
/ 0 240451 186876163 1% /
/dev 0 0 0 0% /dev
proc 0 0 0 0% /proc
ctfs 0 0 0 0% /system/contract
mnttab 0 0 0 0% /etc/mnttab
objfs 0 0 0 0% /system/object
swap 775608 196 775412 1% /etc/svc/volatile
/usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap1.so.1
187116614 240451 186876163 1% /lib/libc.so.1
fd 0 0 0 0% /dev/fd
swap 775412 0 775412 0% /tmp
swap 775420 8 775412 1% /var/run
root@webserv-z:~#
- Install Apache and prerequisites in the local zone:
$ pkg install SUNWapch22
root@webserv-z:~# pkg install SUNWapch22
Refreshing Catalog 1/1 opensolaris.org
Creating Plan \
DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB)
SUNWapch22 0/4 0/1342 0.00/5.85
SUNWperl584core 3/4 913/1342 4.21/5.85
- Start the web server:
root@webserv-z:~# svcadm enable apache22
- Point your browser to http://webserv-z or http://192.168.0.20 and see the first web page!
Now you can change the file /var/apache2/2.2/htdocs/index.html according to your needs and watch the web page changing after reloading it in the browser!
Note: If you need to clean up the configuration, I suggest using the following commands:
$ zoneadm -z webserv-z uninstall -F
$ zonecfg -z webserv-z delete -F
$ zfs destroy -r rpool/zones
Be careful! These commands perform uninstall, delete or destroy actions without confirmation!. The zfs destroy command shown will also destroy all other zfs file systems that were created for other zones with zone root path starting with /zones!
Wednesday Dec 10, 2008
Why? Because of: Security, Package Manager, ZFS Time Slider, ZFS, Zones, integrated CIFS and NFS file server, and more.
Who? Everyone that needs a robust and secure operating system with some really unique features and a growing community. For example: for safe web surfing without having to install a virus scanner, for creating office documents, for building a flexible multimedia file server or for programming.
Where to download? http://www.opensolaris.org/os/downloads/. On the right, under "Quick Download Links", click on OpenSolaris 2008.11 to download the image. You can then burn a bootable CD from it, install it on your internal or external hard disk or on a USB stick, or use it as a bootable image in VirtualBox.
What else?
Wednesday Dec 10, 2008
Please read this and this page, and
this and this after 09:00 PDT today...
Thursday Dec 04, 2008
Those of you who have not yet loaded http://docs.sun.com into your browser, please do so now and I'm sure you'll notice many of the improvements since the the last version.
Navigation and loading of pages appears to be much faster than before, and I also like the layout better. Thanks to everyone who made that possible!
Thursday Feb 07, 2008
Why to download and install the new SXDE 1/08[Read More]
Tuesday Jan 15, 2008
A sample session of the zone-clone and delete-cloned-zones scripts:[Read More]
Tuesday Jan 15, 2008
Click here to see the full text:[Read More]
Sunday Jan 13, 2008
This is a short description for changing default font sizes with Gnome and the Nvidia driver for Solaris.[Read More]
Wednesday Jan 09, 2008
Click here for details:[Read More]
Friday Jan 04, 2008
Click here to see the full text:[Read More]
Tuesday Aug 28, 2007
Looks like more and more customers see Solaris and our T2000 and other Niagara Chip based systems as a real alternative to servers with high single thread performance running other operating systems for their web applications. This is where our Startup Essentials program can help a lot. Read this report about a company that had been using Linux only and now has successfully started using Solaris on T2000.
Solaris will make the transition from other operating systems even more easy in the future, with more GNU tools integrated, more hardware drivers, better installation and administration experience, and more. If you haven't tried it, just download and install it on one of your PCs at home!
Thursday Apr 26, 2007
Somehow, my original post (my (.)profile...) got lost. So here are my up-to-date .profile and .kshrc files. Please download them directly via right mouse key and do not load it into a browser window and copy and paste it from there, as one of the files contains a binary character.
There's some interesting stuff in it:
- a two-line prompt that contains the current time
- a function ("md") that creates a directory and walks (cd) into it
- a function ("d2u") that converts DOS line endings into UNIX line endings.
- a function ("fp") that searches for entries in the software installation database /var/sadm/install/contents
- a vi function (hhxpl) mapped to the unused key "q" which toggles the last two characters, just like Emacs' t
Wednesday Apr 11, 2007
See this for some very good how-to guides on various Solaris 10 administration topics.
Friday Apr 06, 2007
My colleagues just "told" [1], [2] me that ZFS, the upcoming standard filesystem (my personal opinion, but search for zfs Windows in the web and you'll see what I mean), has made its way into FreeBSD!
Wednesday Apr 04, 2007
How to create a formatted list of links from a simple multi-language input file[Read More]
Thursday Mar 15, 2007
How to create a bootable Solaris DVD using Solaris Nevada on a Dell GX110 PC[Read More]
Thursday Dec 28, 2006
Short HOWTO on multibooting Solaris, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows XP, installed on one hard disk. Installation order was Solaris Express, Windows XP, and Ubuntu Linux.[Read More]
Wednesday Sep 06, 2006
Short Howto about a powerful but simple notification system for new log entries[Read More]
Tuesday Aug 29, 2006
Short Howto about the basic customization of gdm so any user can perform a shutdown[Read More]
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Thanks man. this was extremely helpful.
This prob...
Oh ...
Thanks, this solves indeed the problem. Just an ad...