ML Starkey's Weblog: Service with a smile!
Providing Technical Support to Sun's customers and other topics

Sun Alert 271519 (public Sun Alert) outlines possible negative impacts to probe-based IPMP (IP Multipathing) configurations after 141444-09 (Sparc) and 141445-09 (x86) kernel patch installation.

Full details are in the Sun Alert including:

* affected Solaris versions
* how to determine if your system is affected
* Symptoms, messages and snoop outputs for this problem

Sun does not recommend removing the offending patches and provides binary relief to contract customers via normal support channels.

New SDRAM modules have been installed in the AMD Duron 1.3GHz system which now has the max. RAM for the board (1.5G). With only this change:

* OpenSolaris boots up, but it doesn't configure the Zyxel G302 wireless card or the onboard AC97 audio.
* Ubuntu hangs with a black screen and a white mouse pointer in the middle. The mouse pointer is frozen, but the keyboard has worked fine up until that point.

For a sanity check, trying my Toshiba Laptop with a 2.0 Pentium M chip and 1G of RAM. Another family member is using this system Monday thru Friday, so I can't take it over:
* OpenSolaris starts to boot, but hangs on a blue screen with the "OpenSolaris" logo in the lower right corner.
* Ubuntu just works! Wireless is configured, sound is configured. I plug in my Lexmark X4530 and it can't find a driver, but offers a screen to select a PPD file: I didn't have to do anything but plug it in.

Conclusion: Everything is a project. Since the goal is a Linux desktop at home, I'm trying for the path of least resistance. There is a wiki for debugging live cd and other Ubuntu boot problems, so I'll start there.

My daughter is off to college this Fall and now has a nice Toshiba laptop to use at home and school. This means that I now have a machine to install OpenSolaris (and other OS') on! But, alas, the system lacks the necessary memory for OpenSolaris and won't run the live CD. (The system won't run the Ubuntu 9.04 release either) There were also errors about the USB buses not responding and being taken offline ("No SOF interrupts have been received. This USB UHCI host controller is unusable.") I'm hoping that a memory boost may help. If not, well, that could be a problem.

A quick check of SDRAM prices shows that it will be about $100 to update this machine. Which is an AMD Duron 1.3GHz on a K7T Turbo2 ATX MB with (currently) 256MB of RAM. State of the art for 2002, but plenty of horsepower for non-Windows machines. Well, once I update the RAM to the max, which looks like it will have to be 3 new 512MB DIMMS. Will have to shop around a bit and see how low I can get decent RAM.

Then the adventure can continue . . . .

Creating an OpenSolaris Guest OS with VirtualBox 2.1.0 on Windows XP.[Read More]

I was just sent a link to Dell's tech support page that confirms the issue and resolution on their platform. You can find my original entry on this here.

Saturday Afternoon Sci-Fi Theatre meets the University of California, Berkeley as scientists there create a "metamaterial" that reflects light around an object in the manner that water flows around a rock in a stream.[Read More]

This is a virtualization config example utilizing Windows XP as the Host OS and OpenSolaris 2008.05 as the Guest OS. This is also my 1st hands on with virtualization. The concept of virtualization is simple to grasp, it's just another sort of multitasking for computers, something they already excel at.

Virtualization has the potential for enormous growth if it can live up to expectations around energy savings through computer consolidation and smaller data centers and real or perceived performance issues. In my world, this provides us with a way to wring out all the cycles and resources out of the lab equipment we have available to us.

In specific "geek" terms, this is example of a Hosted or Type 2 hypervisor environment. The hosted OS, OpenSolaris, is running 3 levels above the Intel x86 hardware. In comparison, a Bare-metal or Type 1 hypervisor environment runs on the hardware directly. The Guest OS runs at the second level above the hardware. Bare Metal/Type 1 is the virtualization you get with the T1000 and T2000 servers and Logical Domains (LDOMS).

The Hypervisor is the software that implements the VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor), which allows multiple OS' to run on the same machine simultaneously.

Different hypervisor implementations use different methods to provide the Virtualization Layer. Differences include whether the guest OS is aware of the hypervisor or not; whether the hypervisor translates OS instructions on the fly or provides hypercalls to the virtualization layer hypervisor; or if HVM (Hardware Assisted Virtualization) will be used. There are varying degrees of performance among these different approaches.

HARDWARE
===========
One Toshiba Satellite model A105 - S361 Intel laptop with the following stats:

Centrino Pentium M 2.0 GHz
1 GB of RAM
120GB HD
SOFTWARE
========
Windows XP home version 2002 SP2

Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6.2 for Windows (x86), Multi-language, 22.53 MB

OpenSolaris 2008.05 ISO

VirtualBox user guide

PROCEDURE:
++++++++++++
Part One
Install VirtualBox on laptop. This requires 44MB on the hard drive, while the subfeatures require 164KB. These subfeatures consist of VirtualBox USB support (100KB) and VirtualBox network adapter driver.

As the product documentation notes, the VirtualBox setup program "has not passed windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP".

Part Two
Run VirtualBox and create an OpenSolaris virtual machine allocating the recommended base memory size of 512MB. Select a hard disk image. I click NEW and use the default file location and name (OpenSolaris 2008.05 and .VirtualBox\VDI\OpenSolaris 2008.05.vdi under the xp user root's documents and settings. 16GB VHDD to reported to the Guest OS). The final summary is displayed and hit finish to create the HDD image

Now the Virtual Hard Disk box is redisplayed and there is now a item in the dropdown list under "Boot Hard Disk (Primary Master)". With that selected, hit next. [noted that the finish dialog box indicated that the settings of any created virtual machine can be changed at any time using "the 'settings' dialog accessible through the menu of the main window".

Start of my new VM that is now displayed in the main window. A box is displayed regarding using the right control key. It reads:

"You have the Auto capture Keyboards option turned on. This will cause the VM to automatically capture the keyboard every time the VM windows is activated and make it unavailable to the other apps running on your host machine: when the keyboard is captured, al keystrokes (including systems ones like alt-tab) will be directed to the VM. You can press the host key at any time to uncapture the keyboard and mouse if it is captured and return them to normal operation. The currently assigned host key is shows on the status bar at the bottom of the Virtual Machine windows, next the (down arrow) icon. This icon, together with the mouse icon placed nearby, indicate the current keyboard and mouse capture state. The host key is currently defined as Right Ctrl. [Do not show this message again]". I find that my laptop keyboard has no right control key (only a left and that doesn't work for that purpose, so I use the windows "three finger salute" (control=alt=delete), close the task manager that opens and I'm back to my host OS.

Part Three
now I can add the opensolaris ISO to the list. A twist: I am adding this ISO from the shared documents folder on my desktop PC, so that the path to the bootable ISO is \\cora\shareddocuments\os200805.iso. Meaning that I'm pulling in the ISO info over the windows CIFS network.

Now OpenSolaris is found and will startup within the virtual machine. I'm now looking at the GRUB menu. Entering the OpenSolaris option; now there are dots going slowly across the screen and the little "hdd" icon at the bottom of the VM window is blinking away. Now the "preparing live iage for use" displays the keyboard and language choices. I am prompted to change the 24 bit color mode of the XP host OS to 32 bit, but that's what I'm already doing. Restarting after changing XP to 16 bit video does the trick.

After another warning about how the Auto Capture Keyboards feature works (time to shut that off now), I'm looking at an Opensolaris desktop running in the VirtualBox VM. There is currently a dialog box telling me that e1000g0 is up with address 10.0.2.15. I can't get to the defaultrouter on my internal network (a netgear router) and am unable to add a defaultroute (Network is Unreachable). Back to the user guide and now I understand that the VM has configured NAT for me and sure enough, I can get to www.sun.com.

That completes my 1st attempt at virtualization and 2nd attempt to run OpenSolaris. The next config to try is to re-partition the hard drive and configure OpenSolaris as a dual boot with Windows XP. Or I can just have fun with my OpenSolaris Virtual Machine and save the trouble. Or I can run virtualbox on Solaris and create some Windows VMs. Or Linux VMs. I hate the cliche about "endless possibilities", but it fits here and fits virtualization in general.

I started over on my install project and received some unexpected, but welcome assistance to explain the problems I've been having with missing packages AND a method to overcome them.

Now I have a jumpstart version of Solaris 10 8/07 up and running on sunny with everything included. I'll need to upgrade the antique OBP firmware in my antique Ultra 5 in order to get around the can't read the CD issues I had with install disk #2. This is faster and allows me to move on.

But even though it's a fresh install I still have some little bugaboos to deal with.

Switched from dhcp to static. I decided I don't like dhcp always overwriting everything, I'm too used to having control. I guess I should have listened to Dennis Clarke.

GNOME won't work unless add FQHN to /etc/hosts (thought I did that, but perhaps left remnants of dhcp around, although I did remove the /etc/hostname.dhcp0 file)

JDS: The U5 doesn't have enough horsepower or decent graphics capability to run JDS; graphics very poor, but not going to be using them. It's a good thing because it takes all the Xscreensaver problem; errors on JDS start, etc. items off the list. I can use network neighborhood to view shared docs file from my laptop after providing windows username and password of the account I'm signed into.

nmbd doesn't start at boot on s10 u4. I had heard about that and will have to look into it.

Good stuff:

ttya console works great with a CablesToGo USB to serial DB25 adapter and a Belkin DB25F/DB25M null modem block. That little addition was about $40, but worth it to be able to get rid of a monitor I don't have space for anyway.

A non-network console is always a nice item for watching or logging console messages and upgrades.
**********************************
I ordered a free copy of Opensolaris from the "Get Free Media - OpenSolaris CD" link at opensolaris.com/get. It arrived a few days ago and I had the 1st opportunity to boot it up yesterday. I have a "white box" system (actually the case is a cool black) from apexnh.com: Intel Core2 Duo 2.33 GHz with 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 2 - DVD/CD-ROM/RAM drives and a Turtle Beach sound card. Before I can install it, I have to create another partition on my drive. Luckily, there is a nice tutorial here. You can find that link and others off the OpenSolaris Knowledge Center page .

In the meantime, I'm booting up the Live CD and finding the experience very Ubuntu-like. Live CD like Ubuntu: check. Simple desktop with the menu bar at the top: check. Pleasing blue-black screen: there's a change! Found my Canon Pixma IP3000 printer (to be expected as this model is several years old). The default user for the Live CD is "jack" with a default password of "jack". The root password is opensolaris, which is also the default hostname in this mode. I couldn't figure out how to use Rhythmbox to play an mp3 from my WD USB drive. Either the app is not intuitive or there is something wrong. I thought perhaps not all the abilities are enabled in Live CD mode, but that's speculation on my part. I'm not going to waste cycles on it until I get it installed for real.

Next up: Continue picking away at the S10 U4 annoyances as needed. Boot up the Live CD on my 2 year old Toshiba laptop and see how it works there (especially the wireless capabilities). Start organizing the desktop PC to be backed up and repartition the disk (plan A). Have Windows CD and all drivers at the ready in case the partitioning goes all wrong and a reload is needed (plan B).

I keep picking away at the post install issues I've seen as time allows. Today, I fixed the loghost problem (thanks to a reader's suggestion. Thanks again, 198.151.12.8 whoever you are!)

Now I'm facing the "cde won't start" problem and I think I see the problem:

# svcs -l cde-login

(snipped)

dependency require_all/none svc:/application/font/fc-cache (absent)

I can't find anything useful on sunsolve.sun.com or Google. I'm still thinking this could have something to do with the install disk #2 issue I had and that I'm missing a package. I'll work on figuring out what package fc-cache comes from to start. I'm way out of my area of expertise here, but it's a useful stretch.

See our requisition at the Sun jobs site here. If you want a challenge, the Network Support Team is the place to be!

How can I import contacts into linkedin.com if I don't have an Aol, ACT!, Palm, etc. export file?[Read More]

Solaris 10 8/07 (a.k.a. Update 4) contains full support for RFCs 826 and 3927 meaning it will no longer ignore arp info off the wire that is incorrect. Introduce a Broadcom NIC driver on a PC configured as "teamed" that likes to send out bogus arps, and the fun begins.

See the opensolaris.org discussion here.

If you have Solaris 10 Update 4 machines experiencing intermittent hangs or inability to communicate, only to clear up and re-occur, time to rule this in or out. It's pretty easy to identify if you are running into this:

for example:

capture "netstat -p" to a file when communication is normal and then again when the communication is hung, (but not yet recovered). A diff will show you this:

# diff /tmp/netstat_p4_working /tmp/netstat_p4_notworking

< e1000g0 123.45.67.100 255.255.255.255 00:14:4f:2d:6c:86
> e1000g0 123.45.67.100 255.255.255.255 00:15:17:3d:bc:2c

If you find incorrect MACs, they will most likely start with an Intel or Dell vendor code. Those intrusive MACs will belong to a PC using a Broadcom NIC in "teamed" mode. (The opensolaris discussion link above has a snapshot of this in Ethereal.)

Solaris will conform to RFC 3927 and will "defend" it addresses. When that happens, the problem will resolve. Until the next time the teamed NIC interfaces send out bogus info. As an immediate workaround, unconfigure "nic teaming" on the affected Windows interfaces. Contact your PC vendor for an updated driver.

I had 2 - 3 outstanding issues from yesterday's install. While fixing them, I found more issues.

1. syslogd complains that line 24: WARNING: loghost could not be resolved

2. sendmail is complaining about it's unqualified hostname and unable to qualify my own domain name.

Resolution: provide a domainname.

If you are using static IP addresses, the easiest thing to do is add a fully qualified domain name to the hosts table and you are done:

192.168.1.1 sunny.foo.com sunny loghost

But I'm currently a dhcp client and dhcp edits my /etc/hosts file and anything added to the standard entry is erased. The standard entry looks like this:

192.168.1.2 sunny # Added by DHCP

I needed another way. Google to the rescue. Since all sendmail wants is a domain name and doesn't really care where it comes from (local files, name service, etc.), I added the ".foo.com" to the /etc/nodename file after the hostname, so now that file contains: sunny.foo.com

Correcting the domain name also fixed the syslogd error. That seemed odd until I realized there is no "loghost" defined in the /etc/hosts file created by DHCP. But I ran into another snag with this config: now naming doesn't resolve correctly. After a bit of fiddling, I realized that "sunny.foo.net" is a REAL host out there. Check this out:

Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.10 Generic January 2005
# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
hme0: flags=1004843 mtu 1500 index 2
inet 192.168.1.2 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
ether 8:0:20:b5:46:c5

but getent hosts says:

# getent hosts sunny
216.234.246.150 sunny.foo.com

When troubleshooting naming problems, it's a good idea to disable nscd (the name service cache daemon). This ensures you are getting fresh, and not cached, info when querying:

# svcs name-service-cache
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 14:59:02 svc:/system/name-service-cache:default

dnstools.com confirms that sunny.foo.com is out there:

sunny.foo.com resolves to 216.234.246.150
Domain Whois Results:

Registrant: DigiMedia.com, L.P.
4245 Kemp Blvd., Ste 818
Wichita Falls, TX 76308
US
Domain name: FOO.COM

oops.

/etc/resolv.conf is using the netgear as the name server: nameserver 192.168.1.1

/etc/nsswitch.conf for hosts and ipnodes is using: files dns

Another method to fix this would be for the DHCP server to provide the info when the client boots. Not sure if there is a method to configure the Netgear and dhcp client to send the proper info. Now I'm not sure I want to continue as a DHCP client. It's really getting to be more of a project than I intended. Not to mention a recipe for how NOT to configure DHCP : )

Ok, just a few more things to try with the hostname.hme0 file . . . no luck. Now I'm back to sendmail complaining (syslogd is running however; perhaps adding "inet sunny" to /etc/hostname.hme0 helped there?). But now "getent hosts sunny" resolves to what it should.

A longstanding issue with the hme0 interface was resolved by Solaris 10. I was never able to get autonegotiation working between first a Linksys router/switch and later the Netgear. I had to force hme0 and then it would only work if I forced 10FDX; 100FDX refused to work either way. hme patches didn't help. Now I am finally autonegging:

NOTICE: hme0: 100Mbps full duplex link up

I've also discovered that when I have the VPN client running, I can't get to my local network anymore. This seems to be how Sun wants it to work: no access to a local network from a system currently connected to the Sun network via VPN. Any attempts at configuring a split tunnel would be sincerely frowned upon, it seems. I can understand that. It makes my need for a USB-serial adapter more urgent, if I can't talk to sunny on the local network when on the VPN.

That's enough for now. My rule is that when my neck starts to ache, it's time to wrap it up for the day!

Finally all the necessary circumstances have occurred (including uninterrupted time and enough RAM to support the install, among other things) and I can resume the Solaris 10 install I started back in 2005.

Here's the tale of the tape: The system is my trusty old Ultra 5 "sunny", which I purchased through Sun's employee discount almost 10 years ago: Sparc UltraSPARC-IIi 270 processor, 20G hard drive and 512MB of RAM. Pretty bare bones overall. I could scoop up a cheap and/or powerful desktop or server on Ebay or out of a pile destined for the recycling depot. I have run Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 9 on this hardware and now it's time to see what the latest and greatest Solaris 10 version can do right out of the box.

Also since it's time to upgrade our Solaris certifications to include Solaris 10, I'll need something for study purposes. This entry will serve as a log of sorts. It's not very pretty, it's more of a scratch pad. If you want a more detailed, illustrated how-to, you can refer to Dennis Clarke's Blastwave site "How to Install Solaris 10". His commentary is somewhat acerbic, but Solaris deserves that sometimes. Dennis also gives Solaris credit where it's due so he's fair. The release being installed at that site is update 3 on x86, but it looks pretty much the same from the "Section 3: Basic Configuration Data" on down. You can see some of the screens for options I didn't use here. Also noted are differences in the file system layout screens with info related to x86 fdisk and x86boot partitions.

I used Solaris Download Manager to get the 5 ISO images. That took hours, but included downloading and unzipping each image. The Solaris 10 page does warn to allow sufficient time for downloading, etc., so I was sufficiently warned. I used "Burn4Free" to create the disks.

7:15 am "boot cdrom" from the OK prompt

7:30 am I'm at the "select a language" prompt selecting English and the "Welcome" screen appears to tell me that info will be collected to configure Network, Kerberos, Name Service, NFSv4 Domain; Date and Time; Root Password; Services Profile and Power Management. And away we go . . . .

network connectivity: networked

Use DHCP: hmmm. I could do THAT and get the IP address I've assigned the U5's MAC from the Netgear router. I could also say "No" to DHCP to configure the interface manually. Since I'm curious if I'll be able to get the hme0 interface and the router to autoneg, which has been a problem in past installs, I'll go with DHCP. I can undo this easily later by configuring the proper /etc/hostname.hme0 and /etc/hosts files.

Enable IPv6: not at this time. That is easily configured after the fact if you want to play around with that.

Kerberos: no. I don't have any plans to play around with that now.

NFSv4 Domain name: Always lots of questions and concerns around this option from our customers. Here's what the prompt says:

"NFS version 4 uses a domain name that is automatically derived from the system's naming services. The derived domain name is sufficient for most configurations In a few cases, mounts that cross domain boundaries might cause files to appear to be owned by "nobody" due to the lack of a common domain name."

I'll go with "Use the NFSv4 domain derived by the system" (The other option is: "Specify a different NFSv4 domain.")

Time zone: default is "Geographic Continent/Country/Region". You can also select "Offset from GMT" and "Time Zone file". I'll use the default. This leads to a "tree" where you choose Continents, etc.

Root Password: select and confirm

Enabling Remote Services: Here you decide to only allow "ssh" for remote access to the system (selecting "no" here will do that). The default is "yes", which gives you a the types of remote services as in older Solaris releases. I'm going with the default. The screen also notes that this option is for new installs only, not for upgrades.

Selection Summary: confirm or go back and change/correct.

wait while the system is configured with these selections.

8:00am The install console screen says: identification is complete and the install begins.

Welcome to the Solaris installation. .. . click next

Installer options are now presented. Reboot automatically after software installation? (default is yes). Eject CD/DVD automatically after software installation? (default is yes) Will use the defaults.

Specify Media: cd/dvd is the default which I'll be using. You can also use: NFS; HTTP flash archive; FTP flash archive and local tape flash archive.

System is being initialized. Please wait . . .. (and a percent bar) 8:08 am 12% . . . . . 8:11 am 100% and the license agreement appears.

Select Upgrade or Initial Install: I'm going for broke and starting with a clean slate so "initial install". Upgrade installs can be ugly and there isn't anything on the drive I don't want to recreate anyway.

Default or Custom install: Custom. I always like to see what I'm getting/not getting b/t the 2 options.

Since English is installed by default, I'll select "next" for the "Software Localization" screen.

Locale: "english (POSIX C) (C) already selected.

Do I want "Solaris 10 Extra Value Software"? It only seems to be the Sun validation test suite. I'll pass and save 70MB

Now I can scan for "additional products", but only on a local or NFS filesystem (cd/dvd is grayed out). I'll say "None" which is the default.

"Gathering Solaris Cluster and Package Information"

Ah, here's some really useful screens to capture, the list of Solaris software groups.

Entire Group Plus OEM: Entire Solaris Software Group plus additional hardware drivers, including drivers for hardware not present at the time of installation

Entire Group: The developer Solaris software Group plus additional software needed for servers

Developer Group: End user Software Group plus additional support for software development including libraries, files, man pages and programming tools, but NOT compilers.

End User Group: sofrware recommended for an end users, including CDE and everything in the Core Solaris Software Group.

Core Group: minimum code required to boot and run a networked Solaris system.

Reduced Networking: minimum required software for a system with reduced network support.

I'll go with the default which is Entire Group. I can then drill down and select custom packages. Let's see what that has . . . I'll just look as I don't want to create a software dependency problem as the prompt warns. Ok that was interesting.

Disk selection: I have only one (c0t0d0 bootdisk) Required disk space: 6046MB Selected disk space: 38162MB

Preserve data? no (which is the default)

Gathering Disk Space requirements (another percent bar)

Time to layout some file systems. The system wants to do / 5534MB 2777 Cyls; swap 514MB 258 cyls; /export/home 32117MB 16121 cyls.

I'm going to modify. Here's what I came up with:

/ 17398MB
swap 5000MB
/var 2218MB
/opt 4000MB
/free 7419MB
/export/home 2127MB
(I didn't use slice 6)

Total of 38162MB total capacity is allocated. I ensure that everything was well above the "Min. Size" column.

Ready to Install and a list of all my selections for software groups filesystems and region/system locales appears. Now I select: Install now. It's 8:55am and sounds like a good break for some breakfast.

9:30 am and the system is prompting me for a reboot (after displaying a 90 second "pause" screen). I continue and the system is rebooting.

PART II
=======
SunOS release 5.10 Version Generic_120011-14 64 bit
hostname: unknown (guess I still have to fix that in Solaris 10 manually as I did in Solaris 9)
configuring devices
loading smf service descriptions (counts up to 113)
s7, s5 and s4 are clean
creating the rsa and dsa public/private keys
Starting the Common Desktop Environment CDE Version 1.6.3

Specify Media from which you will install Solaris 10 Software 2 for Sparc. I'll go with cd/dvd

Running into a snag. The dreaded "sendmail: unable to qualify my own domain name -- using shortname" and related errors are popping up from the "hostname: unknown" glitch. System seems to be hung. I'll give it some time. It's 9:38am.

just by clicking around the screen, I found the ghost of the "continue" button I wanted. It has prompted me for disk #2 and I'm clicking OK.

can't read disk #2. I'll stop to make another one from the iso image. That one is bad as well. Or not readable for whatever reason. I'm going to go back and say "skip" and see what happens. It is prompting me for disk #3 which appears to be readable as the screen is changing and I can hear the CDROM being read.

"Ready to Install"
Product: Solaris 10 packages (part 3)
Location: /
size: 941.56MB
install now, and another percent bar.

It's now 10:00 am . . . .

10:30am and it's asking for disk #4:
Solaris 10 Packages (part 4) size 557.76MB
Install now and another wait for the bar to progress.

Disk #5. I've had a break and when I return the screen is prompting me for the root password, so I don't know how long Disk #4 took. But it's 11:11 am and I'm going with #5 now. I didn't bother with the Languages CD so this should be it. Part 5 Solais 10 Packages 692.74MB.

PART III
========

The system has rebooted and is starting Solaris. Now I am shaking out various problems:

1. CDE won't start. It apparently is missing the fc-cache packages which are a required dependency. Immediately I think of the disk #2 issues I had at boot. Resolution status is not critical as I intend on putting the monitor I'm currently using as the console away after I have the system installed and running. Then I can use ssh or get a USB to RS-232 adapter to use the serial console from any of my PCs. I'll ignore that for a while.

2. I can insert CDs and cd to /cdrom but ls shows them as empty. I have tried disk #2 and disk #1. I know disk #1 can be read as I installed from it! Resolution status again not critical as I have the system installed and can figure this out later.

3. System still comes up as "unknown". Solaris 10 makes fixing this easy now; just create /etc/nodename and put the name you want in there. Seems to work as now at boot I see: "Hostname: sunny"

4. syslogd complains that line 24: WARNING: loghost could not be resolved

5. sendmail is complaining about it's unqualified hostname and unable to qualify my own domain name.

I know (ok, strongly suspect) #4 and #5 have to do with the DHCP client setup. I'll do some research and testing on install disk #2 and post further results.

Sun has always recommended using printer vendor software to install network printers. There are many benefits to this, but the most important benefit is that the vendor's software "driver" allows the use of special printer functions (tray selection, double-sided prints, landscape vs. portrait, etc.)

The most popular printers that we hear about are the models from Hewlett-Packard. You could say they are a "de-facto standard". The HP Unix printing software is "JetDirect" (which is also how HP refers to the printer's network interface). A call I had yesterday reminded me just how useful the JetDirect software/interface can be and why this nifty little package will save the sysadmin hours of frustration.

The customer was configuring printers and had trouble getting proper printouts and on some of the queues, any printouts at all. He was using Solaris 10 and mostly HP printers. The queues needed to be able to handle output from a financial program with lots of columns and landscape orientation.

I asked the customer why he was not using the HP software. He told me that he couldn't find the version for Solaris 10, so he assumed that HP no longer provided this support for Solaris.

This is an easy conclusion to come to if you are lucky enough to find the page on the HP website where you can download JetDirect. Here's the real story.

There is only one version of JetDirect software and it's SOLe134.PKG. This works for Solaris 2.5.1 through Solaris 10 (in the global zone).

It can be a challenge to find and it seems that the page changes often. There is one article on BigAdmin that contains a link to the download page.

Here's how to find the page everytime if the link shifts:

1. start at hp.com. Click the Software and driver downloads link. At that link "Download drivers and software (and firmware)" and search on: Printer Installer for Unix. NOTE: if you search on "Solaris", you will get a page that lists both JetDirect AND JetAdmin for Solaris. JetAdmin was EOL by HP in 2002.

2. This should give you a search page with a "HP JD Printer Installer for Solaris".

3. At the Printer Installer link, you will see a list of Solaris versions. Here's a tip: they are ALL the same and while Solaris 10 is not specifically listed, SOLe134.PKG will install and run in the global zone.

So why does HP hide this? HP has their own OS to support and, like any sort of search, knowing what to search FOR can make all the difference.

The customer I worked with had a working test queue up and running literally in minutes.