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What to Do When There Is No Login Window After Installing the Solaris 10 OS

Victor Feng, October 2007

After installing the Solaris 10 Operating System (or upgrading to the Solaris 10 OS), some system administrators notice that the login window has disappeared. On systems that run the Solaris OS for SPARC platforms, one of the reasons this can occur is that output-device is ttya and input-device is ttya: In this case, the /dev/fb file is not created.

Note: This tech tip is typically for the Solaris 10 OS for SPARC platforms, but its principles can be applied to the Solaris 10 OS for x86 platforms, too.

The solution provided in this tech tip applies to the scenario where /dev/fb does not exist or does not link to the real graphic card device.

Identifying the Problem

To identify the problem, run the following command:

root@host# /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun
  /dev/fb: No such file or directory
  /dev/fb: No such file or directory
  Graphics Adapter device /dev/fb is of unknown type

If there is no /dev/fb file or the file is not linked to your graphic card device, apply the following solution to resolve the problem.

Applying the Solution

The basic procedure is to find the graphic card, link the graphic card to /dev/fb, and then restart the cde-login service.

1. First, run the following command, where $GRAPHIC_CARD_MODEL is the model of your graphic card:

root@host# find /devices -name "*$GRAPHIC_CARD_MODEL*"

For example, I have a SUN XVR-100 graphic card, so I use find /devices -name "*XVR*".

2. Then run the following commands:

root@host# ls -l /dev/fb*
root@host# ln -s $GRAPHIC_CARD_DEVICE /dev/fb

The value you use for $GRAPHIC_CARD_DEVICE depends on your system.

I found "/devices/pci\@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100\@1:pfb0" for my Sun Fire V240 server using the following procedure:

root@host# find /devices -name "*XVR*"
/devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1
/devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0b
/devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0a
/devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0
root@host#
root@host# ls -l /dev/fb*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  8 Sep 12 15:35 /dev/fb0 -> fbs/pfb0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  9 Sep 12 15:35 /dev/fb1 -> fbs/pfb0a
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  9 Sep 12 15:35 /dev/fb2 -> fbs/pfb0b

/dev/fbs:
total 6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  47 Sep 12 15:35 pfb0 ->
  ../../devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  48 Sep 12 15:35 pfb0a ->
  ../../devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0a
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  48 Sep 12 15:35 pfb0b ->
  ../../devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0b

I got $GRAPHIC_CARD_DEVICE based on pfb0 -> ../../devices/pci@1d,700000/SUNW,XVR-100@1:pfb0.

3. Finally, run the following command:

# svcadm restart cde-login

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