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Building a System with the Solaris OS, x86 Platform Edition, for Under $500

Purpose

My aim in this article is to help the reader build an inexpensive machine running on the Solaris OS, x86 Platform Edition. The article covers my experience building such a system, the types of hardware needed, and the steps for installing the software. If everything goes as planned, you should be able to spend your hard-earned money and create a functional install of the Solaris OS for your computing pleasure. The process will require a basic familiarity with PC hardware as well as software installation.

Requirements

• Approximately US$500.00, to be spent on hardware for your system. Substitute this with old pieces of computer equipment lying around your room, if you so desire. The idea is to use common PC parts found just about anywhere.
• The Solaris x86 install media: Purchase from Sun or an authorized reseller, as a media kit or downloadable CD images.
• A Philips screwdriver and elbow grease. While this article doesn't cover the step-by-step PC hardware construction, expect that you might be opening up a box and installing or removing parts. It is best to be prepared.

Hardware Acquisition

The very first thing to do before you buy any equipment is to check out the Solaris x86 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Since we are trying to build this system for as little money as possible, we may not be able to limit ourselves to using only parts on this list. If you cannot find a base system on the HCL that meets your price/performance requirements, you can be adventurous and try something that is not on the HCL (such as my base system used for this article). If you do this, here are some tips:

• Select a retailer that has a flexible return policy and doesn't have added charges for opened boxes.
• Try to buy a bare-bones system with just the motherboard and case. You can then select video and networking cards that are on the HCL.
• If you are buying a complete system, try to get something with Linux installed, so that you can avoid paying for an operating system you don't plan on using.
• Use a different hard drive to perform the installation on, in case you need to return the system.
• Don't be afraid to hit junk or warehouse computer stores for parts. They could have top-of-the-line machines for bottom-of-the-line prices.

The system I built specifically for this article (using the cheapest parts) consisted of three purchases: the bare-bones system, the video card, and the network card.

I got a GC 50042 base system from Outpost.com with all the goodies (hard drive, CD-ROM, memory, and so on). The average system runs between $300 and $400, but mine came in at $230 because it had a Linux distribution installed on it. The model I purchased had an AMD chipset, but you can also find Intel Celeron systems in this price range. This machine had a built-in video card and NIC, but neither of them was supported by the Solaris 9 OS, x86 Platform Edition, so I got add-on cards.

This is the one item where it's hard to find cheap and usable mixed together in one unit. I settled for a middle-of-the-road $65 ATI Radeon 7500 (it's in the HCL). Trying to get a cheaper generic card to work with X Window systems is more advanced a complication than the average reader would care to delve into.

If the motherboard you are using had a built-in NIC, you might be lucky enough for it to use a chipset recognized by the Solaris 9 OS, x86 Platform Edition. Since I was not lucky enough to have my system work out of the box, I found a D-Link 530TX+ for $20 that worked perfectly.

Installation: The Initial OS

Here's the best way to approach installing OS software onto a machine that hasn't been tested for that software: Assume that most of the parts will not work. With that principle in mind, we will do a bare minimum install so as to avoid as many headaches as possible. We will not install the GUI, nor will we necessarily worry about the network card. Once we know there are no major headaches from having our parts in the system, we can then try a more advanced and complete installation.

Note: I found that the Solaris 9 OS, x86 Platform Edition, on most machines tested, did not like to be installed using a USB keyboard. Having the mouse plugged in caused no issues, but having the keyboard attached locked up the affected machines during the driver scanning process. These instructions assume you can skip the problem by using a PS/2 keyboard during the install. (USB keyboards worked after the install just fine on these affected machines.)

The install media comes as three CDs: Installation, Software 1 of 2, and Software 2 of 2. The Installation CD, while useful for a GUI install, is not required and so will not be used in our examples. Instead, you should boot off Software 1 of 2.

Your first stop after booting from the install media will be the "Solaris Device Configuration Assistant." This scan tries and identifies the components installed, and it associates the correct driver with them. Choose to have the entire system scanned (F2).

Note: If the scan produces a resource conflict error message, make note of it, but do not worry. Most of the machines tested produced this error, caused by multiple devices sharing the same IRQ. Motherboards with sound or Ethernet cards built-in commonly do this. Just bypass this warning by pressing Enter.

Once this scan is done, you should see a list of installed parts the system cares about. Most will work perfectly fine if they show up on this list as generic devices, such as the floppy disk or motherboard. Two pieces of hardware need to be identified by a proper designator so that they will work without extra effort on your part: the Ethernet controller and the video adapter. If either one of these shows up with a generic name, special attention will be required to get these working properly.

The next screen you come to is the "Boot Solaris" screen, which should have a list of identified bootable devices. This list contains every device that could possibly have a boot kernel on it, not every device that does. You should see every hard drive present on the system, as well as any CD-ROM drives. Select the CD-ROM drive that contains the "Software 1 of 2" CD. Typically, it's the only CD device listed.

Now you are running the install kernel located on the CD. You will be asked to choose between two installation methods, of which you will want to pick Solaris Interactive. After more system booting information, you will be required to pick your language and locale (0 & 0). Now, the installation program will truly begin.

The Solaris Installation Program: The menu system for a Solaris OS install is fairly self-explanatory. We are doing a basic install, so there are not a lot of special install needs except for the following points:

• If you don't know what the answer might be, F2 is the safe default.
• When you come to the kdmconfig section, skip configuring the window system by pressing F4. Since you can configure this from the command line once you have a running system, we are going to skip troubleshooting this during the install process.
• For our purposes, we want to install "Entire Distribution plus OEM support". This will give you all the goodies to play with, even if you don't need them. If you want a cleaner system with the bare minimum (for our purposes), I suggest the "Developer System Support" software group. Depending on your hardware, we might be compiling code and need the extra drivers and libraries not found in the End User or Core groups.
• For ease of use (not necessarily the best practice), you can make use of the auto_layout feature of the installer when partitioning your hard drive. You only need to check / and swap (default). Now you've done a run-through of the install process. Once you know how the system will be used, reinstall the OS with the proper partitioning for that purpose.
• Choose "Manual Reboot" when prompted.

After you finish going through all the prompting, sit back and watch the meter show the software installing. Once the first CD is done installing, your system should be at a # prompt, and it will require rebooting. Remove the CD from the drive and type init 6.

After the system reboots and goes through the initial configuration (including having you set the root password), you will be asked to configure the windowing system. Skip this by pressing Ctrl-D. The system will then ask for Software 2 of 2. Put this in and install the rest of the software. Again, the system will want to reboot. When it comes back up, you will have a new Solaris 9 x86 install.

Installation: The Windowing System

When configuring the window system, be it on initial install or using the command-line (kdmconfig), the steps are the same. The menu system will ask you to validate the auto-detected hardware, which includes the pointing device, monitor, and video card. It will then test these choices by running the windowing system.

If you have a card you really want to use, but it is neither auto-detected nor on the HCL, you should try the third-party drivers and windowing systems references on the Drivers page of the Solaris x86 site.

Installation: The Network

If the card you had in the system at installation does not work with the Solaris OS, you do not need to reinstall the entire OS to enable networking in the future. Simply install a new NIC and use the hardware scan option prompted during the system's initial boot. You can also force a scan by by creating /reconfigure: just type: touch /reconfigure and then reboot. Another way to force a scan is to boot with the -r option. Both of these options work with installs of the SPARC Platform Edition of the Solaris OS. After the re-scan, the drivers for your NIC will be enabled so that you can manually configure it (see the steps described in Network Configuration on the Solaris Platform).

Next Step

At this point, you should have a freshly installed Solaris 9 OS x86 system that is on the network and has a graphical display. The next step is to find a use for this system, such as to make it into your mail server, or store your data onto it. The following sites can help you make the most of your system:

• SunSolve: Patch center to keep your system up to date
• BigAdmin x86 Collection: Resources relating to x86 platform
• Sun's Download Center: Various products to download from Sun
• Sun Freeware: Free third-party software that has been compiled and packaged to run on the Solaris OS (SPARC and x86 platforms)
• Solaris x86: All things Solaris and x86 related
• GNU Project: A large collection of applications useful on any OS