Solaris Operating
System for x86 Installation Check Tool
Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool detects
whether your x86 system is able to run the
Solaris 10 Operating System (OS).
If the system on which you want to run the Solaris OS already exists in the
Solaris OS Hardware
Compatibility Lists (HCL), then you do not need to use this tool.
Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool performs the following
two functions:
Loads the Solaris 10 OS kernel and searches for a hard
disk on your system.
Reports whether the Solaris device drivers exist for the devices that the tool
detects on your x86 system. This information helps you to determine whether the
Solaris 10 OS is likely to run on your system.
Installation Check Tool generates a driver report that shows whether a Solaris device driver exists for each device that the tool detects. The driver report also tells you whether the
driver is built-in the Solaris OS or whether a corresponding third-party driver exists.
Note: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.
Installation Check Tool enables you to copy this driver report to a
floppy disk or to USB storage. Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation
Check Tool displays a message if your system is suitable for installing the
Solaris 10 OS.
Installation Check Tool is updated periodically to include new
drivers in the driver database that the tool uses. Drivers that are integrated
into the Solaris OS and the third-party drivers that are known to work with the
Solaris OS are included in these updates. Check this web page periodically to
make sure that you are using the most current release of Installation Check Tool.
The tool also displays a message to remind you to check for a new release.
Solaris Operating
System for x86 Installation Check Tool 1.7
Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool 1.7 loads the Solaris 10 10/09 kernel. This page provides the following information about Installation Check Tool 1.7:
Use the CD that you burned with the install_check.1.7.iso file to boot
the x86 system that you want to check.
Installation Check Tool first loads the Solaris 10 10/09 kernel. The tool then
generates a report that shows the major PCI components in the system. The report also displays any
Solaris device drivers that exist for these devices.
This report is written to a tar file that is compressed by using the
gzip(1) utility.
You have the option to copy this report file to a floppy disk or to USB storage.
The report package includes the following files:
Text file that shows the same information as the screen output.
HTML report file that shows the complete content of the report. No
abbreviations are used.
The output of the prtconf -pv, prtdiag, and
prtconf -v commands.
The following example shows the text that is displayed on your
monitor.
================================================================================
Generating reports...
Vendor Device: Type Name Solaris Driver: 32BIT 64BIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATI Technologies V Radeon IGP 330M/340M/350M Y Y
ALi Corporation M M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio De... N N
ALi Corporation O M5457 AC'97 Modem Controller N N
O2 Micro, Inc. O OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus... Y Y
VIA Technologies U VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller Y Y
VIA Technologies U USB 2.0 Y Y
Texas Instruments F TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller ... Y Y
ALi Corporation S M5229 IDE Y Y
National Semicon.. N DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller T-1 T-1
Driver Notes:
Y - Solaris Driver Found; T - Third Party Driver; N - No Solaris Driver
Device Types:
V - Video; N - Network; S - Storage; M - Multimedia; U - USB; F - Firewire;
O - Other;
Third Party Driver Legend:
T-1 sfe http://homepage2.nifty.com/mrym3/taiyodo/eng/
Notes:
1. This system is likely to install Solaris 10 10/09. Check the list
above for driver availability for identified devices.
2. This tool is updated frequently to include additional device support.
Please check the following web site to ensure you are using the most current
version of this tool: http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/install_check.html
Copy reports to Floppy or USB or Reboot? [f/u/r]
================================================================================
If the system includes two devices that require a third-party driver, the
driver for the second device is labeled “T-2” in the driver
column of the table and in the Third Party Driver Legend.
If a report as shown in the previous example is displayed on your screen, and if
you do not receive any warning message that no disk is found, then you can install the
Solaris 10 10/09 OS on the system.
A device marked “N” might still work if one of the following situations is true:
A third-party driver exists for this device, but that third-party driver is not yet included in the Installation Check Tool database. Check this web page periodically to make sure that you are using the most current release of Installation Check Tool.
The device is not supported formally by a driver that is included in the Installation Check Tool database. In order to make that driver to work with the device, you might have to attach the driver to the device manually. This can be done by adding the device information into the /etc/driver_aliases file.
For example, the iprb driver is known to work on most Intel 100M network controllers, but only a few of these network controllers are formally supported by the iprb driver that is included in the Installation Check Tool database.
Your device is revision 9 of Marvell MV88SX6041 4-port SATA II PCI-X controller or Marvell MV88SX6041 8-port SATA II PCI-X controller. The marvell88sx driver that is included in the Solaris 10 10/09 release works for these devices.
The next step is to check whether drivers exist for other on-board devices,
such as network devices, video devices, and audio devices.
NOTE: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.
If you have general questions or suggestions about the Installation Check
Tool, send an email to
install-check-feedback@sun.com.
If you want to suggest particular drivers that should be integrated into the
Solaris OS, send an email to
driver-request@sun.com.
See Solaris OS for x86 Device Support
for the latest list of devices that are supported by the Solaris OS on x86
platforms.
If you have problems while installing the Solaris 10 10/09 OS after Installation Check
Tool reported that you should be able to install it, send an email to
install-check-feedback@sun.com
and include the following information:
Describe the problem in detail. For example, describe the installation step
where the failure has occurred and include any messages that are displayed on the
monitor.
Attach the report generated by Installation Check Tool.
What should I do if the Installation Check Tool displays the following
message during installation?
Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory.
This error indicates that the Installation Check Tool CD is not burned correctly. The CD ROM cannot successfully read the content on this CD. Burn a new Installation Check Tool CD.
Why is my system not generating the Installation Check Tool driver report?
Your system might have encountered a problem in the Solaris 10 10/09 OS or your system might not be able to run the Solaris 10 10/09 OS correctly. The driver report should be displayed approximately one minute after you boot your system by using the Installation Check Tool CD.
To determine whether you have encountered a problem in the Solaris 10 10/09 OS, check one of the following resources:
Why cannot I copy the report that is generated by Installation Check Tool to the USB disk?
Installation Check Tool copies the reports only to the slice 0 of Solaris OS partitions on the USB disk. If your USB disk does not have a UFS file system on slice 0, the following error message is displayed:
No FAT or UFS filesystem found on USB device.
What should I do when the following message is displayed while loading the Solaris 10 10/09 kernel?
NOTICE: Failed to initialize inband hotplug controller
Ignore this message. The system continues to boot normally. This message is displayed because the hardware or BIOS reports that the slot has hot-pluggable capability. However, the platform does not support the hot-plug controller. If the platform supports hot-plugging, contact Solaris Operating System on x86 Support.
Why is my system displaying that no hard disks are found?
Your system might not be able to run the Solaris 10 10/09 OS due to one of the following causes:
A hard disk is correctly connected to your system but Installation Check Tool cannot recognize the disk. Check whether a third-party driver exists for the controller that is connected to the disk. If a third-party driver exists for this controller, install that driver as per the instructions for the given driver.
The disk is a SATA disk. Change the BIOS to make the SATA controller work in legacy or compatible mode.
Installation Check Tool reports that the video card is supported by the vgatext driver. Graphic interface does not appear after installing the Solaris OS in the console mode. Did the Installation Check Tool report the wrong information?
Installation Check Tool detects both kernel and Xorg video drivers for each video device. The following example HTML report shows the detected video drivers.
Vendor Name
Device Name
Device Type
32-bit Driver
64-bit Driver
Driver Name
Driver Availability
Matrox Graphics, Inc.
MGA G400/G450
Video
Y
Y
Kernel video driver: vgatext; Xorg video driver: mga
Solaris 10 10/09 image
In this report, the video device has a kernel video driver named vgatext and a Xorg video driver named mga.
However, all the devices do not have both types of video drivers. Some video devices are only supported by kernel video drivers as shown in the following HTML report.
Vendor Name
Device Name
Device Type
32-bit Driver
64-bit Driver
Driver Name
Driver Availability
nVidia Corporation
NV5 [RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro]
Video
Y
Y
vgatext
Solaris 10 10/09 image
In this report, the video device has a kernel video driver named vgatext, which means that a dedicated Xorg video driver does not exist for the video device.
In this case, the video device might work with the Solaris OS by default. The vgatext driver is a kernel video driver, that is responsible for providing the console video support. A generic or dedicated Xorg video driver is required to provide graphic interface support.
For a video device that does not have a dedicated Xorg driver, attach the vesa driver. The vesa driver is a generic Xorg video driver on the device. For more information about vesa driver, type man vesa.
Back to Top
