This
tool checks the hardware configuration for your x86 system
to install the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release.
Installation
Check Tool tells whether you can run the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release on your x86 system. If the system on which you want to run the Solaris OS is already shown on the Solaris OS Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCL), you do not need this tool.
Two versions of Installation Check Tool are available:
Solaris Express Installation Check Tool supports the Solaris Express Developer Edition OS
Solaris
Express Installation Check Tool referred to as Installation Check Tool determines
the Solaris Express Developer Edition OS install
compatibility for your x86 system based on the detected hardware
configuration. The Installation Check Tool also generates reports on
Solaris driver availability for the detected devices.
Installation Check Tool performs the following two functions:
Reports
whether your x86 system can install the Solaris Express Developer
Edition 1/08 release. Solaris Express Installation Check Tool loads the
Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 kernel and looks for a hard disk
on your system.
Reports whether Solaris drivers are
available for the devices the tool detects on your x86 system. This
information helps you to determine whether the Solaris Express
Developer Edition 1/08 release is likely to run on your system.
Installation Check Tool produces a table that shows whether a Solaris
driver is available for each device the tool detects. The table tells
you whether the driver is built in to the Solaris OS or whether a
third-party driver is available.
NOTE: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.
Installation Check Tool provides an option to copy this driver report
to the USB storage. Solaris Express Installation Check Tool displays a
message if your system is suitable for installing the Solaris Express
Developer Edition 1/08 release.
Installation Check Tool is updated
periodically to include knowledge of new drivers in the driver database
that the tool uses. Drivers that are integrated into the Solaris OS and
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 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.
System Requirements
To
run the Installation Check Tool, your system must have 256 MBytes of
memory, and the processor must have hardware floating-point support.
Follow the steps below to download the Solaris Express Installation Check Tool .iso file:
Download the Solaris Express Installation Check Tool install_check_sx_1.3.iso file.
Burn the install_check_sx_1.3.iso file to a CD.
Include the Installation Check Tool release number on the label of the CD. Check this web page periodically for a new release.
Using Installation Check Tool
Use the CD that you burned with the install_check_sx_1.3.iso file to
boot the x86 system that you want to check.
Solaris Express Installation Check Tool initially loads the Solaris Express
Developer Edition 1/08 kernel. Later, the tool generates a report that shows the
major PCI components in the system and whether Solaris drivers exist for these
devices.
This report package is written to a tar file that is compressed with
gzip(1). You have the option to copy this report file to USB storage.
The report package includes the following files:
A text file that shows the same information as the screen
output.
An HTML report file that shows the full content of the report. No
abbreviations are used.
The output of prtconf -pv, prtdiag, and
prtconf -v.
The following is an example of the text information that is displayed on your
monitor:
Vendor Device: Type Name Solaris Driver: 32BIT 64BIT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- nVidia Corpora... V NV5[RIVA TNT2/TNT2 pro] Y Y Intel Corporation S 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE Y Y Intel Corporation U 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB Y Y Intel Corporation N 82557/8/9 Ethernet Pro 100 Y Y Creative Labs M SB Live! EMU10k1 T-1 T-1 Creative Labs 0 SB Live! Game Port N N
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; O - Other;
Third Party Driver Legend: T-1 audioemu http://www.tools.de/opensource/solaris/audio/beta/
Notes:
This system is likely to install Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08. Check the list above for driver availability for identified devices.
This tool is updated frequently to include additional device support. Please check the following website to ensure you are using the most current version of this tool: http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/install_check_sx.html.
If the system includes two devices that require a third-party driver, the
driver for the second such device is labeled "T-2" in the driver column of the
table and in the Third Party Driver Legend.
If a report such as the example shown above is displayed on your screen, and if
you do not receive any warning message that no disk is found, then the
Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release can be installed on this system.
The next step is to check whether drivers exist for other on-board devices, such as network devices, video devices, and audio devices.
While booting from the Installation Check Tool CD, the following message is displayed. What does this mean?
Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory.
You
should burn a new Installation Check Tool CD. Content on this CD cannot
be read successfully by this CDROM. This message probably means that
the Installation Check Tool CD was not burned correctly.
What if I do not see a report like the one shown in the example?
A
report similar to the report shown in the example should be
displayed approximately within one minute after you boot your system from the
Installation Check Tool CD. If your system hangs and does not display
the question about copying the report, your system might have
encountered a problem in the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release
or your system might not be able to run the Solaris Express Developer
Edition 1/08 release.
To determine whether you have encountered a
problem in the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release that has a
known solution or workaround, check one of the following resources:
I was
specified to copy the report to USB. I am sure that I have a Solaris
partition on the USB disk. But the copy failed. What is the reason?
Installation
Check Tool only copies reports to slice 0 for Solaris 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 if the report displays that no hard disks are found?
If
the report displays "No hard disks found", your system might not be able to
run the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release. This problem can be due
to one of the following reasons:
A
hard disk is correctly connected to your system but Installation Check
Tool cannot recognize it. 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, apply the driver
according to the instructions for that driver.
The disk is a SATA disk. Change the BIOS to make the SATA controller work in legacy/compatible mode.
If
a device is marked "N" for "No Solaris Driver", can this device still
work with the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release?
A device marked "N" might still work if one of the following situations is true:
A
third-party driver exists for this device, but the third-party driver
is not yet included in the Installation Check Tool database. Check this web page periodically to make sure you are using the most updated version of Installation Check Tool.
The device is supported by a driver that is included in the Installation Check Tool database. But, it might not support all of the devices in that family. For example, the iprb
driver is known to work on most Intel 100M network controllers, but
only a few of these network controllers are supported.
Also, the audiohd
driver is a generic audio driver that will be attached to audio
controllers, which do not have a dedicated audio driver. For this
reason, some audio devices might work with Solaris Express Developer
Edition 1/08 release, even though these audio devices are marked as "N".
The device is supported by a driver that is published on the OpenSolaris web site, but not included in the Installation Check Tool database. Check the OpenSolaris web site periodically to search for drivers that you need.
Where can I get more information about third-party drivers?
The following resources include more information for the third-party drivers:
NOTE: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.
Installation Check Tool reports that my video card is supported by the vgatext
driver. However, I cannot perform a graphical install with the Solaris
release in question. Even if I have installed Solaris in console mode,
the graphic interface does not appear. Has the Installation Check Tool
reported incorrect data?
Installation Check Tool
detects both kernel and Xorg video drivers for each video device. The
following sample 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 Express Developer Edition 1/08 image
In this report, the video device has a kernel video driver named vgatext and a Xorg video driver named mga.
However,
not all devices have both types of video drivers. Some video devices
are only supported by the kernel video drivers. The following HTML report shows an example of the video drivers supported by the kernel video drivers.
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 Express Developer Edition 1/08 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 such a scenario, the video device might not work with the Solaris OS by default. The vgatext
driver is a kernel video driver, that is only responsible for
providing 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, try to attach the vesa driver, which is a generic Xorg video driver on the device. For more information on the vesa driver, type man vesa. on the command line.
How can I run Installation Check Tool on a system that has no video controller?
To redirect the output of Installation Check Tool to a console port, follow these steps:
Boot the system from your Solaris Express Installation Check Tool CD.
When
you see the GRUB menu and the product name "Solaris Express
Installation Check Tool 1.3", press the key E twice to edit
this menu item.
The output is redirected to console port 1 (ttya) or port 2 (ttyb).
Help
If you have general questions or suggestions about the Installation Check Tool, send email to install-check-feedback@sun.com.
If you want to suggest particular drivers that should be integrated into the Solaris OS, send email to driver-request@sun.com. See Solaris for x86 Device Support for the latest list of devices that are supported by the Solaris OS on x86 platforms.
If you have problems installing the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release after Installation Check
Tool reported that you should be able to install it, send 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 occurs and include any messages that are displayed on
the monitor.
Attach the report generated by Installation Check Tool.
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