BigAdmin XPerts

31. Can I run the Solaris 10 OS on an x86 computer with 128 MB of memory?
32. Is there a tool available to verify the syntax of a file containing a "sysidcfg" set of entries?
33. During install, the installer fails to create the root file system... The installer fails to "newfs" *any* slice on this disk.
34. How can I create/configure a container/zone to use DHCP?
35. Can I install the Sun OS on a PC running Windows XP Home edition? If so, then how?
36. I have a Sun Ultra 5/10, and I want to install the Solaris 10 OS. I got this message: "NOTE: Not enough memory for graphical installation."
37. I can't boot up or install software (Blade 100 - Solaris 10 OS).
38. I just finished configuring our JumpStart server to handle x86 clients, but for some reason the output is getting sent to a dtterm window running inside a windowing environment.
39. Are there any limitations to using DHCP instead of bootparams for network installations?
40. Are there any flags or values that can be used to debug the x86 Solaris JumpStart process? We have seen some weird issues, and would love to get some detailed debugging information during the network installation.
41. I have a Solaris 10 laptop screen resolution problem, limited to 640x480 on HP zv5000. SunSolve document 74551 says use 'sax2', but there's no such command in distribution.

A: The Solaris 10 OS can be installed with 128 Mbyte of memory. Running Solaris 10 with a graphical desktop with 128 Mbyte will be extremely slow. With 128 Mbyte, it will be difficult to take advantage of all the new and exciting features of the Solaris 10 OS.

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A: Referring to my answer to question 6, sysidcfg is a name of the text file to be placed in the directory where your installation is configured to look using add_install_client. The entries are not in a single line. Each entry is of the form name=value and is on a separate line. If the value extends beyond a single line, it is enclosed by curly brackets.

The minimum sysidcfg refers to the set of configuration parameters represented by the left-hand side of the name-value pair. The value part of the entry will be different for your situation. If you set up the value part correctly, the jumpstart install will not ask any questions during the installation process.

Unfortunately, no tools are available to verify the syntax of the sysidcfg file as of now. Since the sysidcfg entries are becoming complex, it may be a good idea to create one.

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newfs /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0

 With 5825 sectors per cylinder, minimum cylinder per group is 16.
 This requires the fragment size to be changed from 1024 to 2048
 Please re-run mkfs with corrected parameters.

newfs -f 2048 /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0

A: This is a known problem in the Solaris 10 FCS release and will be fixed in Solaris 10 update 1 release. In the meantime, there is a patch available to resolve this problem. The patch id is 119375-01 and you can download from sunsolve.sun.com. Please follow the special install instructions to clear the Solaris label from the disk.

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A: Solaris 10 doesn't support using DHCP to configure non-global zones. But this is on the roadmap and is scheduled to be available in Solaris 10 update releases.

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A: It depends on the type of PC. If it is supported to run the Solaris 10 OS, you can install and run that OS. Please visit the HCL (http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl) for more information. Also check the document Multi-booting Solaris and other operating systems for setting up multiple operating systems on your PC.

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A: The Solaris 10 installation program automatically chooses the mode (text or graphical) of install based on the amount of memory on the system. The installation requires at least 384 MB physical memory to use the wizard-based graphical installer. The text- or console-based installer will be used if the physical memory is less than 384 MB. The system should have at least 128 MB memory for the Solaris install program to run. The install program checks both the system memory and available memory at the time of install and decides which mode to use. This note is letting the user know that the text method is selected.

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A: I need more information than given in the question about the Blade 100. For the PC, you need to find out whether the DVD drive you are using is supported by the Solaris 10 OS. Go to the HCL web site (http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl) to see whether your configuration is supported.

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Using sysid configuration file  /sysidcfg
Search complete

Proposed  Window System Configuration For Installation:

[ ... ]

Discovering additional network configurations...

[ Xserver starts and displays the status in a dtterm ]

A: By default the input device is set to keyboard and the output device is set to screen. You can change this while setting up the client by using the -b option in add_install_client. To set the input device, use the property name input-device, and for the output device use the property name output-device. You can only use this option for the x86 client that uses DHCP. You should only use this option in conjunction with the -d and -e options. For example, the following command on the install server sets up the client with Ethernet address 0:11:22:33:44:ee to use ttya for input and output.

# ./add_install_client -d -c jumpstart_server:/export/profiles \
-p config_server:/export/config  -b "input-device=ttya" \
-b "output-device=ttya" -e 0:11:22:33:44:ee i86pc

For more information refer to the Solaris 10 man pages for add_install_client(1M) and eeprom(1M).

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A: There are more positives using DHCP compared to bootparams. The only limitation I could think of is that you need to configure the DHCP server after configuring the client using add_install_client. Given that most of the new PCs and laptops use PXE to configure, DHCP is the way to go.

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A: If your Solaris JumpStart install fails or display error messages, you can run the JumpStart program pfinstall in dryrun mode. To create a temporary Solaris install environment, boot a system from a Solaris CD/DVD/network image (just as you would to install), answer any system identification questions, choose the Solaris Interactive Installation program, and exit out of the first screen that is presented. Then, from the shell, you can execute the pfinstall command.

You can create the profile in the /tmp directory and use the following command:

# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D /tmp/prpfile

Running pfinstall in dryrun mode will not actually make any changes to your system. Instead it will check your profile and make sure that the system can be installed using the profile. See the man page for pfinstall(1M) for more information.

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A: SunSolve document 74551 is for Linux and not for the Solaris OS. You can use /usr/sbin/kdmconfig to configure or unconfigure keyboard, display, and mouse options for the Solaris 10 OS. Please see the man page kdmconfig(1M) for more information.

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