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| Author |
Message |
Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:47 am Post subject:
First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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I have never installed Solaris 10 x86 on an Intel box. Currently there
are 3 partitions on the one hard drive in my host:
Drive 0:
Partn 1 = Primary: Windows XP using NTFS
Partn 2 = Extended: One logical drive using NTFS
Partn 3 = Primary: Unused (for Solaris 10 x86)
I plan on using Smart Bootmanager or GAG (found at sourceforge.net) as
the boot managers as they fit entirely in the 446-byte bootstrap area of
the MBR (first sector of the first track) and in the rest of the unused
(hidden) first track which is never put into any partition. This makes
the boot manager completely independent of any OS and doesn't occupy a
partition.
In the past, I would use Partition Manager to set each of the other
partitions to "hidden" (which is just an attribute in the partition
table entry so it can be ignored by an OS) and set a primary partition
as "active" into which I was going to install the next OS (so that is
the default primary partition that the install program would see as the
hard drive).
Can I get Solaris 10 x86 to install without touching any other partition
other than the primary partition that is marked as active? Once
installed, does it hurt to blow away the MBR's bootstrap area, which the
Solaris install might've usurped, to use a different multiboot manager?
Boot managers (in the MBR on the first physically detected hard drive)
are loaded by the BIOS at the end of the POST. The standard boot
manager normally finds the first sector of the active partition and
loads it to load the "loader" program for the OS. This is sufficient to
load Windows. Is it sufficient to load the partition's boot sector to
have a loader program load that kicks off Solaris, or is something else
required of the MBR boot manager program? |
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 |
Cydrome Leader
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 125
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:21 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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Vanguard <vanguard.news@yahoonix.com> wrote:
| Quote: | I have never installed Solaris 10 x86 on an Intel box. Currently there
are 3 partitions on the one hard drive in my host:
Drive 0:
Partn 1 = Primary: Windows XP using NTFS
Partn 2 = Extended: One logical drive using NTFS
Partn 3 = Primary: Unused (for Solaris 10 x86)
I plan on using Smart Bootmanager or GAG (found at sourceforge.net) as
the boot managers as they fit entirely in the 446-byte bootstrap area of
the MBR (first sector of the first track) and in the rest of the unused
(hidden) first track which is never put into any partition. This makes
the boot manager completely independent of any OS and doesn't occupy a
partition.
In the past, I would use Partition Manager to set each of the other
partitions to "hidden" (which is just an attribute in the partition
table entry so it can be ignored by an OS) and set a primary partition
as "active" into which I was going to install the next OS (so that is
the default primary partition that the install program would see as the
hard drive).
Can I get Solaris 10 x86 to install without touching any other partition
other than the primary partition that is marked as active? Once
installed, does it hurt to blow away the MBR's bootstrap area, which the
Solaris install might've usurped, to use a different multiboot manager?
Boot managers (in the MBR on the first physically detected hard drive)
are loaded by the BIOS at the end of the POST. The standard boot
manager normally finds the first sector of the active partition and
loads it to load the "loader" program for the OS. This is sufficient to
load Windows. Is it sufficient to load the partition's boot sector to
have a loader program load that kicks off Solaris, or is something else
required of the MBR boot manager program?
|
Whyt not just get a second hard disk and enable/disable the disk you want
to use in your BIOS? Disks are nearly free these days and dual booting =
lots of wasted time and one/all OSes ends up losing in the end. |
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Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:09 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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"Cydrome Leader" <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in message
news:e7curg$ppe$2@reader2.panix.com...
| Quote: | Vanguard <vanguard.news@yahoonix.com> wrote:
I have never installed Solaris 10 x86 on an Intel box. Currently
there
are 3 partitions on the one hard drive in my host:
Drive 0:
Partn 1 = Primary: Windows XP using NTFS
Partn 2 = Extended: One logical drive using NTFS
Partn 3 = Primary: Unused (for Solaris 10 x86)
I plan on using Smart Bootmanager or GAG (found at sourceforge.net)
as
the boot managers as they fit entirely in the 446-byte bootstrap area
of
the MBR (first sector of the first track) and in the rest of the
unused
(hidden) first track which is never put into any partition. This
makes
the boot manager completely independent of any OS and doesn't occupy
a
partition.
In the past, I would use Partition Manager to set each of the other
partitions to "hidden" (which is just an attribute in the partition
table entry so it can be ignored by an OS) and set a primary
partition
as "active" into which I was going to install the next OS (so that is
the default primary partition that the install program would see as
the
hard drive).
Can I get Solaris 10 x86 to install without touching any other
partition
other than the primary partition that is marked as active? Once
installed, does it hurt to blow away the MBR's bootstrap area, which
the
Solaris install might've usurped, to use a different multiboot
manager?
Boot managers (in the MBR on the first physically detected hard
drive)
are loaded by the BIOS at the end of the POST. The standard boot
manager normally finds the first sector of the active partition and
loads it to load the "loader" program for the OS. This is sufficient
to
load Windows. Is it sufficient to load the partition's boot sector
to
have a loader program load that kicks off Solaris, or is something
else
required of the MBR boot manager program?
Whyt not just get a second hard disk and enable/disable the disk you
want
to use in your BIOS? Disks are nearly free these days and dual booting
=
lots of wasted time and one/all OSes ends up losing in the end.
|
Free hard drives? Yeah, right. I don't live with my parents and I'm
not a kept man, either. Until I get my next job, money is tight so
BUYING another hard drive is not an option. I have a 120GB hard drive
and have less than 50GB total use of it, so far (I keep my data files on
other media to prevent loss in case of hard disk failure, and I make
copies of that removable media, too). Using a boot manager, even if I
had another drive, would be far easier than having to enter the BIOS
screens to wade through the menus to disable the IDE or SATA ports and
enable the other ones, save changes to the BIOS settings (into the CMOS
table copy), and then have to reboot again to use those new settings.
Even if I didn't use a boot manager, and if I could afford buying
another hard drive, I'd make it a replaceable drive bay and simply swap
the drives depending on which OS that I wanted for that boot (and there
are even switches you can use to flip between multiple internal hard
drives that effectively do the same swapping).
When Solaris 10 x86 installs, does it install ONLY within the current
"active" primary partition without touching any of the other partitions?
I've heard that users disliked the boot manager that came with Solaris
since it wasn't really geared to multi-booting of other operating
systems. I probably wouldn't want to use it, anyway, and would prefer
GAG or Smart BootManager (which are free and reside wholly in the first
hidden track that is not in any partition) but I need to know if Solaris
does anything more than require its loader in the first sector of its
partition to get loaded by the boot manager to then complete the loading
of Solaris. |
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tardis@shaw.ca
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Posts: 2
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:56 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
|
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|
Vanguard wrote:
| Quote: | "Cydrome Leader" <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in message
news:e7curg$ppe$2@reader2.panix.com...
Vanguard <vanguard.news@yahoonix.com> wrote:
I have never installed Solaris 10 x86 on an Intel box. Currently there
---
Can I get Solaris 10 x86 to install without touching any other partition
other than the primary partition that is marked as active? Once
installed, does it hurt to blow away the MBR's bootstrap area, which the
Solaris install might've usurped, to use a different multiboot manager?
Boot managers (in the MBR on the first physically detected hard drive)
are loaded by the BIOS at the end of the POST. The standard boot
manager normally finds the first sector of the active partition and
loads it to load the "loader" program for the OS. This is sufficient to
load Windows. Is it sufficient to load the partition's boot sector to
have a loader program load that kicks off Solaris, or is something else
required of the MBR boot manager program?
Whyt not just get a second hard disk and enable/disable the disk you want
to use in your BIOS? Disks are nearly free these days and dual booting =
lots of wasted time and one/all OSes ends up losing in the end.
---
When Solaris 10 x86 installs, does it install ONLY within the current
"active" primary partition without touching any of the other partitions?
I've heard that users disliked the boot manager that came with Solaris
since it wasn't really geared to multi-booting of other operating
systems. I probably wouldn't want to use it, anyway, and would prefer
GAG or Smart BootManager (which are free and reside wholly in the first
hidden track that is not in any partition) but I need to know if Solaris
does anything more than require its loader in the first sector of its
partition to get loaded by the boot manager to then complete the loading
of Solaris.
Solaris 10 will install on a drive that is already partitioned, and use |
only the partition you tell it to (Linux swap may cause a problem). I
recall seeing some weird window's partitioning happening sometimes as
well - not starting at the first free space, and identifying which
partition what isn't alway perfect if they are the same size partitions.
Solaris 10 does install an MBR bootloader, so you may have to reinstall
your bootloader after installing Solaris.
As for using a 2nd drive - hard and impractical on a laptop (most only
have one drive), and small-form systems like Shuttle XPC systems. Most
of the time I install on a laptop, I use 3 partitions - Windows NTFS,
Windows FAT32, Solaris or Linux, (4th partition for linux swap if linux
installed. The FAT32 is good for transferring/storing common files used
in both operating systems.
Alan |
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Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:23 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
|
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|
"Alan Thomas" <tardis@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:Lxomg.72875$iF6.26851@pd7tw2no...
| Quote: | Solaris 10 will install on a drive that is already partitioned, and
use only the partition you tell it to (Linux swap may cause a
problem). I recall seeing some weird window's partitioning happening
sometimes as well - not starting at the first free space, and
identifying which partition what isn't alway perfect if they are the
same size partitions.
Solaris 10 does install an MBR bootloader, so you may have to
reinstall your bootloader after installing Solaris.
As for using a 2nd drive - hard and impractical on a laptop (most only
have one drive), and small-form systems like Shuttle XPC systems. Most
of the time I install on a laptop, I use 3 partitions - Windows NTFS,
Windows FAT32, Solaris or Linux, (4th partition for linux swap if
linux installed. The FAT32 is good for transferring/storing common
files used in both operating systems.
|
Thanks for the info. I decided to use GAG Boot Manager as its download
is an image to create a bootable floppy used to install it into the MBR
bootstrap and unused portion of the first track. That way, I don't need
an OS other than what is on that floppy to repair the MBR bootstrap
program. I had guessed that I would need to install the boot manager
after installing Solaris. My concern was that Solaris doesn't touch any
other partition other than where I tell it to install and that it starts
okay just by the boot manager loading the "loader" program in its
partition's first sector. I've done the disk image and verified backups
so now I'll be starting the Solaris install followed by the boot manager
install. Hope it goes well (crosses fingers, both hands). |
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Cydrome Leader
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 125
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:46 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
|
|
|
Vanguard <vanguard.news@yahoonix.com> wrote:
| Quote: | "Cydrome Leader" <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in message
news:e7curg$ppe$2@reader2.panix.com...
Vanguard <vanguard.news@yahoonix.com> wrote:
I have never installed Solaris 10 x86 on an Intel box. Currently
there
are 3 partitions on the one hard drive in my host:
Drive 0:
Partn 1 = Primary: Windows XP using NTFS
Partn 2 = Extended: One logical drive using NTFS
Partn 3 = Primary: Unused (for Solaris 10 x86)
I plan on using Smart Bootmanager or GAG (found at sourceforge.net)
as
the boot managers as they fit entirely in the 446-byte bootstrap area
of
the MBR (first sector of the first track) and in the rest of the
unused
(hidden) first track which is never put into any partition. This
makes
the boot manager completely independent of any OS and doesn't occupy
a
partition.
In the past, I would use Partition Manager to set each of the other
partitions to "hidden" (which is just an attribute in the partition
table entry so it can be ignored by an OS) and set a primary
partition
as "active" into which I was going to install the next OS (so that is
the default primary partition that the install program would see as
the
hard drive).
Can I get Solaris 10 x86 to install without touching any other
partition
other than the primary partition that is marked as active? Once
installed, does it hurt to blow away the MBR's bootstrap area, which
the
Solaris install might've usurped, to use a different multiboot
manager?
Boot managers (in the MBR on the first physically detected hard
drive)
are loaded by the BIOS at the end of the POST. The standard boot
manager normally finds the first sector of the active partition and
loads it to load the "loader" program for the OS. This is sufficient
to
load Windows. Is it sufficient to load the partition's boot sector
to
have a loader program load that kicks off Solaris, or is something
else
required of the MBR boot manager program?
Whyt not just get a second hard disk and enable/disable the disk you
want
to use in your BIOS? Disks are nearly free these days and dual booting
=
lots of wasted time and one/all OSes ends up losing in the end.
Free hard drives? Yeah, right. I don't live with my parents and I'm
not a kept man, either. Until I get my next job, money is tight so
|
You don't have $40? That's not counting the $20 or $30 drives from retail
stores with in store+mail order rebate. Places like best by and fry's
throw drives away to get you in the store.
| Quote: | BUYING another hard drive is not an option. I have a 120GB hard drive
and have less than 50GB total use of it, so far (I keep my data files on
other media to prevent loss in case of hard disk failure, and I make
copies of that removable media, too). Using a boot manager, even if I
had another drive, would be far easier than having to enter the BIOS
screens to wade through the menus to disable the IDE or SATA ports and
enable the other ones, save changes to the BIOS settings (into the CMOS
|
I don't get this. If disabling a disk or changing boot order of drives in
a BIOS is too hard, what are you going to do with solaris anyways? Saving
changes in a BIOS is usually done by hitting F10 once. It's not hard.
| Quote: | table copy), and then have to reboot again to use those new settings.
Even if I didn't use a boot manager, and if I could afford buying
another hard drive, I'd make it a replaceable drive bay and simply swap
the drives depending on which OS that I wanted for that boot (and there
|
That junk costs more than a hard drive itself.
| Quote: | are even switches you can use to flip between multiple internal hard
drives that effectively do the same swapping).
|
Those are garbage. Don't use them.
| Quote: | When Solaris 10 x86 installs, does it install ONLY within the current
"active" primary partition without touching any of the other partitions?
I've heard that users disliked the boot manager that came with Solaris
since it wasn't really geared to multi-booting of other operating
systems. I probably wouldn't want to use it, anyway, and would prefer
GAG or Smart BootManager (which are free and reside wholly in the first
hidden track that is not in any partition) but I need to know if Solaris
does anything more than require its loader in the first sector of its
partition to get loaded by the boot manager to then complete the loading
of Solaris.
|
Solaris 10 now uses grub if that helps at all. |
|
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|
|
Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:59 pm Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
|
|
|
"Cydrome Leader" <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in message
news:e7debl$7bj$1@reader2.panix.com...
| Quote: |
You don't have $40?
|
Yep, it's that tight right now. Another hard drive would be nice but I
have to eat in the meantime. Even if I had the money, I'd rather not
throw it away when there is tons of free space on my existing hardware.
Seems a waste of money on hardware to be buying huge-sized drives if you
cannot make use of it. If Solaris has some nasty habit of altering the
contents of other partitions than its own, why would having it on a
second drive protect the partition's on the first drive?
| Quote: | That's not counting the $20 or $30 drives from retail
stores with in store+mail order rebate. Places like best by and fry's
throw drives away to get you in the store.
|
No Frys around here. Their online store (Outpost.com) lists a 10GB PATA
drive for $20 but it isn't in stock. The next one is a 20GB PATA drive
for $50 but at the slow 5400 RPM. Then add $8 for the cost of shipping.
Cheapest drive at BestBuy.com is $60 (and no rebate). Rebates mean I
still have to pay the full price up front and hope that 2 to 3 months
later a rebate check shows up and that the rebate company doesn't manage
to come up with some problem with the rebate and not issue the check.
| Quote: |
BUYING another hard drive is not an option. I have a 120GB hard
drive
and have less than 50GB total use of it, so far (I keep my data files
on
other media to prevent loss in case of hard disk failure, and I make
copies of that removable media, too). Using a boot manager, even if
I
had another drive, would be far easier than having to enter the BIOS
screens to wade through the menus to disable the IDE or SATA ports
and
enable the other ones, save changes to the BIOS settings (into the
CMOS
I don't get this. If disabling a disk or changing boot order of drives
in
a BIOS is too hard, what are you going to do with solaris anyways?
Saving
changes in a BIOS is usually done by hitting F10 once. It's not hard.
|
Wrong. It is not possible to make changes in BIOS with just a single
keystroke. That only gets you *into* the BIOS screens. For my Abit
mobo, it would be: Del key (within a couple seconds when presented), 4
down-arrows keys (to get to Integrated Peripherals), Enter (to select
OnChip IDE Device), PageDown key (to change 1st IDE port from Enabled to
Disabled), 5 down-arrow keys and PageUp key (to change 2nd IDE port from
Disabled to Enabled), F10 to save changes, wait for another reboot. So
I've had to hit 13 keys to swap which IDE ports are enabled and which
are disabled.
I didn't say it was impossible or rocket science. It would be a
nuisance when much easier methods are available. I have no desire to
make things more difficult just because it is possible.
| Quote: | table copy), and then have to reboot again to use those new settings.
Even if I didn't use a boot manager, and if I could afford buying
another hard drive, I'd make it a replaceable drive bay and simply
swap
the drives depending on which OS that I wanted for that boot (and
there
That junk costs more than a hard drive itself.
|
The cheaper they are, the junkier they are. Just don't go slamming in
the cheaper units. They can be had for $36 for the drawer and 2 trays
(plus shipping). A drive caddy eliminates the need for boot managers or
putzing around with BIOS settings, and guarantees that nothing one hard
drive can affect the contents on the other hard drive. However, since
money is tight, and since I have oodles of free space on my existing
drive, I see no reason to throw money at another solution.
| Quote: | are even switches you can use to flip between multiple internal hard
drives that effectively do the same swapping).
Those are garbage. Don't use them.
|
Never used them. Just heard about them. Since you are biased against
drive caddies, I have to figure you are also biased against these (more
so than would be justifiable).
| Quote: | When Solaris 10 x86 installs, does it install ONLY within the current
"active" primary partition without touching any of the other
partitions?
I've heard that users disliked the boot manager that came with
Solaris
since it wasn't really geared to multi-booting of other operating
systems. I probably wouldn't want to use it, anyway, and would
prefer
GAG or Smart BootManager (which are free and reside wholly in the
first
hidden track that is not in any partition) but I need to know if
Solaris
does anything more than require its loader in the first sector of its
partition to get loaded by the boot manager to then complete the
loading
of Solaris.
Solaris 10 now uses grub if that helps at all.
|
I know of grub. I'm taking the advice of other users that grub isn't
friendly at booting operating systems other than Solaris. Since the
function of MBR bootstrap programs is to load the "loader" program in
the first sector of a partition (and the loader then takes care of
loading the particular OS in that partition), does grub work any
different? Is *any* part of grub contained within the partition (for
Solaris) or is it wholly contained within the 446-byte MBR bootstrap
area (and maybe into the rest of the otherwise unusable first track)?
Where is grub's config file stored? I see articles like
http://www.bolthole.com/solaris/grub.html which makes it appear that I
need a Linux partition to get grub to work.
According to
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/grub_boot_solaris.html,
"The Solaris kernel is fully compliant with the Multiboot Specification
(reference 2); hence, the Solaris OS can be booted via any bootloader
implementing the Multiboot Specification." So I'll have to find this
specification
(http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot/multiboot.html).
Well, if installing Solaris into its own partition and using GAG
BootManager or Smart BootManager don't work (or having to switch to grub
doesn't work with booting the Windows partition), I'll soon find out.
Got everything backed up. Here I go ... |
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|
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Paul
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 496
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
|
|
|
"Vanguard" <vanguard.news@yahooNIX.com> wrote in message
news:e7eb0i$vra$1@nntp.aioe.org...
| Quote: | "Cydrome Leader" <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in message
news:e7debl$7bj$1@reader2.panix.com...
You don't have $40?
Yep, it's that tight right now. Another hard drive would be nice but I
have to eat in the meantime. Even if I had the money, I'd rather not
throw it away when there is tons of free space on my existing hardware.
Seems a waste of money on hardware to be buying huge-sized drives if you
cannot make use of it. If Solaris has some nasty habit of altering the
contents of other partitions than its own, why would having it on a second
drive protect the partition's on the first drive?
That's not counting the $20 or $30 drives from retail
stores with in store+mail order rebate. Places like best by and fry's
throw drives away to get you in the store.
No Frys around here. Their online store (Outpost.com) lists a 10GB PATA
drive for $20 but it isn't in stock. The next one is a 20GB PATA drive
for $50 but at the slow 5400 RPM. Then add $8 for the cost of shipping.
Cheapest drive at BestBuy.com is $60 (and no rebate). Rebates mean I
still have to pay the full price up front and hope that 2 to 3 months
later a rebate check shows up and that the rebate company doesn't manage
to come up with some problem with the rebate and not issue the check.
BUYING another hard drive is not an option. I have a 120GB hard drive
and have less than 50GB total use of it, so far (I keep my data files on
other media to prevent loss in case of hard disk failure, and I make
copies of that removable media, too). Using a boot manager, even if I
had another drive, would be far easier than having to enter the BIOS
screens to wade through the menus to disable the IDE or SATA ports and
enable the other ones, save changes to the BIOS settings (into the CMOS
I don't get this. If disabling a disk or changing boot order of drives in
a BIOS is too hard, what are you going to do with solaris anyways? Saving
changes in a BIOS is usually done by hitting F10 once. It's not hard.
Wrong. It is not possible to make changes in BIOS with just a single
keystroke. That only gets you *into* the BIOS screens. For my Abit mobo,
it would be: Del key (within a couple seconds when presented), 4
down-arrows keys (to get to Integrated Peripherals), Enter (to select
OnChip IDE Device), PageDown key (to change 1st IDE port from Enabled to
Disabled), 5 down-arrow keys and PageUp key (to change 2nd IDE port from
Disabled to Enabled), F10 to save changes, wait for another reboot. So
I've had to hit 13 keys to swap which IDE ports are enabled and which are
disabled.
I didn't say it was impossible or rocket science. It would be a nuisance
when much easier methods are available. I have no desire to make things
more difficult just because it is possible.
table copy), and then have to reboot again to use those new settings.
Even if I didn't use a boot manager, and if I could afford buying
another hard drive, I'd make it a replaceable drive bay and simply swap
the drives depending on which OS that I wanted for that boot (and there
That junk costs more than a hard drive itself.
The cheaper they are, the junkier they are. Just don't go slamming in the
cheaper units. They can be had for $36 for the drawer and 2 trays (plus
shipping). A drive caddy eliminates the need for boot managers or putzing
around with BIOS settings, and guarantees that nothing one hard drive can
affect the contents on the other hard drive. However, since money is
tight, and since I have oodles of free space on my existing drive, I see
no reason to throw money at another solution.
are even switches you can use to flip between multiple internal hard
drives that effectively do the same swapping).
Those are garbage. Don't use them.
Never used them. Just heard about them. Since you are biased against
drive caddies, I have to figure you are also biased against these (more so
than would be justifiable).
When Solaris 10 x86 installs, does it install ONLY within the current
"active" primary partition without touching any of the other partitions?
I've heard that users disliked the boot manager that came with Solaris
since it wasn't really geared to multi-booting of other operating
systems. I probably wouldn't want to use it, anyway, and would prefer
GAG or Smart BootManager (which are free and reside wholly in the first
hidden track that is not in any partition) but I need to know if Solaris
does anything more than require its loader in the first sector of its
partition to get loaded by the boot manager to then complete the loading
of Solaris.
Solaris 10 now uses grub if that helps at all.
I know of grub. I'm taking the advice of other users that grub isn't
friendly at booting operating systems other than Solaris. Since the
function of MBR bootstrap programs is to load the "loader" program in the
first sector of a partition (and the loader then takes care of loading the
particular OS in that partition), does grub work any different? Is *any*
part of grub contained within the partition (for Solaris) or is it wholly
contained within the 446-byte MBR bootstrap area (and maybe into the rest
of the otherwise unusable first track)? Where is grub's config file
stored? I see articles like http://www.bolthole.com/solaris/grub.html
which makes it appear that I need a Linux partition to get grub to work.
According to
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/grub_boot_solaris.html, "The
Solaris kernel is fully compliant with the Multiboot Specification
(reference 2); hence, the Solaris OS can be booted via any bootloader
implementing the Multiboot Specification." So I'll have to find this
specification
(http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot/multiboot.html).
Well, if installing Solaris into its own partition and using GAG
BootManager or Smart BootManager don't work (or having to switch to grub
doesn't work with booting the Windows partition), I'll soon find out. Got
everything backed up. Here I go ...
|
FWIW, it's pretty simple to get WinXP's bootloader to load up Solaris. It
does require a bit more initial effort.
Basically, install solaris, boot from floppy/cd/usb/whatever. Save the MBR
to a file such as Solaris.bin, copy solaris.bin to windows c:\ and add
C:\Solaris.bin="Solaris" to your boot.ini. Reinstall the XP MBR via
recovery console.
GAG is probably a much easier way to set things up, but I would recommend
installing it BEFORE Solaris making sure to save the current bootsector to
some non-HD location. Then, install Solaris, reinstall GAG, and if needed,
restore the bootsector as a file for GAG. Really, you should be able to
install Solaris and then GAG without a problem, but I'm a paranoid type when
it comes to existing data.
Last time I looked, grub used a two stage process to load, both the second
stage and the config were stored in a linux or solaris directory. If the
config gets wiped, it's possible, but painful, to boot 'by hand' but if the
second stage gets hosed...so do you. :)
Let us know how it goes,
Paul |
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Chris Ridd
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 18 Aug 2005
Posts: 223
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:00 pm Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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On 2006-06-22 15:59:25 +0100, "Vanguard" <vanguard.news@yahooNIX.com> said:
| Quote: | I know of grub. I'm taking the advice of other users that grub isn't
friendly at booting operating systems other than Solaris. Since the
|
Sun's version of grub boots the copy of XP on my box quite happily. My
/boot/grub/menu.lst has these 3 extra lines:
---
title Windows XP 64
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
---
The first partition on my disk is some kind of Windows rescue
partition, the second's XP proper, and the third's Solaris.
Cheers,
Chris |
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Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:04 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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|
"Chris Ridd" <chrisridd@mac.com> wrote in message
news:4g00lpF1iha1kU2@individual.net...
| Quote: | On 2006-06-22 15:59:25 +0100, "Vanguard" <vanguard.news@yahooNIX.com
said:
Sun's version of grub boots the copy of XP on my box quite happily. My
/boot/grub/menu.lst has these 3 extra lines:
---
title Windows XP 64
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
---
The first partition on my disk is some kind of Windows rescue
partition, the second's XP proper, and the third's Solaris.
|
I realize that grub can boot the Windows partition, but it requires that
it reside in the Solaris partition, just like ntldr which uses boot.ini
resides in the Windows partition (which I could then use to boot the
Solaris partition). I wanted a boot manager that wasn't dependent on
any OS or in a partition, so if the partition got wiped then the boot
manager that resides wholly in the first track would survive.
After installing Solaris 10 x86, I saw Windows listed as an entry in the
grub boot screen. I then installed GAG Boot Manager and used it to
select which OS to load. When I select Solaris in the GAG Boot Manager,
I then see the grub boot menu again. I'll probably want to keep the 2
entries for Solaris and edit the config file for grub to remove the
entry for Windows. |
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Vanguard
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:21 am Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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|
Uffda. Lots of work just to get Solaris 10 x86 installed. I had created
a 14GB FAT32 partition but Solaris wouldn't use it (nor would it let me
delete it). So I created an unformatted 14GB partition but fdisk in the
install still wouldn't let me use that partition (nor would it let me
delete it). So I deleted that partition and then fdisk in the Solaris
install would use the 14GB of free space to create a new partition.
Argh!
I had selected Documentation, Java Enterprise, and Companion components
during the install because I figured the install wouldn't be showing me
components that weren't on the CDs that were created from the download.
Wrong. I didn't think that I wanted the Java Enterprise (but would
eventually need the JDK). However, I did want the documentation but it
wasn't included in the 4 downloaded CD images (and I haven't found it
yet). I wasn't sure about the Companion and Value components. I could
go online to the docs pages but I have no network access yet (see
below), so I have to reboot into Windows to use the online docs.
I first installed Solaris 10 x86 and then followed with the install of
the GAG Boot Manager. I had tried Smart BootManager but it kept
bitching about wanting a DPMI driver. Odd that a 16-bit 68KB program
needs to use extended memory to get more than 640KB to run in, and I
don't see that it needs to run in protected mode when booting using a
DOS floppy. So I went with the GAG Boot Manager. It works just fine,
doesn't occupy any space within any partition, can even run just from
the floppy (copying it to the MBR bootstrap and rest of the first track
is actually optional but I don't want to leave a floppy in the drive to
have the boot manager). It would present me with its boot screen which
I could then configure to add each OS partition. Windows boots up just
fine. When I use it to boot Solaris, the remainder of grub within that
partition kicks off and shows me its boot screen, anyway. I'll keep the
first two entries (for normal and safe mode) and edit its config file to
remove the Windows entry (since that will be taken care of back in GAG).
So the scheme works.
Alas, once Solaris is loaded and I login, there is no network access. I
have the Abit NF7-S motherboard with onboard NIC (and nForce audio). I
had tried the chipset driver following their navigation path but that
gave me a Linux driver that won't work under Solaris (I get a warning
and the .run file aborts). I was about to give up when I found a
separate link for Solaris, got that file, ran it okay, rebooted, but
still not network access. Apparently that Solaris driver only provides
support for nVidia graphics. I don't have an nVidia video card (it's an
ATI card) and the video support already included is sufficient for me
immediate needs. Unfortunately it did not install any drivers or
definitions for the onboard NIC so I'm still stuck with no network
access. At this point, I'll just leave the Solaris install on my hard
drive and use it to refamiliarize myself with the CDE desktop, practice
some shell and Perl scripting.
I've only been an end-user of Solaris in the past. I never had to go
through all the hardware and software setup. Twas handy having a
sysadmin to handle all of that. I don't like logging on under "root" so
the first order of business is to create a user account for me. |
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Oscar del Rio
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 385
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject:
Re: First-time install of Solaris 10 x86. Any gotchas I should be aware of?
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Vanguard wrote:
| Quote: |
Alas, once Solaris is loaded and I login, there is no network access. I
have the Abit NF7-S motherboard with onboard NIC (and nForce audio).
|
Did you try the following? It's the second google hit for "Abit NF7-S network".
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sol/systems/details/1739.html |
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