Open Solaris vs Linux - A Comparison

OpenSolaris and Linux to a layperson can seem similar in many ways. They both use more or less the same end user applications, have similar desktops, and are open source. But scratch the surface and you find that they are entirely different products all together.
Some of the notable differences which an end user may encounter are as follows :

1. Directory structure differences. For example, in Linux, the Home directory is located at /home whereas in OpenSolaris it is at /export/home.
   
2. Linux and OpenSolaris use different commands for doing the same things. Some commands are similar in name but take different options.
3. Linux supports more hardware than OpenSolaris. This means, Linux runs on more machines than OpenSolaris.
4. One of the main reasons for using OpenSolaris is ZFS. Linux doesn't support ZFS yet.
   
5. Taking snapshots of filesystem in OpenSolaris is a snap. Again courtesy of ZFS. Linux users are, by default, left in the lurch on this front.
   
6. OpenSolaris supports a variety of virtualisation technologies with different degrees of isolation, flexibility, performance and ease of use. Eg: VirtualBox, A port of Xen called xVM Hypervisor, Zones et al. Linux supports VirtualBox and Xen but not Zones.
7. Linux has more applications than OpenSolaris. Period.
8. OpenSolaris boots slower than Linux on the same hardware.
   

Tuxradar runs a detailed comparison between Linux and OpenSolaris with a few accompanying tips and tricks. Check it out.

Comics - Learn how ZFS safeguards your data

I am sure you have heard euologies about ZFS - the default file system on Solaris. But do you really know why ZFS is considered to be a superior file system ? If you are in doubt, never fear, Nexenta Man has come to your rescue.

Read the exploits of Nexentaman to learn how ZFS keeps your data safe.

Solaris 10 Operating System for x86 installation check tool

Solaris Operating System for x86 Installation Check Tool checks the system on which you try to install the operating system and report if the system can run the Sun solaris OS properly.
The download is a simple ISO file which then needs to burnt onto a CD to create a boot CD. Once created, start the X86 system with the CD. The ISO can be downloaded from here.

For Sun Solaris Express Edition, click here

The tool checks and reports whether your x86 system can install the Solaris 10 8/07 OS. The Installation Check Tool loads the Solaris 10 8/07 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 10 8/07 OS is likely to run on your system.
Installation Check Tool also 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.

Installation Check Tool first loads the Solaris 10 8/07 kernel. Then 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. You have the option to copy this report file to a floppy disk or 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:

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 10 8/07 OS 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.
NOTE: Sun does not warrant the behavior of any third-party driver.

Installation Check Tool gives you the option 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 8/07 OS.

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.

Tags: drivers, solaris, solaris-express, sun, x86

Sun Device Detection Tool 1.2 for x86 systems

The Sun Device Detection Tool can help you to determine if the Devices on the system is detected by the Sun Solaris Operating System.
If your device or system is already on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) then this may not be necessary. Click here for the HCL in Sun Solaris.

However, there is no harm in running the tool. The tool also allows you to submit the device to HCL under the Reported to Work Function (RWF).

The tool can test the X86 system for either Sun Solaris OS or for the Sun Solaris Express Edition.
The Sun Device Detection Tool 1.2 can be downloaded from here and can run on X86 systems running Windows XP, Linux (with PCI tools installed) with Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed.
Acccept the License Agreement and download the tool.

1. Once downloaded, click Run to start the tool.

2. Select the Operating System (Solaris OS or Solaris Express Edition) and click Start.

This starts the tool and checks all the detected tool in the system.
3. Once complete, the tool will provide a list of device detected and the status of the drivers available.
A Green indicates the device is compatible with the Sun Solaris OS
A Red indicates that the device is not compatible with Sun Solaris or in other words there is no driver for the device
A Yellow indicates tha the device has limited support and may or may work properly with Sun Solaris Operating System.

Tags: , device-detection, hcl, java, jre, pci, runtime, rwf, solaris, solaris-express, sun

Solaris 10 & Solaris Express Hardware Compatibility list(HCL)

As you are aware of, every Operating System has a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). The Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) identifies hardware that is compatible with the Operating System and provides information about available software support.

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Solaris 10 OS:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sol/

There are totally 906 system which includes OEM & System Vendor Products, VMWare,Servers, Desktops, Laptops andMotherboards and 1568 system components

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Solaris Express Developer Edition:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sx/

This includes 975 Systems and 1602 system components

Tags: hardware, hcl, solaris, solaris-express, sun

How to recover/reset root password in Sun solaris (SPARC)

There is every little chance that one loses or rather forgets the root password of his Sun Solaris servers. In the event, this happens, there is a way out of it. Well the way and infact the only way is to reset the password as there is no way to recover it. Recovering/restting the password involves booting the server in Single User mode and mounting the root file system.

Ofcourse, it is recommeded that the security for the physical access to the server is restricted so as to ensure that there is no unauthorized access and anyone who follows this routine is an authorized personnel.

Boot the server with a Sun Solaris Operating System CD (I’m using a Solaris 10 CD but doesn’t matter really) or a network boot with a JumpStart server from the OBP OK prompt.

OK boot cdrom -s

or

OK boot net -s

This will boot the server from the CD or Jumpstart server and launch a single user mode (No Password).

Mount the root file system (assume /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 here) onto /a

solaris# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

NOTE: /a is a temporary mount point that is available when you boot from CD or a JumpStart server

Now, with the root file system mounted on /a. All you need to do is to edit the shadow file and remove the encrypted password for root.

solaris# vi /a/etc/shadow

Now, exit the mounted filesystem, unmount the root filesystem and reboot the system to single-user mode booting of the disk.

solaris# cd /

solaris# umount /a

solaris# init s

This should boot of the disk and take you to the single-user mode. Press enter at the prompt to enter a password for root.

This should allow you to login to the system. Once in, set the password and change to multi-user mode.

NOTE: Single-User mode is only to ensure that the root user without password is not exposed to others if started in multi-user mode before being set with a new password.

solaris# passwd root

solaris# reboot

This should do. You should now be able to logon with the new password set for root

Tags: password, recovery, root, solaris, sun

How to recover/reset root password in Sun solaris (x86)

about resetting the password on Sun Solaris Operating system in SPARC platform. While the procedure is almost the same wherein you boot with the CD into single user mode and mount the root partition, here we discuss the procedure to reset the password for the root user on the x86 platform.

It is recommeded that the security for the physical access to the server is restricted so as to ensure that there is no unauthorized access and anyone who follows this routine is an authorized personnel.

Boot the server with a Sun Solaris Operating System CD (I’m using a Solaris 10 CD but doesn’t matter really) or a network boot with a JumpStart server. Change the Boot order accordingly in your x86 system and start the server and launch a single user mode (No Password).

In Solaris 10, you have the default Fail Safe boot option in the Boot Loader. With this you do not need a CD or JumpStart server as selecting it will launch the Single-User shell. I haven’t used the early Solaris versions on an x86 system so if anyone knows it is availabe then please post your comments.

When you boot from the CD, select the option for the Sigle-user mode (Option 6 on Solaris 10 CD)

This will look for the currently installed Solaris OS on your system and prompts a Yes/No question to mount the Root filesystem as a Read/Write file system onto /a.

Select yes to mount the root file system (/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 here) on /a. If you select No, no harm as you still can mount it manually using:

solaris# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

NOTE: /a is a temporary mount point that is available when you boot from CD or a JumpStart server

Now, with the root file system mounted on /a. All you need to do is to edit the shadow file and remove the encrypted password for root.

solaris# vi /a/etc/shadow

Now, exit the mounted filesysten, unmount the root filesystem and reboot the system to single-user mode booting of the disk.

solaris# cd /

solaris# umount /a

solaris# init s

This should boot of the disk and take you to the single-user mode. Press enter at the prompt to enter a password for root.

This should allow you to login to the system. Once in, set the password and change to multi-user mode.

NOTE: Single-User mode is only to ensure that the root user without password is not exposed to others if started in multi-user mode before being set with a new password.

solaris# passwd root

solaris# reboot

This should do. You should now be able to logon as root with the new password.

Tags: password, recovery, root, solaris, sun, x86

Sun Solaris Patch Management return codes

When you install Patches on Solaris, you will find quite often see error codes or Exit/Return codes when the patch installation fails.

These are the return codes that indicate the cause of the failure to install the specified patch and are very helpful as point to start with in troubleshooting.

The most commonly seen return codes are Return code 2, Return code 8, Return code 25, Return code 35.

Return Code 2 indicates that the patch you are trying to install is already been applied.

Return Code 8 indicate that the patch you are trying to install is for a package that is not already installed.

Return Code 25 indicates that a patch required for this patch to be installed in not found.

Return Code 35 indicates that the revision of the patch is older and that a later version of the patch is already applied to the system.

The following are a list of the Return/Exit codes that you may come across while patching your Solaris server:

Exit Code / Return Code	Description
0	No error
1	Usage error
2	Attempt to apply a patch that’s already been applied
3	Effective UID is not root
4	Attempt to save original files failed
5	pkgadd failed
6	Patch is obsolete
7	Invalid package directory
8	Attempting to patch a package that is not installed
9	Cannot access /usr/sbin/pkgadd (client problem)
10	Package validation errors
11	Error adding patch to root template
12	Patch script terminated due to signal
13	Symbolic link included in patch
14	NOT USED
15	The prepatch script had a return code other than 0
16	The postpatch script had a return code other than 0
17	Mismatch of the -d option between a previous patch install and the current one
18	Not enough space in the file systems that are targets of the patch
19	$SOFTINFO/INST_RELEASE file not found
20	A direct instance patch was required but not found
21	The required patches have not been installed on the manager
22	A progressive instance patch was required but not found
23	A restricted patch is already applied to the package
24	An incompatible patch is applied
25	A required patch is not applied
26	The user specified back out data can’t be found
27	The relative directory supplied can’t be found
28	A pkginfo file is corrupt or missing
29	Bad patch ID format
30	Dryrun failure(s)
31	Path given for -C option is invalid
32	Must be running Solaris 2.6 or greater
33	Bad formatted patch file or patch file not found
34	The appropriate kernel jumbo patch needs to be installed
35	Later revision already installed

Tags: patch-management, return-codes, solaris, sun

How do I save or redirect stdout and stderr into different files?

Q. I need to run a program called oraMon.pl. However this program is run from cron job. It report error to stderr and normal output to stdout. How do I save stdout, stderr and both into 3 separate log files?

A. It is not that hard if you know howto redirect stderr, stdout and a small command called tee.

=> fd0 is stdin
=> fd1 is stdout
=> fd2 is stderr

There are two formats for redirecting standard output and standard error:
&>word
and
>&word

For example anything written to fd2 to the same place as output to fd1, you will use:
2>&1

tee command read from standard input and write to standard output and file.

So to send stderr to /tmp/errors.log, stdout to /tmp/output.log and both to /tmp/final.log, type as follows:

((/path/to/oraMon.pl 2>&1 1>&3 | tee /tmp/errors.log) 3>&1 1>&2 | tee /tmp/output.log) > /tmp/final.log 2>&1

Good FAQ on Unix/Solaris

This is a good website

http://www.unixguide.net/sun/faq/

Advanced Solaris Command

Process stats
– cputrack - per-processor hw counters
– pargs – process arguments
– pflags – process flags
– pcred – process credentials
– pldd – process's library dependencies eg.pldd `pgrep syslog`
– psig – process signal disposition
– pstack – process stack dump eg. pstack `pgrep syslog`
– pmap – process memory map
– pfiles – open files and names
– prstat – process statistics
– ptree – process tree
– ptime – process microstate times
– pwdx – process working directory



Process control
– pgrep – grep for processes
– pkill – kill processes list
– pstop – stop processes
– prun – start processes
– prctl – view/set process resources
– pwait – wait for process
– preap – reap a zombie process
- pfiles - Find Files Opened by a Process eg. pfiles `pgrep syslog` | pg


Process tracing/debugging
– abitrace – trace ABI interfaces
– dtrace – trace the world
– mdb – debug/control processes
– truss – trace functions and
system calls



Kernel tracing/debugging
– dtrace – trace and monitor kernel
– lockstat – monitor locking statistics
– lockstat -k – profile kernel
– mdb – debug live and kernel cores



System stats
– acctcom – process accounting
– busstat – Bus hardware counters
– cpustat – CPU hardware counters
– iostat – IO & NFS statistics
– kstat – display kernel statistics
– mpstat – processor statistics
– netstat – network statistics
– nfsstat – nfs server stats
– sar – kitchen sink utility
– vmstat – virtual memory stats

Installing Solaris 10 on an under $300 machine

Solaris is perceived to be a heavy weight operating system in terms of the kind of resources (read hardware) that is required to install and use it. And when you hear the word Solaris, you at once visualize Sun Blades and Sun fire servers costing upwards of a few thousand dollars.

But it is possible to install Solaris 10 on a machine which costs under $300 if the machine is build with carefully chosen parts as shown by Christian Joaquin Cruz.

He selected parts with the following specifications to build his test machine :

• Motherboard - Intel D201GLY "Little Valley" Mini-ITX
• Hard drive - Maxtor 300GB PATA 16mb-buffer drive
• Memory - DDR 1GB pc6400 single-module 800MHz
• Optical drive - Sony DRU-170C
• Case - CoolerMaster Elite 340 mATX Case
• Power supply - RaidMaster 380w Power Supply
• Case fan - LD 80mm
  

And it cost him $279 before taxes. After installing Solaris 10 on this machine, he concludes ...

The machine, after installation of all the drivers, networking and apache configuration, was very functional and able to serve up web pages on my local network quite well. Secure Shell connections worked straight out-of-the-box, as did hot-plug-in detection of USB thumbdrives. The CD/DVD reader/burner was compatible with Solaris, but Sun has omitted the inclusion of a graphical CD/DVD burner application. The upshot of this is that you have to use the commands mkisofs and cdrw to use this functionality (or download a compatible GUI based application).

In most respects I am quite pleased at the results. It's quite a cool box for the very low amount of time and money invested.

Read the full findings of Christian Joaquin Cruz in taking his newly built under $300 Solaris box on a test drive. [Print version]

Linus Torvalds vs Jonathan Schwartz - clash of two titans ?

The fire started when Linus Torvalds wrote a reply to a mail in the Linux kernel mailing list where he pondered on Sun Microsystem's true intentions in willing to release Solaris under a GPLv3 licence and how the rise of Linux has hurt Solaris and how Sun doesn't want to help Linux.

In his own words, this is what Linus said (and I quote parts of the mail):

They may like open source, but Linux _has_ hurt them in the marketplace. A lot.

They want to use Linux resources (_especially_ drivers), but they do *not* want to give anything back (especially ZFS, which seems to be one of their very very few bright spots).

So to Sun, a GPLv3-only release would actually let them look good, and still keep Linux from taking their interesting parts, and would allow them to take at least parts of Linux without giving anything back (ahh, the joys of license fragmentation).

Jonathan Schwartz the president and CEO of Sun Microsystems has written a reply on his blog to Linus Torvalds explaining Sun's true intentions and why it is taking so long for Sun to release Solaris under GPLv3.

But most of all, from where I sit, we should put the swords down - you're not the enemy for us, we're not the enemy for you. Most of the world doesn't have access to the internet - that's the enemy to slay, the divide that separates us. By joining our communities, we can bring transparency and opportunity to the whole planet. Are we after your drivers? No more than you're after ZFS or Crossbow or dtrace - it's not predation, it's prudence. Let's stop wasting time recreating wheels we both need to roll forward.

You may also be interested in reading the comment made on Jonathan Schwartz's blog by OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt.

Review of Sun Solaris 10

For some time now, I have been tinkering with Solaris 10; the robust Unix from Sun Microsystems. In the past, I have posted news of the free Solaris media kit and its pictures as well as published news of Open Solaris starter kit give away.

With Sun releasing Solaris source code under the CDDL license and naming it Open Solaris, a number of clones of Solaris have cropped up in the past two years or so, such as Nexenta, Belenix and SchilliX. But Sun also provides Solaris in the form of Solaris Express incorporating the latest advances. And Solaris Express acts as a sand box with many new features eventually make their way into Solaris OS after a period of incubation.

Even though Solaris was originally designed for SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) hardware, it also supports Intel platforms. This has thrown open the doors for the hordes of Solaris enthusiasts who couldn't afford a SPARC based computer, to install Solaris on their PC and take it for a run.

Once you get hold of the CD/DVD containing Solaris 10, the next step is to install it. Installing Solaris from CD/DVD is a very simple and straight forward process. As long as you have a minimum of 256 MB RAM, you can go ahead with installing it. But any less memory means you will have to upgrade your PC memory before you can start installing Solaris.

I did not encounter any problems at the time of installation. And in no time, I was able to install Solaris and boot into it. Solaris 10 bundles with it mainly two desktops - them being Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and the Java Desktop System which is actually the Gnome desktop built on top of the Java framework.

Fig: CDE Panel - can be iconized

Fig: Java Desktop System Menu

Those who are coming from a KDE/Gnome/Windows background might initially be put off by the CDE. But after working in it for some time, I found the CDE to be a very functional desktop. To put it succinctly, it has some elements of the AfterStep window manager in GNU/Linux with lots of additional useful features.

In CDE, each component including the Panel can be minimized to the Desktop and all minimized applications are neatly arranged as icons on the Desktop. CDE also saves the state of a running application when you log out. And when you log back in, the application is automatically opened and displayed in its previous position.

Sun provides each Solaris user a choice of subscribing to the Sun Connection. It is a paid subscription and once you join it, you can use the Sun update manager to provide you suggestions, automatically manage updates, prioritize and keep a history of updates. OR you can also choose to apply the updates manually without any assistance. You can also download the latest patches and driver updates at sunsolve.sun.com.

Solaris Management Console 2.11

Considering that Java language is being developed by Sun, it is no surprise that it plays a very important role in Solaris. For instance, to do system administration tasks, Solaris has an all-in-one GUI toolkit in Solaris Management Console which has been developed using Java.

While it is also possible to use commands to achieve system and network administration tasks, SMC happens to be the preferred way. Here you can know about the status of your system such as your system information, processes running, logs, performance and so on. More over, it contains options to do almost all system administration tasks such as managing users, system configuration, managing services, storage, devices and hardware.

Solaris Management Console uses the concept of a toolbox to provide a view of various system administration tools or applications within a common user interface. It has three components namely :

1. SMC client called the console
2. SMC server
3. SMC console toolbox editor
   

To start the SMC toolbox editor or the SMC client, you run the following command :

$ /usr/sadm/bin/smc

As you can see, you need not be logged in as root to open the SMC. But to view all tools, it asks for authorization.

Similarly to check the status of the SMC server, you run the following command as root :

# /etc/init.d/init.wbem status

Suppose I want to mount a disk partition in Solaris. It is a piece of cake and is as simple as opening up SMC, then navigating to Storage -> Mounts and shares -> Mounts. Here select from the menu, Actions -> Add NFS mount. And follow the instructions. Similarly there are tools to create and manage RAID volumes.

Fig: System Management Console

While the number of software bundled with Solaris 10 is no where near that offered by GNU/Linux such as Debian, it does come with a useful set of programs such as the text editor, music player, web browser and so on which makes it a practical solution as a Desktop OS.

To spell out some of the unique software Sun bundles with Solaris 10, you get the advanced StarOffice productivity suite which is build upon Open Office.org, a card game called JSpider developed using Java, a Java based media player, a disk analyser 'JDiskReport' which is a free graphical disk report utility; also developed using Java. JDiskReport enables you to visually understand how much space the directories and files consume on your disk drives.

Fig: A diagramming software

Fig: Get a graphical view of the disk space occupied by your files.

Solaris also has support for popular browser plugins for Java, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Realplayer and Flash player (ver 7.0). You can download the plugins here.

Apart from the software bundled with the official Solaris CDs/DVD, Sun also makes available a collection of GPLed software compiled to be run in Solaris, which you can download from the Sun Freeware webpage.

One thing which I found really strange was the fact that Solaris comes with Mozilla ver 1.7 web browser and not Firefox. So if you are too attached to using Firefox, you are out of luck, unless you succeed in compiling Firefox from source.

Another aspect of Solaris that is really endearing is the excellent set of online documentation which has been made available by Sun. In fact I do not know of any Linux distribution which has even half the quantity of documentation as that made available by Sun Microsystems for Solaris. The Solaris documentation is available at docs.sun.com where each and every technical aspect of Solaris is covered. You can also download whole sets of documentation and guides in PDF format for offline use too. This could be a reason why there are not that many Solaris textbooks in print as you find on GNU/Linux.

Even though Solaris has not attracted the same level of evangelism as Linux has succeeded to attract, it does not have any dearth of followers. There are a large number of websites which cater to providing Solaris specific packages of a variety of software not officially made available by Sun Microsystems. The notable among them being the following :

Blastwave.org - This is a website which provides a slew of GPLed packages for Solaris. The USP of this website is that it provides an easy way of installing its packages on Solaris - some what similar to the apt-get method used in Debian Linux. The script pkg-get that they provide automatically does dependency checking and installs the latest packages that you require. I was really surprised to find GNUCash ver 2.0 among the packages that they offer - some thing which I haven't yet been able to get for Slackware.

SunFreeware.com - This is another humongous (Should I say the largest?) unofficial repository available for Solaris specific packages. And this site is very popular among the Solaris users and administrators alike.

While reviewing Belenix, I had noted the advantages Solaris has over GNU/Linux. Apart from what I had listed, Solaris also has a new advantage which is the "Secure by default" tag that Sun has provided it. The latest version of Solaris comes with all the ports closed by default.

I believe this is an operating system which holds a lot of promise as a Desktop OS. And if the people steering Sun Microsystems take the right decisions (hint: GPL ???), it just might take the fancy of a large section of IT savvy public, enough to motivate many of them to start developing Free software for Solaris.

Free Open Solaris starter kit

Two months back, I had gustily bought the news of the free Sun Solaris media kit which consisted of a set of 3 DVDs which contained the Solaris OS for the Sparc and Intel architectures as well as Java software goodies. And as a follow up, I had posted a couple of photos of the media kit I received as well. Now it is OpenSolaris which is handing out free DVDs. But the OpenSolaris give away is more exciting for a number of reasons.

The OpenSolaris media kit, which they chose to call the starter kit consists of a set of two DVDs and a mini book. You heard right, they have also included a booklet which contain a collection of tutorials and documentation which will be of use to OpenSolaris neophytes. The DVDs will contain apart from the Solaris Express, the community built images of three distributions of OpenSolaris namely Nexenta OS, Belenix and SchilliX as well as OpenSolaris source code. You will also find the Sun Studio compilers included in the offering. You can order your copy of the starter kit here. I may also add that you need to register first to place the order.

In all respects these are very good times for Solaris users as Sun Microsystems is going on a limb to sustain the excitement towards its software products by developers and users alike and ensure that its legacy does not wither away. A good move in these fast changing times. Now I am waiting for the day when they will release Solaris under the GPL v3 license.

OpenSolaris installation screencasts

Today, I came across a very good collection of screencasts which visually walks one through the backing up, repartitioning and then installation of Open Solaris on ones laptop. The OpenSolaris release is 5.11 and all the installation steps are shown. You need Flash player ver 6 or greater to watch the screencast - not a big issue as Adobe has released Flash player ver 9 for Linux. In a nutshell, these are the steps that are showcased in the screencast.

1. Backup your laptop to prevent any data loss, should something go wrong. The laptop has Windows XP professional pre-installed. So first the disk is defragmented and scan disk utility is run to make sure there are no errors. To do the actual backup, they use the free G4U - short for Ghost for Unix, which is similar to the Norton Ghost disk cloning software in Windows. This can be downloaded into three floppys or as an ISO and burned onto a CD. Using G4U, they perform a backup of the whole disk to a remote ftp server. G4U can also be used to do a disk to disk backup.
2. The second step in the procedure is to repartition the disk to make room for OpenSolaris. For this they demonstrate how to shrink the Windows partition using the Free software QtParted. This is a GUI front end for the 'parted' tool and is similar to Partition Magic in that it non-destructively shrinks the partition. This software is available on the System Rescue CD which is a remastered Gentoo Linux distribution. One thing worth noting is that while creating the new partition, they format the new partition as Linux swap.
3. Install Solaris on the newly created partition. This screencast shows all the steps in the installation of OpenSolaris albeit in a time compressed sequence.
4. And finally, another screencast shows how to download and install Sun Studio 11 software on OpenSolaris.
   

All in all, there are 5 screencasts which I found to be truly informative. If you have the time and the bandwidth, watching the screencasts is highly recommended. More over, they may not be around for a long time as the domain doesn't work properly except the link containing the screencasts.

A perfect New Year Gift from Sun Microsystems - A Free Solaris Media Kit

A few weeks back, I had shared with you the news of Sun Microsystems distributing free Media Kit consisting of the latest build of Solaris 10 operating system. I had placed an order for a media kit at their website and guess what, a couple of days back, I received my copy of Sun's free media kit.

The media kit is a fabulous DVD case consisting of three DVDs - a copy of Solaris 10 6/06 build operating system for the x64/x86 platform, a copy of Solaris 10 6/06 build operating system for the SPARC platform and finally a DVD containing Java software goodies which include Sun Studio 11, Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 and Netbeans ver 5.0.

Fig: Sun Media Kit DVD case

Fig: DVD case opened

Fig: The Media Kit contains 3 DVDs

I was successful in installing Solaris 10 on my machine from the DVD and the installation went without a hitch. Solaris 10 comes with a graphical GUI installer as well as a text based installer. Sun specifies the minimum recommended memory requirement for running Solaris 10 to be 512 MB. I was able to successfully install the OS on a machine with 256 MB memory. In fact, if your machine has just 256 MB RAM, Solaris automatically selects the text based installer. For machines with at least 512 MB RAM, it uses the graphical installer. And if your machine has less than 256 MB RAM, it refuses to install on your machine. Solaris 10 bundles with it two desktops - Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and the more popular Java Desktop which is really the Gnome Desktop running on top of a Java framework. Solaris 10 also comes with two X servers, them being the Xsun Server and the more common Xorg server and you can choose one over the other at the time of installation.

You can look forward to a review of Solaris 10 on this site in the near future. But for now, you may whet your appetite by viewing a couple of photos I took of the Sun Media Kit ;-). And those who haven't yet placed an order for the Free Media kit can do so at Sun's website - but before that, just make sure that your machine has the required memory to run this robust operating system.

Sun Microsystems - doing all it can to propagate its immense software wealth

A couple of weeks back, Sun Microsystems created a buzz in the tech world when it announced its decision to release their flag ship language Java under a GPL license albeit GPL v2. But even though it could have surprised and gladdened the Free Software fans the world over, it is clear that it was a well calculated, deeply thought out decision which was aimed at the survival and further propagation of the Java language.

It is true that at its core, Sun is a hardware company with the bulk of its revenue being generated from selling high end servers, workstations and storage solutions. But it has also invested heavily in developing robust software. And what is amusing is that it does not charge anything for most of the software it has developed and has been providing it free of cost. OpenOffice.org, Netbeans, Java and Solaris being a case to the point.

At one time, Solaris was the most popular Unix operating system enjoying a huge market share, greater than even IBM AIX and HP-UX combined. Then Linux arrived at the horizon and slowly started chipping away at the market share of all the Unixes including Solaris. With Linux gaining demi god status, it was inevitable that Sun take a deep look at itself. It realized that if it did not re-structure its thinking, it will be reduced to a mere hardware company like Dell selling boxes, from its present status as an IP creator. And it has shown enough foresight to change with changing times. Instead of fighting Linux, it started bundling Linux - more specifically Red Hat Linux with its servers along side its own operating system Solaris. And over an year back, it released the Solaris code under an open license and named it OpenSolaris.

Now Sun is going even further by hinting that it is seriously considering releasing Solaris under a GPL license. A few years back, the PCs that were sold did not meet the minimum requirements for running Solaris which made it a difficult proposition to run it as a desktop. But with rapid advances made in the hardware field, a drastic drop in hardware prices and partly thanks to Microsoft for upping the ante with regard to minimum memory requirements for running Vista, it has suddenly become possible to look at Solaris as a viable desktop OS alternative as it works smoothly with just 512 MB RAM.

Fig: Get a Free DVD consisting of Solaris 10 and Sun Studio software

Taking all these events into consideration, Sun is doing everything in its power to ensure that the fruits of its hard work lives on and gains in popularity. A few days back when I visited Sun's website, I was surprised to see a link offering to send a free DVD media kit consisting of the latest build of Solaris 10 and Sun Studio 11 software to the address of ones choice. I have always believed that one of the reasons for Ubuntu to gain so much popularity was because of its decision to ship free CDs of its OS. Perhaps taking a leaf from Ubuntu, Sun has also started shipping free DVDs of Solaris 10 OS to anybody who want a copy of the same - a sure way of expanding its community.

In the long run, the logical thing for Sun to do will be to release Solaris under GPL. By doing so, Sun would gain the immense good will of the Free Software fans the world over and ensure a permanent place in the history of computing. Unlike GNU/Linux which is a loose amalgamation of scores of individual software pieces around the Linux kernel, Solaris is a whole product whose tools are tightly integrated with its kernel. So even if Solaris is released under GPL, it may not see as many distributions as we see in Linux. And who is better qualified to provide services and support for Solaris other than Sun itself?