Solaris 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.

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.

Harware Compatibility List (HCL) for Solaris 10 & Solaris Express Edition

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

How to Reset/Recover the Root password in Sun Solaris (x86)

Click here for procedure on SPARC platform

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 is to reset the password as there is no way to recover it. 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. 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:


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.

# 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.

# cd /

# umount /a

# 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.

# passwd root

# reboot

This should do.

Click here for procedure on SPARC platform

How to reset the Root password in Sun Solaris (SPARC)

Click here for procedure on x86 platform

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 is to reset the password as there is no way to recover it

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

# 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.

# 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.

# cd /

# umount /a

# 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.

# passwd root

# reboot

This should do.

Click here for procedure on x86 platform