Print-friendly VersionThis Getting Started document provides you an overview of the steps to prepare for and install the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release on your x86 system.
 |
The steps to a successful installation are as follows:
Review the Preparing for Installation Flowchart.
Check the requirements and limitations for running Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 on your laptop or x86 system:
Verify that your x86 system meets the System Requirements.
Review specifications for a Dual-Boot or MultiBoot Environment.
Review the Limitations for Installation and Upgrade of the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 .
Depending on your system configuration, select one of the following procedures:
You have Windows, Mac OS and/or Linux on your x86 system and you want to install Solaris Express Developer Edition:
Backup your system. This step is strongly recommended when repartitioning your system.
Create a Partition for installing Solaris Express Developer Edition on your system.
You already have Solaris installed on your system. The Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release offers both an initial installation and an upgrade. Or, you can use Live Upgrade to upgrade your system.
Install or Upgrade the Solaris Express Developer Edition Release.
If applicable, review the steps for Installing on a Mac OS X System and Parallels.
Update the GRUB menu to support more than one operating environment on your system.
|
The Getting Started Installation Flowchart describes the steps necessary to prepare for installation.
 |
|
Figure 1: Getting Started Process
|
System Requirements for Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 |
Requirement |
Description |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||
Memory |
768 MB minimum Note - If your system has insufficient memory, the program exists and displays an error message. You must upgrade your memory and restart the installation. For an alternative that requires less memory to install, follow these steps:
|
|||
Disk space |
Recommended size is
at least 20 GB. If the partition is 20 GB or more, the
installer creates a separate file system for the use of Live Upgrade
in the future. Also, more space is allocated for Installation on a disk or partition that is smaller than recommended is permitted, if this disk or partition is large enough to hold and run the installed system. Smaller than recommended size installations may not allow you to fully utilize the Live Upgrade feature. The absolute minimum is 8 GB for an English-only installation. |
|||
Drive |
A
DVD drive is required. Check your system BIOS to make sure you
can boot from the DVD. |
|||
Network interface |
One network interface is required. |
|||
USB ports |
Two to four
USB ports are required. |
|||
Graphics card |
A graphics card is required. Note - To install without a graphics card, you must, on the GRUB menu, select a Solaris Express Serial Console installation, not the Solaris Express Developer Edition installation. The Solaris Express Serial Console installations are text-based installations. |
|||
Multiboot capability |
For multibooting information about specific operating systems, see Preparing for a MultiBoot Environment. |
|||
ITU or driver installation |
Acquire any install time updates (ITUs) or drivers that you
need to install the Solaris OS on your hardware. To determine if you
need an ITU or additional drivers, see your hardware documentation. |
|||
|
||||
In addition to these system requirements, also review Limitations for Installation and Upgrade of the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 .
|
You can install the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 release as a single-boot system. Or, you can install this release as part of a multiboot environment. Note the following multibooting specifications for various operating systems.
Table 1 MultiBoot Environments |
Existing OS |
Description |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||
Windows |
If you have Windows installed, and you setup enough space to install the Solaris OS, the installation should be straightforward. All versions of the Solaris OS after the Solaris 10 1/06 release use the GRUB bootloader. These Solaris releases recognize Windows and ensure that the Windows partitions remain unchanged by default. When the Solaris installation is finished, the GRUB menu gives you the option to boot either the Windows system or the Solaris system. Windows Vista fdisk program has a new approach to allocation of extra sectors on a disk drive. Vista allocates space in multiples of 2048 sectors. For this release, this change impacts the SXDE multibooting process for some laptops that have Vista pre-installed. The fdisk command reports errors during installation while reading the existing partition table. If you have Windows Vista installed, see "x86: Vista Multiboot Installation Might Fail (6598208)" in the Solaris Express Developer Edition Release Notes. |
|||
Linux, or Windows and Linux |
If you have Linux installed, or Linux and Windows, installed and you are currently booting through GRUB, save and print out your /boot/grub/menu.lst GRUB menu file from the Linux system before installing the Solaris OS. You must edit this information back into the Solaris /boot/grub/menu.lst file when you finish booting. See the Technical FAQ for additional information about multibooting Linux. Note - If you are installing Solaris on a system that also contains the Linux OS, a Solaris partition must precede the Linux swap partition. |
|||
Solaris 10 OS |
Solaris Express Developer Edition cannot be used to multiboot Solaris. However, Solaris Express Developer Edition can be used to upgrade instances of Solaris 10 1/06 and later, and instances of Solaris Express, in an existing multiboot Solaris system. If you want to create multiple instances of the Solaris OS on your system, see "Chapter 2, Live Upgrade (Overview)" in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning. If you want to multiboot an older Solaris release, see “Chapter 17, Using the Solaris Web Start Program (Tasks)” in the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide. If you want to create a second Solaris partition while
preserving an existing Solaris partition by using the fdisk command, see Using |
|||
Extended Partitions |
If you
have another OS on an extended partition, the existing extended partition is not
changed and is not lost during a Developer release installation. Existing extended
partitions are not visible during the Developer release installation, but the primary
|
|||
|
||||
|
The Solaris Express Developer Edition DVD enables installation of, or upgrade to, the Developer 1/08 release. Note the following limitations:
Table 2 Limitations for Installation and Upgrade |
Type of Installation |
Limitation |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||
Installation of the Developer 1/08 Release |
Note - The “Solaris Express” installation option does not include the developer tools, but you can manually add or upgrade developer tools after the installation. |
|||
Upgrade to the Developer 1/08 Release |
|
|||
|
||||
|
Sun Device Detection Tool 2.0 informs you quickly whether the Solaris Express Developer Edition or Solaris 10 OS supports the devices that are detected in your x86 system. The tool produces a table that shows whether a Solaris driver is available for each device that the tool detects. The table also informs you whether the driver is built in to the Solaris OS or whether a third-party driver is available. The tool enables you to save the driver report in HTML format.
Before you install the Solaris OS, use this tool to determine whether your critical hardware components are supported.
Or, after you install the Solaris OS, use this tool to determine whether you can obtain a third-party driver for components that are not supported natively in the Solaris OS.
Sun Device Detection Tool 2.0 also enables you to submit the system information to the Solaris OS Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) by using the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) submission option. This system information will be used for HCL auditing. If the system information conforms to HCL specifications, the audited report is published in the HCL. The HCL submission option can be used only on the Solaris 10 OS or the Solaris Express Developer Edition OS.
To run the tool, your system must meet the following requirements:
Have Java Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.2 or later installed
-
Be running one of the following operating systems:
- Solaris OS
- Solaris 10 x86 or Solaris 10 x64 updates
- Solaris Express Developer Edition x86 or x64 releases
- Microsoft Windows
- MS Windows Vista
- MS Windows XP
- MS Windows 2003
- MS Windows 2000
- All Linux 2.6 kernel x86 or x86_64 distributions
- Solaris OS
If your devices are already shown on the Solaris OS Hardware Compatibility List, you do not need this tool.
To download this tool, go to http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/device_detect.html. In the “Using Sun Device Detection Tool” section, click on the “Start Sun Device Detection Tool 2.0” link. If you have any questions, send email to the support alias: device-detect-feedback@sun.com.
If you do not have Internet access, you can run the local
version of the Sun Device Detection tool. The image of the tool is
available from the /sddtool directory on the installation DVD. Run the
script under the directory to start the tool.
Note - Though you can run the tool locally, you need Internet access to submit your system information to HCL.
See the ReadMe.txt file in the same directory for detailed information about the
local version of the Sun Device Detection Tool 2.0.
|
Solaris Express Developer Edition uses the open source GRUB bootloader which supports installing multiple operating systems on one drive. Prior to installing, you will need to create a partition for installing the Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 software. After partitioning and installing the operating systems, one of the operating systems can be deployed by choosing between the different operating systems at boot time.
This section first describes the general steps for partitioning your system. This section then provides a specific procedure to use when you have two partitions of the same type, and you want to change one partition and preserve the other partition.
- Back up your system!
Backing up your system is strongly recommended before repartitioning your hard drive. See the Backing Up the Disk Media Content demo for step by step instructions.
- Create a partition on your hard drive for installing Solaris Express Developer Edition
1/08 .
Note - Windows Vista fdisk program has a new approach to allocation of extra sectors on a disk drive. Vista allocates space in multiples of 2048 sectors. For this release, this change impacts the SXDE multibooting process for some laptops that have Vista pre-installed. The fdisk command reports errors during installation while reading the existing partition table.
If you have Windows Vista installed, see "x86: Vista Multiboot Installation Might Fail (6598208)" in the Solaris Express Developer Edition Release Notes.
Either commercial products or open source tools can be used to partition your hard drive. GParted is an open source tool for disk partitioning. The ISO image for the SystemRescueCD can be downloaded here. Use this download to burn a CD that includes the GParted tool. Information about GParted and other open source partitioning tools can be found on the SystemRescueCD home page.
See the dual-boot partitioning video. This video provides step-by-step instructions that explain how to shrink a popular desktop operating system to make room for a Linux swap partition. Ignore all the video content after about 8 minutes.
Linux-swap is the same partition ID that Solaris uses. During the Slim Installation, in the Disk partitioning step, you will be able to change this Linux-swap partition to a Solaris partition.
- Insert the Solaris Express Developer Edition DVD and begin the installation.
fdisk to Create an Additional Solaris PartitionIf two or more partitions of the same type exist on a disk, note the following restriction.
The SXDE installer does not support preserving partitions of a particular type while
you change other partitions of the same type. In this case, exit from
the installer, use the fdisk command to change the partition setup as needed,
and restart the installer.
The following example describes how to create a second Solaris partition while preserving
an existing Solaris partition by using the fdisk command.
- In a terminal window, type
fdiskand the disk that you want to partition.For example,
fdisk /dev/dsk/c0d0p0
- In the following screen, select 3 to delete the existing partition that you
wish to use for your Solaris partition.
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: 1. Create a partition 2. Specify the active partition 3. Delete a partition 4. Change between Solaris and Solaris 2 Partition IDs 5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit) 6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration) Enter Selection:
- Create a new Solaris2 partition.
- Make the new Solaris2 partition the active partition.
Your configuration should look similar to the following:
Total disk szie is 7296 cylinders Cylinder size is 16065 (512) byte blocks
PartitionStatusTypeStartEndLength%1OtherOS0808809112ACTIVESolaris280850004193573IFS:NTFS50017295229531
- Choose option 5 to exit the
fdisktool and save your changes.You can now restart the installer and continue installing the Solaris Operating System.
|
After you have installed Solaris and if you have another operating system on
your system, you might need to update the GRUB menu. The GRUB
menu displays a list of operating systems that can be booted. Solaris and
Windows operating systems are displayed automatically on the GRUB menu. The contents of
the GRUB menu.lst file dictate what is displayed in the GRUB menu when you
boot the system. If you have an additional Solaris OS or a
Linux OS that is not displayed on the menu, you need to edit
the GRUB menu.lst file.
To update the GRUB menu, see "x86: Administering the GRUB Bootloader"
and "x86: Booting a Solaris System with GRUB" in
System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
|
The Solaris Developer Express Edition offers both an initial installation and an upgrade. Existing Solaris releases are overwritten during the initial installation. The installer enables you to select either option.
Note - Manual control of Solaris file system layout is not supported. During the installation, the Solaris fdisk partition is reformatted with a default file system layout. All existing file systems on the Solaris partition are destroyed. The default layout is determined by the disk partition size according to preset defaults. To view the default layout specifics, see either the Solaris Express Developer Edition Installation Guide: Laptop Installations or the installer Online Help.
Use the following procedure for most laptop installations and upgrades. However, if you are installing on a system that is running the Mac OS X, and you have installed Parallels version 1970, use the alternate procedure, Installing on a Mac OS X System and Parallels, instead of this procedure.
Note - Before you install the Solaris OS on a system that is running the
Linux OS, save a copy of the menu.lst file as described in the
section above. The contents of the GRUB menu.lst file dictate what is displayed
in the GRUB menu when you boot the system.
At the beginning of the installation or upgrade, the GRUB menu presents the following options:
Solaris Express Developer Edition Solaris Express Solaris Express Serial Console ttya Solaris Express Serial Console ttyb (for lx50,v60x and v65x) |
All of these options provide a complete installation or upgrade of the Solaris OS:
- Solaris Express Developer Edition
Choose this option for a quick x86 laptop installation or upgrade with developer tools. This installation is the default and if you wait, automatically starts. This Getting Started describes this laptop installation procedure.
- Solaris Express
This alternate installation option provides SPARC and x86 system administrators with the necessary choices to set up servers and clients during the installation or upgrade process. Because of these configuration choices, this installation requires more time. This GUI installation option does not include the developer tools.
- Solaris Express Serial Console ttya and ttyp
These alternate installation options provide SPARC and x86 text-mode installations or upgrades that can operate with less than 768 MB of memory. These Serial Console installations include server and client configuration choices, and, therefore, require more time to install. These installation options do not include the developer tools.
For more information about the alternate installation options, see Solaris Express Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade.
For step-by-step instructions, see the Solaris Express Developer Edition Installation Guide: Laptop Installations.
A 10–minute demo is available that provides a sneak peek at installation questions before you install the Developer release. This demo explains several issues that help you prepare for the installation.
Note - After you have installed the Solaris OS and if you have another OS on your system, you might need to update the GRUB menu. See Updating the GRUB Menu in this document.
|
If you are installing on a system and are running the Mac OS X and have installed Parallels version 1970, use the following procedure to install the Developer release.
In Parallels, set networking to Ethernet bridge.
Boot to the GRUB menu and edit the menu.
From the Parallels directory, install the Solaris RTL driver.
|
Before You Begin
See "Solaris Network Driver Installation" instructions on page 95 of Parallels Desktop for Mac User Guide.
- During the Parallels pseudo environment setup, set the networking choice to Ethernet bridge.
- Using Parallels, boot the DVD or ISO image.
The GRUB menu is displayed.
GNU GRUB version 0.95 (631K lower / 2095488K upper memory) +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Solaris Express Developer Edition | |Solaris Express | |Solaris Express Serial Console ttya | |Solaris Express Serial Console ttyb (for lx50, v60x and v65) | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted. Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands before booting, or 'c' for a command-line.
- To stop the booting process and use the menu editor, type
e.The GRUB edit menu is displayed.
kernel$ /boot/platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B install_media=cdrom module$ /boot/x86.miniroot
Note - Starting with the 5/07 Developer release, GRUB has enhanced support for directly booting the
unixkernel. The new$ISADIRkeyword resolves toamd64for 64-bit hardware and to null for 32-bit hardware.
- Use the arrow keys to select the boot entry.
kernel$ /boot/platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B install_media=cdrom
- To edit the selected command, type
e.A command that is similar to the following example is displayed.
kernel$ /boot/platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B install_media=cdrom
- At the end of the command, type
,atapi-cd-dma-enabled=0as in this example.grub edit>kernel$ /boot/platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/kernel/unix/ \ -B install_media=cdrom,atapi-cd-dma-enabled=0
- To accept the edits, press Enter.
Your changes are saved and the GRUB main menu is displayed.
Note - Pressing the Escape key returns you to the GRUB main menu without saving your changes.
To begin the installation, type
b. - Continue the installation by beginning with Step 4 in the Solaris Express, Developer Edition Installation Guide: Laptop Installations.
After the installation is complete, install the Solaris networking driver (RTL) found in the Parallels driver directory.
- After the installation is complete, update the GRUB menu to prevent having to
edit the boot command each time you reboot. To change the GRUB
menu, locate the menu.lst file and add the ,atapi-cd-dma-enabled=0 text to the menu.lst
file.
The following is an example of a menu.lst file entry for the Solaris OS that has been updated with the text.
default 0 timeout 10 . . . title Solaris root (hd0,0,a) kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B install_media=cdrom,atapi-cd-dma-enabled=0 module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive
For information about the GRUB menu, see "x86: Administering the GRUB Bootloader" and "x86: Booting a Solaris System with GRUB" in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
|
Network Auto-Magic (NWAM) is a prototype that is included in the Solaris Express Developer Edition release.
NWAM introduces an alternate instance of the network/physical SMF service which enables automated network configuration. Details of how to enable this feature can be found at the following Web site: http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/phase0/.
This Web site includes the nwam(1) man page. See the man page
for how to disable the default instance of the network/physical service and enable the
NWAM instance. Also, see this man page for details about how to
switch back and forth between the default instance (legacy mode) and the NWAM
instance (auto-magic mode). This site also provides links to NWAM blogs and an
NWAM discussion group.
|
The Sun web site provides information about the following resources:
In Solaris Express Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade, see the following sections:
Note:
Sun is not responsible for the availability of third-party web sites mentioned in this document. Sun does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials that are available on or through such sites or resources. Sun will not be responsible or liable for any actual or alleged damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services that are available on or through such sites or resources.
