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Hardware, network and package management

Research is always a necessary if you are a newcomer to Solaris and want to (or have to) perform system administration tasks. Fortunately, you rarely need to do so because hardware detection is so good. On our three test systems, the oldest of which was three years old and the youngest only a few months old, OpenSolaris only failed to support an Intel ICH6 onboard sound chip, though we were able to get it to work with OSS drivers. If you own Nvidia cards, you will be pleased to hear that OpenSolaris automatically sets up the vendor's driver with 3-D acceleration. There is no xorg.conf in the standard package because the Xorg server automatically sets the right parameters. Should that process not succeed, or if you want to set additional options, such as nodeadkeys for the keyboard, you can use xorgconfig to create a xorg.conf and adjust the settings via the graphical xorgcfg. While OpenSolaris does not yet support as much hardware as Linux, no problem should occur with common components. In addition to the Device Driver Utility, you can use the console commands prtconf and scanpci to find out more about your hardware; the latter command produces information similar to what you get with lspci under Linux.

If you use a DHCP server in your network, you are in luck. OpenSolaris automatically gets an IP address and becomes part of your network. In environments with fixed IPs, you will have to take a look at Solaris' network configuration; for instance, the Gateway's IP address is found in the file /etc/defaultrouter. You can also use the Gnome tool found in your control panel menu to configure your network. But first, you will have to disable OpenSolaris' own network management tool, nwamd (network auto-magic daemon). If neither of these options appeals to you, you can also reset all of the settings directly after installation by using the command sys-unconfig; then, you will be asked to input such details as the root password, time zone, keyboard layout, and network configuration the next time you boot your system.

The developers have already created an, admittedly quite slow, graphical interface for the new OpenSolaris package manager, which reminds one a bit of Debian's apt. The package server at opensolaris.org is preset as a repository, and new package sources can only be created from the command line with pkg. For instance, you enter

pkg set-authority -O http://pkg.sunfreeware.com:9000 Sunfreeware

to add the repository sunfreeware.com as a package source called Sunfreeware. It contains such additional open-source software as the Xpdf PDF viewer and alternative graphical interfaces, including the streamlined XFCE desktop environment and the WindowMaker window manager. Other free software, such as the KDE desktop, is available from Blastwave, which, however, does not yet have an IPS Server (Image Packaging System). You therefore have to use the Solaris command pkgadd to install the packages stored there. To facilitate installation of the software, Blastwave provides pkg-get, which allows software to be installed the same way that Debian's apt does.

The graphical front-end for OpenSolaris package management.

Conclusion

From installation to pre-configuration and package management, OpenSolaris makes a good impression. Those used to Linux won't be too bothered by the different commands used under Solaris, but rather by the lack of fine tuning. It's a pain that a number of buttons in the Gnome terminal – such as Remove, Scroll up and Scroll down – do not work as expected, though they do in xterm. And the problem could have easily been prevented with a proper .inputrc file. While you can update installed software easily, no update monitor is provided to let users know when updates have been made available. Some users will also shy away from this release because so few of the powerful system management tools have a proper graphical interface. In its defence, Sun Microsystems says it was more important to focus on functionality and hardware support than on GUI development. But the company hopes that the ease of installation and the attractive interface will entice more developers to help provide administrative tools. The live CD allows you to play around with the system and test it to see how it handles your particular hardware without risk.

(amu)

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