Hi, I've installed Solaris a few times on a server computer and experienced a some difficulties:
1) When installing with the "everything" software group, after the first reboot my screen goes into "Unsupported mode". I'm usng an LCD screen through a KVM. The graphical installer worked fine before rebooting. I suspect the refresh rate is now set too high for my LCD screen. After attaching a CRT monitor to the computer, I saw the graphical installer had started back up and wanted me to insert disc #2. Earlier I had installed installing Solaris 10 (not Solaris Express) "end user" software group on the same computer/kvm/lcd screen. I did not have this problem. I don't see an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. There must be one somewhere? At the moment I don't have all the information to use xorgconfig and create a new one. From past experiences, I don't think my LCD screen supports 60Hz (it's an old one). Gnome won't let me change the refresh rate. How can I do this? 2) I chose to customize the "core" software group. As I added packages it warned me about dependencies, and expected me to resolve them manually. As I manually resolved some dependencies it created more dependencies, etc... I gave up and chose to install the default core group. I think this is a major deficiency in the installer. 3) I am installing off of CDs. Is it really necessary to ask me which installation media I want to use after the end of each CD? Then, after inserting the next CD and pressing OK, it tells me that it is going to install the CD and wants me to press OK again! There is a 10-20 second delay between the first OK and the confirmation screen. I didn't notice this because after inserting the CD and pressing OK, I walked away. When I came back I realized that the install hadn't even started. 4) I want to install Solaris on a server with all the useful administration tools that only come in the "everything" software group. I think there needs to be an other software group for servers that is similar to the "end user" group (relatively small install size), does not install things like Star Office, games, graphics and video tools, thunderbird, PDA Sync, etc. but does include a bunch of server admin tools. This would make it a lot easier to install on a server, especially for people new to Solaris like myself. Our network admins really don't want to use the "everything" group, "end user" is not suitable for a server, and "core" is way too basic. http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/websphere/products/WebSphereSolaris10Technote.pdf This PDF shows that Sun recommends you use the "everything" software group for production servers. Is that the norm? Does Sun really think that a production server OS and tools should be 6 GB, come with Star Office, all the developer tools and libraries, etc? 5) I'm installing on x86 hardware using a regular US English keyboard. The default shell that comes with Solaris doesn't support backspace, arrow keys, and possibly more basic but important keys. Why doesn't Solaris install bash and use it by default (at least on x86 hardware)? Bash works well with my keyboard. 6) When booting off of CD1 it tries to bring my network interfaces online but fails for both. After manually configuring one of the interfaces during installation, my network works fine. Why did it make me think my network cards won't work in Solaris while booting by saying they failed to initialize? What is it doing, a DHCP request? 7) I have a /home and /export/home. I read somewhere that this is done by design. You could have user home directories loaded from NFS shares and mapped to /home (or something like that). When I create a new local user, am I supposed to use /home or /export/home for their home directory? Since Solaris creates such a large partition for /export/home, I would think that is where it expects me to put local user home directories. When I use /export/home, am I supposed to do something else so that /home maps to it? This is a bit confusing to someone coming from the Linux world. Thanks, Ryan
