I don't know if these issues were ever resolved but I have the answer to both
the network configuration and the GUI.
1) X windows...
Most of the newer radeon cards are not supported with the radeon or the ati
drivers. I used the vesa driver. You can configure it through xorgconfig or
you can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and set the value of each uncommented line
starting with Driver starting with the Graphics Driver Section to "vesa".
There should be two entries though I am pretty sure you only need to set the
one in the Device section.
The other thing you have to do is lower the color depth. By default, Solaris
tries to launch the X server with 24-bit color. This is not picked up from the
xorg.conf file (though there is a default depth setting there) but from the
service that starts the X server.
This is a bit difficult though. The X server is started as a consequence ofof
the cde-login service but that service does not directly start it. There is a
hidden service names x11-server that is launched by the cde-login service. It
is not listed in the svcs output, even with the -a option but it is there
nonetheless.
To change it, enter the commands as follows. Note that the prompt changes:
# svccfg
svc:> select x11-server
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> setprop options/default_depth=16
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> listprop options/*
options/server astring /usr/x11/bin/Xorg
options/server_args astring
options/stability astring Evolving
options/value_authorization astring solaris.smf.manage.x11
options/tcp_listen astring false
options/default_depth astring 16
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> exit
#
This will force the X server back to 16 million colors which will allow it to
start using the generic VESA driver. I understand that Windows allows 24-bit
color but Windows has a better stable of device drivers and likely always will.
You don't choose to run a laptop on Solaris because of the graphics (or
shouldn't anyway :))
2) Network issue
Lars is correct in that networking on laptops requires a different approach
then on less mobile platforms. If you plan to never move the laptop and always
connect to your network just as a desktop or server, configuring DHCP and DNS
is possibly ok. However, in my case, my laptop's built-in NIC is not supported
so I use a PCMCIA NIC. The boot process configures this after attempting to
plumb the network which means the network always fails if it is configured to
come up automatically, DHCP or otherwise.
So, I use inetmenu. Once I am in, I launch the inetmenu tool and simply answer
the prompts. This will configure one NIC, even wireless ones if they are
supported. Do a Google search for inetmenu and you should find it.
-dt
This message posted from opensolaris.org
