Solaris documentations

[ Trouble shooting / specific notes | Resources ]

Specific Notes

shutdown

"Really" immediate shutdown + power off:
Solaris >=8

shutdown -y -g 0 -i 5

Solaris <=7

shutdown -h now

Burning a DVD

Is particularly easy in Solaris 10 and 9:

cdrw -i file.iso

The command has many more options.

Enable telnet root login

In /etc/default/login comment the console definition:

#CONSOLE /dev/console

i.e. allow remote console by disabling local console being the only one.

hostname

Solaris makes it unreasonably difficult to change the hostname of an installed server. To change the hostname on a Solaris system, you should edit all of these files:

   /etc/hosts
   /etc/nodename
   /etc/hostname.hme0        # 
   /etc/net/ticlts/hosts
   /etc/net/ticots/hosts
   /etc/net/ticotsord/hosts
   /etc/inet/ipnodes

Find all occurences of hostname sunultrac:

   find . -type f -print | xargs grep -i sunultrac

Reset lost root password

You'll need an original media set (Installation CD).

Get into console mode via Stop A (on a native keyboard) or send a BREAK (on a terminal emulation).
at the console ok prompt boot into single user mode:
```
boot cdrom -s
```

check and mount the root partition:

fsck -F ufs -y /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0  # for Ultra 5/10 workstations
fsck -F ufs -y /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0  # for SPARCstations
ls /tmp/dev/dsk                   # if none of these: query what's there  

mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a        # mount point 'a' should always exist

remove the old root password:

TERM=sun; export TERM             # on a native workstation console
TERM=vt100; export TERM           # on an ASCII terminal (or emulation)
cd /a
vi /a/etc/shadow                  # or /etc/passwd
   # change
   root:wrtlgrmf:::::::
   # to
   root:::::::::::
cd /; umount /a

reboot and assign a new root password:
```
boot -s    # single user mode
passwd
```

References: 1, 2, 3

Resources

Downloads

Documentations

Oracle Documentation (crap site, kills older browsers)
zip's with documentations
Sun Studio compatibility charts
UNIX system administrations
Best Practices for Using Service Management Facility (SMF) (Solaris 10 differences to previous versions)
Solaris Network configuration
SunOS & Solaris Version History

An oddity: Solaris for PowerPC

For a short period of time, around 1995/96, Sun offered Solaris 2.5.1 also for selected PowerPC systems from IBM and Motorola.

PDF docs:

Title Date Code/Content

Solaris PowerPC Edition:
Installing Solaris Software May 1996 (web) (dead site) ,
(web), (local)

Solaris 2.5 PowerPC Edition:
Hardware Compatibility List Revision A, October 1995 Part No: 802-4540-05 (local)

Solaris 2.5.1 Server Release Notes May 1996 Part No. 802-5366 (web), (local)

Disk Layouts, Booting, and Installation for Solaris on PowerPC April 17, 1995
(web), (local)

installboot man page 19 Dec 1994 SunOS 5.4 (web), (local)

related threads spotted on the web:
- on a cross compiler Sparc-Solaris -> PowerPc (7 Mar 2000)
- on the (im)possibility to get/run Solaris/PPC: WTB: Solaris PowerPC version , dito (Mon, 26 May 2008).
- on solaris on powerpc install problem (Tue Feb 15 21:33:06 2005)
- on resurrecting GCC Solaris/PPC support (Sun Jan 15 14:42:11 2006)
  Looks like there was only a half-working version 2.8.1 (from Uni Bremen), and official support disappeared after 3.0.

Title	Date	Code/Content
Solaris PowerPC Edition: Installing Solaris Software	May 1996		(web) , (web), (local)
Solaris 2.5 PowerPC Edition: Hardware Compatibility List	Revision A, October 1995	Part No: 802-4540-05	(local)
Solaris 2.5.1 Server Release Notes	May 1996	Part No. 802-5366	(web), (local)
Disk Layouts, Booting, and Installation for Solaris on PowerPC	April 17, 1995		(web), (local)
`installboot` man page	19 Dec 1994	SunOS 5.4	(web), (local)

Sites

comp.unix.solaris: Usenet, Google
Licensing Center - Sun Developer (license keys for EOL software)
solarisUsersGroup @filibeto.org (Sun hardware and Solaris documentations)
Sun3/3x Archive
Blog about Solaris/PPC

Articles

Miscellaneous

Last updated: 10-Apr-2012, M.Kraemer