This article gathers some notes concerning hardware issues for installation of Solaris.
When not specified, the command should work for both Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris.
Detecting hardware
To scan PCI devices, do scanpci (as root).
# /usr/X11/bin/scanpci -v or # prtconf -v -p or # prtdiag
To list connected hardware
cfgadm -al
To get status of hardware
iostat -En
To detect new hardware
touch /reconfigure
Adding a hard disk
When adding a new hard disks, the following tasks should be done:
- connect the hard disk and detect it (touch /reconfigure). It is detected when new entries in /dev/rdsk appear, such as c0t1d0*. This can also be confirmed by the format command, which displays all visible disks.
- make sure the disk is formatted using the format command: the message “disk formatted” should be displayed
- partition the hard disk as desired, using the format command. To list partitions, use the format command. The flag wm means “writable and mountable”, wu “writable but unmountable”, rm “read-only and mountable”.
- label the disk once partitions are correct. Use the format command. Then, the prtvtoc command should display the correct layout of partitions.
- create a new file system, using newfs (newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0). This creates a UFS file system.
- mount it ! (using mount) (mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /backup)
Network card installation
My network card:
pci bus 0x0002 cardnum 0x00 function 0x00: vendor 0x11ab device 0x4364 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device unknown CardVendor 0x105b card 0x0e0a (Card unknown) STATUS 0x0010 COMMAND 0x0047 CLASS 0x02 0x00 0x00 REVISION 0x20 BIST 0x00 HEADER 0x00 LATENCY 0x00 CACHE 0x01 BASE0 0x00000000fddfc004 addr 0x00000000fddfc000 MEM 64BIT BASE2 0x0000ee01 addr 0x0000ee00 I/O MAX_LAT 0x00 MIN_GNT 0x00 INT_PIN 0x01 INT_LINE 0x0a BYTE_0 0x00 BYTE_1 0x00 BYTE_2 0xf0 BYTE_3 0x01
Download the Solaris package (I tried version 8.19.2.3), gunzip it, untar. Finally, do pkgadd -d . YUKONXsolx. Then, configure the network.
/etc/rcS.d/S50yukonx /kernel/drv/amd64/yukonx /kernel/drv/yukonx.conf /usr/sbin/yukonx_vlan_config /usr/share/man/man7d/yukonx.7d [ verifying class <none> ] [ verifying class <master> ] ## Executing postinstall script. add_drv yukonx starting network interfaces ... yukonx0 started
My Firewire card:
pci bus 0x0003 cardnum 0x06 function 0x00: vendor 0x104c device 0x8024 Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) CardVendor 0x105b card 0x0e0a (Foxconn International, Inc., Card unknown) STATUS 0x0210 COMMAND 0x0006 CLASS 0x0c 0x00 0x10 REVISION 0x00 BIST 0x00 HEADER 0x00 LATENCY 0x40 CACHE 0x01 BASE0 0xfdbff000 addr 0xfdbff000 MEM BASE1 0xfdbf8000 addr 0xfdbf8000 MEM MAX_LAT 0x04 MIN_GNT 0x02 INT_PIN 0x01 INT_LINE 0x0a
Sound card
My sound card:
pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x14 function 0x02: vendor 0x1002 device 0x4383 ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Azalia CardVendor 0x105b card 0x0e0a (Foxconn International, Inc., Card unknown) STATUS 0x0410 COMMAND 0x0006 CLASS 0x04 0x03 0x00 REVISION 0x00 BIST 0x00 HEADER 0x00 LATENCY 0x40 CACHE 0x01 BASE0 0x00000000fe024004 addr 0x00000000fe024000 MEM 64BIT MAX_LAT 0x00 MIN_GNT 0x00 INT_PIN 0x01 INT_LINE 0x0b BYTE_0 0x00 BYTE_1 0x00 BYTE_2 0x02 BYTE_3 0x00
On Solaris 10, I use the OSS driver oss-solaris-v4.1-rc2-i386.pkg.
On OpenSolaris, the sound card is automatically recognized 
pkgadd -d oss-solaris-v4.1-rc2-i386.pkg [...] ## Installing part 1 of 1. /etc/oss/devices.list /etc/oss <implied directory> /etc/oss/version.dat /kernel/drv/amd64/oss_hdaudio /usr/bin/osstest /usr/bin/ossxmix /usr/include/oss/oss_userdev_exports.h /usr/include/oss <implied directory> /usr/include/sys/soundcard.h /usr/man/man1/ossinfo.1 /usr/man/man7d/oss_hdaudio.7d /usr/sbin/ossdetect /usr/sbin/ossdevlinks /usr/sbin/osslic /usr/sbin/ossupdate /usr/sbin/savemixer /usr/sbin/soundoff /usr/sbin/soundon /usr/sbin/vmixctl ## Executing postinstall script. Setting up Open Sound System....please wait unloaded osscommon can't unload the module: Device busy add_drv -m '* 0666 root sys' osscore add_drv -m '* 0666 root sys' -i '"pci1002,4383"' oss_hdaudio devfsadm: driver failed to attach: oss_hdaudio Warning: Driver (oss_hdaudio) successfully added to system but failed to attach add_drv -m '* 0666 root sys' -i '"usbif,class1"' oss_usb devfsadm: driver failed to attach: oss_usb Warning: Driver (oss_usb) successfully added to system but failed to attach add_drv -m '* 0666 root sys' oss_sadasupport devfsadm: driver failed to attach: oss_sadasupport Warning: Driver (oss_sadasupport) successfully added to system but failed to attach
Then reboot, and try /usr/bin/osstest and see which devices works correctly. Then, rename /dev/dsp:
ln -sf /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm4 /dev/dsp
See Tips and tricks of OSS for more details.
Screen resolution
Show acceptable screen configurations (SPARC ONLY):
ffbconfig -prconf
Try a given resolution (SPARC ONLY):
ffbconfig -res xxyyz try
If ffbconfig fails to set the correct resolution (bug), use eeprom:
eeprom ouput-device=r1024x768x60
To set 24 bit mode:
ffbconfig -deflinear true
Misc commands
- Ejecting a CD: eject
- Boot prompt: stop-A at any moment to get there
boot -m verbose -> to understand what's happening boot cdrom -> to boot on CD-ROM !