Since Solaris 10, the old (but nice ?) start/stop script in rc?.d have been replaced by SMF, the Service Management Facility. To handle those services, there are 2 alternatives:

• command line tools:
  • svcs to report service status
    • svcs -x lists services encountering problems
    • svcs -a lists all services including disabled ones
    • svcs -l <service> provides information concerning a specific service
  • svcadm to enable/disable services:
    • svcadm enable <service>, e.g svcadm enable svc:/network/samba:default
    • svcadm -t enable <service> for temporary change (won't persist over reboot)
  • svcprop

OpenSolaris uses the SMF too. It (unfortunately ?) ships with many services and will probably need some tuning if your host is a bit slow. A nice reading on that behalf: Solaris 10 Benchmark v4.0.

Currently, the list of online services on my host are:

STATE          STIME    FMRI
legacy_run     20:36:20 lrc:/etc/rcS_d/S50yukonx
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S20sysetup
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S47pppd
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S72autoinstall
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S73cachefs_daemon
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S81dodatadm_udaplt
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S89PRESERVE
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S98deallocate
disabled       20:36:57 svc:/system/xvm/ipagent:default
online         20:36:04 svc:/system/svc/restarter:default
online         20:36:05 svc:/network/loopback:default
online         20:36:05 svc:/network/datalink-management:default
online         20:36:06 svc:/system/filesystem/root:default
online         20:36:06 svc:/network/physical:nwam
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/scheduler:default
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/boot-archive:default
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/identity:node
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/filesystem/usr:default
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/device/local:default
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/filesystem/minimal:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/identity:domain
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/hostid:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/name-service-cache:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/rmtmpfiles:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/resource-mgmt:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/cryptosvc:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/network/ipfilter:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/milestone/network:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/sysevent:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/power:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/picl:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/network/npiv_config:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/device/fc-fabric:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/milestone/devices:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/system/manifest-import:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/system/coreadm:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/network/initial:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/network/service:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/network/dns/client:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/milestone/name-services:default
online         20:36:19 svc:/network/smb/client:default
online         20:36:20 svc:/system/keymap:default
online         20:36:20 svc:/milestone/single-user:default
online         20:36:24 svc:/network/routing-setup:default
online         20:36:24 svc:/network/routing/ndp:default
online         20:36:55 svc:/system/filesystem/local:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sysidtool:net
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/shares/group:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/boot-archive-update:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/cron:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/shares/group:zfs
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/rpc/bind:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/application/stosreg:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sysidtool:system
online         20:36:56 svc:/milestone/sysconfig:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sac:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/dbus:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/utmp:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/filesystem/autofs:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/network/inetd:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/console-login:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/filesystem/zfssnap-roleadd:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/dumpadm:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/application/desktop-cache/mime-types-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/gconf-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/system/postrun:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/input-method-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/pixbuf-loaders-installer:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/opengl/ogl-select:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/network/rpc/smserver:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/network/login:rlogin
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/pkg/update:default
online         20:36:59 svc:/system/system-log:default
online         20:36:59 svc:/network/ssh:default
online         20:37:00 svc:/application/desktop-cache/desktop-mime-cache:default
online         20:37:00 svc:/milestone/multi-user:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/system/intrd:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/system/fmd:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/milestone/multi-user-server:default
online         20:37:03 svc:/system/zones:default
online         20:37:03 svc:/application/font/fc-cache:default
online         20:37:10 svc:/application/desktop-cache/icon-cache:default
online         20:37:12 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:daily
online         20:37:13 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:monthly
online         20:37:13 svc:/application/graphical-login/gdm:default
online         20:37:13 svc:/network/http:apache22
online         20:37:13 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:weekly
online         20:37:19 svc:/system/hal:default
online         20:37:19 svc:/system/filesystem/rmvolmgr:default
online         20:37:28 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:frequent
online         20:37:28 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:hourly
online         20:37:28 svc:/application/time-slider:default

The host can be graphically administered using:

• SMC (Solaris Management Console): user management, hosts editing, cron batches, SMF. Launch /usr/sadm/bin/smc.
• Visual Panels : this is an additional piece of software
• Webmin: web-based administration. Additional piece of software.

To add a new user,

• use the graphical Solaris Management Console (smc&)
• or make sure the home dir exists and is readable by the group, and then type: useradd -d /export/home/axelle -g staff -s /usr/bin/bash axelle

• to log failed logins, set SYSLOG_FAILED_LOGINS in /etc/default/login
• the password policy is configured in /etc/default/passwd. The default settings are reasonable. Several parameters are commented out, but they have a default value. On the contrary, an unsecure setting could be as follows:

MAXWEEKS=
MINWEEKS=
PASSLENGTH=4
HISTORY=0
MINDIFF=0
MINDIGIT=0

See more information here.

The default path for Solaris 10 should be set in /etc/default/login:

PATH=/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin
SUPATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

PATH is the default path for users.

SUPATH is the default path for root when running su.

Both paths are overriden by user's .profile, .login, .cshrc or .bashrc. So, check those files out too.

The configuration of locales is stored in /etc/default/init. To add a new locale, use localeadm

For compilation messages in English:

export LC_MESSAGES=en_US

To set/correct time, do:

date 1334.00

to set clock to 13:34.00

• To add a new computer, use the Solaris Management Console, Computers & Network, Computers, then selection Action / Add Computer. This basically adds an entry to /etc/hosts.
• Check out files /etc/hostname, /etc/hostname.hme0, /etc/nodename, /etc/inet/hosts, /etc/inet/ipnodes.
• List possible interfaces: ifconfig -a plumb, then ifconfig
• List routes: routeadm
• GUI: network-admin

To add the rlogin network service:

svcs -l rlogin
svcadm enable network/login:rlogin

Note that svcadm enable -t network/login:rlogin only performs a temporary enable of rlogin (won't persist over reboot).

• Name your ethernet interface. In my case, I used the default name, yukonx0.
• Make sure the service physical:default is enabled
• Create a file /etc/hostname.<INTERFACE NAME> and inside, specify your host's name:

$ more /etc/hostname.yukonx0
boureautic

• In /etc/hosts, set the loopback address and your static IP address:

$ more /etc/hosts
#
# Internet host table
#
#::1    localhost       loghost boureautic
127.0.0.1       localhost       loghost
192.168.0.2     boureautic

• In /etc/resolv.conf, set the appropriate DNS server (those are the ones used by Free):

domain sweethome.fr
nameserver 212.27.54.252
nameserver 212.27.53.252

• In /etc/nsswitch.conf, make sure the line hosts sets “files” before “dns”.

hosts:      files dns

• For a manual try,
  • add the network interface with ifconfig:

ifconfig yukonx0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

• then set the default gateway:

route add default 192.168.0.254

• To do this automatically, in /etc/rc2.d/S99route

route add default 192.168.0.254

An alternative consists in using the Networking daemon: physical:nwam

For remote display:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

Also use /usr/openwin/bin/xauth list to list which entities are authorized.

There's a known bug on Solaris 10 u5: when you log on, a message is displayed: “failed to execute child process “xscreensaver” (no such file or directory) screesaver functionality will not work in this session”.

To get rid of this message, do

ln -s /usr/openwin/bin/xscreensaver /usr/bin/xscreensaver

On Solaris 10, to set up automatic log in:

# gdmsetup & --> set up for user you wish to log in
# vi /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf
...
SystemMenu=true
# /etc/init.d/dtlogin stop
# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -d
# svcadm enable gdm2-login 

Now, automatic login is a bit disappointing, because you still have to provide user's password…

On OpenSolaris 2008.11, no such issue ! Use gdmsetup and it works.

One of my former desktops used the following:

• Theme: I like the BlackGarden theme. You have to install the theme with Preferences > Desktop Preferences > Display > Themes. Fetch the tar.gz, then close and reload the theme manager to see BlackGarden. The install procedure actually untars the theme in ~/.themes.
• Gnome-terminal: transparency's throttle is set to the middle.
• icon bar: with weather, sticky notes, log out, two launchers (terminal & firefox). The bar's properties are set to: don't expand, show hide buttons.

To launch an application as root: gksu. For example,

gksu /usr/bin/packagemanager

Enlightenment is a nice Unix window manager. There's a ready-to-use package for DR16 at Blastwave.

pkg-get install enlightenment

Then, you merely need to edit your .dtprofile, and add at the end:

exec /opt/csw/bin/enlightenment

See for details.

You can download Enlightenment themes from Freshmeat or Get-E. My favorite themes are :

• Bevelfree: coloured, simple with no 3D.
• Dufrenite: nice, but a bit 'gray'.
• Thingradient
• XaquaX: an Apple look

Enlightenment shows customizable menus. To edit the menus, look for a file called files.menu in ~/.enlightenment. Buttons are configured in the theme as buttons.cfg. Usually, you set action classes (actionclasses.cfg). Make sure they use the right path.

I like FVWM because it is quite lightweight. However, the look and feel of FVWM 2.4 is a bit 'old' (to my opinion), so I wanted to use FVWM 2.5. As I couldn't find any precompiled package for this version, I compiled it myself from sources, without too many difficulties both on Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris.

fvwm 2.5.26

To set up a vertical pager, do:

*FvwmPager: Columns	    1

On OpenSolaris, I kept on having a silly and ugly small tab next to my Xterms, this tab showing various locales/encodings. To remove this, launch iiim-properties, and set Input Method and switcher placement to “None”. Apply.

To configure XDMCP, launch gdmsetup then click on the remote tabs and activate “same as local”

• To display usable fonts, use xfontsel
• To use a given font in a xterm, use -fn:

xterm -fn -*-fixed-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-* &

or create an XTerm file and specify the fonts, size (etc) you wish to use:

XTerm*font: 9x15

Use the Sun Connection Update Manager (last version is currently 1.0.4). To do so, it is mandatory to register Solaris.

As root, run /usr/sbin/updatemanager (this will ask for registration if you haven't done so yet). This is a graphical interface.

I encountered a serious problem with patches: I patched the system with security or recommended patches, some of those patches failed, and then at the next reboot: kernel crash (impossible to boot, except in single user mode) So beware…

Sun's software is typically installed in /usr, /usr/sfw and /opt/sfw. Other software directories are /usr/local.

For example, mozilla is in /usr/sfw/bin/mozilla, java is in /usr/bin

To install a pre-compiled binary, unzip it (gunzip, bunzip2, unzip…) and then do pkgadd -d <thepackage>

Installed packages are located in /var/sadm/pkg. To search in which package a given command is included, do

grep xxx /var/sadm/install/contents

pkgadd is the basic command to install/remove/manage software packages on Solaris. But, it's quite basic. To automatically download a given package and its dependencies, pkg-get is quite interesting (similar to Debian's apt-get). I hear it is currently being replaced by pkgutils.

• Get pkg-get from Blastwave.
• Install it: pkgadd -d pkg_get-3.8.4-SunOS5.8-all-CSW.pkg. The procedure is perfectly described on Blastwave's site. Check its digest with:

digest -v -a md5 pkg_get.pkg

• Then configure it in /opt/csw/etc/pkg-get.conf. Set up the mirror to use, the tree version (stable, unstable, testing), and the download directory (by default: /var/pkg-get/donwloads).

url=http://ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/csw/unstable
PKGGET_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/tmp

To install a package: pkg-get install <packagename>, e.g

pkg-get install gnupg
pkg-get install bzip2

To remove a package:

pkg-get remove <packagename>

To upgrade a package:

pkg-get upgrade

This will upgrade all packages for which a new version exists. It consists in uninstalling the old version (remove) and then installing the new version (install). At first, seeing a remove operation may be surprising, but in the end, it works

/usr/bin/packagemanager

• in which package is a given command: pkg search -r <command>

Unpack a debian package:

/usr/xpg4/bin/ar x package.deb
gunzip data.tar.gz
tar -xvf data.tar

A very simple .bashrc:

export PATH=/usr/bin/amd64:$PATH:/opt/csw/bin:.
export PS1="[\u@\w] "

To know whether your architecture is 32 or 64 bit: isainfo -b

There's a very interesting article on Blog'o thnet.

To summarize, on 64-bit processors, the kernel, device drivers and some key applications (or those with a high performance issue) are 64-bit, but all other applications are usually 32-bit. There are no emulation libraries on Solaris 64 to run 32-bit libraries: there are two different system calls.

To check whether a given application is 32 or 64 bit, run file:

$ file /usr/bin/amd64/ls
/usr/bin/amd64/ls:      ELF 64-bit LSB executable AMD64 Version 1, dynamically linked, stripped

This also means that on 64-bit hosts, you should set your PATH to locate 64-bit applications before 32-bit ones. For example /usr/bin/amd64 should be set before /usr/bin.

There's a very interesting article on the subject here. Mainly, what I get of out it is:

• no need to install a gcc package (such as CSWgcc) because gcc is usually installed by default in /usr/sfw (mine is version 3.4.3).
• no need to install gmake (3.80) either: it's already installed in /usr/sfw.
• put /usr/sfw/bin at the top of your path, and remove /usr/ucb (or leave it at the end of your path - because it points to an 'old' cc).
• install Sun Studio to get cc (among other things). Actually, cc is said to be better than gcc (faster code), but gcc is perhaps better known by GNU/Free addicts. Anyway, if cc is installed, add /opt/SUNWspro/bin to your path.

For example,

export PATH=/usr/bin/amd64:/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib/amd64:/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/amd64:/usr/sfw/lib:/lib:/usr/lib:/opt/csw/lib:.
export MAKE=gmake

On OpenSolaris, install SUNWgcc and SUNWgmake.

According to Rich Teer's article, programs should actually be linked with the -R option. This strategy reduces the need for a LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

However, in situations where the program hasn't been linked that way, there are 2 different ways to configure your library path on Solaris:

• set the common LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH_64 environment variables
• or use the crle (Configuration Runtime Linker Environment) command.

To list your current paths: crle or crle -64 To set new paths: crle -l <a path> -l <another path> …

Typical required paths are: /lib, /usr/lib, /opt/csw/lib, /opt/SUNWspro/lib.

Alpine is a newer version of Pine. There is no package for OpenSolaris, but it is quite easy to compile:

• configure it without kerberos
• then do make

To customize Alpine, for example to read your Google mail account, see here.

See here.

See unix

This is a simple image viewer in GNOME. To launch it, run eog.

To debug, try

fetchmail -vk

Fetchmail for IMAP requires a valid sendmail server !

I found a Firefox3 package from the list of pointers of Solaris4you: there.

The bzip2 actually contains several packages that all install in /opt/sfw (cairo, pango, firefox…). In my case, actually, I only need the firefox package. However, so far, I haven't managed to get firefox3 working if I only install that package and move it to /opt/csw. Consequently, I have installed all required packages in /opt/sfw. This is a pity because some libraries are duplicated (cairo, pango…)

Firefox is installed in /opt/sfw:

/opt/sfw/lib/firefox3/updater
/opt/sfw/lib/firefox3/updater.ini
/usr/share/applications/firefox3.desktop
/opt/sfw/bin/firefox <symbolic link>

Launch /opt/sfw/bin/firefox & and Firefox3 starts !

Eterm is a terminal particularly suited for use within Enlightenment. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any pre-compiled Solaris package, so I had to compile it myself, which proved out to be quite complicated.

* download, build and install libAST. Unless a special directory has been specified for configure (./configure --prefix=...), libAST installs in /usr/local (this is not the usual Solaris method).

export PATH=/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin::/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:.
export MAKE=gmake

make

• download Eterm
• add /usr/local/lib to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that it finds libAST.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib
export PATH=/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:.:/usr/local/bin
export MAKE=gmake

• install imlib2

/opt/csw/bin/pkg-get install imlib2

• configure Eterm, specifying the right path for Imlib2 (/opt/csw in my case – note you mustn't specify /opt/csw/lib).

./configure --with-imlib=/opt/csw

• compile Eterm

make

• install Eterm: the Makefile of bg needs to be fixed: at the end of the Makefile, the lines that call install-sh for the various images is wrong: add a '..' so that gets install-sh from the right directory.
• there are specific Eterm themes here

GThumb is GNOME's thumbnail viewer. To launch it, run gthumb

Lobo is a Java based web browser. To run it,

/usr/jdk/jdk1.6.0_11/bin/java -jar lobo.jar &

I haven't found any package for this terminal, but it compiles pretty well on OpenSolaris. Download it here. I recommend:

• set the installation in /usr directory, because Solaris does not commonly use /usr/local.
• disable support for Greek (unless you need it). On my system, it bugged and whenever I typed a pipe, it would switch to Greek encoding !
• set the terminal name to xterm (and not rxvt) on Solaris. Otherwise it'll complain about not having the right termcap. Unless you know better than me how to install termcap and terminfo on Solaris, then do install them (they're providing in the package).

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-xft --disable-greek --with-save-lines=1000 --with-term=xterm --disable-debug

• sound-juicer %u
• rhythmbox %u
• totem %u

You can get a package from MySQL's web site, or - easier - a pre-compiled binary from SunFreeware.com. The former installs in /opt/mysql by default, whereas the latter installs in /usr/local/mysql.

Nautilus is GNOME's file manager. To launch it without loading the GNOME desktop or background, do:

nautilus --no-desktop

Get Php from sunfreeware. It installs in /usr/local/php

• Link /usr/apache2/libexec/libphp5.so to /usr/local/apache2/modules/libphp5.so
• Edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf. Add the following:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/libphp5.so
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
  php_value include_path ".:/usr/local/php/lib"
  php_admin_flag safe_mode on ===> or off for some wikis
</IfModule>

• Later in that file, add:

# Tell Apache to parse certain extensions as PHP
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Unzip PhpMyAdmin in the web server's root (/var/apache2/htdocs)

cd phpMyAdmin
mkdir config
chmod o+rw config
cp config.inc.php config
chmod o+w config/config.inc.php

Open scripts/setup.php in the browser. User & password must match something MySQL knows.

mv config/config.inc.php .
chmod o-w config.inc.php

Try in your browser: …/phpMyAdmin/index.php : you should be able to log into the database.

I successfully compiled ROX Filer 2.8 from sources, on OpenSolaris 2008.11 To run in from the source directory:

./ROX-Filer/ROX-Filer

To install a system-wide Flash Player for Firefox on Solaris:

• Download the package from Adobe (or follow the suggested link)
• Unzip it (bzip2 -d flash_player_9_solaris_x86.tar.bz2)
• Untar it and put both files flashplayer.xpt and libflashplayer.so in /usr/lib/firefox/plugins.
• Restart firefox
• Check a shockwave flash plugins is loaded in about:plugins
• Check the plugin is okay with Adobe's online plugin test.

Samba is pre-installed too. On Solaris 10, its configuration file is in /etc/sfw/smb.conf.

• set Samba user passwords: /usr/sfw/bin/smbpasswd -a -U <username>
• test configuration file: /usr/sfw/bin/testparm <smb.conf file>
• to see where Samba reads its configuration from do: /usr/sfw/sbin/smbd -b | grep conf

On OpenSolaris 2008.11, to use smbfs, do:

modload -p drv/nsmb
modload -p fs/smbfs
devfsadm -i nsmb
pfexec mount -f smbfs //server/share /mntpoint
Password:

To install a JRE 1.6:

• download it from Sun's website. You need to download both the 32-bit and the 64-bit package for 64-bit hosts. Indeed, the 64-bit package is only additions.
• gunzip, untar the package in the directory of your choice
• that's it ! (add java to your path, run java -version to check. Make sure to use the 64-bit version !).

To install the java plugin in Firefox3, copy (or link) the java plugin to the firefox3 plugins directory:

For example,

cd /opt/sfw/lib/firefox3/plugins
ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_07/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so .

Virtual Box is an open source alternative to VMWare. The following of this paragraph applies to installing and using Virtual Box on Solaris (not OpenSolaris) and on a 64-bit system.

• Download VirtualBox from www.virtualbox.org.
• Unpack the package
• If you have an old version of VirtualBox, it's safer to uninstall it first.
• Add the kernel package first
• Add the user package
• Run /opt/VirtualBox/VirtualBox

So the commands are:

# gunzip VirtualBox-1.6.2-SunOS_amd64.tar.gz
# tar -xvf VirtualBox-1.6.2-SunOS_amd64.tar
# pkgadd -d VirtualBoxKern-1.6.2-SunOS-r31466.pkg
# pkgadd -d VirtualBox-1.6.2-SunOS-amd64-r31466.pkg
$ VirtualBox &

Password Safe is nice and simple application running on Windows and a few other operating systems. On Solaris and some other Unix flavours, one must use Password Gorilla, a Password Safe compatible program. Its interface and performance are quite yucky, but it works and is able to read your password safe databases.

To install Password Gorilla on Solaris/OpenSolaris:

• Download it from Password Gorilla
• Download a Tclkit
• Install Tk 8.4 (e.g pkg-get install tk)
• Then, chmod u+x tclkit
• and finally launch the application: ./tclkit gorilla-1.4.kit &

Unfortunately, Password Safe does not run on Pocket PCs. KeePass does. But it doesn't run on Solaris :(

Pidgin is an Instant Messenger able to connect to several IM networks. To use it over Google Talk:

• protocol: XMPP (or Google Talk)
• screen name: your google login
• domain: gmail.com
• resource: the default 'Home' is perfect
• password: your google password
• local alias: the name you want to see when you type in messages in Pidgin. Whatever you like here.
• force old (5223 port) SSL: make sure this is checked
• port: 443
• server: talk.google.com
• proxy settings: use GNOME settings will be fine (if you're using GNOME ).

Pidgin is in /usr/bin. You may need to restart pidgin for those changes to take effect. In addition, make sure the account is marked 'enabled'.

Taking a screenshot:

$ xwd -root -out scrdump

Viewing a screenshot:

$ xwud -in scrdump 

Packages from BlastWave install in /opt/csw. The default Solaris installation (with the entire distribution) includes several software, installed in /usr/sfw. For instance, gcc is in /usr/sfw/bin.

• emacs (CSWemacs)
• evince (CSWevince): a PDF, PS (etc) document viewer
• fetchmail (CSWfetchmail)
• findutils (CSWfindutils): contains glocate and gupdatedb
• firefox3 (from Solaris4you)
• gam_server is similar to fam. It is contained in SUNWgamin. Do not remove this package unless you accept to break dependencies with gnome-vfs.
• gftp (CSWgftp)
• gnupg (CSWgnupg)
• subversion: SUNWsvn
• tetex (CSWtetex): contains LaTeX
• tk (CSWtk): this is a graphical toolkit for Tcl. It's required by Gorilla Password Safe.
• top (CSWisaexec): if possible use the 64-bit version in /opt/csw/bin/amd64/top
• Webmin (WSWebmin) : a neat tool for administration via the web. There's a Solaris package available. Installs in /opt/webmin by default.
• OpenSSL : requires m4 ! Also, sometimes ar is not found (/usr/ccb/bin) : either add that directory to the adequate path, or create a link to /usr/bin.
• wireshark (CSWwireshark): like ethereal.
• Xorg headers: SUNWxorg-headers
• XnView (tar.gz): a good image viewer which runs on several platforms including Solaris. To install the soft, unzip the package. Then modify the ./install script and modify directory /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XnView to /usr/X11/lib/X11/app-defaults/XnView (Solaris 10 u5). To launch XnView, run /usr/local/bin/xnview.