Solaris Installation and Administration FAQ

Archived Solaris FAQ with Solaris 10 x86 installation and administration examples. Three English illustrations replace the low-resolution disk-error photograph and two Chinese worksheets; fifteen original English command/desktop figures are retained. The worksheets are reformatted instructional translations, not official English screenshots or completed site configurations.

1. Common System Installation Issues

1.1 Load a matching storage driver: archived Solaris 10 x86 example

The source discusses Solaris 10/11 generally, but its six-choice boot menu and SunOS 5.10 figures demonstrate Solaris 10. Use the driver and delivery workflow for the actual release and controller. The archived source uses IMG for floppy media/RawWrite and ISO for optical media; supported virtual media may be another delivery method. These figures do not establish that every Solaris 11 installer uses the same menu.

Floppy Disk Image Writing Tool: RawWrite

Loading Method:

1) Enter the Solaris installation process. When the screen shown below appears, select option 5.

2) At Apply driver updates, a searches all of the listed media classes. It is not a search for every possible hardware driver on the Internet.

3) The source reports a driver update extracted from a USB DISK Pro PMAP device and the imrsas LSI MegaRAID FALCON SAS 2.0 HBA driver installed onto the miniroot. This shows the installer-stage driver update, not a completed OS installation or a guarantee that any other controller will work.

4) After pressing 'e' to exit, return to the installation interface:

1.2 Hard Drive Not Found Error Occurs Even After Loading Drivers During System Installation

For an absent installation target, inspect the actual array/controller status and verify the correct release/architecture driver and delivery method. The source suggests a 3.5-inch floppy as a historical compatibility workaround, while its preceding successful example uses a USB mass-storage device; this is not a universal requirement. The English error figure is a schematic because the source photograph is too low resolution to verify every dialog word or code. Do not initialize or recreate an existing array merely to make a disk appear.
1) First, verify that the array status is normal;
2) Is the RAID card driver correct?
3) It is recommended to load the driver via a floppy drive (3.5-inch floppy disks offer the best compatibility).

1.3 What Does the Step 'Set Default Route' Mean?

The default route is the path used for destinations without a more specific route; the installer asks about its gateway. The archived choices are detection, a specified address, or none. Use the actual network gateway when specifying it. None means not specifying a route at this stage; Oracle’s archived worksheet notes that the installer can attempt discovery again on reboot.

1.4 Is Kerberos Authentication Required?

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol. Enable/configure it when the deployment requires it and gather the required realm and KDC information; the source’s generic suggestion to leave it disabled is not a requirement for every site.

1.5 How to Select the Disk for Installation

Select only the intended installation disk or disks and the correct boot target. The source uses c1t0d0 as a one-disk example and discusses moving disks between Available Disks and Selected Disks. Its suggestion to select all available disks is not a prerequisite and can expose unrelated data to installation changes; match the verified storage plan.

1.6 How to Set Up Disk Partitions

Plan the root filesystem and swap according to the actual release, filesystem and workload. The source mentions / and swap and a rule of thumb of twice RAM; that rule is not a universal Solaris sizing requirement. Oracle’s installation planning guide provides release-specific disk/swap guidance. The source’s plain-text Solaris Drive Partition label has no retrievable linked document in the stored article.
For a detailed introduction to Solaris partitions, please refer to the document: Solaris Drive Partition

1.7 What to Do if the Disc Does Not Eject After System Installation and the Installation Interface Reappears

If the host boots the installation media again, stop before another installation changes storage. Arrange a safe reboot/boot-device selection and detach or eject installation media when it is no longer needed. The archived desktop-terminal example intends the command init 6 (two tokens), which reboots the host; the original init6 spelling is incorrect, and a reboot itself does not guarantee optical-media ejection. Do not continue through installation stages merely to reach a terminal.

1.8 Installation information worksheet (English instructional reformatting)

2. How to View the System Version Under Solaris

3. Methods to View CPU and Memory Under Solaris

4. Inspect mounted filesystem usage under Solaris

5. Method to Modify Desktop Resolution Under Solaris

Right-click the desktop and select 'Change Desktop Resolution'.

After modifying the resolution, click 'Apply' to confirm.

6. Method to Configure Network Cards Under Solaris

There are three ways to configure network cards: using the ifconfig command (this configuration is temporary and will be lost after a system reboot); modifying configuration files (this configuration persists across reboots); or using an interactive configuration interface.

6.1 Configuring Network Cards Using the ifconfig Command

The source Solaris 10 examples use an e1000g0 interface; interface names depend on the actual device/driver. Inspect dladm show-link and ifconfig -a before selecting an interface. The example ifconfig e1000g0 plumb up creates/plumbs and activates it; do not assume the same legacy commands or file layout apply unchanged to Solaris 11 network management.

Configure static IP address:

Configure dynamic IP address:

Inspect the existing routing table before attempting to add a default gateway. In the source, netstat -r already shows default 10.7.255.254, and route add default 10.7.255.254 reports entry exists. This is a duplicate-add result, not a successful new route. The static address example uses 10.7.11.29/16; a separate DHCP example receives 10.7.11.16. These are archived private-network values, not addresses to apply to another server.

6.2 Configuring IP Addresses by Modifying Configuration Files

Configuration files related to basic network card settings are located in the /etc/inet and /etc directories, including:

/etc/hosts -> /etc/inet/hosts (each line record in the file represents the correspondence between hostname and IP address)

/etc/hostname.<interface> (for example /etc/hostname.e1000g0; file content associates this interface with its configured host/address)

/etc/netmasks (each line record in the file represents the correspondence with netmask)

/etc/dhcp.<interface> (for example /etc/dhcp.e1000g0; legacy DHCP interface marker)

After creating or modifying configuration files, the system must be restarted for the settings to take effect.

1) Static address assignment

(legacy Solaris 10 files: /etc/hosts, /etc/netmasks and /etc/hostname.<interface>; netmasks is plural)

Step 1: Customize a hostname and specify an IP address

# vi /etc/hosts

Add a line record: 10.7.11.16 songmh loghost, where songmh is the hostname

Step 2: Define subnet mask

# vi /etc/netmasks

Add a line record: 10.7.0.0 255.255.0.0

Step 3: Associate the customized hostname with e1000g0 (in the etc directory)

# vi /etc/hostname.e1000g0

Add a line record: songmh (note: hostname)

Step 4: Set gateway:

# vi /etc/defaultrouter

Enter gateway IP address, format: IP

Step 5: Set DNS:

# vi /etc/resolv.conf

Enter DNS IP address, format: nameserver IP

2) Obtain address via DHCP method

(legacy Solaris 10 files /etc/hostname.<interface> and /etc/dhcp.<interface>; hostname is the corrected spelling)

Step 1: Create empty file hostname.e1000g0

# touch /etc/hostname.e1000g0

Step 2: Create file dhcp.e1000g0

# touch /etc/dhcp.e1000g0

6.3 Interactive network card configuration

# sys-unconfig

sys-unconfig is a broad system-unconfiguration operation, not a routine network-card wizard. Oracle documents that it resets system identity/configuration including hostname, network/name-service settings, time zone and root-password state, and halts the system before reconfiguration. Use it only for an intended system reconfiguration with console/recovery access and the required configuration information; it can interrupt remote access. The source refers to the installation-style questions after a subsequent boot. No sys-unconfig, reboot or networking command was run while preparing this translation.

English sources and scope

• Oracle Solaris 10 installation planning and checklist
• Oracle Solaris 10 preinstallation worksheet (related server)
• Oracle: system reconfiguration and sys-unconfig effects

No corresponding English OEM FAQ was verified; its English selector leads to the home page. Oracle’s English worksheets address the same planning topics but differ in release-specific examples/defaults, so the English figures retain the OEM worksheet’s example values and mark its defaults. The original df -k figure reports mounted filesystem usage rather than a complete raw partition map. The hardware-output figure identifies a VMware virtual platform and is not a physical-server inventory. No source network, storage or system configuration was applied.