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Installing Sun Solaris 8

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Using Serial Console Connection
  3. Starting the Installation
  4. Answering the Screen Prompts
  5. Post-Installation Tasks

Overview

This article documents installing the 2/02 release of Solaris 8 from CD-ROM. For the purpose of this example, I will be installing Solaris 8 on a Sun Blade 150 with the following configuration:

Installing Solaris 8 will require 2 CDs found in the Solaris media kit labeled "SOLARIS 8 SOFTWARE - (Disk 1 of 2) and (Disk 2 of 2)". Before starting the installation process, ensure that you have noted the following items:

Using Serial / Console Connection

For a complete discussion of connecting to a Sun serial console from Linux, see my article "Using Serial Consoles - (Sun Sparcs)".

For this particular installation, I will NOT be using a VGA monitor connected to the built-in frame-buffer (video card). The installation will be done using the serial port of the Sun Blade as a console. A serial cable (null modem) will be connected from the serial port of a Linux machine to the serial port of the Sun Blade. Keep in mind that you will not be able to make use of the serial console of the Sun Blade if it was booted with the keyboard/mouse plugged in. In order to make use of the serial console, you will need to disconnect the keyboard/mouse and reboot the Sun server. On the Sun Blade 100/150, if the keyboard/mouse are plugged in during the boot phase, all console output will be redirected to the VGA console.

From the Linux machine, you can use a program called minicom. Start it up with the command "minicom". Press "Ctrl-A Z" to get to the main menu. Press "o" to configure minicom. Go to "Serial port setup" and make sure that you are set to the correct "Serial Device" and that the speed on line E matches the speed of the serial console you are connecting to. (In most cases with Sun, this is 9600.) Here are the settings I made when using Serial A / COM1 port on the Linux machine: 

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyS0                                |
| B - Lockfile Location     : /var/lock                                 |
| C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
| D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
| E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 9600 8N1                                  |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : Yes                                       |
| G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
|                                                                       |
|    Change which setting?                                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
After making all necessary changes, hit the ESC key to go back to the "configurations" menu. Now go to "Modem and dialing". Change the "Init string" to "~^M~". Save the settings (as dflt), and then restart Minicom. You should now see a console login prompt. 

[root@bertha1 root]# minicom

Welcome to minicom 1.83.1

OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n
Compiled on Aug 28 2001, 15:09:33.

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

alex console login: root
Password:
Last login: Tue Nov  4 18:55:41 on console
Nov  7 12:17:24 alex login: ROOT LOGIN /dev/console
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.8       Generic Patch   October 2001
#
# init 0
INIT: New run level: 0
The system is coming down.  Please wait.
System services are now being stopped.
Print services stopped.
Nov  7 12:17:38 alex syslogd: going down on signal 15
The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
ok

Starting the Installation

The installation process starts at the ok prompt. The previous section of this document provides the steps required to not only gain access to the console port of the Sun SPARC server, but also how to get the server to an ok prompt. If when logging you, the machine is already booted (you have console login like the following: "alex console login:") you will need to bring the machine to its EEPROM (ok prompt) by initiating init 0 like in the Using Serial / Console Connection section above.

The first step in installing Solaris 8 it to boot the machine from Disk 1 of the SOLARIS 8 SOFTWARE CDs. You will need to get the machine to the ok prompt. You can do this by shutting the system down using init 0. Once at the ok prompt, type in boot cdrom. (Or in some cases, you can use reboot cdrom). From here, the installation program prompts you for system configuration information that is needed to complete the installation.

  If you were performing a network installation, you would type: 
ok boot net

In almost all cases, you will be installing the Solaris 8 software on a new system where it will not be necessary to preserve any data already on the hard drive. Using this assumption, I will partition the single 40 GB IDE hard drive in the system.

Answering the Screen Prompts

Let's start the installation process! Put the SOLARIS 8 SOFTWARE (Disk 1 of 2) in the CDROM tray and boot to it:

Solaris Installation Boot Screen 
ok boot cdrom
Resetting ...

Sun Blade 150 (UltraSPARC-IIe 650MHz), No Keyboard
Copyright 1998-2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.6, 1792 MB memory installed, Serial #52928138.
Ethernet address 0:3:ba:27:9e:8a, Host ID: 83279e8a.

Rebooting with command: boot cdrom
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@1,0:f  File and args:
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic_108528-13 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.

The boot process may take several minutes to complete, but once done, you will start answering a series of prompts.

The following section will walk you through many of the screen prompts from the installation.

The first three prompts are from the command line interface (CLI) and are used to specify the language, locale and terminal. Use English for both Language and Locale. As for a terminal setting, I commonly telnet to a Linux server (that is connected from the serial port of the Linux server to the serial port of the Sun machine). From the Linux server, I use "minicom" to connect from the Linux server to the Sun server. The best terminal for this type of installation is "DEC VT100": 

  Language                             : English
  Locale                               : English
  What type of terminal are you using? : 3) DEC VT100

  You should be able to use a terminal type of "DEC VT100" or "X Terminal Emulator (xterms)".

  Depending on the terminal being used for installation while using the command line interface, it may be required to precede any of the function key responses (i.e. F2_Continue) with the ESC key (i.e. ESC - F2_Continue).

Many of the screens to follow will ask you about networking information. When asked if the system will be connected to a network, answer Yes.

  Many of the screens should be easy to complete except for the "Names Services" section. In almost all cases, you will want to use DNS naming services, but if your machine is not currently configured within DNS, this section will fail and no information entered about Names Services will be stored and configured.

If this is the case, you will need to select None under the Names Services section. The network configuration will then need to be completed after the installation process by updating certain network files on the local hard drive. This will be documented in the "Post Installation Procedures" of this document.


Screen 1 : The Solaris Installation Program

This is the Solaris Installation Welcome screen.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 2 : Identify This System

This screen informs you about how you will need to identify the computer as it applies to network connectivity.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 3 : Network Connectivity 

Networked
---------
[X] Yes
[ ] No
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 4 : DHCP 

Use DHCP
--------
[ ] Yes
[X] No
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 5 : Host Name

Enter the host name which will identify this system on the network. For the purpose of this example, I will use the host name "alex". 

Host name: alex
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 6 : IP Address

Enter the Internet Protocol (IP) address for this network interface. 

IP address: 192.168.1.102
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 7 : Subnets 

System part of a subnet
-----------------------
[X] Yes
[ ] No
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 8 : Netmask 

Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 9 : IPv6

In this example, I will not be enabling IPv6. 

Enable IPv6
-----------
[ ] Yes
[X] No
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 10 : Confirm Information

This is a confirmation screen. Verify all data is correct. 

              Host name: alex
             IP address: 192.168.1.102
System part of a subnet: Yes
                Netmask: 255.255.255.0
            Enable IPv6: No

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 11 : Configure Security Policy 

Configure Kerberos Security
---------------------------
[ ] Yes
[X] No
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 12 : Confirm Information

This is a confirmation screen. Verify all data is correct.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 13 : Name Service 

Name service
------------
[ ] NIS+
[ ] NIS
[X] DNS
[ ] LDAP
[ ] None
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 14 : Domain Name 

Host name: idevelopment.info
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 15 : DNS Server Addresses 

Server's IP address: 63.67.120.18
Server's IP address: 63.67.120.23
Server's IP address:
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 16 : DNS Search List 

Search domain:
Search domain:
Search domain: 
Search domain:
Search domain:
Search domain:
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 17 : Confirm Information

This is a confirmation screen. Verify all data is correct.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 18 : Time Zone 

Regions
-------
[ ] Asia, Western
[ ] Australia / New Zealand
[ ] Canada
[ ] Europe
[ ] Mexico
[ ] South America
[X] United States
[ ] other - offset from GMT
[ ] other - specify time zone file
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 19 : Time Zone 

Time zones
----------
[X] Eastern
[ ] Central
[ ] Mountain
[ ] Pacific
[ ] East-Indiana
[ ] Arizona
[ ] Michigan
[ ] Samoa
[ ] Alaska
[ ] Aleutian
[ ] Hawaii
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 20 : Date and Time 

Date and time: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM

  Year   (4 digits) : <enter year>
  Month  (1-12)     : <enter month>
  Day    (1-31)     : <enter day>
  Hour   (0-23)     : <enter hour>
  Minute (0-59)     : <enter minute>
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 21 : Confirm Information

This is a confirmation screen. Verify all data is correct.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 22 : Solaris Interactive Installation

This screen recognizes if a previous version of Solaris is installed and whether you would like to upgrade or not. Always select the install option (F4_Initial).

Hit ESC - F4 to continue


Screen 23 : Solaris Interactive Installation

There are two ways to install your Solaris software: "Standard" or "Flash". Choose the "Standard" method (Esc-2_Standard).

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 24 : Time Zone 

Select the geographic regions for which support should be installed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
> [ ] Asia
> [ ] Eastern Europe
> [ ] Middle East
> [ ] Central America
> [ ] South America
> [ ] Northern Europe
> [ ] Southern Europe
> [ ] Central Europe
V [/] North America
  [ ]     Canada-English (ISO8859-1)
  [ ]     Canada-French (ISO8859-1)
  [ ]     French
  [ ]     Mexico (ISO8859-1)
  [X]     U.S.A. (en_US.ISO8859-1) [ ] Australasia
> [ ] Western Europe
> [ ] Northern Africa
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 25 : Select Software 

Select the Solaris software to install on the system.
-----------------------------------------------------
[ ] Entire Distribution plus OEM support 64-bit  1432.00 MB
[X] Entire Distribution 64-bit ................. 1401.00 MB
[ ] Developer System Support 64-bit ............ 1350.00 MB
[ ] End User System Support 64-bit ............. 932.00 MB
[ ] Core System Support 64-bit ................. 396.00 MB
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 26 : Select Disks

You must select the disks for installing Solaris software. If there are several disks available, I always install the Solaris software on the boot disk c0t0d0. 

----------------------------------------------------------
Disk Device (Size)        Available Space
=============================================
[X] c0t0d0   (14592 MB) boot disk    14592 MB  (F4 to edit)

                    Total Selected:  14592 MB
                 Suggested Minimum:    974 MB


I generally select ESC - F4 to edit the c0t0d0 disk to ensure that the root directory is going to be located on this disk. 

----------------------------------------------------------
On this screen you can select the disk for installing the 
root (/) file system of the Solaris software.

Original Boot Device : c0t0d0

          Disk
      ==============================
      [X] c0t0d0    (F4 to select boot device)


On this screen, I typically select ESC - F4 to select boot device to ensure the root file system will be located on slice zero, c0t0d0s0. 

----------------------------------------------------------
On this screen you can select the specific slice for the root (/) file
system. If you choose Any of the Above, the Solaris installation program
will choose a slice for you.

Original Boot Device : c0t0d0s0

          [X]  c0t0d0s0
          [ ]  c0t0d0s1
          [ ]  c0t0d0s2
          [ ]  c0t0d0s3
          [ ]  c0t0d0s4
          [ ]  c0t0d0s5
          [ ]  c0t0d0s6
          [ ]  c0t0d0s7
          [ ]  Any of the Above
Hit ESC - F2 to after selecting Disk Slice

Hit ESC - F2 to continue with your Boot Disk selection


Screen 27 : Reconfigure EEPROM?

Do you want to update the system's hardware (EEPROM) to always boot from c0t0d0?

Hit ESC - F2 to Reconfigure EEPROM and Continue


Screen 28 : Preserve Data?

Do you want to preserve existing data? At least one of the disks you've selected for installing Solaris software has file systems or unnamed slices that you may want to save.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 29 : Automatically Layout File Systems?

Do you want to use auto-layout to automatically layout file systems? Manually laying out file systems requires advanced system administration skills.

I typically perform an "Auto" File System Layout (F2_Auto Layout).

Hit ESC - F2 to Perform Auto Layout.


Screen 30 : Automatically Layout File Systems

On this screen you must select all the file systems you want auto-layout to create, or accept the default file systems shown. 

File Systems for Auto-layout
========================================
[X]  /
[ ]  /opt
[ ]  /usr
[ ]  /usr/openwin
[ ]  /var
[X]  swap
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 31 : File System and Disk Layout

The summary below is your current file system and disk layout, based on the information you've supplied.

NOTE: If you choose to customize, you should understand file systems, their intended purpose on the disk, and how changing them may affect the operation of the system. 

File system/Mount point           Disk/Slice             Size
=============================================================
/                                 c0t0d0s0            1338 MB
swap                              c0t0d0s1             296 MB
overlap                           c0t0d0s2           38162 MB
/export/home                      c0t0d0s7           36526 MB


I generally select ESC - F4 (F4_Customize) to edit the partitions for disk c0t0d0. If this is a workstation, I make only three partitions: 

------------------------------------------------
Boot Device: c0t0d0s0
=================================================
  Slice  Mount Point                 Size (MB)
     0   /                               37136
     1   swap                             1025
     2   overlap                         38162
     3                                       0
     4                                       0
     5                                       0
     6                                       0
     7                                       0
=================================================
                         Capacity:       38162 MB
                        Allocated:       38161 MB
                   Rounding Error:           1 MB
                             Free:           0 MB
Hit ESC - F2 to continue

This is what the File System and Disk Layout screen looks like now. 

File system/Mount point           Disk/Slice             Size
=============================================================
/                                 c0t0d0s0           37136 MB
swap                              c0t0d0s1            1025 MB
overlap                           c0t0d0s2           38162 MB
Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 32 : Mount Remote File Systems?

Do you want to mount software from a remote file server? This may be necessary if you had to remove software because of disk space problems.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 33 : Confirm Information

This is a confirmation screen. Verify all data is correct.

Hit ESC - F2 to continue


Screen 34 : Reboot After Installation?

After Solaris software is installed, the system must be rebooted. You can choose to have the system automatically reboot, or you can choose to manually reboot the system if you want to run scripts or do other customizations before the reboot. You can manually reboot a system by using the reboot(1M) command. 

[X] Auto Reboot
[ ] Manual Reboot
Hit ESC - F2 to Begin the Installation


Screen 34 : Installation Progress

Afterwards it starts configuring disks, making partitions, and installing software indicating the progress. 

Preparing system for Solaris install

Configuring disk (c0t0d0)
        - Creating Solaris disk label (VTOC)

Creating and checking UFS file systems
        - Creating / (c0t0d0s0)

==================================================================

MBytes Installed: 392.08

MBytes Remaining: 428.09

      Installing: JavaVM run time environment

***************
|    |     |     |     |     |  

0   20    40    60    80    100
After the installation is complete it customizes system files, devices, and logs.

The system then reboots or asks you to reboot depending upon the choice selected earlier in the Reboot After Installation? screen.


Screen 36 : Create a root Password

On this screen you can create a root password.

A root password can contain any number of characters, but only the first eight characters in the password are significant. (For example, if you create `a1b2c3d4e5f6' as your root password, you can use `a1b2c3d4' to gain root access.)

You will be prompted to type the root password twice; for security, the password will not be displayed on the screen as you type it.

> If you do not want a root password, press RETURN twice. 

Root password:
Enter Your root Password and Press Return to continue.


Screen 37 : Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2

Please specify the media from which you will install Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2 (2/02 SPARC Platform Edition).

Alternatively, choose the selection for "Skip" to skip this disc and go on to the next one. 

Media:

1. CD/DVD
2. Network File System
3. Skip

   Media [1]: 1


Screen 38 : Insert the CD/DVD for Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2

Please insert the CD/DVD for Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2 (2/02 SPARC Platform Edition).

After you insert the disc, please press Enter.

Enter S to skip this disc and go on to the next one. To select a different media, enter B to go Back. 

[]


Screen 39 : Solaris 8 packages (part 2)

After hitting <Enter> in the previous screen, the installation will continue installing the Solaris software (part 2) 

Reading Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2 (2/02 SPARC Platform Edition).... \

Launching installer for Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2 (2/02 SPARC Platform
Edition). Please Wait...

Installing Solaris 8 packages (part 2)
|-1%--------------25%-----------------50%-----------------75%--------------100%|


Installation details:

     Product                      Result     More Info
 1.  Solaris 8 packages (part 2)  Installed  Available

 2.  Done

   Enter the number corresponding to the desired selection for more
   information, or enter 2 to continue [2]:2

   <Press Return to reboot the system>

Post-Installation Tasks

After successfully installing the Solaris operating platform software, there may be several tasks that need to be performed depending on your configuration.


Last modified on: Sunday, 26-Nov-2006 16:05:29 EST
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