Solaris and RAM requirements for installation on older machines

uncle-c · 11-09-2008, 10:25 AM

Hello,
I downloaded an iso of Open Solaris 2008-05 and tried to get it to install on 2 machines : 1 Ghz , 256 RAM and 800Hz 256RAM. No luck on either occasion. I could not get the liveCD to run at all. I need to improve my Solaris and would like to install either Solaris 10 or another flavour of Solaris ( I see that there are various liveCDs about). Would I be able to install Solaris 10 or any of the other clones on these low spec machines ? If not any recommendations of versions / flavours which would install successfully ?

Thanks again,

Uncle

amani · 11-09-2008, 10:42 AM

Solaris needs >=512 MB RAM

Better go in for Vector Linux, PC-BSD, or Xubuntu

uncle-c · 11-09-2008, 10:54 AM

Thank you very much for the quick reply amani. I would to have a machine on which I can do solaris-based work ; the whole object of the exercise being to improve my Solaris skills, as opposed to a linux clone.

cheers,
uc

jlliagre · 11-09-2008, 12:16 PM

Have a look at Milax (dubbed Damned Small OpenSolaris), an OpenSolaris based distribution that fit in an USB key or a mini CD. It should run graphically with 256 MB of RAM or in console mode with 128 MB.

http://www.milax.org/

uncle-c · 11-10-2008, 03:25 AM

Thanks jlliagre. Just a final couple of questions.
How similar is the command set of Milax to Solaris in terms of System Admin. / Networking duties ? And once installed on your hard drive is it possible to download packages ( and or precompiled Solaris binaries ) from the repositories / Sun site to make Milax into something resembling a fully fledged OpenSolaris or Solaris 10 install ?

Thanks a lot !

Uc

jlliagre · 11-10-2008, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle-c

How similar is the command set of Milax to Solaris in terms of System Admin. / Networking duties ?

I would say it is identical to OpenSolaris. Milax isn't a fork but based on the same OpenSolaris code.

Quote:

And once installed on your hard drive is it possible to download packages ( and or precompiled Solaris binaries ) from the repositories / Sun site to make Milax into something resembling a fully fledged OpenSolaris or Solaris 10 install ?

Milax uses the new "pkg" command and so should be able to install applications and handle automatically their dependancies from various software repositories.

Beware that you might loose the small memory footprint work that was done by Milax developers by installing memory demanding applications and services.

uncle-c · 11-10-2008, 08:01 AM

Merci jlliagre,
Would you advice me to use a Solaris 10 handbook / manual in conjunction with Milax or documentation dedicated to OpenSolaris ?
Thanks so much you have been most helpful in this matter !

Regards,
UC

jlliagre · 11-10-2008, 02:50 PM

Milax is based on OpenSolaris code. This code is the one on which the version following Solaris 10 will be built.

Solaris Express documentation is here:

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/40.17
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/47.23

OpenSolaris specific commands are documented here:

http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/IPS/getst1.html