First time user Solaris 9 04/04 Bind9 install help needed

kayasaman · 01-31-2009, 01:56 PM

Hi,

I have recently acquired a few Sun Netra T1's of which I am using to learn about Solaris.

I got a copy of Solaris 9 04/04 with it (2 CD's) and performed a full install with OEM support.

I would like to install Bind9 on these machines to use them as primary and secondary DNS servers, and have read that there are many different ways to install (using Sun packages or compiling froum source + many more).

I feel right now exactly like I did years ago when I started out with Linux not knowing which way to turn or what to do as unlike with Linux I'm not finding much information upon how to perform what actually should be a straight forward and simple task.

Basically I am totally stuck as to what to do with this and how to do this:

To break it down clearly the areas I am having problems with are -

1. edit certain configuration files, files even though having rw permissions seem to be readonly (example is /etc/hosts file as I would like to change IP address)

2. which editor to use, as I tried vi but through my console (serial connection) it doesn't seem to work; either does nothing apart from show the file using MS HyperTerm but cannot edit it or comes out with garbled text in GTKterm which is unreadable. I really need to install Nano some how?

3. installing packages as there is pkgadd which to me I compare with say apt-get or yum from linux, although I can't find any original Sun packages for it, and since I can't edit config files (Samba or NFS) I can't simply put them on the server or use the server to get them from somewhere else, although I'm sure ftp and wget will work.

So basically yes I am really lost and totally in an alien environment and not sure what to do at all! If someone could help me or guide me through some of these otherwise simple tasks it would be really awsome. Alternatey if I could be pointed to some online docs illustrating how to perform these things that would be cool too.

Many thanks in advance!

p.s. I feel like such a NOOB now lol

bathory · 01-31-2009, 04:43 PM

Solaris is similar to linux in many aspects, so it won't be difficult for you. Regarding your questions:
1. You can use

Code:

:wq!

to save a read-only file in vi. Just make sure to have a backup in case something goes wrong.
2. You problem is most likely the terminal emulation you use in the serial connection. Iirc it should be VT100 or something like that. If you can it's better and faster to use ssh. If you want to install nano look the next point
3. You can find the packages you want in sunfreeware. Just make sure to meet the dependencies. To install a package, you d/l it from sunfreeware, unzip it and run pkgadd. For example if you want to install nano, assuming that you already have the dependencies installed, you run:

Code:

gunzip nano-2.0.9-sol9-sparc-local.gz
pkgadd -d nano-2.0.9-sol9-sparc-local

To see if you have a specific package installed and details abou it, you can run :

Code:

#pkginfo |grep nano
application SMCnano  nano
#pkginfo -l SMCnano

Hope that helps you start your adventure with Solaris.

Regards

jlliagre · 01-31-2009, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayasaman

1. edit certain configuration files, files even though having rw permissions seem to be readonly (example is /etc/hosts file as I would like to change IP address)

/etc/[inet/]hosts is indeed read-only but root can write to it anyway. If you are using vi, use the ":w!" command.

Quote:

2. which editor to use, as I tried vi but through my console (serial connection) it doesn't seem to work; either does nothing apart from show the file using MS HyperTerm but cannot edit it or comes out with garbled text in GTKterm which is unreadable. I really need to install Nano some how?

It is unclear what is the problem you have. Possibly a wrong terminal definition. What says "echo $TERM" ?

Quote:

3. installing packages as there is pkgadd which to me I compare with say apt-get or yum from linux, although I can't find any original Sun packages for it, and since I can't edit config files (Samba or NFS) I can't simply put them on the server or use the server to get them from somewhere else, although I'm sure ftp and wget will work.

You can pick a BIND 9 package from Sunfreeware: http://www.sunfreeware.com/programli...c9.html#bind96

Beware that you'll need to install first several other packages (dependencies).

To install the packages, you need to download them locally to some temporary directory, uncompress them (gunzip) and install each of them with the pkgadd command:
pkgadd -d <package-file>

kayasaman · 02-01-2009, 02:02 PM

Many thanks for the replies, I am starting to feel a bit more confidant with this now as I got no response from the Sun forum at all - seems like lots of people post but no one answers

.

Quote:

To see if you have a specific package installed and details abou it, you can run :
#pkginfo |grep nano

This would be a good way to check the correct dependencies are installed I gather? Obviously not putting nano as package name but say libc or other dependency name.

Quote:

It is unclear what is the problem you have. Possibly a wrong terminal definition. What says "echo $TERM" ?

The output of this says: sun

I'm sure I want DEC V.100 and xterm options for MS Hyper Term and Terra Term also GTKterm for my linux boxes. How can I modify this?

bathory · 02-01-2009, 03:04 PM

Quote:

This would be a good way to check the correct dependencies are installed I gather? Obviously not putting nano as package name but say libc or other dependency name.

You'll find the dependencies for the package you want to install by selecting it in sunfreeware. For example if you select the latest bind package you get:

Quote:

bind-9.6.0p1-sol9-sparc-local.gz The Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) implements an Internet name server for Unix operating systems - installs in /usr/local. Dependencies: openssl-0.9.8j, libiconv, libintl, libxml2, zlib, and either gcc-3.4.6 or libgcc-3.4.6 or higher to obtain the /usr/local/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 library.

Regarding the terminal you should setup HyperTerm to use VT100 emulation and 9600 8 N1 for the serial connection.

kayasaman · 02-01-2009, 06:39 PM

Thanks bathory,

but with the terminal I typed in the command given to me by jlliagre in which I was executing through GTKterm. Serialed in of course. I think it is due to the server using sun terminal emulation in a config file somewhere, I don't think that it detects the terminal once the serial connection has been established.

I can try the command

Code:

 echo $TERM

again with hyper term and see what happens but I'm sure it will come out the same. I also don't think that hyper term can be configured to use different emulation types, I am certain that GTKterm can't.

jlliagre · 02-01-2009, 07:52 PM

You can set the TERM variable from the shell like this:

Code:

TERM=xterm
export TERM

or, if you use bash or ksh

Code:

export TERM=xterm

If you are connected to the system console, you can make that setting permanent with these commands:

Code:

svccfg -s svc:/system/console-login setprop ttymon/terminal_type = "xterm"
svcadm refresh svc:/system/console-login:default

kayasaman · 02-01-2009, 08:13 PM

Many thanks for that jlliagre!

I am wondering what the best solution for me is since I use GTKterm from linux to console in also Hyper Term from Win. I think Hyper Term is V.100 complient? I have no idea what GTKterm is though.

Also I don't know if that effects ssh at all but I use the Gnome Terminal for that or sometimes Win apps (putty etc).

Finally when do the changes take place as I've just issued the

Code:

TERM=xterm
export TERM

command but still my backspace key doesn't work.

Ah sorry this must all sound pretty trivial but it's really getting me.

jlliagre · 02-01-2009, 08:34 PM

Use xterm as I suggested. xterm is a superset of vt100 and most modern terminal emulators would comply with it.

The backspace issue is a different one.

Many terminal emulators send odd things like delete when you press the backspace key instead of sending Control-H (ASCII 8) as they are supposed to do. Same thing happen with Delete which should be ASCII 127 and is often configured to send some escape sequence, especially with Gnu/Linux.

You can tell the terminal driver what you want to use as erase character with the "stty erase xx" command.

Enter "stty erase " and press the backspace key. That should fix the issue.

kayasaman · 02-02-2009, 04:46 AM

Ok great I'm having some progress now, delete key works!

I've also installed nano too.

I can't seem to run it though?

If I try I get the message

Code:

# /usr/local/bin/nano hosts
ld.so.1: /usr/local/bin/nano: fatal: libintl.so.8: open failed: No such file or directory
Killed

Does this mean that I haven't installed the correct dependencies?

Also I have created a user account for myself but where do I go about placing the /home/user direcotry? Currently I put it in /export/home/.

kayasaman · 02-02-2009, 05:03 AM

Hmm... fixed the dependencies and libgcc which I think was catching me out but at least now nano runs

all be it I have to type it /usr/local/bin to run it but that's probably as the PATH is not set to include the directory? Will have to look at properly setting up my user entry.

jlliagre · 02-02-2009, 05:19 AM

You can keep your home directory in /export/home. You can globally set the default PATH in /etc/default/login.

kayasaman · 02-02-2009, 06:23 AM

Thanks again, everything now seems ok!

To set my users home directory had to use usermod -d /path/to/user/home user which is cool.

Also need to still need to get some keys working mainly arrow keys but I guess it's same principle as before:

Code:

stty erase

translating to probably: stty uparrow or so. Will google it!

So again thank you to everyone for all your help, things are going much better now and I think I got the basics to be able to build the system at least up to where I need it as a test run

kayasaman · 02-02-2009, 06:52 AM

Sorry to be such a pain but I really can't figure this one out (last and final question!):

Code:

svccfg -s svc:/system/console-login setprop ttymon/terminal_type = "xterm"
svcadm refresh svc:/system/console-login:default

I ran svccfg command only was told that it didn't exist so I google'd it and found that the directory was suppossed to be /usr/sbin of where it is located and it wasn't there? I checked in /usr/bin /usr/sbin /bin and /sbin only it isn't anywhere to be seen?

Is it just me or does my install of Solaris seem to be missing a few things? Even though it was a full install, I mean maybe I'm just too used to having the OS setup everything for me like with RPM and DEB based linux distros but seems like am having to do everything from scratch here. Perhaps I just need to get used to it?

bathory · 02-02-2009, 07:11 AM

The svccfg, svcadm are Solaris 10 commands, that's why you cannot find them.
The TERM is defined in /etc/profile, so you can edit this to define TERM globally, or create a .profile in your homedir