1) Yes, you have to use the name of your real interface when running the commands.
Run these to find out what is currently used on your machine:
2)

i'm still unable to edit /etc/default/dhcp file, using vi. when i hit "i" twice i'm able to type but i cannot change\delete anything thats there previously. is there any other way i can edit files from CLI?

That's the way vi works, there are commands to insert, commands to delete, commands to change. Better to be familiar with vi before using it on sensitive files ...
There are many, a simple being /usr/dt/bin/dtpad.

jlliagre you forgot that my xserver is not working. It seems that dtpad will only work through a running desktop, since i see that it has "dt". Nevertheless i tried to use it and it says "can not open display."

Any other way to edit files without running X? Or if you can just tell me the command to edit the file using vi.

In linux i never had trouble editing files through vi.

I found some commands online for vi and played around to switch REQUEST_HOSTNAME=no to REQUEST_HOSTNAME=yes and unmarked it.

I followed Sun's guideline (http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816...aoq020t?a=view) and it is still not working.

I want to start from scratch. First i want to fix my Gui. Once that is done then i'll move towards network configuration. To do a new installation i'll use Solaris 11 beta (aka Solaris Express).

During installation i'll select that the machine is not on the network. But will i be presented to input machine's hostname? Once my new installation up and running with the desktop after a reboot then i'll try to put it on network as a DHCP client machine.

Well, you can run an X11 client on a machine without a running desktop, provided you have another X server running elsewhere.
There are so many tutorials on the net, just goggle for one.
You are not using vi under linux, but vim.
By the way, it is well possible that you have vim installed too on the Solaris box. I'm not sure if it is bundled or on the Companion CD.

You have to read closer that page, it is not suggested to switch REQUEST_HOSTNAME in your case, but to have a /etc/nodename file containing the desired hostname.

Have you tried to switch from Xorg to Xsun ? or reciprocally ?

Yes switching to Sun's X server is now working for my intel 810 chipset. But i'm having that problem i mentioned earlier "(1) Okay, i was able to set path and yes the apps are launching, but there is something wrong with the graphics. For example the first app i launched was xmms. As soon as the xmms came up, the graphics of rest of the desktop and windows became dull and dark whereas xmms was showing perfect. When i closed xmms, the color/contrast of the desktop and windows came back automatically. Then i launched Gimp, and the same thing happened. Gimp's color and contrast was perfect but again the rest of the desktop and everything turned dull dark and ugly. As soo as i closed Gimp, the desktop's and other apps color/contrast came back."

How do you change the bitmap?

with kdmconfig, change from 8 bits/256 colors to 16 bits/64k colors or better 24 bits/16M colors.

I did a fresh install, this time specifying during installation that the machine is not on network. The very next question was to give a hostname to the machine, so i gave solaris1. My GUI is working fine now at 16M color depth. Now i want to put the machine on the network. I followed all the instructions from this link (http://my.execpc.com/~keithp/bdlogsol.htm#basics). But i was not able to ping it from another machine or vice versa.

Then it occurred to me, may be my interface is not up. So i issued the ifconfig command thats what i got:-
_______________________________________________________________________________
#ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849 <UP LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
# Jan 31 02:33:45 Solaris1 snmpXdmid: Unable to connect to snmpdx
_______________________________________________________________________________

The name of my interface (a 3COM Nic) is elxl and there is no sign of it in the above copied response to ifconfig -a command.

Start with:

With "ifconfig -a plumb" i was able to see my interface. I brought it "up", but still unable to ping it or any other machine from it. It gives errors like "ICMP host unreachable from localhost 127.0.0.1 etc"

I saw some examples for "ifconfig" command in a book and i saw that "ifconfig" also shows the IP address associated with the interface. I have given 192.168.0.2 to my machine, but i dont see it when i "ifconfig" my interface.

#ifconfig elxl0
elxl0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
ether 0:b0:d0:b5:c4:16

shouldnt there be an IP address of the machine after inet?

Well, yes if something tell the system what IP address to set.

How did you set 192.168.0.2 to this interface ?

I gave the IP in /etc/hosts and this is how it looks

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.2 solaris1 solaris1.sunmoto.com loghost

and yes i pressed enter to add one more line before saving the file. Then i edited /etc/netmasks in which i entered

192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0

and yes again i pressed enter to add one more line before saving the file. Then i created a file by the name of /etc/hostname.elxl0 in which i typed the hostname which is solaris1 and again i pressed enter to add a line. Then i created a file /etc/defaultrouter in which i gave the IP of the gateway machine (the XP box) 192.168.0.1 and again i pressed enter to add a line. Then i copied /etc/nsswitch.dns to /etc/nsswitch.conf.

I also made a file resolv.conf with the IP of an ISP's DNS servers, but that would come into play when i want to access internet (through gateway, an XP machine).

I followed all the steps from this link (http://my.execpc.com/~keithp/bdlogsol.htm#basics).

Did you reboot the machine after all these steps ?