Installing Solaris on a Windows Latptop?

Sepia · 11-08-2007, 06:20 AM

I am new to Unix & Solaris but would like to learn.

Is it possible to install Solaris on my laptop running Windows XP Home?

Could I perhaps do a dual boot or could it be access via a terminal/SSH window?

Or is there a better way to get access to a Solaris environment without connecting to the Internet?

Thanks

crisostomo_enrico · 11-08-2007, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Is it possible to install Solaris on my laptop running Windows XP Home?

Of course. Just insert Solaris installation media, boot from it, install it and grub will take care of dual booting your systems. You should take care of disk partitioning.

Quote:

Could I perhaps do a dual boot or could it be access via a terminal/SSH window?

Both of them. But if you want to ssh to a solaris box, the box should be running... so: where are you going to install Solaris in order to be able to ssh to it?

Bye,
Enrico.

crisostomo_enrico · 11-08-2007, 06:25 AM

If you're going to install Solaris Express Developer Edition, start here to check for hardware compatibility.

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts/device_detect.jsp

You can also install Solaris Express Community Edition, which is a newer build: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/downloads/sol_ex_dvd/

Or you can try Indiana, a new opensolaris based distribution. It's the first release, but it may be worth a try:
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/

Sepia · 11-08-2007, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crisostomo_enrico

Of course. Just install Solaris installation media, boot from it, install it and grub will take care of dual booting your systems. You should take care of disk partitioning.

My hard drive is partitioned but both partitions have data on. Can I install Solaris on the partition without loosing access to the files already on it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by crisostomo_enrico

Both of them. But if you want to ssh to a solaris box, the box should be running... so: where are you going to install Solaris in order to be able to ssh to it?

I guess I won't be able to as I have just one computer?

Thanks.

crisostomo_enrico · 11-08-2007, 06:30 AM

Quote:

My hard drive is partitioned but both partitions have data on. Can I install Solaris on the partition without loosing access to the files already on it?

No, Solaris requires its own partition to be installed onto.

Quote:

I guess I won't be able to as I have just one computer?

No, you have to install it if you want to connect to it. The other option you've got if you want to give solaris a try, it's booting a live cd. There are some of them, but I never tried one. Check http://www.opensolaris.org/ for further information about opensolaris distributions.