Open Solaris 2008-05 installation

brgsousa · 05-30-2008, 06:51 AM

Hi,
I am new to solaris. I used it, but i can't install it in my machine. I boot the live opensolaris 2008-05 and try to install it through the gui-install. But when the disk management is about to appear the installation window closes by itself.
So I gave up trying to install it through the gui-install. Now I wanna try a text-based install. Anyone knows how to do that? Or knows what is happening with the gui-install?

Ps.: My disk has many partitions: NTFS, ReiseFS, unallocated space etc

Thanks

syg00 · 05-30-2008, 07:00 AM

(Open)Solaris will need a primary partition - does your free space qualify ???. BTW it *will* screw with your bootloader
Just last weekend I installed it successfully under VirtualBox on Vista - you may want to consider an install in a virtual environment as well. Safer all round IMHO.

brgsousa · 05-31-2008, 06:33 AM

The unallocated space is a primary partition. There's 3 primary partitions(windows, linux and unallocated space) and one logical. Do I have to format this space before running the installer?

Thanks

syg00 · 05-31-2008, 07:00 AM

Nope. Lets see the output of "fdisk -l" from Linux - may need sudo/root depending on your distro.

brgsousa · 06-10-2008, 04:45 PM

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb652887a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3952 31744408+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5259 18666 107699760 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 18667 19457 6353707+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 5259 18525 106567146 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 18526 18666 1132551 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Thanks

syg00 · 06-10-2008, 08:01 PM

That looks like it should work. Maybe the installer can't handle the space not being at the beginning, or end, or ...
Check if a bug has been reported - if not open one.

brgsousa · 06-11-2008, 06:52 AM

Isn't there any text-based installation?

brgsousa · 06-13-2008, 07:16 PM

Hi,
I finally got how to do it. Actually, it kind of a bug.
I reported the bug to opensolaris crew and they answered me:
Make sure there are no gaps in fdisk partition table and if there are unused
entries, they are put at the end of partition table.

Example:
For configuration reported by submitter, there are 1st, 3th, 4th entry in partition
table used, the 2nd one is unused.

In order to avoid crash of the installer, use some tool for manipulating fdisk
partition table (Linux fdisk, gparted, ...) and utilize 2nd entry as well - create
2nd primary partition.

Avoid using Solaris fdisk(1M) command in this case, since it can't handle gaps
in fdisk partition table accordingly and could shuffle existing entries.

Notice:
If you want to dedicate existing primary partition to Solaris, it is not necessary
to delete it before you invoke the installer - it is possible just to run the
installer and on Disk screen change type of existing partition in question to
Solaris one.

Thanks everyone