english & linux Franchu on 11 Apr 2007 03:39 am
Solaris 10 on a MacBook Pro
Today I received the free CDs of the Solaris 10 OS by Sun Microsystems that I had ordered on 22/01/07. That same day I got in my e-mail a confirmation that said:
We have received your request for a free Solaris 10 and Developer Tools DVD Software Kit. Please allow at least 10 business days for your kit to arrive to the mailing address you provided. Please also note there are some countries Sun cannot ship media to.
Well… it seems it took a bit longer 
Anyway, now I have at home a wonderful box with three original Solaris 10 DVDs:
- Solaris 10 Operating System - SPARC DVD
- Solaris 10 Operating System - x86 DVD
- Developer Tools - Sun Studio 11, Sun Java Studio Creator 2 Update 1, Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8, NetBeans 5.0
In order to try it, I have installed it as a virtual machine in Parallels in my MacBook Pro. The installation was very easy and straightforward: New VM –> OS Type: Solaris 10 –> You set up the drive size and memory allocated to the VM, and then the installation starts from the DVD
Then the installation is menu based, and by leaving the default options the installations proceeds flawlessly
After the installation finishes, if you want to enable the X11 server, just follow the instructions that I found in one of the Parallels forums:
/usr/X11/bin/xorgconfig
and then the following entries (the –> denotes my comments - don’t type these
[ENTER]
5 –> PS/2 Mouse
Y –> emulate 3 button mouse
[ENTER] –> default for /dev/kdmouse
7 –> Generic 104-Key PC
87 –> UK Keyboard
[ENTER] –> for keyboard variant
n –> additional XKB options
[ENTER]
6 –> Non-interlaced SVGA 1024×768
2 –> 50-90 vertical sync rate
apple20 –> identifier for your monitor
y –> yes, you would like to look at the card database
0 –> Generic Vesa compatible option
[ENTER] –> to continue
5 –> 4096K of memory
ati1600 –> identifier for you graphics card
4 –> the modes are ok
4 –> 16 bits
then say Y to write to /etc/X11.conf
Afterwards you just need to reboot, and you have a fully operation Solaris10 VM
You can see two screenshots I have taken, one of the login window, and another one of the desktop.
I will keep writing about it when I’ll discover more interesting things
Related posts:
- Replacing the fans on my MacBook Pro
- If Edgar Allan Poe had a computer…
- Sobre el MacBook Air y los retos de ingeniería
on 23 Jul 2007 at 16:54 1.Anonymous said …
Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi
on 30 Mar 2008 at 14:36 2.Nagarjun said …
Hi!
Your article was great! I too have a MBP and wanted to do the same. I ordered the DVDs with 500 free licenses. I was wondering if they would ship 500 DVDs or just one DVD with a sheet that has the 500 license codes? Because, I do not want 500 DVDs at my place! Lol! Please reply. Thanks a lot!