Daniel, Thanks for the feedback, what you have encountered is something hopefully will address in this project. My comments are in-line
Daniel Griffith wrote: > On 7/2/07, Moinak Ghosh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Daniel Griffith wrote: >> >>> Using Solaris for the last few weeks has felt like travelling back in >>> time >>> >> It would help if you elaborated on the issues you faced. If nothing else >> it'd assist the Indiana cause :) >> > > Yeah, I should have kept a diary – no maybe not because I probably > would have thrown it out of a window or hit someone with it:) > > Where do I start? > > OK, first drivers. I was expecting issues and have no problems with > the idea that choice of components depends on what drivers are > available for Solaris – but I have major issues with Solaris drivers > only working with certain versions of hardware firmware. > > I used a first generation Asus NForce 4 board. My first attempt at an > install was of Solaris 10. Neither the included networking driver or > Silicon Image driver worked. The solution was to use the latest > version of Solaris Express and hack together a new bios for the > machine with the latest 3114 firmware. > Yes, Solaris Express does have better driver support than Solaris 10. I had similar problems installing Solaris 10 previously. If you are only wanting to try out the features of Solaris, and not install into production, then Solaris Express maybe a better choice. > So much for the "super reliable UNIX" when it is running on a machine > with a homebrew bios:) > > Anyway, at least I had a working install. > > I had an immediate problem, at no point during the install process did > I seem to get the option to create a user account, so after the > install finished as you can't ssh in as root how the heck are you > expected to get into the box???? > Solaris is installed such that root access is denied via ssh. To get around this, login as root on the console and create a user account. You then can ssh into the user account and then su into root. > Grr go to pull it out of the rack and fit a monitor:( > > That's an example of the continual little niggles I got while trying > to use Solaris that you really wouldn't expect from a mature > distribution – but hey maybe that particular problem is just an > Express issue... > A normal user account 'should' be created as part of the installation process. This is coming as part of the project to rewrite the installer. > Then I got hit by the well known issues of missing applications and > the ones that are there behaving in unexpected ways:) The missing > /root and finding out where the heck things like wget had been > banished to. Then the pain really started – after a smooth setup of a > RaidZ, I tried to get samba running... > I have recently got into the practice of using /root rather than /. This again I think is addressed the the project to rewrite the new installer. > OK, I know about the history of Solaris and System V – but why the > heck has Gentoo got a better implementation than Solaris??? The whole > services mechanism in Solaris needs re-examining, I'm starting to get > that the Solaris mentality is "if it ain't (completely) broke, don't > fix it":) > Init.d scripts are deprecated on Solaris nowdays. I think there are some SMF manifest files for samba on the net. Just try a search for "smf" and "samba". (SMF leaves Linux/Solaris/whoever init.d for dead) > It needs taking out back and shooting:) Looking online, it seems that > most peoples solution to use samba with Solaris 10 is to create their > _own_ init.d scripts – huh??? And then don't get me started on webmin > which can be enabled via svcadm and yet won't start until you manually > run an init script!!! That's the kind of thing that you forgive on a > Linux distribution made by one student and his dog to run ripped DVD's > on a Xbox, but not from a commercial OS:( > > For me Solaris as it is, is a major time sink – things that you expect > to be simple aren't, things that surely should work don't, and things > that you hoped were lost in the history of computing come back to bite > you on the bum! > Actually, I think the same of every Linux box when I use one :) A some sort of middle ground should be at least created to the day to day stuff. > On the bright side: > The numbering system for drives – initially confusing but has a huge > advantage over the /dev/sda idea of Linux – remove a drive from a > Linux box that also includes drives with software raid and watch in > horror as your drives are renamed:) > ZFS does what it says on the tin:) Nice:) > > But I could use FreeBSD with ZFS and avoid the headaches above, so why > would the world rush to use Indiana if it is just Solaris on a CD – > which is what some people here want. > Hopefully, people will come around someday. Any form of change (for people) is difficult.... Doug _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
