Before I start, have a look at this blog entry if you, like me, are confused about the various Solaris brands. The review is on an Acer Travel 3260 laptop - Intel chipset, no unusual or tricky hardware. Now on to the actual review.
Downloading
The release is available in two livecd versions, the difference being the number of languages. It's quite nice to see that Sun is offering to send out free CDs of OpenSolaris 2008.05. I downloaded the version with "Primary Languages", burnt it to a CD, and verified the md5sum.
First Boot
The livecd boot process is initiated by GRUB, after which it takes a while to (what I assume) extract the kernel. The Solaris kernel then takes over. That is where I hit my first roadblock. My computer hung at the message - "Use is subject to licence terms". It did not respond to any key presses, neither did Ctrl-Alt-Delte have any effect. I had to cold-restart the computer. I tried a memtest, burnt another CD, verified the md5sum again, but in vain.
I ventured over to the OpenSolaris IRC channel (#opensolaris). There, someone who had similar problems showed me how to enable the "legacy ACPI" mode. After editing the kernel line in to grub to add "-B acpi-user-options=8", the boot proceeded smoothly.
The Desktop
The CD boots into a customized GNOME desktop. The layout is clean, and the theme looks modern. It was not a surprise to see that it matches the Nimbus theme for Java6. I inserted a pen drive, and it was instantly detected. Very user-friendly. The first application I opened was Firefox. Surprise! No net. I have a 'normal' ethernet connection. I fired up the Device Driver Utility, which confirmed my doubts - driver for my Marvell Yukon card was not available.
No net, ACPI, or SD card readerBooting back into my main OS, I found this handy utility - Sun Device Detection Tool - which showed that a driver called "myk" was available. I decided to tackle internet issues after installation. The installer is started by a convenient icon present on the desktop.
Oh wait, a driver for net is availableThe Installer
I had already set apart some free space prior to booting the livecd. It turned out to be a good thing, because the installer cannot resize existing partitions. However, I found the partitioner on the Installer confusing. It marked my extended partition for formatting! I formatted the unallocated space as a Linux swap partition. Thereafter, my partition layout was detected correctly. I think the problem was caused by the presence of an extended partition. It is a leftover relic from the old DOS days, which many other operating systems too - the BSDs for example - refuse to recognize/install on.
Rest of the installer was straightforward, no surprises there. User name, root password, hostname, locale and so on. The installer was quite fast, and not very complicated.
The InstallerNote: The installer overwrites existing MBR with GRUB, it's impossible to have it install GRUB only the the root partition. Keep this in mind especially if you have Linux installed, you will need to manually add it to OpenSolaris GRUB after install.
Installed System
The installed system again required me to add "-B acpi-user-options=8" to be able to boot. The default desktop is absolutely 'clean' with no icons at all - just how I like it. If you've used a distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora in the past, expect no surprises here.
The default desktopNetwork Configuration
Setting up the network proved to be a bit tricky. The myk driver is not that mature, as a result of which net wasn't working. I searched around a bit, and found the skgesol driver supplied by the manufacturer of the card itself - Marvell. The installation instructions provided in the tarball are detailed, however, they seem to be outdated. The install process gave errors about not being able to find the file /usr/ucb/echo. I solved the problem temporarily by "ln -s /usr/bin/gnu/echo /usr/ucb/echo". Even after that, the network refused to work, with some errors about attaching to the proper device. Thanks to IRC again, and this OpenSolaris Forum link, I was able to configure skge0 network interface to use dhcp. After a few moments, I got a GUI dialog saying network has been configured. Impressive, but about time. It was nwam - network auto magic - at work.
Ah, finally! Thank you, nwamDesktop Effects
I was really surprised to see that desktop effects - Compiz - was available in the default install. Usually, first releases of operating systems concentrate on having the core components into place, rather than including eye candy.It's a nice touch, though. I experienced minor glitches after enabling Compiz - maybe due to my Intel card, or maybe because the platform support of Compiz is not that mature for solaris. Anyway, I've left Compiz disabled for now.
Package Manager
One of the high points of OpenSolaris 2008.05 is the new Image Packaging System, debuting with this release. The GUI for the package manager is minimal, but fully functional. It worked right out of the box, no hassles. However, there are only few packages available - this system is after all, very new. Also, the GUI feels a bit slow as compared to Synaptic.
The package manager supports addition of external repositories, to supplement the available software. I added the Blastwave IPS repository, to enable playback of multimedia files. The procedure is explained in detail in the Multimedia section of the review. Overall, the packaging system is no less than Debian / RedHat packaging systems.
The excellent package managerMultimedia
Most free open source operating systems do not include appropriate codecs for multimedia playback, due to licencing issues. OpenSolaris takes the same stance. It is easy, though, to add support for the "restricted formats", by using packages from the BlastWave IPS repository. To view all the available repositories, check out this forum post.
No MP3 out of the box, sorryTo add the Blastwave repository, first type (all on one line):
pfexec pkg set-authority -O http://blastwave.network.com:10000/ Blastwave
and then use the GUI package manager to install mplayer, gstplugins, gstpluginsgood, gstpluginsbad, gstpluginsugly.
Note: At the time of this writing, BlastWave has not oficially "released" their BlastWave IPS repository, so beware. I will be updating this page when the BlastWave IPS repository is formally released.
The Nvidia binary driver is already installed, however I could not test it. Adobe provides Flash for Solaris x86, hence Flash installation is straightforward.
Driver Issues
I have heard people say that driver support on Solaris is limited, but most of my laptop hardware was detected, and the appropriate driver was available out of the box.
I had an issue with my sound card - headphone automuting did not work. This is a minor annoyance, but Volume Control applet allowed me to control the speakers or headset manually. The display driver doesn't work well with compiz, but it's not critical.
Support for laptop keys for volume control, software side support for adjusting the brightness, bluetooth, suspend/resume is all missing. However, this is an issue with all open source operating systems, as manufacturers are reluctant to provide drivers / documentation. I was not able to test printers and wireless internet.
Tips and Suggestions for new users
- Before installing, run the Sun Device Detection Tool on your system
- I found the installer partitioner very confusing. I recommend you to make a partition of type "Linux swap" beforehand
- For Linux users, the GRUB menu.lst is found at /rpool/boot/grub/menu.lst
- The Blastwave IPS repo is useful for packages like mplayer, xine
- Some GNOME shortcuts have been remapped to mimic Windows - Winkey+R opens the Run dialog, instead of Alt-F2, Winkey+D works as "Show Desktop" instead of Ctrl-Alt-D, and so on
- For Linux users, your home directory is /export/home/$username
- The equivalent to sudo is 'pfexec'. The first user on default install can use pfexec without any restrictions
- It is difficult to mount ext2/ext3/ntfs partitions. I found an experimental guide here, though I did not try it myself
- For some reason, there is no option to reboot from within the GNOME GUI. To reboot your system, type "pfexec init 6" in a terminal
- For me, the Home and End keys were not working. If someone knows how to solve it, please let me know
Conclusion
This release of OpenSolaris 2008.05 is excellent for a first release. However, it is a first release. There are quite a few rough edges, but they can easily be smoothened out by the patient user. For people wanting to try the Solaris OS, this is the best starting point currently available. With the excellent package manager, software availability should not be an issue. The default theme has a highly polished feel to it.
With the promise of regular six month releases, I am sure this OS will prove to be a serious player in the open source arena. Although a lot of work is left to be done, if this release is any indication of how enthusiastic the OpenSolaris community is, it can just get better from here onwards.
I have not added many screenshots because of bandwidth issues. Please check this site for a detailed screenshot walkthrough of OpenSolaris 2008.05. Please add comments and let me know your experiences with OpenSolaris. If you have any feedback on this review, I'll be glad to hear from you. This review was written as a part of the Sun Student Reviews Contest, if you are a student, you can enter too.
28 comments:
interesting,
how long did it take to install?
Ravi, it should not take more than 20 minutes with the "Primary Languages" CD. However, the "All Languages" CD uses LZMA compression, and will take much longer.
well rohan,I got a system with 256MB Nvidia 7300GT and 384MB normal DDR-I RAM.
what do you think?Can I be able to install and use opensolaris :) >??
BTW,nice simple blog
Hi Prakash,
The Nvidia card won't be a problem, since the driver is included.
However, your system RAM might cause a problem - the minimum requirement is 512mb. http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/IPS/sysreq.html
I tried the CD on my desktop PC which has 256mb ram, and it errored out saying "Insufficient Memory".
Try and tell me what happens..
> BTW,nice simple blog
Thanks :)
Rohan,
How big a / partition is required?
Does it include star office or open office?
I saw another review that ZFS is slow(!!). Did you face any problem?
Hi Gireesh,
OS recommends 10gb, but the default install takes only 3gb of space.
Neither star nor open office is included, but open office is present in the repository.
The bootup is a bit slow, but that may be due to the services. After the system has started, it's as good as any other OS.
most useful Opensolaris 2008.05 review I've read yet..
I'm tempted to try it out, but can you give any reasons why it's better than the average linux distro for desktop use?
To Mark from Belgium - the single biggest attractor is ZFS. No more fscking!!! And no more worrying about putting your system into an unstable state without the ability to roll back - ZFS makes this a total breeze. Saving me a ton of time already.
@Mark,
Thanks :)
I would say that it is, in it's current state, not better than the average Linux desktop. Driver support is not as good as Linux, and there a few annoyances here and there.
That said, there are many things that are appealing to the 'developer'-type guy:
ZFS, DTrace, Sun Studio etc.
If you are currently using Linux (like me), you might want to try out the LiveCD. But for using as a full-fledged desktop OS, I suggest you wait for a release or two.
@Joao,
Fully agreed. The snapshot system of ZFS is much touted, though I have yet to try it out myself. I am looking for some documentation to get me started with the basics of ZFS - could you point me? Thanks.
Thanks for a very fair review. If I'm understanding your issue with the home & end keys right, have you tried using shift-Home and shift-End? That should do what you expect in the terminal, anyway.
Thanks Dave :)
The home and end keys work as intended in GUI apps. However, in terminal, they don't work at all - pressing Shift+Home doesn't work either. Similarly, PageUp/Down doesn't work.
Also, in vim, in the insert mode, if I use arrow keys, it types out ABCD etc, instead of navigating.
Any ideas?
Looks nice and works!
I've been using openSUSE for 2 years already, but can't help from installing nearly each new remarkable release.
I've tried openSolaris today both at my workstation and Toshiba laptop. I didn't expect it to impress me, coz I've tried Solaris Developer Edition already and it couldn't produce out-of-the-box workable screen resolution neither with my 22" monitor nor 1280*800 at notebook.
But openSolaris has recognized and configured software very well. I surely won't switch from my favorite openSUSE to openSolaris, but I will keep my eye on its future releases and surely install at one of my spare workstations
@Anonymous:
Exactly my sentiments. Not worth making it as your main OS yet, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Thanks for a nice review. I am new to Solaris but I'd like to have it on my laptop. I tried to run the live cd but it kept saying that it couldn't find any screen. I have 2 Gb RAM, ATI X1250 graphics and an Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU. Unfortunately, I don't now how to make changes from a consol. Would be happy if you or anyone could guide me.
Thanks again for a nice review.
Hi Thunder,
Thanks for your compliments.
Your issue looks as if your graphics card isn't supported by the open source ATI driver. Does it work under Linux, without the offical ATI binary driver? Your processor/ram is quite adequate.
You should also try asking in the forums - http://forums.opensolaris.com/index.jspa
Your question will get more exposure there :) Tell me how it goes.
Hi Rohan,
i am a new blogger,but a old_man@japan.
i have been tried to build the triple boot system up on my legacy notebook computer.
It experimentally consists of Windoz XP professional, xubuntu 8.04 LTS and opensolaris 2008.05 release.
however i have been struggled with new architecture design of Solaris operating system different from Linux. It's hard to me.
regards,
Hi Baian,
I agree, OpenSolaris can be quite intimidating at first. I had to struggle to get it working on a triple boot too. In fact, I'm using exactly same operating systems like you for the triple boot (except Kubuntu instead of Xubuntu).
Have fun with solaris, it kind of grows on you :)
Nice review. Just to let you know, I've tested the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card with OpenSolaris 2008.05 and it works very well for all 2D functions. No 3D HW acceleration yet.
Thanks for the feedback Ken :)
Binary drivers for video cards are the toughest things to get working on any other OS apart from windows :(
Even though the website says the minimum RAM requirement is 512Mb, but still the Live CD runs painfully slow on my Laptop. It takes some 20 minutes to get solaris running and opening any application hangs my system. Wonder how it runs on your system.
Kaustubh, in my laptop I have upgraded the RAM to 1.5gb, so I did not face any problems. Do you find OpenSolaris to be as slow even after installing?
Sun actually has some nice screencasts that demonstrate ZFS functionality and use.
You can find it here:
ZFS Demo
Full ZFS docs are here:
ZFS Docs
Thanks a lot, hypercubelive, I'll definitely go through it.
Nice review ..For new users like me ..Ubuntu Hardy Heron is still the best
hey 2 gud man....a commendable feat really...bte nice, simple blog
@Rohan
The vim issue is resolved by this:
echo "set nocompatible" >> ~/.vimrc
Hi Rohan,
Where I need to add this option "-B acpi-user-options=8" before installing?
Thanks,
Ramar
Hi Ramar,
You need to edit the entry in grub by selecting it and pressing "e". Then highlight the kernel entry and press "e" again. At the end of the line, add those parameters, and then press enter and then "b".
However, new version of OpenSolaris - 2008.11 - has been released. You might want to try and see whether that fixes the problem out of the box :)
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