UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone this is my first post

I have used linux a couple of times and was impressed, so i bought an old sunblade 1000, just to learn something new.

I cannot get the thing to work! I have tried to install solaris 10 and several types of linux. I am beginning to wonder if i was sold a faulty machine

With linux installs it gets as far as silo and gives 'illegal instruction' when doing something with a ramdisk

With solaris it will boot to the windows and apparantly installs, but on reboot it gives something like 'windowing ended unexpectly booting to command line'. This is after the first disc, I have no idea when it requires the other 4

The other thing is the machine is throwing a lot of errors up all the time. Things like the filing system always being repaired, cannot access boot device. Is this from a faulty install or faulty hardware?

Can anyone please help? I am a newcomer and it is overwhelming me

run an extended post on your blade an check for hardware errors. have a look at your obp settings to enable extended post. maybe you need to work with a serial cable to see the whole console output of your mashine...

hth and good luck,
DN2

Can you please explain how to do that?

Also, can you recommened any books aimed at beginners?

Thanks