Solaris

This looks like either faulty media or faulty DVD drive (or possibly poor DVD cable connection).

When you try and boot, do you see the box trying to access the DVD drive? Does the access light flash? For how long?

Hi Firstpost,

Forget the Solaris 11, support for the SPARC IIIi isn't there any more, second I'm inclined to agree with hicksd8 - it looks like the DVD is faulty - you may be able to use an external if you can't replace the internal.

Back to basics here - check cables etc - possibly try cleaning the optics in the existing DVD first - use a cleaner.

Regards

Dave

Here I'm back.

So, as I said previously I burned a CD version of Solaris 11 text for sparc achitecture.
I burned it as usual using CDBurnerXP and "burn an image on a CD/DVD".

The burning process seems to have finished properly.

So, I placed the CD in the DVD tray of the Sun Blade 1500 and then ran "boot cdrom -s".

Code:

boot cdrom -s
Boot device: /pci@1e,600000/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f File and args: -s

// here it takes a very long time turning / - \ | / - \ | and so on for at least 2-3 minutes then... //

Error: 'SUNW,UltraSPARC-IIIi' is not supported by this release of Solaris.
Program terminated

And back to the {ok} prompt.

So, we got few things now.

- Seams that the DVD player can't read burned DVD+.
- Seams to work better with CDs
- But, I really don't get why the UltraSPARC-IIIi architecture is not supported. On the oracle's website, there are only 2 versions (x86 and SPARC). SPARC is not compatible with UltraSPARC-IIIi?

ps : just asked my friend and he confirmed that this computer came originally with Solaris 8 or 9 (to choose at first bootup). If it's not SPARC and x86 what was it? Or maybe it was supporting UltraSPARC-IIIi and now Solaris 11 doesn't support it anymore.

After searching on Google, I've found that. So, Solaris 11 won't work on that Sun Blade 1500 as they don't support this architecture anymore.

So, no choice, I have to use Solaris SPARC 8 or 9 or 10 but I also need to use a CD version as the DVD player doesn't seems to read DVD+.

Wow, that's harder that I though.

Of course, I do not have a Oracle Support Contract so it will be hard to get an old Solaris version available on CDs. I'm searching everywhere on the internet for that, but can't find anything .


ps : just thought about that. Would any IDE DVD player would fit in that Sun Blade 1500? I can maybe take one from another computer and put it in.

Thanks again for your help,
Best regards.


/edit

Oups, sorry was writing this post while you posted yours.
I'll double check see if I can find another DVD player that would read DVD+.

Thanks again

Install a copy of Solaris x86 in a virtual machine and setup an install-server for your sparc machine. There are lots of good how-to's on doing that (and of course the offical oracle/sun documentation online). after that, you can install your B1500 over the network simple by using boot net for an interactive installation.

Hi firstpost,

You may be lucky, most IDE DVD/CDROM should be OK in the Blade 1500. I think that you will be OK if you just go with CD media, it does look like this is a CDROM and not a DVD as was suggested earlier.

Regards

Dave

Hi gull04 & DukeNuke2

I've found a spare IDE DVD player. So I'm going to give it a try.

Also, DukeNuke2, I will probably have troubles trying net installation as my Sun Blade 1500 can't get any IP address from the network. No?

Best regards to all of you,
I'll be back soon to let you know what I've found.

---------- Post updated at 08:40 AM ---------- Previous update was at 07:58 AM ----------

Hi again, I'm back with good news this time .

So, I've tried replacing the DVD player with another IDE one I had.

And.....

.... it finally boots \o/

So, on first boot I had warnings about labels. I ran the format utility and labelled it.

Reboot, wait for the {ok} prompt, plug the Ethernet cable and run "boot cdrom -s"

Here is the output

Code:

boot cdrom -s

Boot device: /pci@1e,600000/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f File and args: -s
SunOS Release 5.10 Version Generic_147440-01 64 bits
Copyright .... All right reserved
Booting to milestone "milestone/single-user:default".
Configuring Devices
Using RPC Bootparams for network configuration information.
Attempting to configure interface bge0
Skipped interface bge0 (after 1 minute trying to configure it)
Requesting System Maintenant Mode
SINGLE USER MODE
#

So, the good news is that Solaris 10 Sparc DVD version finally boots
The bad news is that apparently I still have troubles with the network interface (really don't know why)
The other bad news is that I expected to get that screen and then select "1 Solaris interactive (default)", but for some reasons (network?) I just get a prompt #.

Actually looking on the internet what can I do from there.

If you have any ideas of what I should do/try, please let me know .

Of course, you've all deserved a for your help since yesterday.

Thanks again a lot.

/edit

Sorry I'm being stupid, didn't realized that Single User Mode was only a prompt mode.

So, just typed "exit" and now i'm back to the installation.

Will let you know

Hi Firstpost,

I'd be tempted to go ahead with the install now and sort out the network later, once you have the box installed it should be easier.

You should also look at the OBP commands as they will probably allow you to sort out the way the system is looking for a net device to boot from.

Good luck and enjoy!

Here we are in the Unix world - One more of us and one less of them!

Regards

Dave