OpenSolaris Installation

I’d ordered the Solaris 10 DVD from a third party agent a few days back. It did avoid the hassle of downloading the code from the website and burning it on to a ROM and the service by Rainbow Computech was pretty good. I got the DVD delivered to my home in three days with regular updates from them regarding the shipment. Wish the install was as easy as this!  🙁

First things first. I’m a quasi noobie  🙂   when it comes to installing Operating systems. So my experience would tell you what not to do when installing an OS  🙂  .If you are still contemplating on installing solaris with XP as a dual boot, be forewarned, you’re entering lukewarm waters. It’s real sad that I sound so very negative but I’m really frustrated with how things have turned up. Just Imagine! You have that cutie pie OS right in your System but still can’t use it. The worst part being that you still don’t know what to look for where and Google ain’t helping a bit.

Thankfully this time I backed up vital data on my disk before I ventured into the forest. I honked the DVD drive out and forked in the DVD. Rebooted my system and initiated the DVD boot.  Quite expectantly, the installers GUI failed and I had to navigate through text mode installation. Thanks to my 17″ Extra Wide LCD monitor, I had to keep altering the image display to have a look at the command statements in each and every screen. Finally when I make it to the partitioning screen, the lord starts demanding- Open Solaris 10 needs to be installed on a primary partition alone. I had installed Win Xp in the primary partition and had a couple of other drives similarly configured. Gutsy Gibbon was hatching golden eggs in the extended partition 🙂 . Looking at the screen, I initially was in the mindset of formatting one of the subsidiary drives and making it the primary one to cater to Solaris’s request. But then the installer was not making things any easier. The only option it gave me was to totally erase the drive and create solaris partitions. It just wanted full control on the drive! 🙂 . Probably there was a customization menu somewhere but as the monitor was as such giving trouble, I gave in too. Having taken full control over the drive the installation crooned it’s way to 100 percent completion.

It finally spitted out the DVD and reboots. Ah! and what do I find?It asks me for the login. Login? I wonder – what login? I remember it asking for root password but never in the installation did it ask me to give a default login. I understand Linux installations have this default login name. It varies for each OS but I never tried looking for the default login of OpenSol. It just didn’t strike me! So there ended the Open Sol saga- part one. leaving me with a lame hard disk with no OS to work on. How far can a noobie go with CUI  🙁 ? Finally , I gave up and installed the bland Win XP again. Moments later I realize, Microsoft ain’t any good. It overwrites the previous MBR with its own setup. Sigh! Wish people came with a sweet heart! Now I have Win xP on a primary partition and the lame OpenSol on another!

Today,  curiosity got the better of me and I restarted the OpenSol installation. Thankfully, the installation recognizes the previous setup and asks me whether I want to upgrade the OS. Jubilantly, I configure it to do the needful and the upgrade starts. It goes on and on and on and finally it gives me a status – Upgrade Complete. Aye Sir, Me is on cloud nine 🙂 . I let it spit the DVD out and am eager to see the aesthetic OpenSol Splash grub menu. Someone rightly said,  never expect the expected. Screw Him! The System reboots and what do I get to see? Welcome to Microsoft Windows!!!  I’m at loss of words.

Open Sol is a wonderful OS and I’d love to work on it. Accepted, there’s something that I’ve missed out during the installation that led it to screw me but on a second thought- Can’t the installation be made any simpler? Can’t they provide a much better partition management tool? Johnathan! Are you listening? 🙂

I’ll be back a few days later when I have some time to make my hands greasier . Till then  – Amen!