i like perfection. i use code to get as close to a perfect understanding of the underlying system as possible. the flip side is that once i understand the underlying system i try to insert my code in the system in as perfect a way as possible. of course i am a rewrite fanatic. code is almost never as good as i want it. usually it improves after a few readings, but it rarely reaches the level that i require. reorganizing and rewriting are two of the most hated words for most engineers and managers. i consider these two skills to be my biggest asset. I have no fear throwing out the old, and writing it a new, and it is always better after i'm done. intense thought goes into every rewrite i do, sometimes days of walking aimlessly trying to figure out how to perform these operations in a "perfect" sort of way. I don't like workarounds, and i don't like patches. if something can be done, then it can be done well.
i have many years of experience working for the same embedded systems company, and i have earned company wide respect for my ability to solve anything. my habit for rewriting is known, and was originally "feared" but not anymore. when i want to rewrite something my company is behind me 100%. if it could be done badly then it can surely be done well.
ps. everything has its exceptions but what's written here is the rule.
I believe you when you say that the paths make sense, but that doesn't stop Solaris from being able to set them up by default. The hostname issue has a lot of talk on Sun's site, and also in newsgroups, and the recommended way to change it is by changing the dhcpagent file, and running sys-unconfig. That didn't work. There was then a lot of discussions about manual ways of doing it. I will try the nodename file, as you and some others have mentioned, but it really isn't that important. It just seems like something that should be done automatically. The documentation that Sun provides is unbelievable. There is a lot of it, and it is well explained. I have even managed to fix the dev links problem I had spoken of, with the help of both documentation, and some sample drivers I found. As a final note, I finished setting up the system with paths and login shells, and everything else I needed before I wrote my first post, it is just surprising how litte of it is done by the Solaris install when comparing it to other comparable OS's today.
No, I'm not an academic, I am a comp sci major, I have set up linux and windows servers and workstations, and I have no problem getting around an OS, high level or low. I was posting my experience with an OS that looks user friendly, but is truly far from it.
Yes, I used pkg-get which uses sunfreeware, and installed firefox 1.0. I was unimpressed by how long it took but that can be blamed on the very old machine. But I was happy to see that after a download of a lot of packages, firefox does work.
Good for solaris, and what would seem to be some community work.
If you bothered to look at my listing of where some programs were installed, you would see that it is quite a mess, and setting the path is more than trivial. As I anyhow had the opportunity to learn more about solaris by just clean installing version 10, I chose that option. If it was necessary for me, I couldv'e dealt with the paths, login shells, patches, and packages on version 9, but WHY? And as you might have noticed if you read on, all the configuration of (again) paths login shells and patches I did with Solaris 10. Strange that such simple things like user's default paths or better than that root's default path don't include most of the installed programs paths that come with Solaris (just/usr/sbin, and/usr/bin). Even when you add a user with the SMC, that user doesn't have a normal path. And as I noted in previous post, the SMC gives the option of changing user's shells, but changing root's seems to give an error. Whats with that? So I did it manually. I have no problem system administrating, but with a brand new version of Solaris, these smaller tasks should be somewhat more automated.
My own background: Written linux and Windows NT/XP drivers, and I have set up many linux (mostly debian) and windows workstatiosn
i have been assigned the job of writing my company's pci card driver for solaris 9, and for this purpose i was given an old ultrasparc IIe sparc workstation with solaris 9. After a bit of frustration with trying to setup paths for root, and login shells, and patches, and packages. I decided to just clean install solaris 10. After downloading 5 cds (not including documentation cd) from solaris, I proceeded to install the system.
Installation: partitioning wizard sucks. defaults are fine, but if you want to change it, then it is just unpleasant.
network setup : it doesn't request a Hostname, and for the life of my system, I have hostname unknown. No big deal, except for a few errors that it prints. I have looked at sun's site, and the recommended way of changing this is sys-unconfig - with a few changes to dhcpagent in/etc/default. but that doesn't work. And i didn't feel like going like going through cartwheels changing the large number of files required to do this manually.
Configuration: I loaded up root's profile using the Java Desktop Environment (JDE). Nice looking. But it has no link to the Sun Management Console (SMC). I looked through all the menus and I couldn't figure out how to graphically (in the solaris way) add users. Of course I could've used useradd, but i really wanted to configure the system in the solaris prescribed manner. If you use Common Desktop Environment (CDE), then you do have a link to SMC. I had to run smc from console, and then I was able to set up users.
I wanted to change root's shell from/bin/sh to bash. I tried this using the SMC, but that gave me an error, so I ended up having to do this from/etc/passwd.
I installed the solaris 10 with a full (COMPLETE) install. Yet when I look for emacs either in the JDE menus or via the a call to emacs from the terminal, i get nothing. to get emacs and a large number of the other programs including gcc ld vim... to work, you have to set up the PATHs manually. I did this via/etc/profile, although I was surprised that none of this was already done. As there was no word on what the proper PATH should be I had to guess a bit, and finally found what I wanted: PATH=/opt/sfw/bin:/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/b in:/usr/c cs/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
emacs and gcc are in/opt/sfw/bin/ ld is in/usr/ccs/bin/ wget is in/usr/sfw/bin/ i installed the package pkg-get, and that went into/opt/csw/bin/pkg-get
If you run the SMC, and you try to add patches, it won't work, it says something about installing patch pro manager. You can't install that b/c it is not on the website, it only lists patch pro for solaris 8 and 9. I finally found that in Solaris 10, the patch manager comes built in, not that there is some easy way to know this. you must run pprosvc.
Driver writing: I did a full install of solaris, yet I didn't get the program cc, and since all of their driver tutorials refer to using cc, this created some issues for me. (cc is installed with Sun Studio). I switched to gcc, but gcc doesn't accept the same parameters as cc, but i found out after lots of wasted time, that cc -xarch=v9 is equivalent to gcc -m64 -mcpu=v9. of course you can't use the ld from gnu, you have to use solaris's ld to link.
I am now struggling to get some automatic dev links to be created in solaris, and as with everything else that I have encountered under this OS, it is being extremely painful.
I can say one thing for Solaris 10, and that is that the JDE look great. (although it doesn't have links to the apps that I installed, and is missing the SMC). Visually wise it is nicer looking than some other windowing environments I have seen, as is much better looking than CDE
Slashdot Mirror
i like perfection. i use code to get as close to a perfect understanding of the underlying system as possible. the flip side is that once i understand the underlying system i try to insert my code in the system in as perfect a way as possible. of course i am a rewrite fanatic. code is almost never as good as i want it. usually it improves after a few readings, but it rarely reaches the level that i require. reorganizing and rewriting are two of the most hated words for most engineers and managers. i consider these two skills to be my biggest asset. I have no fear throwing out the old, and writing it a new, and it is always better after i'm done. intense thought goes into every rewrite i do, sometimes days of walking aimlessly trying to figure out how to perform these operations in a "perfect" sort of way. I don't like workarounds, and i don't like patches. if something can be done, then it can be done well.
i have many years of experience working for the same embedded systems company, and i have earned company wide respect for my ability to solve anything. my habit for rewriting is known, and was originally "feared" but not anymore. when i want to rewrite something my company is behind me 100%. if it could be done badly then it can surely be done well.
ps. everything has its exceptions but what's written here is the rule.
nachum kanovsky
I believe you when you say that the paths make sense, but that doesn't stop Solaris from being able to set them up by default.
The hostname issue has a lot of talk on Sun's site, and also in newsgroups, and the recommended way to change it is by changing the dhcpagent file, and running sys-unconfig. That didn't work. There was then a lot of discussions about manual ways of doing it. I will try the nodename file, as you and some others have mentioned, but it really isn't that important. It just seems like something that should be done automatically.
The documentation that Sun provides is unbelievable. There is a lot of it, and it is well explained. I have even managed to fix the dev links problem I had spoken of, with the help of both documentation, and some sample drivers I found.
As a final note, I finished setting up the system with paths and login shells, and everything else I needed before I wrote my first post, it is just surprising how litte of it is done by the Solaris install when comparing it to other comparable OS's today.
No, I'm not an academic, I am a comp sci major, I have set up linux and windows servers and workstations, and I have no problem getting around an OS, high level or low. I was posting my experience with an OS that looks user friendly, but is truly far from it.
Yes, I used pkg-get which uses sunfreeware, and installed firefox 1.0. I was unimpressed by how long it took but that can be blamed on the very old machine. But I was happy to see that after a download of a lot of packages, firefox does work. Good for solaris, and what would seem to be some community work.
If you bothered to look at my listing of where some programs were installed, you would see that it is quite a mess, and setting the path is more than trivial. /usr/sbin, and /usr/bin). Even when you add a user with the SMC, that user doesn't have a normal path.
As I anyhow had the opportunity to learn more about solaris by just clean installing version 10, I chose that option. If it was necessary for me, I couldv'e dealt with the paths, login shells, patches, and packages on version 9, but WHY? And as you might have noticed if you read on, all the configuration of (again) paths login shells and patches I did with Solaris 10.
Strange that such simple things like user's default paths or better than that root's default path don't include most of the installed programs paths that come with Solaris (just
And as I noted in previous post, the SMC gives the option of changing user's shells, but changing root's seems to give an error. Whats with that? So I did it manually.
I have no problem system administrating, but with a brand new version of Solaris, these smaller tasks should be somewhat more automated.
My own background: Written linux and Windows NT/XP drivers, and I have set up many linux (mostly debian) and windows workstatiosn
/etc/default. but that doesn't work. And i didn't feel like going like going through cartwheels changing the large number of files required to do this manually.
/bin/sh to bash. I tried this using the SMC, but that gave me an error, so I ended up having to do this from /etc/passwd.
... to work, you have to set up the PATHs manually. I did this via /etc/profile, although I was surprised that none of this was already done. As there was no word on what the proper PATH should be I had to guess a bit, and finally found what I wanted:b in:/usr/c cs/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
/opt/sfw/bin/ /usr/ccs/bin/ /usr/sfw/bin/ /opt/csw/bin/pkg-get
i have been assigned the job of writing my company's pci card driver for solaris 9, and for this purpose i was given an old ultrasparc IIe sparc workstation with solaris 9. After a bit of frustration with trying to setup paths for root, and login shells, and patches, and packages. I decided to just clean install solaris 10. After downloading 5 cds (not including documentation cd) from solaris, I proceeded to install the system.
Installation:
partitioning wizard sucks. defaults are fine, but if you want to change it, then it is just unpleasant.
network setup : it doesn't request a Hostname, and for the life of my system, I have hostname unknown. No big deal, except for a few errors that it prints. I have looked at sun's site, and the recommended way of changing this is sys-unconfig - with a few changes to dhcpagent in
Configuration:
I loaded up root's profile using the Java Desktop Environment (JDE). Nice looking. But it has no link to the Sun Management Console (SMC). I looked through all the menus and I couldn't figure out how to graphically (in the solaris way) add users. Of course I could've used useradd, but i really wanted to configure the system in the solaris prescribed manner. If you use Common Desktop Environment (CDE), then you do have a link to SMC. I had to run smc from console, and then I was able to set up users.
I wanted to change root's shell from
I installed the solaris 10 with a full (COMPLETE) install. Yet when I look for emacs either in the JDE menus or via the a call to emacs from the terminal, i get nothing. to get emacs and a large number of the other programs including gcc ld vim
PATH=/opt/sfw/bin:/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/
emacs and gcc are in
ld is in
wget is in
i installed the package pkg-get, and that went into
If you run the SMC, and you try to add patches, it won't work, it says something about installing patch pro manager. You can't install that b/c it is not on the website, it only lists patch pro for solaris 8 and 9. I finally found that in Solaris 10, the patch manager comes built in, not that there is some easy way to know this. you must run pprosvc.
Driver writing:
I did a full install of solaris, yet I didn't get the program cc, and since all of their driver tutorials refer to using cc, this created some issues for me. (cc is installed with Sun Studio). I switched to gcc, but gcc doesn't accept the same parameters as cc, but i found out after lots of wasted time, that cc -xarch=v9 is equivalent to gcc -m64 -mcpu=v9. of course you can't use the ld from gnu, you have to use solaris's ld to link.
I am now struggling to get some automatic dev links to be created in solaris, and as with everything else that I have encountered under this OS, it is being extremely painful.
I can say one thing for Solaris 10, and that is that the JDE look great. (although it doesn't have links to the apps that I installed, and is missing the SMC). Visually wise it is nicer looking than some other windowing environments I have seen, as is much better looking than CDE
nachum