Linux Articles

Installing OpenSolaris - Indiana Developer Preview! Indiana is a Live CD distribution, based on the OpenSolaris source code, which tries to make the installation experience easier, to modernize the look and feel of OpenSolaris on the desktop, and to introduce a network-based package management system into Solaris. It will also have the capability for developers to create their own customized distribution. The following are some of the most important features of the Indiana project:

· Single CD download, with LiveCD 'try before you install' capabilities
· Caiman installer, with significantly improved installation experience
· ZFS as the default filesystem
· Image packaging system, with capabilities to pull packages from network repositories
· GNU utilities in the default $PATH
· bash as the default shell
· GNOME 2.20 desktop environment

The first official release will be available in Spring 2008. Until then, here are installation instructions:

Download the ISO image from here, burn it with your favorite CD/DVD burning software, reboot your PC and boot from the CD/DVD-ROM device. Hit enter when GRUB appears:

Wait for the CD to load...

Choose the desired keyboard layout (default is US English) and wait for the GNOME desktop to appear:

Double click the Install OpenSolaris icon and hit the Next button when the installation wizard appears:

Select "Use the whole disk" option on the next screen. Remember that this will ERASE the whole hard drive! You have been warned!.

Select your time zone, date and time:

Now, you can input a root (System Administrator) password and create a user account for yourself:

Review your installation settings and hit the Install button to install OpenSolaris:

Wait for the installation process to finish and reboot your computer! The system will restart and you'll see the OpenSolaris log-in prompt in a few seconds, enter the username and password you have created earlier and enjoy a nice and fast Solaris operating system.

By: Marius Nestor, Linux Editor

OpenSolaris 2008.5 Installation Guide - Step-by-step, with screenshots! The final version of the OpenSolaris operating system was released a few days ago and it brings a brand new Image Packaging System (IPS), ZFS as the default filesystem, and DTrace enabled packages so you can keep an eye on everything and squeeze the juice out of your system. The powerful bash shell is one of the GNU utilities that made their way into OpenSolaris 2008.05, and many other tools from the GNU world. The single LiveCD install image will allow you to take a look at the complete operating system in a matter of seconds. If you like what you see, then you can install OpenSolaris 2008.05 on your computer. So, without any further introduction, here are the installation instructions:

Download the ISO image from here, burn it with your favorite CD/DVD burning software, reboot your PC and boot from the CD/DVD-ROM device. Hit the 'Enter' key when GRUB (the boot loader) appears...

Wait for the CD to load...

Choose the desired keyboard layout (default is US English) and wait for the GNOME desktop to appear...

Double click the Install OpenSolaris icon and hit the 'Next' button when the installation wizard appears...

You'll arrive at the partitioning screen. By default, the OpenSolaris installer will let you select a partition and its size (for advanced users only), but I recommend you select the "Use the whole disk" option. Remember that this will ERASE the whole hard drive, therefore it is better to install it on an empty hard disk! You have been warned!.


Select your time zone, date and time...

Set the default language support and locale specific data formats...

Now, you can input a root (System Administrator) password and create a user account for yourself:

Review your installation settings and hit the 'Install' button to install OpenSolaris:

Wait for the installation process to finish...

...and reboot your computer!

The system will restart and you'll see the OpenSolaris log-in prompt in a few seconds, enter the username and password you have created earlier and enjoy a fast and modern Solaris operating system.

By: Marius Nestor, Linux Editor

MilaX 0.3.1 Launched - This release is based on OpenSolaris Nevada 89. MilaX 0.3.1, the latest edition of the operating system formerly known as Damn Small Solaris, was launched yesterday. It is a mini-distribution based on OpenSolaris and was created by Alexander R. Eremin.

MilaX 0.3.1 is based on OpenSolaris Nevada 89 and, if you have a system with more than 512 MB of RAM, the Live image will be mounted directly into the memory, thus allowing you to eject the MilaX LiveCD after the boot-up. This edition brings some real changes, especially on the desktop side. The IceWM window manager was added and JWM (Joe's Window Manager) was removed. The latter is a window manager created by Joe Wingbermuhle, who wrote it in C, and it looks somewhat similar to the interface of Windows 95.

Moving on to system monitors, Conky replaced Torsmo (TyopoytaORvelo System MOnitor). Conky is a lightweight system monitor for X, that displays system information directly on your desktop. The small web browser Dillo was re-included in MilaX 0.3.1. This browser is suitable for older computers and comes with increased security; its first version was released in December 1999.

MilaX comes with Xchat, in case you want to talk on IRC channels, and Xpad for note taking. IFTop, the tool that displays the bandwidth usage on a specified interface, was included in MilaX 0.3.1, so you will easily keep an eye on your network traffic. The Cisco Discovery Protocol Reporter (CDPR) is another useful tool that made its way into this distribution. CDPR can show the switch and port that a machine is connected to (this works only if the device supports CDP).

Two new scripts, Screen Resolution and X Keyboard Layout, and the X-Startup SMF service were also added. As MilaX comes in two versions, desktop and server (without a GUI), you should know that the server edition includes Apache, PHP, Samba and NFS servers, GCC, Lynx and many other applications.

Download MilaX 0.3.1 right now from Softpedia.
By: Daniel Voicu, Linux Editor