Mailing List Archive: OT: From gentoo to Solaris

OT: From gentoo to Solaris

gentuxx at gmail

Oct 7, 2006, 2:59 PM

Post #1 of 9 (3148 views)

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Hi All,

I have an Ultra5 that I was running gentoo on (quite happily I might
add). But a recent project requires that I switch it to Solaris
(preferably 10, but 9 would work too).

I'm running into an issue where the installer doesn't recognize the
drive layout of the "big" drive I have in there now. Is there a way
with the gentoo-sparc InstallCD that I can reset the CHS settings in the
partition map to something the (uber-picky) Solaris install script would
recognize?

If you feel this is too off-topic for this list, feel free to contact me
off-list. I'm just hoping that one sparc-monkeys here will have enough
Solaris experience to be able to help.

TIA!

P.S. I've tried updating the OBP, but have had "challenges" there as
well. If anyone knows how to do this from a CD or from the network (I
know *dangerous*!), I'd appreciate some tips.
- --
gentux
echo "hfouvyyAhnbjm/dpn" | perl -pe 's/(.)/chr(ord($1)-1)/ge'

gentux's gpg fingerprint ==> 5495 0388 67FF 0B89 1239 D840 4CF0 39E2
18D3 4A9E
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Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

agaffney at gentoo

Oct 7, 2006, 4:40 PM

Post #2 of 9 (3089 views)

gentuxx wrote:
> I'm running into an issue where the installer doesn't recognize the
> drive layout of the "big" drive I have in there now. Is there a way
> with the gentoo-sparc InstallCD that I can reset the CHS settings in the
> partition map to something the (uber-picky) Solaris install script would
> recognize?

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

Running that from the Gentoo CD will clear off the disklabel created by fdisk.
Then the Solaris installer can choose whatever settings it wants for the drive.

--
Andrew Gaffney http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
Gentoo Linux Developer Installer Project
Today's lesson in political correctness: "Go asphyxiate on a phallus"
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

hgreig at bigpond

Oct 7, 2006, 5:38 PM

Post #3 of 9 (3094 views)

On Sunday 08 October 2006 09:40, Andrew Gaffney wrote:
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
>
> Running that from the Gentoo CD will clear off the disklabel created by
> fdisk. Then the Solaris installer can choose whatever settings it wants for
> the drive.

To be clear on this, solaris will then right a new partition table and all
your data will be lost.

If you aren't fussed about losing all the data then just run 'format' from the
solaris console window after the installer craps out recognising disks and
slices.

Hamish
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

gentuxx at gmail

Oct 7, 2006, 7:29 PM

Post #4 of 9 (3095 views)

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Andrew Gaffney wrote:
> gentuxx wrote:
>> I'm running into an issue where the installer doesn't recognize the
>> drive layout of the "big" drive I have in there now. Is there a way
>> with the gentoo-sparc InstallCD that I can reset the CHS settings in the
>> partition map to something the (uber-picky) Solaris install script would
>> recognize?
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
>

I've tried this, except I think I used "bs=1024". Still no joy.

> Running that from the Gentoo CD will clear off the disklabel created by
> fdisk. Then the Solaris installer can choose whatever settings it wants
> for the drive.
>

- --
gentux
echo "hfouvyyAhnbjm/dpn" | perl -pe 's/(.)/chr(ord($1)-1)/ge'

gentux's gpg fingerprint ==> 5495 0388 67FF 0B89 1239 D840 4CF0 39E2
18D3 4A9E
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Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

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=UE1b
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

kumba at gentoo

Oct 7, 2006, 11:01 PM

Post #5 of 9 (3096 views)

gentuxx wrote:
>
> I've tried this, except I think I used "bs=1024". Still no joy.

Drop the bs= and count= bits, and let dd overwrite the entire drive with 0's
until it runs out of space. Might take a few hours, so pop a movie into the DVD
player and kick back while dd wages a scorched earth campaign on the drive.

If Solaris refuses to work even after that, then it's broke, and it will just
further prove that Linux is superior, for t3h win.

--Kumba

--
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." --Elrond
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

kyphros at gmail

Oct 9, 2006, 11:36 AM

Post #6 of 9 (3098 views)

On 10/7/06, gentuxx <gentuxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have an Ultra5 that I was running gentoo on (quite happily I might
> add). But a recent project requires that I switch it to Solaris
> (preferably 10, but 9 would work too).
>
> I'm running into an issue where the installer doesn't recognize the
> drive layout of the "big" drive I have in there now. Is there a way
> with the gentoo-sparc InstallCD that I can reset the CHS settings in the
> partition map to something the (uber-picky) Solaris install script would
> recognize?
>

What size is the drive? If it's over about 130GB, you could be running
into a problem with the archaic IDE controller on that Ultra 5.

Mike
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

gentuxx at gmail

Oct 13, 2006, 3:12 PM

Post #7 of 9 (3098 views)

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Mike Owen wrote:
> On 10/7/06, gentuxx <gentuxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have an Ultra5 that I was running gentoo on (quite happily I might
>> add). But a recent project requires that I switch it to Solaris
>> (preferably 10, but 9 would work too).
>>
>> I'm running into an issue where the installer doesn't recognize the
>> drive layout of the "big" drive I have in there now. Is there a way
>> with the gentoo-sparc InstallCD that I can reset the CHS settings in the
>> partition map to something the (uber-picky) Solaris install script would
>> recognize?
>>
>
> What size is the drive? If it's over about 130GB, you could be running
> into a problem with the archaic IDE controller on that Ultra 5.
>
>
> Mike

It's 120GB. Solaris "sees" 114GB.

- --
gentux
echo "hfouvyyAhnbjm/dpn" | perl -pe 's/(.)/chr(ord($1)-1)/ge'

gentux's gpg fingerprint ==> 5495 0388 67FF 0B89 1239 D840 4CF0 39E2
18D3 4A9E
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

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=otK9
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

gentuxx at gmail

Oct 13, 2006, 3:14 PM

Post #8 of 9 (3096 views)

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Kumba wrote:
> gentuxx wrote:
>>
>> I've tried this, except I think I used "bs=1024". Still no joy.
>
> Drop the bs= and count= bits, and let dd overwrite the entire drive with
> 0's until it runs out of space. Might take a few hours, so pop a movie
> into the DVD player and kick back while dd wages a scorched earth
> campaign on the drive.
>
> If Solaris refuses to work even after that, then it's broke, and it will
> just further prove that Linux is superior, for t3h win.
>
>
> --Kumba
>

Thanks to all who replied! This is what worked. When I did the Solaris
installation, I got an error when it tried to write the VTOC, but then
it was able to successfully create the file systems!

Thanks again! Yay! =D

- --
gentux
echo "hfouvyyAhnbjm/dpn" | perl -pe 's/(.)/chr(ord($1)-1)/ge'

gentux's gpg fingerprint ==> 5495 0388 67FF 0B89 1239 D840 4CF0 39E2
18D3 4A9E
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFFMA/KTPA54hjTSp4RAiGbAKCaXf6heJuZpciSNfIX0VC/9NwafgCePt/v
qtkklVhvZj4o2XYvnYzrZ+o=
=/tJ4
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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Re: OT: From gentoo to Solaris [ In reply to ]

heinlein at madboa

Oct 13, 2006, 3:42 PM

Post #9 of 9 (3097 views)

On Fri, 13 Oct 2006, gentuxx wrote:

> > What size is the drive? If it's over about 130GB, you could be
> > running into a problem with the archaic IDE controller on that
> > Ultra 5.
>
> It's 120GB. Solaris "sees" 114GB.

It's the old question: is a "megabyte" 2^20 bytes or 10^6 bytes?
Marketers like base 10 because they can report bigger megabyte counts
on their hard drives, but many engineers still see everything in base
2.

Hard drives, even in sizes greater than 100G, are still measured in
megabytes. So a drive with 1200 base-10 megabytes (120G) only counts
as 1144 base-2 megabytes (114G).

(1200*(10^6))/(2^20) = 1144

The disparity is even wider if you do battle at the next level up: is
a gigabyte 2^30 or 10^9? In that case, the 120G HD is only 111G:

(120*(10^9))/(2^30) = 111

Reminds me of Tom Lehrer's semi-classic "New Math":

Now, that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because
the book that I got this problem out of wants you to do it in
base eight. But don't panic! Base eight is just like base ten
really - if you're missing two fingers! Shall we have a go at
it? Hang on...

--
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein@madboa.com <> www.madboa.com
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