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Installation of Solaris 7 on Sparc platform

These install instructions are a bit outdated, but there's still some good information here that I'd like to keep on hand. Send any questions or comments my way.

Source: Our good friends at Berkeley

  1. Boot the computer from the CD-ROM labeled Solaris 7 Software. You might need to STOP-A to get to an 'Ok' prompt; from the 'Ok' prompt enter 'boot cdrom'. It may take several minutes(10-30 depending on the machine) to boot from the CD-ROM; eventually OpenWindows will start ...
  2. The first window lets you select languages and locales. Do not select the defaults; instead select 'English' and 'USA (ISO8859-1)'. Note that we recommend 'USA (ISO8859-1)', not 'USA (ascii)'!
  3. Click CONTINUE twice to get past the next two windows, then enter this machine's short host name. I.e enter 'sunland', not 'sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov'. (If you enter the long name, NIS gets confused; if you enter the short name, sendmail gets confused. Sun recommends entering the short name). The next windows are self-explanatory. Networked? YES.
  4. Select NONE at the 'Name Service' window. Although we use NIS, we prefer to configure that manually after the OS has been installed.
  5. If the system is part of a subnet, enter the subnet mask.
  6. Select the time zone. We usually select by Geographic Region. Region US, timezone EASTERN, CONTINUE.
  7. Eventually you'll get to the screen that asks you to select whether this is an upgrade or an initial install. Always select INITIAL, even if it's actually an upgrade.
  8. Normally we do not allocate space for diskless clients and/or AutoClient systems. Select CONTINUE.
  9. Normally we do not select any additional languages. Select CONTINUE.
  10. Select 'Entire Distribution'. If you're on an Ultra Sparc, select 'Include Solaris 64 Bit Support'.
  11. Select which disks you want to install onto, then select AUTO LAYOUT.
  12. You will be given a list of file systems, make sure that '/', '/usr', '/var', 'swap' are selected and if you are going to load Answer-Books, add '/opt' as well. Then click CONTINUE.
  13. At the 'File System and Disk Layout' window click CUSTOMIZE.
  14. At the 'Customize Disks' configure the file systems. The following are suggested configurations:
    For disks larger than 1GB:
    '/' -- 60MB
    '/var' -- 100MB
    'swap' -- 256MB (or twice RAM, whichever is larger)
    '/usr' -- 720MB
    '/export' -- whatever's left
    For ~1GB disks (we don't recommend squeazing Solaris onto anything smaller):
    '/' -- 120MB
    'swap' -- 256MB
    '/usr' -- whatever's left (at least 620MB)
  15. No, we don't want to mount software from a remote file server. Click CONTINUE at this window.
  16. At the 'Profile' window, elect 'Begin Installation' and Select 'Auto Reboot'.
  17. Get lunch or something - this will take a while.
  18. When the machine reboots, it will ask for the root password. Enter the root password.
  19. A long message will come up asking if want to allow your system to auto shutdown after 30 minutes. At the [y,n,?] prompt, enter 'n'.
  20. Should system save answer ... [y,n,?] enter 'y'.
  21. Log in as root. Type eject in a terminal window to eject the CD-ROM. We select CDE and set desktop options now (i.e., we like 'Point In Window To Make Active' and we hate 'Raise Window When Made Active'; we like 'Return to Home session' and we like the 'Logout Confirmation Dialog' to be off).