migration from Solaris 9/GNOME 2.0 to Solaris 10/JDS 3
Hi,
I am not sure whether this is an appropriate forum to post this question
but I first tried the "Sun Java Desktop System Support Forums" but was t
old that they do not cover the Sun supplied JDS .
We are in the process to migrate our workstations from Solaris 9/Gnome 2.0
to Solaris 10 with JDS 3. There are some migration issues which came
up after the first trial installations. So far I could not find any solutions to
them.
Many of our users currently have a panel with various launchers on the
top of the screen. This panel disappears when a user logs in under
JDS 3. Is there a way to migrate these panels so that they appear
under JDS3 in the same way as under GNOME 2.0?
The workspace configuration is lost when moving from GNOME 2.0
to JDS 3.0. The number of workspaces is reset to 4 and the names
vanish. Can this configuration be copied over to JDS 3?
Many thanks for any hints.
Regards,
Matthias Ernst
# 1
Hi Matthias,
I've just closed a call with Sun UK on issues with JDS3 on Solaris 10 Sparc. They said that JDS3 is beta software (i could'nt find a single reference anywhere to it being beta) and there is currently no support available for it (i.e. it'll be a few months before they fix any problems with it). CDE is supported on Solaris 10, and GNOME 2.0.2 is supported in Solaris 9. I'd recommend against deploying Solaris 10 with JDS3 at present for users desktops as you're stuck with bugs for the time being.
# 2
I too was wondering about JDS3 specifics. That's good information. Thanks.
# 3
Personally I think JDS3 is a bit awkward and certainly not as nice to use as Gnome2. I was disappointed to see the CDE apps menu has disappeared too, I had to figure out where certain apps are on the HDD, something I never thought to do in the past. Specifically I was looking for SMC, which I eventually found in /usr/sadm/bin/smc.
I was under the impression from Sun's own documentation, that Gnome would be the replacement for CDE, I figured they'd included it with latter Solaris9 installs as a stop gap. I also noticed that when I installed Solaris10, I saw a message box mention KDE a few times so I expected to see an option for KDE as well. Dunno if it's hidden away somewhere but I'd sure like to know what it was all about.
# 4
Thanks for the information. I think this is bad news. I really pushed hard for my users to migrate to GNOME on Solaris 9 and not use CDE anymore. I will probably also open a service call with Sun and see what they tell me. Did you find real bugs they are unwilling to fix or is it just incompatibility issues? I only installed a test machine so far and have used it only remotely. I was planning to upgrading my workstation soon to try the JDS stuff in more detail. Maybe I will wait a little longer and see what patches appear for Solaris 10.
Regards,
Matthias
# 5
> Personally I think JDS3 is a bit awkward and
> certainly not as nice to use as Gnome2. I was
> disappointed to see the CDE apps menu has disappeared
> too, I had to figure out where certain apps are on
> the HDD, something I never thought to do in the past.
> Specifically I was looking for SMC, which I
> eventually found in /usr/sadm/bin/smc.
>
> I was under the impression from Sun's own
> documentation, that Gnome would be the replacement
> for CDE, I figured they'd included it with latter
> Solaris9 installs as a stop gap. I also noticed that
> when I installed Solaris10, I saw a message box
> mention KDE a few times so I expected to see an
> option for KDE as well. Dunno if it's hidden away
> somewhere but I'd sure like to know what it was all
> about.
I wonder whether one can get rid of some of the JDS stuff and just use the GNOME part. I never understood why so many of the desktop environments try to immitate Windows even to the extent that there is a launch (aka start) button.
Matthias
# 6
> I wonder whether one can get rid of some of the JDS
> stuff and just use the GNOME part. I never understood
> why so many of the desktop environments try to
> immitate Windows even to the extent that there is a
> launch (aka start) button.
Personally I like the interface to Windows. I don't like the unreliability etc and the lack of any real supported command line. I think that Microsoft spend a lot more than any other OS manufacturer on interface design and I think credit where credit's due, it's an easy to use GUI that deserves to be acknowledged as such. Just because I don't like the rest of it, I'm not going to bad-mouth the interface. I think it's a compliment to the design that other designers feel the need to copy it. Personally I HATE CDE with a passion and I'll be glad to see the back of it!
# 7
I agree that Windows and OSX still have the cleanest interfaces. I never liked the GNOME interface, and could never figure out why they had to make the menu system so awkward (they could learn from CDE's dtwmrc, simplicity is best).
I gave up on JDS3 altogether as Sun can't be bothered to fix it, and are even telling people with Sun software contracts that JDS3 is not supported. Can't figure out why they would break GNOME functionality in JDS3 and then not support it when people want to know how to restore the missing functionality.
I personally started using GNOME 2.8 from the Blastwave site so i could use Solaris 10 as a desktop system, which works better and has the CDE integration working also.
We have cancelled the rest of our Solaris 10 desktop deployement (only on servers now) as there is no point in putting in all that work for little return and we're looking to migrate to Redhat 4 instead, i don't miss JDS3 one bit in Linux land.
# 8
advfab: It appears that someone from Sun gave you incorrect information. I hope you didn't make the redhat decision based on this incorrect information. JDS3 is a supported part of Solaris 10. If you have a bug or RFE, please raise it through your normal support channels.
bnitz at 2007-7-5 19:41:00 >
# 9
I think I see the source of the confusion. A JDS3 release based on SuSE linux was in beta earlier this year but JDS3 was also the name of the customized desktop already integrated into Solaris 10.Development of JDS is continuing with more focus on Solaris.
We would appreciate appreciate hearing what customers are looking for so here is an opensolaris forum specifically focused on discussion of Solaris desktop issues:
http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/forum.jspa?forumID=39
I'm looking forward to seeing you there!
bnitz at 2007-7-5 19:41:00 >
