Help wanted with installing Solaris Express (2/07) on x64
Folks'es,
before I go and drown my desperation in whatever, I give it a last try in this forum. Here is what my troubles are:
I have a DELL E521, with AMD X2 5600, 4GB RAM, 500GB Disk, ATI Radeon X1300 Graphiccard with 256 MB.
It is currently running Vista Business x64.
All is well with this and it runs like heck. In order to utilize the performance better I thought about installing Solaris Express Developer Edition (2/07) as an alternative system and create a dual-boot setup.
Here is what I did:
1. I created a free disk partition for Solaris (150 GB)
2. I boot from the Solaris DVD and follow the installation steps
3. the installation goes through without error
4. but it can't seem to get the right video settings an keeps showing a wrong resolution/sync values.
5. I can boot Solaris ok and it runs, except for the display and network settings. I dunno what else to try (I tried xorgcfg, Xorg -config, etc).
But this is not the main problem: when I boot I get the GRUB menu to select between Solaris and Windoze, but when I try to boot Vista it is corrupted and can't be repaired. All I can do, is to restore the whole PC with Vista, which then of course looses my Solaris install/GRUB.
I have done this whole procedure now umteen times with all sort of different options, but none helped.
So pls help me with some pointers as to how to proceed! I'll give you as many Duke's as you like :)
thanx,
thomas
[1515 byte] By [
kloebera] at [2007-11-27 7:40:03]
# 1
Hi,
Some more data might be in order, for instance; what did you use to create the free disk partition for Solaris? Though that might not really matter, it would show if qt_parted or gparted or whatever is able to use your graphics.
The Dell bios may have something to do with it as well, might want to check any video settings in there.
Do you have a copy of W2K? It might be easier to install W2K, resize the disk and partition it for Solaris, then when all is said and done. Upgrade to Vista. (I don't know, I don't have Vista)
If I were a betting man, I would bet that after you set your partition, you didn't let Windows do its thing again. I.e. Block checking or scan, whatever it wants. For me, I let Windows do it three times.
I took a laptop running Windows XP Pro; first I did all the updates, then defraged, then ran check disk with both the Autofix and bad sector box checked. After that, I used gparted to downsize the Windows partiton, taking care that I let Windows have at least 25% extra space than what its using. (Get that, if Windows is using 20gb of space, I resize no less than 25gb.)
Immediatly after I resize, I then take out the gparted disk and let Windows boot again, I let it do the check scan. When it is finished I reboot with the gparted disk in the drive.
Now I commit the partiton for Solaris, you know, take what was left over from the Windows downsizing. Immediatly after I set up the partition for Solaris, I stop gparted and reboot to Windows AGAIN. I let Windows do its Check scan, then when it is done. I reboot with the Solaris disk in the cdrom.
So Windows should run its Check disk thing, 3 times. Once when you do it after doing all the windows updates and defraging. Second after you resize the windows partition, then Third when you commit the Solaris partition.
I don't know if you used Partiton magic, or qt_parted or what...I had the best luck using the latest gparted, live cd. It runs almost identical to qt_parted. TAKE NOTE, if you can't see the graphics while using gparted, then you may not see graphics with your Solaris install.
One last thing, I would suggest downloading the latest Express Developers Edition and using it. It may have drivers that work better with your particular video setup.
Have fun,
Chooch
# 3
just for the record, a reply I got from Ian Collins on www.opensolaris.org:
> Vista doesn't like to play with other operating systems, have a read of
>
> http://blogs.sun.com/moinakg/entry/vista_and_solaris_express_dual
>
> Ian
so'll give up for now, until some one give me some better advice :(
thomas
