[desktop-discuss] new user, a few questions (sun update manager, software management)

[Alan Coopersmith]

Abram Olson wrote:
> Hello, I just installed the Solaris Express Community Edition on my
> workstation. I've run into a few snags and I have a few questions.
> 
> bash-3.2$ uname -a
> SunOS dagney 5.11 snv_78 i86pc i386 i86pc
> 
> I have an nvidia 7800gt graphics card and the graphical installer went
> corrupt after a few minutes and then locked up shortly after that. So
> I used the text installer.
> 
> I've been trying to run the sun updater for about 30 minutes now and
> it's just sitting there doing nothing. There is very little network
> activity but both cpu's in the machine are making very nice sine wave
> pattern as they move from 0 to 100% usage and back. Is this normal?

Updates are only pushed into the repositories used by the Sun Updater
for finished/fully-released products like Solaris 8, 9, & 10, or Sun
Studio 12 - not for under-development snapshot releases like Solaris
Express, so it's normal for it to not find any updates on SXCE.

> My big question though is, software management. How do I find out
> whats installed on the system? How do I install new software? I've
> been using debian for a few years now. That might help you to
> understand where I'm coming from. I can't seem to find a basic
> introduction to the concepts and tools used in solaris to manage
> software.

In SXCE, the packaging tools are pkgadd, pkginfo, etc. - there's man
pages for them and a manual in http://docs.sun.com.   However, these
only manage the packages installed on the current system - there's
no connection to any repository to pull down more packages.

For something more like apt-get, the blastwave project [1] provides pkg-get,
a wrapper around pkgadd/pkginfo/etc. that pulls add-on packages from
their repository, and the Image Packaging System [2] under development for
OpenSolaris provides a replacement packaging system with repository
support built in.

[1] http://www.blastwave.org/
[2] http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/pkg/

-- 
     -Alan Coopersmith-           alan.coopersmith at sun.com
      Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering