[indiana-discuss] scope (was Re: ZFS to the max)

[Doug Scott]

Daniel,
   Thanks for the feedback, what you have encountered is something 
hopefully will address in this project.
My comments are in-line

Daniel Griffith wrote:
> On 7/2/07, Moinak Ghosh <Moinak.Ghosh at sun.com> wrote:
>   
>> Daniel Griffith wrote:
>>     
>>> Using Solaris for the last few weeks has felt like travelling back in
>>> time
>>>       
>>    It would help if you elaborated on the issues you faced. If nothing else
>>    it'd assist the Indiana cause :)
>>     
>
> Yeah, I should have kept a diary – no maybe not because I probably
> would have thrown it out of a window or hit someone with it:)
>
> Where do I start?
>
> OK, first drivers. I was expecting issues and have no problems with
> the idea that choice of components depends on what drivers are
> available for Solaris – but I have major issues with Solaris drivers
> only working with certain versions of hardware firmware.
>
> I used a first generation Asus NForce 4 board. My first attempt at an
> install was of Solaris 10. Neither the included networking driver or
> Silicon Image driver worked. The solution was to use the latest
> version of Solaris Express and hack together a new bios for the
> machine with the latest 3114 firmware.
>   
Yes, Solaris Express does have better driver support than Solaris 10. I 
had similar problems installing Solaris 10 previously. If you are only 
wanting to try out the features of Solaris, and not install into 
production, then Solaris Express maybe a better choice.

> So much for the "super reliable UNIX" when it is running on a machine
> with a homebrew bios:)
>
> Anyway, at least I had a working install.
>
> I had an immediate problem, at no point during the install process did
> I seem to get the option to create a user account, so after the
> install finished as you can't ssh in as root how the heck are you
> expected to get into the box????
>   
Solaris is installed such that root access is denied via ssh. To get 
around this, login as root on the console and create a user account. You 
then can ssh into the user account and then su into root.

> Grr go to pull it out of the rack and fit a monitor:(
>   
> That's an example of the continual little niggles I got while trying
> to use Solaris that you really wouldn't expect from a mature
> distribution – but hey maybe that particular problem is just an
> Express issue...
>   
A normal user account 'should' be created as part of the installation 
process. This is coming as part of the project to rewrite the installer.

> Then I got hit by the well known issues of missing applications and
> the ones that are there behaving in unexpected ways:) The missing
> /root and  finding out where the heck things like wget had been
> banished to. Then the pain really started – after a smooth setup of a
> RaidZ, I tried to get samba running...
>   
I have recently got into the practice of using /root rather than /. This 
again I think is addressed the the project to rewrite the new installer.

> OK, I know about the history of Solaris and System V – but why the
> heck has Gentoo got a better implementation than Solaris???  The whole
> services mechanism in Solaris needs re-examining, I'm starting to get
> that the Solaris mentality is "if it ain't (completely) broke, don't
> fix it":)
>   
Init.d scripts are deprecated on Solaris nowdays. I think there are some 
SMF manifest files for samba on the net. Just try a search for "smf" and 
"samba". (SMF leaves Linux/Solaris/whoever init.d for dead)

> It needs taking out back and shooting:) Looking online, it seems that
> most peoples solution to use samba with Solaris 10 is to create their
> _own_ init.d scripts – huh??? And then don't get me started on webmin
> which can be enabled via svcadm and yet won't start until you manually
> run an init script!!! That's the kind of thing that you forgive on a
> Linux distribution made by one student and his dog to run ripped DVD's
> on a Xbox, but not from a commercial OS:(
>
> For me Solaris as it is, is a major time sink – things that you expect
> to be simple aren't, things that surely should work don't, and things
> that you hoped were lost in the history of computing come back to bite
> you on the bum!
>   
Actually, I think the same of every Linux box when I use one :) A some 
sort of middle ground should be at least created to the day to day stuff.

> On the bright side:
> The numbering system for drives – initially confusing but has a huge
> advantage over the /dev/sda idea of Linux – remove a drive from a
> Linux box that also includes drives with software raid and watch in
> horror as your drives are renamed:)
> ZFS does what it says on the tin:) Nice:)
>
> But I could use FreeBSD with ZFS and avoid the headaches above, so why
> would the world rush to use Indiana if it is just Solaris on a CD –
> which is what some people here want.
>   

Hopefully, people will come around someday. Any form of change (for 
people) is difficult....

Doug