Solaris Dual Boot Pre-install [PSARC/2008/200 FastTrack timeout 03/24/2008]

[David Chieu]

I am sponsoring this FastTrack for Sean Feole and Shidokht Yadegari.



Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.64 07/13/07 SMI
This information is Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems
1. Introduction
    1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
	 Solaris Dual Boot Pre-install
    1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
	 Author:  Sean Feole
    1.3  Date of This Document:
	17 March, 2008

4. Technical Description

4.1 Background:

Preinstall refers to the image factory uses for having Solaris
installed on a system prior to shipment. GDG group is the group responsible for
creating "preinstall" images. Preinstall images usually have gone through a
customization process for example to have additional products (such as
Sun Studio 12, Java Studio Creator 2.1) bundled with them.

Systems are currently pre-installed with Solaris 10 Update 4. GDG group is
planning to install SXDE along with S10 Update due to following reasons:

a) Provides a simple method for customers to access and evaluate Solaris
   Express enhancements
b) Increases exposure of the latest features of Solaris
c) Accelerates adoption of future Solaris releases
d) Reinforces Sun's standing as an innovator in systems development.

The first shipments targets URSA (Sun Ultra 24) platforms. However it may
expand further to other platforms in future. The plan also may expand to
have Indiana instead of SXDE as second Solaris boot environment when
feasible.

The preinstall image will include two Boot Environments, S10 Update and SXDE,
each occupying a different slice on the disk. By default S10 Update Boot
Environment (BE) is active.

4.2 Proposal:

To further facilitate choosing the preferred boot environment and allowing
removal of the alternate boot environment, upon first login as root at
GNOME/CDE screen, an interactive script will be launched.

The script will inquire about the following:

a) Whether the user want to make the alternate BE be the default BE
   if so, the alternate BE will become the default boot environment
   and system reboots into it.

b) Whether the user wants to delete the alternate BE from the system.
   if so, the user will be prompted for a mount point name
   to be reclaimed for the slice occupying the alternate BE.

Alternate BE is the one the system did not boot from when the script is run.
So when booted under S10Update, alternate BE is SXDE and vice versa.
The script will be printing explicit versioning info about alternate BE.

Regardless of the choice the user makes, a detailed text file will be included
on the Desktop of each OS. This text file describes how the dual Solaris boot
environment is administered in the event that the user wants to manually switch
his OS using a terminal window or add other modifications to the build 
environments.

The dualboot.pdf document in case material includes a step by step guideline on
how to create this image, and includes details on the script and the user
experience.

This script is not part of any consolidations and will be stored in GDG
collection of source control. Source control is a private network that would
be only accessible to those who have access to GDG work group.

4.3 Notes:
On X86/64 systems, when having multiple Solaris Boot environments, GRUB menu
will include both BE's as options to boot from. Choosing one does not
change the default boot OS for next reboots. Also both BE's need to be using
newboot, or else only the active BE is bootable, and an luactive is necessary
for the other BE to be bootable.


6. Resources and Schedule
    6.4. Steering Committee requested information
   	6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
		N/A
    6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
    6.6. ARC Exposure: open