Often times, it is challenging to install OS such as any distributions of Linux, but installing Linux has come a long way when compared to RedHat versions 7.x in the olden days. We've experience installing various OSes in the past. The most difficult OSes to install would be the {net||open||free} BSDs from scratch. Bare in mind, Linux distributions had come a long way. With its archaic menu driven installation process with complicated disk partitioning schemes, which perhaps drove some users away from using and learning Linux OS. It was actually worth using a disk utility to partition the disk first before popping in your favorite distro into the DVD drive. Kudos to all Linux OS Communities, who came together and made the installation process simpler with prettified GUI installation steps for all non-hardware experts like myself.
Many of these installation processes for many *nis distros had all been simplified with a click of a button to choose packages, automatic partition your {SSD||spinningDisk}. Many popular Linux distributions can be found here: Distrowatch *nix OSes
One interesting thing about one particular OS, where it has not changed much with its installation system. With its archaic menu installation driven steps and disk naming nomenclature, installing this particular OS is more or less climbing mount Everest.
Success in installing this the first try came in far and wide; second try, a long shot; third, so close......; fourth SUCCESS ! With all its ugliness, we believed this OS is truly designed and made for certain types of hardware in mind.
By default, Solaris 10 is built with low maintenance, stability, long uptime in mind. Installation Solaris 10 or Solaris 11.3 on a typical desktop machine defeat its designed purpose. This OS should really be installed on one of the Sun SunFire server 4U servers. If you are lucky enough to overcome all of the installation steps with the OS up and running. Congrats !
One issue could arise if networking is not chosen properly. There was one incident where DNS was not selected during an installation process and we found ourselves scratching our head as to the reason why 'ping yahoo.com' doesn't work. We then cooked coffee and decided to check a few files, if they existed after this installation process. Luckily, /etc/resolv.conf was missing. We then added the following:
domain YOURDOMAIN
search YOURDOMAIN
nameserver DNSSERVER1
nameserver DNSSERVER2
we then tried one last time to 'ping yahoo.com', still no luck. Make sure that /etc/defaultrouter has your gateway IP address. With more head scratching, we then poked at nsswitch.conf, looked correct at first glance, yet feeling something which was missing there. With some quick browsing, we came across one line where it needed help. Also, there was this one other nsswitch file called, nsswitch.dns in solaris 10, which we would need it to overwrite nsswitch.conf.
The line was missing the word 'dns' at the end of this line.
........
hosts files
........
should be
........
hosts files dns
then:
svcadm restart svc:/system/name-service-cache:default
ping yahoo.com
yahoo.com is alive.
Success !
If you wish to try to install this OS on your desktop, the ISO can be obtained from the following link along with some documentations on how to install Solaris.
download: Solaris 10 Solaris Installation Guide