Can't get OpenSolaris to install using SATA controller

[jazzman007]

Hi All,

After hours of watching OpenSolaris 2008.05 reinstall over and over again, I'm just flat stuck. The host is Vista Ultimate x64, and I'm using the newly release VirtualBox 1.6.2. I'm fairly certain I've got everything installed fine...it was a piece of cake to setup Ubuntu 8.04 and Server 2008 guests.

Essentially what I'm trying to accomplish is setup an OpenSolaris guest to play around with the capabilities of ZFS. Since this is more or less practice for building a physical server, I want to use the SATA controller for all the drives. I've got 1 boot drive and 3 identically sized drives for storage. I've tried almost every combination of the advanced options. I always get one of the following errors:

Once this error shows up, the vm is hung and all I can do is close it. VirtualBox isn't hung, since it responds to closing the vm. I've seent his one the most.


The next most common error is the same as above, but it only gets as far as the 'Use is subject to license terms' before it hangs. Both this error and the previous one max out one of the host cores.

Then this one I've only seen once on my most recent attempt. The difference here is that I re-downloaded the iso image, burned it to a disc, and used the physical media to install from. (Note: I've verified the MD5 hash on the image)


I was able to get OpenSolaris to install on the SATA controller using VirtualBox 1.6.0...but A) every time I touched the VirtualBox GUI it messed up the hard drives and B) I couldn't get the host networking to work. About the only thing I haven't tried is using VBoxManage to setup the vm.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
John

[revertex]

I have a similar error installing opensolaris in my debain box, but it seems not disk controller related but bios related.

opensolaris install fine no matter if i choose ide or sata, but after installed i cannot boot.

With acpi enabled, i get these errors, and with acpi disabled, it install without errors, but cannot boot after installed.

I will still try another setup to see if i can install.

[kebabbert]

If you want to experiment with ZFS, then you should just install it and not bother with minor details such as SATA. Have you tried to make a normal install? Solaris can be picky about SATA support. If SATA doesnt work in VB, it could work on the real hardware still.

If opensolaris doesnt install, you can download and try Solaris Express Community Edition (SXCE) instead. OpenSolaris is built upon SXCE build nr 60 or so.

Know that this is the first version of a totally new dist OpenSolaris and can be a bit buggy. Try SXCE until the next version of OpenSolaris comes (which is build upon SXCE build 93)

[SamCN2]

OpenSolaris is built upon SXCE build nr 60 or so.

OpenSolaris is built upon b86, with updates to b91 available.

Also, the standard SXCE install often fails on VBox. It's *very* memory intensive. The OpenSolaris install, is basically a copy from the liveCD. The SXCE install is pretty much the Solaris 10 enterprise install, running java-based installers from memory, etc.

What I've been doing is just booting the CD image, and then using the /net/server/ path prefix to get to my dev directories on the server. I've arranged that all the necessary dev tools are available there as well. Pretty much works fine. I've got one "boot" script that I run on each system.

[PuNkErX]

I have had that same GRUB menu issue with VMWare Fusion.
This is what I used to fix it, I don't have a VirtualBox VM created yet to test it though.

1. Boot to the Solaris install disc.
2. At the one area instead of selecting the install, etc. choose Single User Mode.
3. When it asks about mounting the volume, select y
- It should mount the volume under /a.
4. Just to verify which disk you are using I type the command "format" then I ctrl+c out of it.
5. I type the next command:
installgrub /a/boot/grub/stage1 /a/boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
- Depending on what the output was on "format" the c0t0d0s0 may be different.
- So for example my format command is:

# format
Searching for disks...done


AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c1t0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 2607 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci15ad,1976@10/sd@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number): ^C

- So the command I would run to fix it would be:

installgrub /a/boot/grub/stage1 /a/boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0

- Don't forget to put the s0 at the end.

This worked for me, I haven't tried it with a UFS filesystem, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Good luck!

[nnnnnk]

Yes. PuNkErX is right.

To fix problem it' enough to reinstall grub.

I have booted from live cd in console mode, and then typed as root:

zpool import
// remember cXtXdXsX from output
zpool import -f rpool
mkdir /a
zfs set mountpoint=legacy rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
mount -F zfs rpool/ROOT/opensolaris /a
cd /a/boot/grub
installgrub stage1 stage2 /dev/rdsk/cXtXdXsX
reboot

That's all, and now it works

Regards,
Nick.