From caywood@wyvern.wyvern.com Sun Nov 28 19:59:39 EST 1993
Article: 8795 of comp.unix.solaris
Newsgroups: comp.unix.solaris
Path: babbage.ece.uc.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wyvern!caywood
From: caywood@wyvern.wyvern.com (John Caywood)
Subject: Solaris2/x86 FAQ
Message-ID: 
Summary: Frequently-Asked-Questions list for Sunsoft Solaris x86.
Organization: wyvern.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1993 16:31:00 GMT
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Status: RO


Archive-name: Solaris2/x86
Last-modified: 1993/11/28
Version: 2


This is a Frequently-Asked-Questions list (FAQ) for Sunsoft Solaris x86.
The hardware compatibility section has been removed; for the latest
hardware compatibility information, send email to
    x86-hwconfig@cypress.West.Sun.COM

Please submit additional questions and reports of unsupported hardware
that works.  Email comments and questions to
        caywood@wyvern.wyvern.com (John Caywood)

See also:
        Solaris2/FAQ
        Solaris2/Porting
        pc-unix/hardware

  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Table of Contents
  1. The Product
  2. Installation
     A. Supported Hardware
     B. Problems with supported hardware
     C. Installation
  2. Compatibility
     A. Unsupported hardware
     B. Sharing binaries
     C. DOS
     D. Windows
     E. Data
  3. Performance
  4. Archive sites
  5. Other Issues
  6. Acknowledgments
APPENDIX A.  Pioneer DRM-604X CD-ROM Changer
APPENDIX B.  Partitioning a 1.3Gbyte disk
APPENDIX C.  Installing a Parallel PostScript Printer

1. The Product

What is Solaris x86?
 Solaris x86 is an implementation of Sun SPARC Solaris 2.1 on Intel(tm)
 and compatible CPUs, and PC-compatible buses.

What does it include?
 OPEN LOOK Window Manager and DeskSet environment
 End user AnswerBook
 X11 (X11R4) and NeWS(tm) protocol interfaces
 32-bit UNIX(tm) System V Release 4 (SVR4) operating system, with
  multi-threaded kernel and scheduling for realtime processes
 Open Network Computing (ONC) environment with NFS, NIS, and NIS+
 RFS and System 3 file system support optional
 elf binaries; COFF binary support optional
 Berkeley networking software
 UUCP support
 XGL 3.0 libraries and localization
 Header files and math library
 Automated Security Enhancement Tools (ASET)
 (old) nroff and troff (-ms and -me), tbl, eqn
 PostScript support (text and troff to PS; see /usr/lib/lp/postscript)
 4 perfect-bound documents (Release Overview, OW 3.1 User's Guide, Getting
        Started guide, and Configuration and Installation Guide)
 1 spiral-bound Quick Reference Guide
 Unlimited installation support by phone

What is not included?
 No compiler; the GNU C/C++ compiler is available.  See section 4.
 No software support after installation
 No DOS or Windows(tm) utilities (e.g., PC-NFS is not included)
 Administrator's reference guides
 Full AnswerBook

What media are supported?
 The distribution media is CD-ROM.

How much does it cost, and where can I get it?
 Current cost is $695.00 US for a 2-user license, $1750.00 for an
 unlimited user license.  C, C++, Fortran, and TeamWare are also
 listed in the SunExpress catalog.  In the United States, call
 (1-800-USE-SUNX) or your local Sun sales office.  Authorized
 SunSoft distributors in other countries can also sell you the
 product.  See your Sun representative or SunSoft distributor
 for corporate and educational prices, and for volume discounts.

 One U.S. local sales office quoted a price of $420 for 1 year
 of software support.  Upgrade pricing in not yet available.


2. Installation

A. Supported Hardware
 In previous versions of this FAQ, a transcription of the hardware
 requirements and "Tested Systems" list from _Solaris 2.1
 Late Breaking News for x86_, Revision A, June 1993, was included
 here.  Since then, Sun has set up an email distribution of the
 latest hardware compatibility list.  Rather than try to keep up
 with this list, the FAQ maintainer has chosen to post this email
 address instead:
    x86-hwconfig@cypress.West.Sun.COM
 If this email distribution channel is removed in the future, the
 latest list will be restored to this FAQ.

B. Problems with supported hardware
 The _Solaris 2.1 Release Overview for x86_ and other documents assert
 that 2-button mice are supported.  Several messages in comp.unix.solaris
 report problems with 2-button mice.

 The installation program inserts into /usr/openwin/lib/OWconfig the value
        buttons=2
 when you select a 2-button mouse as your pointing device.  One user,
 hope@multix.no (Andreas Hope), writes
  You can try setting "buttons=3" in the /usr/openwin/lib/OWconfig file.
  This simulates a 3rd button when shift-left button is pressed.

 Another noted problem is installation and partitioning of disks with
 more than 1024 cylinders.  usinet!brooks@uunet.UU.NET (Lyle D. Brooks)
 writes: "I tried to partition my 1.3GB disk to have a 300MB DOS 5.0
 disk partition and the rest used for solaris."  A long, detailed
 workaround is attached at the end of this FAQ as Appendix B.

 A problem with a 3C503 Ethernet card was reported by lupe.christoph@cic.de
 (Lupe Christoph):
  I had problems with the 3C503. I only got it to work OK with
  rsize=2048/wsize=2048. The "Late Breaking News" recommended 4096,
  but I had big problems with this. I may also be that the Ethernet
  in my Sun was already a little bad. It gave up it's ghost recently.


C. Installation
 1. CD-ROM installation
 A 3-1/2" and a 5-1/4" floppy are included; to install, you boot from
 one of these floppies and you are presented with a menu of devices
 from which to proceed.  The rest of the installation is supplied only
 on CD-ROM; however, if you have a supported Ethernet card the CD-ROM
 need not be local; see section Network Installation, below.

 After setting time zone, hostname, and other particulars, you indicate the
 devices you have; SCSI devices and Ethernet cards (if supported) are
 recognized automatically.  You indicate the video card, keyboard, mouse,
 and serial ports you have.

 You must then partition the disks.  Any disk or part of a disk can be
 dedicated to Solaris or to DOS; however, the Solaris portion must be
 bootable.

 You can then choose the software packages to install.  The default is
 End User System -- approx. 150M bytes, plus 32M for swap and you've
 squeezed it onto a 200M disk.  The entire distribution is listed as
 282M bytes (plus swap sapce).  After software selection, you must allocate
 "slices" of the Solaris partition(s) to root, swap, /usr, and so forth.
 Transferring the selected software from CD-ROM to disk takes about an
 hour; the entire process will take you about 1-1/2 hours the *second* time
 you do it.  Note: if you plan to install the unbundled C compiler, you
 will need about 100M bytes more in the /opt partition.

 2. Network installation
 Solaris x86 can be installed over the network if the target machine does
 not have a local CD-ROM drive.  The host with the CD-ROM drive can be
 an Solaris x86 host, or a Solaris SPARC host; however, at least one user
 reports that a patch is required for Solaris 2.2 to support this mode,
 because the RPL daemon to support x86 booting is not included with
 Solaris for SPARC.

 richard@West.Sun.COM (Richard M. Mathews) confirms that the patch ID is

 101085-01   SunOS 5.2: Allows SPARC servers to support x86 diskless,
             remote install clients.

 He adds "A similar patch is being prepared for Solaris 2.3.  The rpld
 server will be standard without needing a patch beginning with 2.4."

 Remote installation works well, and if NIS or NIS+ is running, it answers
 many questions for you.  Add the new x86 host to the NIS databases first,
 then install.  However, if the machine on which you are installing has a
 local disk, disk partitioning must still be performed.

 The installation menu also lets you set up a diskless machine.  One user
 reports, "Diskless operation is often slow, unless you have very good
 network cards and/or a fast server. But otherwise it works perfectly."



2. Compatibility

 A. What unsupported hardware works?
 If you have installed "untested" hardware, tell us what it was and what
 you had to do to get it to work.

 System Boards
 >From david@bdt.com
 I've managed to get a 486DLC/40 to work with Solaris. This is a
 no-name clone "upgradable" motherboard with the Opti chipset.
 It is specifically designed to handle the DLC chips and has
 an AMI BIOS that is aware of the CPU.  The only work-arounds
 were that I had fully populate the cache (256K) or the system
 crashed and I had to reduce the speed to 20Mhz for the CD-ROM
 boot/installation.

 Video Cards
 >From david@bdt.com
 I have also managed to get some low-end VLB Cirrus-Logic cards
 to work with Solars and OpenWindows.  Although the system hangs
 if you use the EXIT function of OLWM.  If you just kill the X
 (news) server, you get the console back and it seems to work
 fine.  Performance is pretty good for the money (about $100).

 >From lupe.christoph@cic.de
         SPEA/VideoSeven Mercury VL      (S3 928. Quite fast.)
 Sun has a patch (101295-01) with a pmi file for the Mercury, but this
 stretches my monitor a little far ("only" a NEC 5FG). The SPEA BBS
 (+49 8151 266-241) has a set of pmi files. It should also have files
 for the Vega and Mirage.

 Mice
 >From len@contec.com
 You don't need a supported serial mouse. We've got piles 'o PCs around
 the plant, and I've tried a bunch of mice with x86. The cheapest (and
 also very nice ergonomically) one that worked was a Leadgen MOUSE LE160
 a Taiwanese import that is sold with all of the documentation on the
 back of the cardboard box! Anyhow, switch it to 3-button operation and
 devconfig as if it were a Mouse Systems 3-button mouse and enjoy!

 >From debra@win.tue.nl
 I also have a Taiwanese mouse, called Target, with a switch to select
 2 or 3 button mode, and which works well when I pretend it is a
 Logitech serial mouse.

 Tape drives
 >From J.S.Caywood@LaRC.NASA.GOV
 I have a TEAC MT2ST N50 SCSI tape; uses an audio tape cartridge.  No
 special configuration; ufsdump, ufsrestore, and tar recognize it as
 /dev/rmt/0.  No idea what the best block size is for it, but a ufsdump
 with the "c" option got 142.5M bytes onto a 150M tape, so "c" must be
 close.

 >From debra@info.win.tue.nl
 I managed to open up my PC (without crashing it) and the tape drive
 (which was a gift) reads: 5945 S-1.  The emulex controller reads
 MT0210403.  It's a typical old 60Mb tape drive from a Sun shoe box.
 However, it does not work for non-rewinding writes; i.e. the devices
 /dev/rmt/0*n can read multi-file tapes but not write them.  You get an
 I/O error when attempting to write the second file.

 CD-ROM drives
 >From akalla@Scribona.SE (Jan Akalla)
 Pioneer DRM-604X is a CD-ROM changer with room for 6 CD-ROMS, where
 one CD at a time can be active. It uses SCSI, and each CD has it's
 own LUN (Logical Unix Number) under one SCSI-ID.  Details in Appendix A.

 Other SCSI Peripherals
 >From lupe.christoph@cic.de
 Working SCSI peripherals:
        DEC DSP3210     (3.5" 2 GB disk. *Very* nice.)
        Syquest SQ555   (42MB removable)


B. Binaries
 What about my Sparc binaries?  will they run?
  No.  That would need a full SPARC emulation; Solaris x86 is not an
  *emulation* of SPARC Solaris, it is a port of that software to the
  Intel platform.

 What about SCO(tm) binaries?  386BSD binaries?  Linux binaries?
 >From debra@win.tue.nl
 I have tried Esix binaries, and as long as you stick to normal system calls
 they appear to work just fine.  Binaries that attempt to do strange things
 like access non-existent devices may cause problems.  svr4mon for instance
 doesn't work, XFree86 blocks the console, etc.  Normal stuff like gcc work
 just fine.  Just tested emacs 18.59 with X-windows support and even that
 works.  An important side-effect of this compatibility is that compilers
 for other sVr4 releases should work. (Haven't tried my esix compiler yet
 though.  If you want a non-gnu C-compiler, you can buy one from another
 sVr4 vendor and not suffer from the crazy license server for the Sun
 compiler.

C. DOS
 DOS applications do not run under Solaris x86.  However, you *can* boot
 DOS from a floppy after installing Solaris.  During installation you have
 the option of partitioning a disk into Solaris and non-Solaris pieces,
 with the only restriction that the Solaris partition must be the bootable
 one.  The Solaris partition is further divided into slices from within
 Solaris, and these slices are not visible from DOS.

 DOS floppies can be mounted as type PCFS file systems while running
 Solaris.  You must remember the 8.3 all-upper-case limits of the DOS.

 If during the installation process you split a hard disk between Solaris
 and DOS, you can mount the DOS partition while running Solaris; see
 mount_pcfs(1M).  For example, to mount the DOS C: drive which is on
 the first controller onto /mnt
   mount -F PCFS /dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0:c /mnt
 Better yet, edit /etc/vfstab as db@sunbim.be (Danny Backx) did:
  /dev/diskette:c         -       /A              pcfs    -       no      -
  /dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0:c     -       /C              pcfs    -       yes     -
 He also notes: "There is one gotcha with DOS partitions, though: I tried
 to export it over NFS but could not. Don't know why. Solaris refuses."

 The utilities 'dos2unix' and 'unix2dos' are in /usr/bin to translate
 cr->lf/cr and vice-versa.


D. Windows
 What is Wabi?
  A Windows ABI emulation.  It provides for running pure Windows
  applications under Solaris (SPARC or x86).  It does not provide a DOS
  emulation environment but does have hooks for using a DOS emulator if
  you have one.

  Wabi, a product name, not an acronym, is supposed to be shipped before
  the end of 1993 (November 22 is the latest estimate heard).  Customers 
  purchasing Solaris x86 before the release of WABI will receive a mail-in 
  certificate, and upon returning it to Sun will be eligible for a free
  copy when it is released.

E. Data
 Can I NFS-mount directories from a SPARC?
  Yes.  Text is not a problem, but binary data is.  A binary file stored
  by an x86 and read by a SPARC will see the bytes in the wrong order.
  If this type of sharing is desired the application must either translate
  the data or store it in a canonical form.  This is a generic NFS issue,
  not a "bug" in Solaris x86.  NFS makes no interpretation of the bits
  within a file, it only presents them to the client as-is.

  Users report success with 4.x SPARC, 2.x SPARC, Ultrix 4.2A (Rev. 47)

  Can I share NIS or NIS+ data between Solaris SPARC and Solaris x86?
  Yes.  Solaris x86 works well as an NIS client.  No reports yet on
  its success or failure as an NIS master or slave.
  >From Andreas Hope 
  I have tried both [NFS and NIS] from an ISC SVR3.2 server.  No problems
  except with symlinks over NFS mounted file systems.



3. Performance
 Since there is no standard configuration for Intel platforms, performance
 comparisons will be very difficult.  Factors affecting performance are
 bus (ISA, EISA, or MCA), disk interface (IDE, SCSI), and graphics adapter
 on top of CPU speed.  For example, you may have a 486/50 but experience
 slow Open Windows response because of the limits of your video card.

 >From debra@info.win.tue.nl (Paul De Bra)
I have my own set of tests, which show some interesting results, comparing
different machines unfortunately.

Running sieve test (many times to get non-trivial timing)
AT 486-66       Solaris 2.1      0.5     0.4    0.0
AT 486-50       Esix 4.0.4       0.6     0.5    0.0
AT 386-25       AT&T sVr3.2      3.0     3.0    0.0
This shows that in a compute-bound test performance is similar to that of
other sVr4 implementations.

Running a number of shell scripts (doing standard stuff like od, grep,
etc.)
machine      unix-version    2       5       8       11      13      15
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT 486-50    Esix 4.0.4     1.0     2.5     3.8     5.3     6.0     7.1
AT 386-25    AT&T sVr3.2    2.6     5.4     8.0    10.8    13.0    15.0
AT 486-66    Solaris 2.1    3.0     6.3     9.8    13.1    15.0    17.3

I assume this requires little explanation: Solaris operating system
overhead is *a lot* higher than any other PC-unix.  An old 25Mhz 386 beats
a 66Mhz 486-dx2!

Another way to really notice this is to turn off the 'turbo' switch (slows
down most machines to 10Mhz or so). With Esix this has a limited effect
(for simple interactive work) while with Solaris, the kernel overhead
eats most of the left-over cpu power, so the system becomes very slow.
This is the reason why Solaris is supposed to run only on 386-33 or better.
On a 386-25 there would be little user-mode cpu-time left.


4. Archive sites
 Binaries are avaiable from
        sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/sun-info/solaris-x86
        nic.funet.fi:/pub/unix/386ix/Solaris.x86
	ftp.prz.tu-berlin.de:/pub/Solaris86/gnu
 Sample drivers and driver-related information are available from
	opcom.sun.ca:/pub/drivers


5. Other Issues
 Licensing
  Suppose you have bought a number of licenses of a SPARC application from
  an ISV and then decision to run on Intel too. Will you automatically get
  the Intel binaries, or do you have to pay for them? Will that be ISV
  dependent? What is the most likely way the ISV will handle it?

 Cross-compiling
  Are there any SPARC-Intel cross-compilers to buy?
  A partial answer from db@sunbim.be (Danny Backx):
   I have used the GCC 2.4.5 sources to cross-compile a GCC on Solaris/x86
   starting from a SPARC version.  It was quite some work, but I now have
   a GCC for Solaris/x86 which seems to "kind-of" work.  I threw away the
   cross-compiler, but the good news is GCC allows you to do it, if you
   have an assembler. (GAS doesn't support this yet.)

 Sun and ISV-s applications
  Are all Sun's Solaris-2 products released on Intel? How well covered are
  the ISVs products, i.e. those who have made the Solaris-2 port?
  What third-party packages are available for x86?

 Motif and COSE
  When will Sun supply Motif for x86?  Where can I get Motif now?
  >From locutus.vortech.com!sharyl Mon Oct 25 15:15:56 1993
  Motif for x86 will be available from Sun in April 1994 according to a
  contact at SunSoft.  

 PostScript printers
  Has anybody gotten printing to a PostScript printer over the parallel
  port to work yet?
  Yes.  See Appendix C.


6. Acknowledgments
 Messages from the following people were incorporated into this FAQ:

  akalla@Scribona.SE (Jan Akalla)
  alana@metro.co.uk (Alan Arthur)
  buck@netcom.com (Buck Foreman)
  David.Robinson@Eng.Sun.COM
  db@sunbim.be (Danny Backx)
  dean@coplex.coplex.com (Dean Brooks)
  Doug.McCallum@Central.Sun.COM (Doug McCallum)
  hope@multix.no (Andreas Hope)
  ian@sq.com (Ian Darwin)
  kate@digiw.fi (Kate Marika Alhola)
  len@contec.COM (Leonard Mills)
  lupe.christoph@cic.de (Lupe Christoph)
  mbeyer@forge.tandem.com (Mark Beyer)
  phj@tele.nokia.fi (Peter Hjort)
  richard@West.Sun.COM (Richard M. Mathews)
  Ronny.Bergstrom@eua.ericsson.se (Ronny Bergstrom)
  sharyl@locutus.vortech.com (Sharyl Godlewski)
  usinet!brooks@uunet.UU.NET (Lyle D. Brooks)

 Trademarks
  Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation
  NeWS is a tradmark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
  SCO is a trademark of The Santa Cruz Operation
  UNIX is a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open

 If your trademark has been inadvertently omitted from this list, please
 send email to the address at the top of this FAQ and the omission will
 be corrected immediately.

The following appendices contain valuable configuration information, but
are specific to certain hardware configurations.  Because the descriptions
are long, they have been moved to the end of the FAQ.

APPENDIX A. Pioneer DRM-604X CD-ROM Changer
>From akalla@Scribona.SE (Jan Akalla)
 Pioneer DRM-604X is a CD-ROM changer with room for 6 CD-ROMS, where
 one CD at a time can be active. It uses SCSI, and each CD has it's
 own LUN (Logical Unix Number) under one SCSI-ID.

 To be able to use DRM-604X under SunSoft Solaris x86, a file has to
 be modified. The file is named /kernel/drv/cmdk.conf, and two lines
 have to be added to that file for every LUN above 0.

 Start by deciding what SCSI-ID the CD should use. In this example, I'll
 use SCSI-ID number 4. Modify the file, so two lines are added as below:
 #
 # Copyright (c) 1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 #/
 #ident "@(#)cmdk.conf   1.7     93/03/04 SMI"

 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=0 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=1 lun=0
        disklabel="genlb","snlb"
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=2 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=3 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";

 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=1            NEW
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";          NEW
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=2            NEW
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";          NEW
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=3            NEW
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";          NEW
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=4            NEW
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";          NEW
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=4 lun=5            NEW
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=5 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";
 name="cmdk" class="scsi" target=6 lun=0
        scsi_audio="sccd_sony","sccd_std";

 Shut down the machine, and connect the drive. At the bootprompt type:
        b -r

 After this, you can use the different CDs using the following
 devicenames:
        /dev/dsk/c0t4d0p0
        /dev/dsk/c0t4d1p0
        /dev/dsk/c0t4d2p0


APPENDIX B.  Partitioning a 1.3Gbyte disk
>From: usinet!brooks@uunet.UU.NET (Lyle D. Brooks)
I tried to partition my 1.3GB disk to have a 300MB DOS 5.0
disk partition and the rest used for solaris.

Adaptec 1742A (don't know about other Adaptec cards) plays games
with the BIOS translation to work around the DOS 1GB partition
limit.  Basically, it uses a Standard or Extended translation mode
(not to be confused with the Standard or Enhanced mode of the
adapter).  The Extended translation allows DOS to exceed the
1 GB limit.

Bottom line is don't use the Extended translation, use Standard
translation.  This would not be so bad if that was all there was
to it, but once you install DOS and then install Solaris and reboot
with the Solaris partition as the active partition, you get a
message that says "requested cylinder is beyond range of BIOS
geometry".

This is because both the Solaris bootable as well as the alternate
sectors (used for bad block mapping) must be within the 1023
cylinders (another way of stating the 1GB limit).  Solaris puts
the boot cylinders within the 1023 cylinder limit, but the alternate
sector cylinders are put at the 'end' of the Solaris partition and
thus are beyond the BIOS 1023 cylinder grasp.

What this means is a "secondary" install, where you break out of
the install process and re-format the Solaris partition to map
the alternate sector cylinders within 1023.

This is the workaround I got from SunSoft.  It almost works.  I've added
my addendum to the end, which taken with the SunSoft workaround, will
actually do the job.

According to Ken Lauw:
> From uunet!West.Sun.COM!Ken.Lauw Thu Oct  7 12:45:36 1993
> Message-Id: <9310071528.AA05612@mchale.West.Sun.COM>
> From: uunet!mchale.West.Sun.COM!kenla (Ken Lauw)
> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 08:28:08 PDT
> X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.1.1 5/02/90)
> To: brooks@usiva.com
> Subject: Solaris x86 Bios/Geom work around
>
>
>   ==installing Solaris 2.1/x86 on a hard drive > 1023 cylinders==
>
>   Problem Description:
>
>   After solaris installation, you'll receive the following error message:
>   "requested cylinder is beyond range of BIOS geometry."
>   This error message will be generated when your SCSI controller card
>   does not allow reading of bootable sectors, including the alternate
>   sectors for bad block mapping, beyond 1023 cylinders.
>
>   Current solaris installation puts the alternate sectors in partition 9
>   by reserving the last 2 cylinders of the solaris 'fdisk' partition.
>   This will often cause the alternate sectors to reside beyond 1023
>   cylinders.  The workaround is to ensure alternate sectors
>   reside within 1023 cylinders.
>
>   Note: This workaround example assumes that you have partition 7
>         residing within 1023 cylinders and empty.
>         This means that 'Start Sector' of partition 7 should be
>         < (sectors_per_cyl * 1021).  As the beginning sector of
>         partition 7 will be changed with this workaround, we'll run
>         'newfs' on that partition later. If you don't have empty
>         partitions to use, the easiest way is to redo the solaris
>         installation and create empty partition 7 first (like
>         /export/home or /usr2, etc.).
>
>   Follow these steps:
>
>   1.  Reboot your system using the solaris boot diskette and cdrom.
>   2.  Select 'Exit to the shell' after you are asked to take the
>       diskette out by responding to the  prompt.
>   3.  Edit the VTOC table to ensure the partition 9 (Tag 9
>       means ALTSCTR slice) resides within the 1023 cylinder
>       boundary as follows:
>
>         # fmthard -i -n "" /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 > /tmp/out
>         # vi /tmp/out
>
>           Note: you should not change the partitions where
>                 the system files are already loaded.
>
>           Use this formula to switch 'Start Sector' between
>           partition #7 and #9.
>
>           old values in /tmp/out show:
>                                   Start Sector   Sector Count
>            partition #7   8   00       X7            Y7
>            partition #9   9   01       X9            Y9
>
>           change to:
>            partition #7   8   00     (X7+Y9)      (unchanged)
>                                          =
>            partition #9   9   01      (X7)        (unchanged)
>
>         # fmthard -s /tmp/out -n "newlabel" /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
>           no error message should be reported.
>         # newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7.
>
>   4.  Reboot.

(Note: At first I found this somewhat confusing as to the terminology
used for partition and slice.  Under Solaris 2.x I call partitions
what FDISK creates, and slices what Solaris does to further divide its
partition.  Above 'partition' is used for both and one must read carefully
and determine by context which is use of 'partition' is being used.)

In my configuration, I setup a 300MB DOS partition first, then use the
remainder (approx 1GB) for Solaris.  When I set up the Solaris slices,
I allocated 4MB for /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3 to be mounted on /usr2.  I do this
as a placeholder because when I re-format on install pass #2, I'll use
this to map slice 9 to the former /usr2 slice, which will get the
alternate sector slice within the 1023 cylinder limit.

So on install pass #1 I setup my Solaris partition as follows:

Device                  Mount Point             Size(MB)
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0       /                          17
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1       swap                       64
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2       raw disk                  980
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3       /usr2                       4
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4       /home                     150
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5       /opt                      557
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6       /usr                      185


This of course won't boot because the alternate sector slice (slice 9
which isn't display on the disk prepartion because it's not mountable)
is a 2MB slice outside of the 1023 cylinder range.  BTW 1MB = 1 cylinder.

So we boot with boot floppy for what I call install pass #2.  When it asks
us to remove the boot floppy, we do and break out to the shell prompt.

Now we do a fmthard(1M) as in the above instructions.  For my configuration
I get

Partition          Tag     Flag            First Sector    Sector Count
0                   2       00                 2048           34816
1                   3       01                36864          131072
2                   5       00                    0         2007040
3                   4       00               167936            8192
4                   8       00               176128          307200
5                   6       00               483328         1140736
6                   4       00              1624064          378880
9                   9       01              2002944            4096


I edit this and change "partition" 3 and 9 as follows:

3                   4       00               172032            4096
9                   9       01               167936            4096

Then I follow the instructions above to reload this configuration
using fmthard(1M) and It works!!

Only 15+ installs later...... ;-)

Hope this is of some help to anyone else who happens to wander down
this path!

APPENDIX C.  Installing a Parallel PostScript Printer
>From alana@metro.co.uk (Alan Arthur)
In the FAQ, you asked if anyone had got a parallel postscript printer
working yet. I have (eventually!) You can't do it through the system
admin tool thing, you have to do it by hand. The following worked for me
(and my customers)...

chown lp /dev/lp1
chmod 600 /dev/lp1
lpadmin -p chops -v /dev/lp1
lpadmin -p chops -T PPS
lpadmin -p chops -I postscript
cd /etc/lp/fd
lpfilter -f download -F download.fd
lpfilter -f dpost -F dpost.fd
lpfilter -f ppostio -F ppostio.fd
lpfilter -f ppostior -F ppostior.fd
lpfilter -f postprint -F postprint.fd
lpfilter -f postreverse -F postreverse.fd
accept chops
enable chops
lpadmin -p chops -D "Parallel Postscript Printer"
lpadmin -d chops
lpstst -t
  
(Where the printer is called chops...)
 
-- 
 "If you've always done it that way, it's probably wrong"
 --------------------------------------attributed to Edward Kettering
 John Caywood, aspiring Solaris x86 SA,! caywood@wyvern.wyvern.com
         vi bigot, and wine drinker    ! J.S.Caywood@LaRC.NASA.GOV