Trying to set or modify the randomly set hostID of a Solaris 10 virtual/guest machine that I installed on a Windows-XP host machine (using Virtual Box 4.1.12).
I was able to set/modify the hostname of the Solaris 10 virtual/guest machine during installation as well as via the Virtual Box command line interface (e.g., VBoxManage, etc.). However, nothing seems to be able to enable me to set/modify the random 8-hexdigit hostID value of the Solaris 10 virtual machine. I want to be able to execute the 'hostid' command from a terminal window on the Solaris 10 virtual machine and have it display a hostID value that I set.
Is there a way to set/modify the hostID value of a Solaris 10 virtual/guest machine that was installed by Virtual Box 4.1.12 (or potentially by any other virtual machine installation tool) on a Windows XP system ?
I know how to do this in a Sparc environment but I don't know whether it will work in a x86 environment (although I don't see why not). However, why do you need to do this? Obviously, this can be used to circumvent licensing enforcement so forum moderators might not be too happy about such a solution.
---------- Post updated at 04:11 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:57 PM ----------
Also, I assume your base layer is Windows?? Have you looked at "macshift" (use Google). This might make it simple to change the MAC address at the bottom layer (the hostid is computed on the MAC address of the interface) thereby changing what Windows thinks it has. When Solaris starts it may well use the same MAC address and solve your problem. Just an after-thought.
Hi Hicksd8,
Thank you for your reply. Due to the details of the project that I am working on, there are no licensing circumvention issues as far as we can discern.
You mentioned : "I know how to do this in a Sparc environment". If you are able to share that information, that could be very beneficial.
The host machine is Windows, but my project is working in the virtual machine environment ( Solaris 10 ).
Hope that clarifies a few of the things from my original post and thank you again for your reply.
So what is the problem you are trying to solve by changing the hostid ?
That probably won't. The way the hostid is stored/retrieved is quite different between SPARC and x86 hardware.
This is how I do it.
First decide what hostid you want to set the system to.
NOTE: THE CODE BELOW ONLY APPLIES TO SOLARIS X86
You need to add lines to the bottom of /etc/rc2.d/S20sysetup (which is executed when the system boots).
This is a copy of the whole file after I've added the lines to the bottom with comments to explain what I'm doing............
THIS IS PROVIDED AS AN EXAMPLE ONLY. INPUT YOUR OWN VALUES FOR HOSTID.
#!/sbin/sh
#
# Copyright 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
# Use is subject to license terms.
#
# ident "@(#)sysetup 1.27 06/06/05 SMI"
if [ -z "$_INIT_PREV_LEVEL" ]; then
set -- `/usr/bin/who -r`
_INIT_PREV_LEVEL="$9"
fi
[ $_INIT_PREV_LEVEL != S -a $_INIT_PREV_LEVEL != 1 ] && exit 0
# Uncomment this line to print the complete system configuration on startup
#[ -x /usr/sbin/prtconf ] && /usr/sbin/prtconf
# If there are trademark files, print them.
[ -d /etc/tm ] && /usr/bin/cat /etc/tm/* 2>/dev/null
#
# Run rctladm to configure system resource controls based on the settings
# previously saved by rctladm. See rctladm(1m) for instructions on how to
# modify resource control settings.
#
if [ -f /etc/rctladm.conf ] && [ -x /usr/sbin/rctladm ]; then
/usr/sbin/rctladm -u
fi
#
# Change hostid to 807a6e94
# Convert to decimal value = 2155507348
# Use this https://www.easycalculation.com/hex-converter.php for heavy lifting
#
# Convert decimal value to ASCII chars = 32 31 35 35 35 30 37 33 34 38
# Use above web site for this too
#
# Pad ASCII char string to eleven values (if necessary) using zeros
# Result 32 31 35 35 35 30 37 33 34 38 0
# If string is only nine chars pad with "00 0" to make eleven
#
# Set the hostid to 807a6e94 - Let's do it!!
echo "hw_serial/v 32 31 35 35 35 30 37 33 34 38 0" | mdb -kw
# That's it! Job done!
#
Once you've done the added lines you can test it without rebooting by executing:
/etc/rc2.d/S20sysetup
The hostid should change on the fly (or you should get an error telling you what's wrong. Obviously syntax is critical).
Hope that helps. I've just tested it on Solaris 10 (x86).
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