Is it possible to install Solaris softwares on Open Solaris or Open Indiana?

Hi there,

I'm sorry in advance if my question seems stupid, but I can't figure out myself.

I was wondering. Is it possible to install a Solaris program on an Open Solaris or Open Indiana operating system?

After searching the web for a long time, it seems that Open Solaris was released by Sun (before being bought by Oracle) and it was a testing version of Solaris.
Today, Open Solaris is not supported anymore but Open Indiana looks to be the community version out of it.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to install Cadds5 (a CAO software).
I have the original media installation disk with its documentation.
On the disk, it says "Cadds 5i Release 14, Datecode : M080 for Solaris SPARC".

So, this software seems to be designed for Solaris, so I'm thinking it should work properly with Open Solaris / Open Indiana.
You can find the Cadds5 installation instruction by searching "cadds5 installation pdf" in Google (sorry, don't have 5 posts yet, so can't post URL) :(.

So, as you can see on the PDF file, to install CADDS, I first have to run the cvinstall script.

In case it can helps, you'll find below the cvinstall script

#!/bin/sh

# 08-17-93 apb; updated to handle solaris CDROM automounting
# 07-12-93 apb; tweeked somemore for Solaris 2.2
# 07-07-93 cmp; updated for Solaris
# 05-05-93 apb; created

# Make sure that the user is root
USER=`/usr/ucb/whoami`
if [ "$USER" != "root" ]; then
        echo "You are logged in as $USER."
        echo "You must be root to run this."
        echo "Please login as root and try again."
        echo ""
        exit 1
fi

#
#if started cvinstall without / as first char then make them start it with /

mount=`echo $0 |awk '{if ($0 ~ /^\//) print "yes"; else print "no"}'`
if [ $mount = "no" ]; then
    echo "
    You must run CVINSTALL by starting it using its full path name."
    exit
fi

#save first directory i.e /cdrom
mount=`echo $0 |awk -F/ '{printf ("/%s", $2)}'`

#check to make sure that the mount is only one level deep from /

deep=`echo $0 |awk -F/ '{print $3}'`
if [ $deep != "install" ]; then

    if [ $mount != "/cdrom" ]; then

        echo "

        You must mount the cdrom one directory level from \"/\".

        Example: /cdrom  or  /mnt"

        exit
    else

        deep=`echo $0 |awk -F/ '{print $4}'`
        if [ $deep != "install" ]; then
            echo "

            You must mount the cdrom one directory level from \"/\".

            Example: /cdrom  or  /mnt"
        
            exit
        else
            mount=`echo $0 |awk -F/ '{printf ("/%s/%s", $2,$3)}'`
        fi
    fi

fi

clear

    echo "



                ************************************************
                *                                              *
                *                  CVINSTALL                   *
                *       CAD/CAM Support Loading Procedure      *
                *                Revision 93229                *
                *                                              *
                ************************************************


        This procedure updates your system in order to support CADDS.
"

echo -n "

        Do you wish to continue (y/n RETURN = y) ? "

while true;do
        read B
        case "${B}" in
        "" | y)
                break
                ;;   
        n)
                exit
                ;;
        *)         
                echo ""
                echo -n "    Please answer 'y' or 'n': "
                ;;
        esac
done
# cp the files in the cvos directory to the host system
cp -r $mount/cvos/* /

# if CADDS_IMAGE not in /etc/rpc file- put it there
cvimage=`grep CADDS_IMAGE /etc/rpc`
if [ "$cvimage" = "" ]; then
    echo "#PTC Processes" >> /etc/rpc
    echo "CADDS_IMAGE    200002" >> /etc/rpc
fi
# if CVNC_OUTPUT not in /etc/rpc file- put it there
cvnc=`grep CVNC_OUTPUT /etc/rpc`
if [ "$cvnc" = "" ]; then
    echo "CVNC_OUTPUT  20002002" >> /etc/rpc
fi
# if CVNC_OUTPUT not in /etc/inetd.conf- put it there
cvncout=`grep CVNC_OUTPUT /etc/inetd.conf`
if [ "$cvncout" = "" ]; then
    echo "#PTC Processes" >> /etc/inetd.conf
    echo "CVNC_OUTPUT      stream  rpc/tcp wait root    /usr/apl/cadds/bin/ncoutd" >> /etc/inetd.conf
fi

echo "

    CVINSTALL -- COMPLETED!!!"

# 
if [ -r $mount/install/slic ]; then
    echo -n "

        Do you want to install CADDS now  (y/n RETURN = y) ? "


    while true;do
            read B
            case "${B}" in
            "" | y)
            echo "

    Starting up the Software Loading and Installation Command (SLIC)."

            $mount/install/slic
                    break
                    ;;
            n)
                    exit
                    ;;
            *)
                    echo ""
                    echo -n "    Please answer 'y' or 'n': "
                    ;;
            esac
    done
fi

echo ""
echo ""
exit

So, first, I changed this line in the script to make it work

USER=`/usr/ucb/whoami`

I changed it by

USER=`/usr/bin/whoami`

So, the script works properly. But, at the end, when it asks me if I want to install CADDS, it fails launching SLIC.
The error message is

Starting up the Software Loading and Installation Command (SLIC).
/cdrom/install/./cvinstall[140]: /cdrom/install/slic: /cdrom/install/slic: cannot execute [Invalid argument]

And, if I launch it manually through the command /cdrom/install/slic, I have this error message

bash: /cdrom/install/slic: Invalid Argument

Is there a way to get around that problem and launch slic so I can install CADDS5 ? You can see pictures of that slic installation program in the installation instructions (PDF file)

Also, according to the CADDS5 installation instructions, the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) is needed to install CADDS.

I'm thinking maybe that's why I can't run the slic's installer.

It seems that CDE was the default desktop installed by solaris until version 8 which uses Gnome by default.
Is it still possible to install CDE on Open Solaris or Open Indiana?

In advance, thanks A LOT for your help.
And, please, let me know if you need more details about that software etc...

ps : sorry for my bad English (this is not my first language but I try my best)

Is your hardware SPARC or x86 (Intel/AMD)?

Hi Bartus11, thanks a lot for your VERY QUICK reply.

For now, I'm virtualizing a computer through Virtualbox to do some tests. So it is a x86 processor.

Will the install work only on a SPARC processor?

Do you think this is why the slic installer doesn't launch?

We have plan in a very near future to buy a new workstation to install and use Cadds software, but we wanted to make sure it would work as the media installation we have is from 2001.

So, we don't want to buy a brand new Solaris workstation if we have troubles installing that software.

And, by the way, because you look to be a Solaris expert (your profile says so ;)). IS it still possible to install CDE (Common Desktop Environment) on Solaris / Open Solaris / Open Indiana because it seems to be a requirement for Cadds5.

Thank your very much again for your support.

Well, the disk name says that it is SPARC version. You cannot run executables compiled for SPARC on x86. As for the CDE, it is included with Solaris up to version 10 (you can choose CDE in the login screen of Solaris 10).

1 Like

Yeah, you're right, but I was expecting at least to see the installation launcher even if it would fail during the installation process.

Is that common the error "Invalid Argument" when the installation is being tried on a wrong architecture?

Also, as you said, CDE is included with Solaris up to version 10. Is it still possible to install it on version 11? or Open Indiana?
Also, I'll double check but I don't think it's included on Open Solaris 2009.06

Anyway, thanks a lot again for your help.

I just checked on my Solaris 11 Express, and there are two packages that might help you with getting your application running: cde-runtime and cde-utilities. Try installing them and then try installing your software. I wouldn't expect much from it though. You are trying to get quite old piece of software running. I'd recommend getting some older Solaris (8 or 9) on some older SPARC hardware (which shouldn't be too hard with eBay) and running it there.

There is no OpenIndiana release for SPARC.
You need SPARC hardware for this package. Do you know for what Solaris release it was built ?

Good evening,

Thanks again for your quick replies

So, I have reached my 5 posts on this forum, so I can finally give you the link for the Installation documentation for Cadds (PDF) in case you wanna see what slic looks like.

The only diffence is that I have Cadds v5r14, and the documentation is for Cadds v5r15. But I don't think there are any differences.

I'll double check tomorrow at work (because we have the proper installation book) see if there are any differences with this documentation but I don't think so. If there are any, I'll let you know of course.

According to the hardware/software requirements, I found this page, so it seems to work at least on Solaris 6, 7, 8, 9.

I haven't found any details on the processor architecture, so I can't tell you if Cadds 5 would work on x86 but I have only the media installation for HP UX, AIX and Solaris Sparc.

This is all I can give for now. I will see tomorrow at work for more details. A colleague just told me we have an old computer with Cadds installed on a Solaris system. So, I'll turn it on and see what kind of processor there is in.

Thank you very very much again for your help, you deserve an award for your quick replies :D.

I'll come back again tomorrow for more details.