I am receiving an error when attempting to boot up with the boot disk and software cd for installation of the Solaris 2.6 OS. I'm getting an error "Solaris partition not found" it doesn't even let me get to a point where I can run fdisk or anything. Can anyone help???
Has this system booted the version you are trying before?
Some hardware does not support all versions of Solaris. What is the hardware? Is this X86 or normal Solaris?
This is an x86 system and it has booted with the current hardware and version 2.6. I was only havin g problems with the video(kdmconfig) originally. Than there was an attempt for reinstallation made and this is what we have.
Thanks for your reply...
Good luck. There wasn't much on sunsolve for this -
This infodoc may help:
This document explains the different variations that may be used
to prepare a disk for the installation of Solaris x86.
Removing a MS-DOS partition form your intended Solaris install drive
If you have an existing MS-DOS partition on your intended install drive that
resides on the whole intended install drive, you must use MS-DOS fdisk that is
found on a MS-DOS setup floppy. Solaris will not see a MS-DOS partition as
recognizable install space. To use the MS-DOS fdisk you would use MS-DOS boot
disk and boot from the MS-DOS setup floppy. When booted from the MS-DOS setup
floppy, you will see an a: prompt. From the a: prompt type fdisk,
you will be prompted to enable large disk support Y or N. Choose Y for yes.
This will display 4 or 5 options depending if other hard drives are seen by fdisk on this
system. Choose option 4 which is to display the current partitions,
Find the current partitions. Make note of the existing partitions
and their type as you will be prompted for the type when you go to delete
that partitions. Press escape to return to the main menu, choose
option 3 "delete partition or logical drive" noting that if a logical drive exists
for the partition you wish to delete, it must be removed first before that
partition can be deleted. If a logical drive exists choose option 3 to delete
the existing logical drive, then press [esc] to return to the main menu.
Once again you will choose option 3 to delete partition, then from the next
screen choose the type of partition that you will be deleting and choose
the number that corresponds with that type then press enter. The screen will display
the current partitions then will ask you which partition "by number to delete"
type in that number [enter], then answer the questions when prompted. If another
partition exists, follow the same steps to remove that partition as well.
Beginning the Solaris non dual boot install:
To begin the installation use the "device configuration assistant" to
boot floppy and follow the prompts. On Solaris 8, if your bios
supports cdrom boot, you may boot from the 1 of 2 CD to begin the installation.
The Solaris install utility will build its own partition provided that all
partitions had been removed, and all you will need to do is answer the questions
when prompted.
Using the Solaris fdisk to set hard drive partitions
When the intended Solaris install drive is free of any non Solaris
partitions, you can use the Solaris fdisk utility. Boot from the device
configuration assistant from floppy or cdrom if Solaris 8 or better, follow the
prompts to the screen that indicates available disks & selected disks. The
option is found in the GUI window that indicates available disks & selected
disks. At the lower center of the GUI window is an option that is labeled
"Edit " that you will be able to select when your disk of choice is in the
selected partition of the screen and highlighted, this will display the current
partitioning of the drive that is currently selected. To setup the partitions
choose partition & type of partition (a maximum of four partitions are possible
due to the boot loader for Solaris )unless your goal is to create a data partition.
Note - Prior to Solaris 7, the Solaris partition must be installed
in the first 1024 cylinders of the hard drive.
Setting up for multiple Operating Systems on the same hard drive
If you intend to dual boot with other operating systems from the
same hard drive and the MS-DOS partition greater than 2 GB of space,
use Windows 98 because it uses a 32 bit file allocation table (FAT32)
as opposed to using FAT16. Unfortunately, FAT16 has a 2 GB DOS partition
limit. To allow space for Solaris use MS fdisk as described in the first
section of this document (Removing a MS-DOS partition ) because it is necessary
to make the space for Solaris raw, unallocated space. For multiple OS
boot, you can set a partition for the first OS leaving the remaining
space raw for Solaris and make sure it is on the first 1024 cylinders
of the hard drive. The active state indicates that this is the active
partition that the system will boot from.
Solaris has it's own multiple OS boot loader which allows you
to choose which OS to boot from (providing the OS's reside on the
same drive).
There are some common symptoms that may be seen if no space is
available for Solaris:
- When choosing interactive installation a device scan can hang
the PC. - The system is installed with Solaris, but the other OS that was
installed is gone and neither OS will boot. - At the point of the installation where you see what space is
available and selected, but available is showing "none".
Note - free space that is controlled by other OS's is not
recognized by Solaris. - After the installation, the system complains about not finding
boot files and it won't boot. This may indicate that the
installation was not clean because not enough space was
available during the install.
Utilizing a third party program to use more than one disk drive and multiple
Operating Systems
You can partition your hard drive using a third party partition
program. An advantage of using a third party partition program is
that it is possible to move and shrink a DOS partition "without
re-installing the MS operating system".
You can make space available for Solaris to load on the same disk.