Recently in Solaris Category

I've been using smpatch(!M) on my Solaris system for quite a while. It ain't no yum/apt-get, but it's pretty good anyhow.

One thing I've been really missing though, is some sort of --verbose flag to the thing. It tends to be somewhat slow, and I find myself wondering very often "Gee, wonder what it's doing"

Not anymore, I've finally discovered how to make it output a boatload of debugging information out. It's not as simple as --verbose, but it works.

$> smpatch analyze -C patchpro.log.level=3 -C patchpro.debug=true

Another quick Solaris trick to write about before I forget about it.

When used to do:

$> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 2992.785
[...]

Instead, on Solaris, use psrinfo(1M)

$> psrinfo -v
Status of virtual processor 0 as of: 09/17/2006 21:45:32
on-line since 08/24/2006 16:16:03.
The i386 processor operates at 1800 MHz,
and has an i387 compatible floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 1 as of: 09/17/2006 21:45:32
on-line since 08/24/2006 16:16:07.
The i386 processor operates at 1800 MHz,
and has an i387 compatible floating point processor.

I've always said Solaris was a solid operating system, just a sucky distro. Well, since Sun opened up things, OpenSolaris is making new distributions possible.

There are already 4 listed distros:

• BeleniX
• marTux
• NexentaOS
• SchilliX

Of the 4, I've looked at Nexenta, and it looks like the more serious one. It's Debian/Ubuntu based and it's pretty much in a usable state as it is. It comes with a LiveCD, a VMWare image (cool), and the ordinary install CD. And as they proclaim on their homepage, They have 12029 packages available in their APT repository.

Nothing like being able to :

$> apt-get dist-upgrade

On a solaris box ;-)

Oh, and it comes with ZFS ;-)

No zones yet...

It's a quick and dirty Solaris trick, but I better write it down or I'll forget.

When faced with the annoying question: "And what drives are in this box again?", don't get all confused anymore, and call format(1) to the rescue.

$> format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c0t0d0 <IBM-DXHS18Y-0430 cyl 8152 alt 2 hd 20 sec 218>
          /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/sd@0,0
       1. c0t1d0 <IBM-DXHS18Y-0430 cyl 8152 alt 2 hd 20 sec 218>
          /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/sd@1,0

Certainly not exactly what it was intended for, but it worked for me and I hope I never forget it again.