[OLUG] meeting & installing LRH6.0 SPARC

[Mark Hagler]

> PS: This one doesn't concern to Linux: Is it possible to burn Solaris
> 7.0 on CD.  If yes I would like to ask somebody to do that. I am not
> shur,  is it legal? I have a SUN ULTRA 1 at the department, and I would
> like to upgrade SUN OS 5.6

It is possible to copy the Solaris install CD, but not very easily 
without doing it on a Sun.  

The Solaris install CD has multiple slices on it.  Slices are the Solaris
notion of partitions.  One of the slices on the install CD is a live root
filesystem that the machine will boot and run from to start the installer.
Then it will mount another slice from the CD to get the actual packages
to install Solaris on the disk.  Each slice on the CD is a separate iso9660
filesystem.  If you mount the CD in a Linux box, you will mount only the
first slice on the CD.

To copy the CD, you must put it in a machine that can understand Solaris
slices.  Obviously, Solaris can do it, although it may be possible to do
it on Linux if you compile the Solaris disk label support into your kernel.
At any rate, once you have it on an OS that can see the slices, you then use
the dd command to read each slice into a file.  This will make several files 
with the various ISO filesystems in them.  Then, you use 'cat' to combine the
slices in the correct order into a big file, and burn that to a CD.

I've copied the Solaris 7 media by reading the slices on a Sun box, and then
assembling and burning the image on a Linux box.  The CD works fine.

No, it's not legal.  Solaris is a commercial, licensed OS.  Sun makes the
license free (or almost..) and easy to obtain for educational or personal
use, but technically you must obtain a license from Sun.

-- 

 "A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless
 interaction into a battle of wills, and add drama to an otherwise
 dull day."
                               -- Calvin & Hobbes


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