OpenSolaris 2008.05

I got interested in the DTrace technology which might be very interesting for some AS/400 Java stuff we are having problems with (with the Java part running under OpenSolaris).

So after installing OpenSolaris on an old 2xPentium III machine with 1.5 Gb RAM and a new disk, I started playing with it to see what it does.

I had to do the following:

• Enable BonJour/ZeroConf/Rendezvous annoucements with "svcadm enable multicast" - http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/service-discovery/
• Enable network access to the PostgreSQL database by editing the /var/postgres/8.2/data/postgresql.conf.
• Enable ftp with "svcadm enable ftp".
  
• Compile Emacs 22 with gcc.
  
• Eclipse did not install from Blastware, sigh.
• Putty works well as a ssh client.
  

I found the installation to work very nice.

Just for fun I created a lx zone, where the supplied tar-file fitted right in, and the Linux JDK 1.6 ran out of the box.

The Gnome based desktop is nice with just a few surprises:

• the mounted disks do not show up on the desktop
• no trash can available on the desktop