Solaris Hardware Compatability

[dietrich]

I need advice on what hardware to purchase in order to get Solaris 8 "Intel Platform Edition" up and running......

I would like to install it on an old PC box that has a Gateway Anigma Pentium II motherboard with integrated AGP/Audio/DVD/Video....I have a Quantum Fireball EX6.4A harddrive that came with the motherboard which I would also like to use....if this is not compatable could you suggest another tyope of HD

So I need to purchase a CDRW, a floppy drive, a modem, and a NIC card for Solaris.....could someone give me some advice as to which hardware is best to buy that will be compatable with Solaris??

Do you think Solaris will be compatable with my Gateway motherboard....this particular MB is not listed in the Solaris HCL, however other Gateway systems are.....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated........
thank you, md

[AlphaFemale]

Basically if its anything bleeding edge, or anything less than 6 months old.... its most likely not supported. (unless its something that uses a previous chipset).

The 'compatibilty' listing is very skimpy, however manythings use the same chipsets or similar ones to the ones tested. Which may mean it -MIGHT- work, but with solaris, you can never tell. We have solaris on all the machines where I work, and Im in the process of getting/building new machines for our network, and ive been researching hardware for about a week to see whats compatible and whats not.

Basically, what ive ended up with is pretty basic stuff, that I know will work. As for motherboards, -alot- of them are not listed. Heck even intel's own reference boards are not listed for the p4s yet. However I can tell you that, unless its a funky tweak, I think any good standing 850 chipset motherboard will work in solaris (if you have a p4)..

You need to find out the chipset on your 'gateway motherboard' (which is probably made by someone else).... If its a P4 its most likely an 850, and will probably work, even if its not listed.


For NICS, I really really really suggest you strictly stick to what is in the HCL. Reason is Ive had things that were very 'similar' but failed to work on bit.
Example: The 3COm 3c905C card works great... however 3Com released the '3c905Cx' (note the X)... I ordered a stack of the 3c905c's from a place, and when they arrived I tried them and they didnt work at all.. I checked the chipset and it was a 3c905cx.. blah so just be carefull.

Modem... ISA or EXTERNAL if you can. Floppy dont worry about it, harddrive shouldnt matter. CDRW I have no clue, best to look around on the web. Video and Audio are other 'sticky areas'... my suggestion is to goto google and just type in your exact hardware and the word 'solaris' ... if you see a bunch of

"how do I get this to work!!?!" its probably not compatible :)

[dietrich]

thank you that is very helpful....

one more question, I assume Solaris will not recognize soft modems (win-modems), the same as linux. Is that correct ?

thanks,
md :p

[AlphaFemale]

Very unlikely... I know that my laptop had a winmodem in it, and I had Linux on it, and I got it to work with some beta drivers I hunted down on the web. Linmodem orsomething, but it was very unsatisfactory, so I just bought a PCMCIA modem. However, that was a year ago, so maybe the drivers are better.

[javierm]

Couple of things,

On the pc, make sure to get a 3com nic card. Solaris is very limited on the hardware supported for the pc. Forget about win modems. I would use an external hardware modem. Setting up ppp is a *****. Trust me. I work with solaris for a living.