Solaris 9 in VirtualBox
Quite a while ago I tried installing Solaris 9 in VirtualBox 2.1.4, which sadly failed miserably. A quick look at the bug database shown that there was some known issues with Solaris 9 and that at that time it was impossible to make it work under VirtualBox. A bit sad since virtual machines are a great way to test and develop for many legacy operating systems at the same time. But things have changed! A recent comment on the bug report in question asked if Solaris 9 was working with VBox 3.0.6. Quickly loading a Sol-9 9/05 installation media showed that it's working now.
For those who would like to do the same thing, here are the VM settings I used :
- Host OS : OpenSolaris snv_123
- Base Memory : 2048 MiB
- Video Memory : 32 MiB
- ACPI : Disabled
- IO APIC : Enabled
- PAE/NX : Enabled
- Virtual CPU : 2
- AMD-V and Nested Paging : Enabled
- 3D Acceleration : Disabled (Let's not ask for too much...)
- Virtual Hard Disk : IDE PIIX4 controller, 16 GiB Dynamically expanding
- Network : Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop on NAT
- Floppy, Audio, USB, Serial : Disabled
The important things here are ACPI and the IDE controller. I have not been able to make it work with either ACPI or SATA enabled. Enabling ACPI will create resource conflicts and the system refuses to install. As for SATA it is a bit understandable since the emulated controller did not even exist in the Solaris 9 era. Also, I had problems with the keyboard, the arrow keys where not working and had to fall back on the num pad (With num lock off obviously).
And now to prove it, here's CDE and Netscape Navigator in all their glory. Of course, it can also log in Gnome 2.0.
Solaris 9 9/05 in VirtualBox
Now, what about Solaris 8 ...
Comments
Re: Solaris 8
Ahh … turns out QEMU makes it a little bit further! But just a little bit. :\
Now what about Solaris 8 (2000, 32-bit)
Indeed! I'm getting no love from vbox 3.x in this regard. I get "Running Configuration Assistant …" and … nothing.
I even tried applying your mods. (ACPI disabling is only through VBoxManage modifyvm now.)
You have to disable VT.x
You have to disable VT.x under system accelleration. I did this and was able to get further. However, before CDE even comes up with the GUI installer, kbdconfig can't determine display and adaptor types and so I made a bunch of guesses, and it hangs when it tries to test no matter what I select (I tried a bunch of different combinations). I am stuck at this point. Any ideas anyone?
-Don
Now what about Solaris 8 (2000, 32-bit)
On my workstation I got the Solaris 8 dvd to boot into CDE but the installer never fired after that. I'm not really sure what's the issue here, or if there's a solution. However, on some other systems/os it appears to get stuck at the configuration assistant as you said.
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