>> I am attempting to install Solaris 8 on a DELL Dimension XPS P166s machine
>> with a Generic IDE Disk (TYPE01) connected to an Intel PIIIX Bus Mastering
>> PCI IDE Controller.
Are you trying to install Solaris only, or dual-boot Solaris and
Windows?
Quote:>> When I use the Solaris 8 DCA disk I get:
>> "No Disks that meet the criteria in the Solaris Installer documentation
>> found. Please check the system of try another installation option."
>> I checked the Solaris Installer documentation and it states that IDE
>devices
>> are supported.
>> I tried modifying the device list by removing non-essecntial devices but
>> that made things worse. No sense playing with fdisk either if the DCA
>can't
>> see the disk.
>> Also, booting from the Solaris 8 S/W disk 1 of 2 (as suggested by other
>news
>> threads) didn't work as I get: "pboot: CDROM read error 1"
>> Any ideas on how to proceed?
>> Andrew Tate
>Looks like you are another victim of microsoft. First, you have to blow
>windows off the hard drive.
False!
Quote:>That means booting using the emergency boot disk for windows. Make one if
>you don't have one.
>Boot the disk. Fdisk (msdos) the drive and split the drive to your needs.
>This blows windows away.
>Reformat the first partition 'Format C: /sys'. Then install windows on C:.
That probably will only work if you're using DOS or Windows 95.
Quote:>You now have another partition
>for Solaris that is left open. The reason is Microsoft puts a marker at the
>end of the hard drive space.
Eh?
Quote:>This makes other O/S installation routines think your hard drive is full.
>This can be checked by using
>the windows defrager and you will see a block of black boxes near the end of
>the hard drive space.
>Another dirty trick by microsoft.
What on earth are you talking about? Please go and learn about
(Microsoft) PC partitions before you give advice to others!
If you want to just install Solaris, then you should be able to use the
"use entire disk" option. This will delete everything.
Otherwise you need something like Partition Magic, which allows you to
resize partitions (if there is enough free space) and to create new
partitions. What do you need? 2 partitions. PCs can have up to 4
partitions (not counting extended partitions, that's another story), so
you should be OK. Use PM to shrink your Windows partition. It will then
show you "unused space" before or after your Windows partition. My
advice is to use PM (or fdisk) to create an unformatted (primary)
partition - Solaris 7's fdisk is rubbish and can cause severe problems,
perhaps Solaris 8 is better, but I wouldn't bet on it [before anyone
jumps down my throat, Solaris 7 fdisk will happily create a partition
that does not sit on a cylinder boundary].
Then you should be able to install Solaris in the unformatted partition.
There are still 2 problems.
First, you'll need some sort of boot manager. The Solaris one ought to
do the job, though personally I use either NTs or Boot Magic.
Secondly, there are limitations on booting OSes due to PC BIOSes. This
means the OS should be within the first 1024 cylinders. This is very
complicated these days with new BIOS extensions and LBA, but suffice it
to say that if you have a 75G disk and you try to stick Solaris on the
last 10G it might very well not boot. For this reason, I tend to use
extended partitions (for data) or multiple disks.
Regards
Paul
--
Paul Floyd http://paulf.free.fr
What's the point? The sharp bit on the end.
by