New Features in Solaris Express Developer Edition 5/07
Quagga Software Routing Suite
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Quagga Software Routing Suite delivers a set of IETF routing protocols for Solaris, including OSPF and BGP, allowing for high-availability deployment of Solaris through dynamic routing, manageable through SMF 'routeadm'.
Quagga is a community fork of the GNU Zebra software previously included in Solaris, providing many updates and some new features. For more information, see /etc/quagga/README.Solaris.
DHCPv6 Client
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Solaris OS supports Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6), as described in RFC 3315. DHCPv6 enables Solaris to acquire IPv6 addresses automatically from the local DHCP servers without manual configuration.
For more information, see the following man pages:
nwamd Network Auto-Configuration Daemon
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Developer 5/07 release booting process runs the nwamd daemon. This daemon implements an alternate instance of the SMF service, svc:/network/physical, which enables automated network configuration with minimal intervention.
The nwamd daemon monitors the Ethernet port and automatically enables DHCP on the appropriate IP interface. If no cable is plugged into a wired network, the nwamd daemon conducts a wireless scan and sends queries to the user for a WiFi access point to connect to.
Laptop users do not need to spend extensive amounts of time manually configuring the interfaces on their systems. Automatic configuration also aids system administrators, who can reconfigure network addresses with minimal intervention.
The OpenSolaris Network Auto-Magic Phase 0 page and nwamd man page contain further details, including instructions for turning off the nwamd daemon, if preferred. For more information and a link to the nwamd(1M) man page, see http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/phase0/.
Sendmail
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
There are some minor new options to sendmail(1M) and some new configuration macros described in /etc/mail/cf/README. The chief of these macros are the following three new FEATURE() macros, all of which are helpful in blocking unwanted spam:
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badmx
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require_rdns
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block_bad_helo
For information about sendmail, see the sendmail(1M) man page.
x86: Wireless WPA Supplicant
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Solaris WiFi driver has been enhanced to support WiFi Protected Access (WPA) personal mode. Starting with this release, a new service, network/wpa, is introduced. The nwam(1M), dladm(1M), net80211(5), and ath(7D) drivers are enhanced to support the WPA personal mode. Users can access the WPA wireless network by using dladm or nwam:
$ dladm create-secobj -c wpa mykey /* create a wpa psk specified by your AP */ |
$ dladm connect-wifi -e essid -k mykey |
x86: nge Driver Updated to Support Jumbo Framework
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the nge driver has been updated to enable Jumbo Frame support. The nge driver's default MTU has been raised to 9 Kbytes, that improves system performance and lowers CPU utilization significantly.
For more information, see the nge(7D) man page.
Sockets Direct Protocol
This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP) is a transport protocol layered over the Infiniband Transport Framework (IBTF). SDP is a standard implementation based on Annex 4 of the Infiniband Architecture Specification Vol1. SDP provides reliable byte-stream, flow controlled, two-way data transmission which is very similar to TCP.
For more information, see the sdp(7D) man page.
PPD File Management Utility
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file management utility, /usr/sbin/ppdmgr, manages PPD files that are used with the Solaris print subsystem.
By using the ppdmgr utility, you can perform the following tasks:
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Add a PPD file to a PPD file repository on a system
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Supply a label to group PPD files within a PPD file repository
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Update the cache of the PPD file information that is used by the Solaris Print Manager (printmgr) GUI to display supported printer information
You can add a new PPD file by using the ppdmgr utility or by using the lpadmin -n command. When you add a new PPD file, you automatically update the cache of the PPD file information that the printmgr GUI uses to display supported printer information.
Note –
The delivery location of PPD files in the Solaris OS has changed. During a software upgrade, any print servers with print queues that were defined by using PPD files from the previous PPD file delivery location, are automatically updated to reflect the new PPD file delivery location.
In addition, a new SMF service, print/ppd-cache-update, has been introduced. This service runs one time during system reboot to update the printer cache information with changes from all the PPD file repositories on the system. The service might take longer to transition to an online state during a system reboot after a software installation or upgrade. Also, if any changes were made to the PPD file repositories since the last PPD cache update, during system reboot, the service might take longer to come online. Changes made to the PPD file repositories on a system are not reflected in the PPD cache used by Solaris Print Manager until the print/ppd-cache-update service is online. The print/ppd-cache-update service is enabled by default.
For more information, see the following:
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ppdmgr(1M) man page
raidctl
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
raidctl is a utility that can perform RAID configuration work by using multiple RAID controllers. The raidctl feature contains more detailed information about RAID components, including controller, volume and physical disks. The raidctl utility enables the user to track the RAID system more closely and simplify the learning effort on diverse RAID controllers.
For more information, see:
x86: stmsboot Porting
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the stmsboot utility is ported to x86 systems. stmsboot is a utility that is used to enable or disable MPxIO for fibre-channel devices. This stmsboot utility already exists on SPARC systems.
Users can use this utility to enable or disable MPxIO automatically. Previously, users had to enable or disable MPxIO manually, which was difficult, especially for a SAN system boot.
For more information, see the following:
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stmsboot(1M) man page
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Section about Enabling or Disabling Multipathing on x86 Based Systems in Solaris Fibre Channel Storage Configuration and Multipathing Support Guide at http://docs.sun.com.
MPxIO Path Steering
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The MPxIO path steering feature includes a mechanism for issuing SCSI commands to an MPxIO LU to be delivered down a specified path to the LU. In order to provide this functionality, a new IOCTL command, MP_SEND_SCSI_CMD, is added and is referenced through the existing scsi_vhci IOCTL interface. An extension is introduced to the multipath management library (MP-API) which provides access to this new IOCTL command. This allows network administrators to run diagnostic commands through a specified path.
x86: GRUB Extended Support for Directly Loading and Booting the unix Kernel
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, changes have been made to GRUB that enable the boot loader to directly load and boot the unix kernel. The GRUB multiboot module is no longer used. This implementation integrates the previous multiboot functionality directly into the platform-specific unix kernel module. These changes reduce the time, as well as memory requirements, that are needed to boot the Solaris OS.
Other additions and modifications to GRUB based booting include:
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The addition of two new keywords, kernel$ and module$.
These keywords assist in the creation of menu.lst file entries that work with both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
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The bootadm command has also been modified to create GRUB menu.lst file entries that contain the platform-specific unix module, which is now loaded directly by GRUB.
During a software upgrade, the bootadm command converts any multiboot entries in the menu.lst file to directly refer to the unix kernel module. For more information, see the boot(1M) and bootadm(1M) man pages.
For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 11, Modifying Solaris Boot Behavior (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and Booting an x86 Based System by Using GRUB (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
SunVTS 7.0
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
SunVTSTM is a comprehensive system validation and test suite designed to support Sun hardware platforms and peripherals. SunVTS 7.0 is the next generation of SunVTS 6.0 and its compatible versions.
SunVTS 7.0 includes the following features:
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Introduction of the concept of purpose-based testing
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Improved diagnostics effectiveness
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Web-based user interface
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Simplified usage
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New architecture framework
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Enterprise View
SunVTS 7.0 follows a conventional three-tier architecture model. This model is composed of a browser-based user interface, a Java based middle server, and a diagnostic agent.
DTrace Enabled Control Block dcmd
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the ::dtrace_ecb dcmd to the modular debugger, mdb, enables a user to iterate over the Enabled Control Blocks (ECBs) for a given DTrace user. This feature enables easy access to the data structures related to a user's currently enabled probes.
Brand-Specific Handlers for zoneadm Commands
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The zoneadm(1M) command is modified to call an external program that performs validation checks against a specific zoneadm operation on a branded zone. The checks are performed before the specified zoneadm subcommand is executed. However, the external brand-specific handler program for zoneadm(1M) should be specified by the brand's configuration file, /usr/lib/brand/<brand_name>/config.xml. The external program is specified by the brand's configuration file by using the <verify_adm> tag.
To introduce a new type of branded zone, and list brand-specific handlers for the zoneadm(1M) subcommand, add the following line to the brand's config.xml file:
<verify_adm><absolute path to external program> %z %* %*</verify_adm> |
In this line, %z is the zone name, the first %*is the zoneadm subcommand, and the second %* is the subcommand's arguments.
This feature is useful when a given branded zone might not support all the zoneadm(1M) operations possible. Brand-specific handlers provide a way to gracefully fail unsupported zoneadm commands.
Ensure that the handler program that you specify recognizes all zoneadm(1M) subcommands.
x86: SATA AHCI HBA Driver
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The AHCI driver is a SATA framework-compliant HBA driver that supports various SATA HBA controllers that are compatible with the AHCI specification defined by Intel. Currently, the AHCI driver supports INTEL ICH6 and VIA vt8251 controllers, and hot-plugging functions.
For more information, see the ahci(7D) man page.
x86: Firmware Download Capability for SATA Drives
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
This feature provides firmware download capability for SATA drives under the SATA framework. System administrators can use the USCSI interface to update firmware on SATA disks.
x86: SCSI LOG SENSE Support Under SATA Module
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The SCSI LOG SENSE support feature provides the capability of obtaining the following information:
- SCSI LOG SENSE PAGES 0
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The available pages
- 0x10
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Self test results
- 0x2f
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Information Exception log
- 0x30
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SMART READ DATA
x86: Informational Exception Control Page
This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The SATA framework now supports the Informational Exception Control page. The Informational Exception Control page enables and disables Informational Exception reporting, which is necessary for device-health monitoring.
IP Instances: LAN and VLAN Separation for Non-Global Zones
This system resources enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
IP networking can now be configured in two different ways, depending on whether the zone is assigned an exclusive IP instance or shares the IP layer configuration and state with the global zone. IP types are configured by using the zonecfg command.
The shared-IP type is the default. These zones connect to the same VLANs or same LANs as the global zone and share the IP layer. lx branded zones are configured as Shared-IP zones. For more information, see x86: lx Branded Zones: Solaris Containers for Linux Applications.
Full IP-level functionality is available in an exclusive-IP zone. If a zone must be isolated at the IP layer on the network, then the zone can have an exclusive IP. The exclusive-IP zone can be used to consolidate applications that must communicate on different subnets that are on different VLANs or different LANs.
For more information, see the following:
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zonecfg(1M) man page
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zones(5) man page
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System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System
For configuration information, see Chapter 17, Non-Global Zone Configuration (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System and Chapter 18, Planning and Configuring Non-Global Zones (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System.
For information on feature components, see Chapter 26, Solaris Zones Administration (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System and Chapter 27, Administering Solaris Zones (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System.
Improved zonecfg Procedures for Creating Containers
This system resources enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
More integrated resource management and zones features now make it easier to leverage the resource-management capabilities of the system through the zonecfg command. The resource configuration you specify is automatically created for you when the zone boots. You no longer have to perform any manual steps related to setting up resource management.
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The zonecfg command can be used to configure resource management settings for the global zone.
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Zone-wide resource controls can be set by using global property names, the preferred method.
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The new zone.max-swap control provides swap capping for zones through the capped-memory resource.
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Additional methods for setting the default scheduler in a zone, including a new scheduling-class property, have been added.
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Resource pools have been enhanced. You can add a temporary pool that is created dynamically when a zone boots. The pool is configured through the dedicated-cpu resource.
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A clear subcommand is available to clear the value for optional settings.
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Enhanced physical memory capping from the global zone is available through improvements to rcapd(1M). Limits are configured through the capped-memory resource.
Note –This capability can be used to cap physical memory for lx branded zones and native zones. See x86: lx Branded Zones: Solaris Containers for Linux Applications.
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The resident set size (RSS) accounting was improved. Improvements have been made to rcapd, the resource capping daemon, and to the prstat command.
For more information, see the following:
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prstat(1M) man page
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rcapd(1M) man page
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zonecfg(1M) man page
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resource_controls(5) man page
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System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System
New projmod(1M) Option
This system resources enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Use the projmod command with the -A option to apply the resource control values found in the project database to the active project. Existing values that do not match the values defined in the project file, such as values set manually by prctl(1), are removed.
Solaris ZFS File System Enhancements
This section describes new ZFS features in the Solaris Express Developer Edition 5/07 release.
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Recursively renaming ZFS snapshots – You can recursively rename all descendant ZFS snapshots by using the zfs rename -r command.
For example, snapshot a set of ZFS file systems called users/home@today. Then, rename all the snapshots in one command the next day, as users/home/@yesterday.
Snapshots are the only dataset that can be renamed recursively.
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GZIP compression is available – You can set gzip compression on ZFS file systems in addition to lzjb compression. You can specify compression as gzip, the default, or gzip-N, where N equals 1 through 9. For example:
# zfs create -o compression=gzip users/home/snapshots # zfs get compression users/home/snapshots NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE users/home/snapshots compression gzip local # zfs create -o compression=gzip-9 users/home/oldfiles # zfs get compression users/home/oldfiles NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE users/home/oldfiles compression gzip-9 local
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Storing multiple copies of ZFS user data – As a reliability feature, ZFS file system metadata is automatically stored multiple times across different disks, if possible. This feature is known as ditto blocks.
Starting with this release, you can specify that multiple copies of user data is also stored per file system by using the zfs set copies command. For example:
# zfs set copies=2 users/home # zfs get copies users/home NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE users/home copies 2 local
Available values are 1, 2, or 3. The default value is 1. These copies are in addition to any pool-level redundancy, such as in a mirrored or RAID-Z configuration.
The benefits of storing multiple copies of ZFS user data are as follows:
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Improves data retention by allowing recovery from unrecoverable block read faults, such as media faults (bit rot) for all ZFS configurations.
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Provides data protection even in the case where only a single disk is available.
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Allows you to select data protection policies on a per-file system basis, beyond the capabilities of the storage pool.
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Improved storage pool status information (zpool status) – You can use the zpool status -v command to display a list of files with persistent errors. Previously, you had to use the find -inum command to identify the filenames from the list of displayed inodes.
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Sharing ZFS file system enhancements – The process of sharing file systems has been improved. Although modifying system configuration files, such as /etc/dfs/dfstab, is unnecessary for sharing ZFS file systems, you can use the sharemgr command to manage ZFS share properties. The sharemgr command enables you to set and manage share properties on share groups. ZFS shares are automatically designated in the zfs share group.
As in previous releases, you can set the ZFS sharenfs property on a ZFS file system to share a ZFS file system. For example:
# zfs set sharenfs=on tank/home
Or, you can use the new sharemgr add-share subcommand to share a ZFS file system in the zfs share group. For example:
# sharemgr add-share -s tank/data zfs # sharemgr show -vp zfs zfs nfs=() zfs/tank/data /tank/data /tank/data/1 /tank/data/2 /tank/data/3Then, you can use the sharemgr command to manage ZFS shares. The following example shows how to use sharemgr to set the nosuid property on the shared ZFS file systems. You must preface ZFS share paths with /zfs designation.
# sharemgr set -P nfs -p nosuid=true zfs/tank/data # sharemgr show -vp zfs zfs nfs=() zfs/tank/data nfs=(nosuid="true") /tank/data /tank/data/1 /tank/data/2 /tank/data/3 -
ZFS and Solaris iSCSI improvements – You can create a ZFS volume as a Solaris iSCSI target device by setting the shareiscsi property on the ZFS volume. This method is a convenient way to quickly set up a Solaris iSCSI target. For example:
# zfs create -V 2g tank/volumes/v2 # zfs set shareiscsi=on tank/volumes/v2 # iscsitadm list target Target: tank/volumes/v2 iSCSI Name: iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:984fe301-c412-ccc1-cc80-cf9a72aa062a Connections: 0After the iSCSI target is created, set up the iSCSI initiator. For information about setting up a Solaris iSCSI initiator, see Chapter 14, Configuring Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.
For more information about managing a ZFS volume as an iSCSI target, see the Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.
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ZFS property improvements
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ZFS xattr property – You can use the xattr property to disable or enable extended attributes for a specific ZFS file system. The default value is on.
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ZFS canmount property – You use the canmount property to specify whether a dataset can be mounted by using the zfs mount command.
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ZFS user properties – ZFS supports user properties, in addition to the standard native properties that can either export internal statistics or control ZFS file system behavior. User properties have no effect on ZFS behavior, but you can use them to annotate datasets with information that is meaningful in your environment.
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Setting properties when creating ZFS file systems – You can set properties when you create a file system, in addition to setting properties after the file system is created.
The following examples illustrate equivalent syntax:
# zfs create tank/home # zfs set mountpoint=/export/zfs tank/home # zfs set sharenfs=on tank/home # zfs set compression=on tank/home
# zfs create -o mountpoint=/export/zfs -o sharenfs=on -o compression=on tank/home
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Display all ZFS file system information – You can use various forms of the zfs get command to display information about all datasets if you do not specify a dataset. In previous releases, all dataset information was not retrievable with the zfs get command. For example:
# zfs get -s local all tank/home atime off local tank/home/bonwick atime off local tank/home/marks quota 50G local
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New zfs receive -F option – You can use the new -F option to the zfs receive command to force a rollback of the file system to the most recent snapshot before doing the receive. Using this option might be necessary when the file system is modified between the time a rollback occurs and the receive is initiated.
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Recursive ZFS snapshots – Recursive snapshots are available. When you use the zfs snapshot command to create a file system snapshot, you can use the -r option to recursively create snapshots for all descendant file systems. In addition, using the -r option recursively destroys all descendant snapshots when a snapshot is destroyed.
For more information about these enhancements, see the Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.
Thunderbird 2.0
Thunderbird 2.0 is a full-featured email, RSS, and newsgroup client developed by the Mozilla community. It provides functionality equivalent to the Mozilla mail and newsgroups features.
Firefox 2.0.0.3 Web Browser
This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Firefox 2.0.0.3 focuses on user interface innovations that help users in their common browsing tasks while interacting with search, bookmarks and history. Firefox 2.0.0.3 has improvements to tabbed browsing, RSS handling, managing extensions, security and performance.
gDesklets
This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
gDesklets provide an advanced architecture for desktop applets. The applets placed on the desktop are meant to help the user quickly retrieve information without hindering normal activity.
For more information, see:
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http://develbook.gdesklets.de/ for a tutorial about how to create gDesklets
Lightning
This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Lightning 0.3 feature includes the following new features:
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Local calendar
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CalDAV support
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WCAP 3.0 support
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Event or task recurrence
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Meeting arrangement
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Event View- Day View, Week View, Month View
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Event or task list view
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Basic handling of events received in email
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Event or task alarms
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Calendar import and export
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Localization support
Battery Charge Monitor
This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The battery charge monitor is an applet for the GNOME panel. If the battery is available on a machine, the battery charge monitor displays the status of the battery, including the remaining charge and time. If the battery is not available, the monitor shows an AC adapter icon in the system tray.
The battery charge monitor also notifies users when the battery is fully charged or is about to lose charge. The applet for the battery charge monitor ensures that customers are notified before their laptops lose power. Thus, serious loss of data can be prevented.
Subversion Source Code Management System
This developer tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Subversion source code management system is included in Solaris. Subversion is a popular source code management system which is used by many open-source projects. This system is also being used in OpenSolaris development.
The Subversion feature provides Solaris users the needed tool to participate in the development of open-source projects. For more information about Subversion, see http://subversion.tigris.org/.
GNU-diffutils
This developer tools enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Developer 5/07 release includes GNU utilities for comparing and merging files. For more information, see http://gnu.org/software/diffutils.
PostgreSQL 8.2
This database software enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
This feature is the latest version of the PostgreSQL Open Source relational database system. PostgreSQL 8.2 for Solaris now includes Kerberos 5 support and embedded DTrace probes.
For a comprehensive list of features and enhancements in this release, see http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/release-8-2.html. For more information about PostgreSQL , see http://www.postgresql.org.
64-bit SPARC: CPU Power Management
This device management enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
This feature introduces two new power.conf keywords to permit CPU devices to be power managed independently of automatic power management. These are the new power.conf keywords:
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cpupm
Usage:
cpupm <behavior>
Here, the behavior is enable or disable.
For backward compatibility, if the cpupm keyword is not present in the /etc/power.conf file, the CPUs are power managed if autopm is enabled, and not power managed if autopm is disabled. enable or disable are independent of the autopm setting.
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cpu-threshold
Usage:
cpu-threshold <threshold>
This keyword enables the user to specify a threshold which will apply to any power-manageable CPU, independent of the system-threshold value.
If CPU power management is enabled, the power level of any CPU that is idle for the specified threshold time is reduced to the next lower level.
If cpu-threshold is absent, system threshold is used.
For more information, see the power.conf(4) man page.
Enhanced st SCSI Reservations
This device management enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, there is a new reservation mechanism in the st driver. The new mechanism enables the st driver to reserve the tape drive only when a command that requires reservations is sent. The reservation mechanism also enables the st driver to process inquiry commands issued from other hosts while the drive is reserved by a different host.
Some of Independent Software Vendor's (ISV's) backup software and media management tools benefit from the enhanced st SCSI reservations feature. Because of this new feature, management tools could inquire and browse tape libraries when the backup tool is reading or writing tapes.
dtlogin Language Selection Overhaul
This X11 windowing enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
CDE currently lists the cryptic locale names in the form of a cascade menu in the login screen. The dtlogin language selection overhaul feature delivers a more user-friendly language-oriented login list. CDE has a feature to remember the per display default login language name. For SunRay environments, you can use an X resource to disable displays from remembering the login language.
For more information, see the dtlogin man page.
Xorg X11R7.2 Server and Drivers
This X11 windowing enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Xorg server for the X11 window system, the associated graphics, and the input device drivers, have been upgraded to the X11R7.2 release. The X11R7.2 release includes the Xorg server version 1.2. This release also adds 64-bit versions of the Xorg server for both x64 and SPARC platforms, though drivers for common SPARC graphics devices are not yet available for Xorg.
This release also includes the Xephyr nested X server and the Xorg version of Xvfb, both of which are installed in the /usr/X11/bin directory. This version of Xorg no longer supports the Low Bandwidth X (LBX) extension. The use of the X tunneling and compression features of ssh(1) is suggested for sites that need X displays across extremely bandwidth-limited network links.
Japanese Font Update
This language support enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Japanese HG font has been updated to be compliant with JISX0213:2004.
More Japanese iconv Modules for Unicode
This language support enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the following two types of codeset conversions between the Unicode and Japanese codesets have been added:
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In conversion from or to eucJP, PCK (SJIS), and ms932, iconv now supports UTF-16, UCS-2, UTF-32, UCS-4 and their fixed endian variants, such as UTF-16BE and UTF-16LE, in addition to UTF-8.
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iconv now supports codeset name eucJP-ms to provide conversion between Japanese EUC and Unicode in the same way as Windows. All Unicode encoding variants mentioned previously, are also supported with eucJP-ms.
For more information, see the iconv_ja(5) man page.
Input Method Switcher Enhancement and EMEA Keyboard Layout Emulation Support
This language support enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The input method switcher application, gnome-im-switcher-applet, is replaced with a stand-alone GTK+ application, iiim-panel. iiim-panel now starts and resides on the GNOME panel automatically when you log in to the Java DS in UTF-8 or Asian locales. iiim-panel can also run in the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).
IIIMF supports language engines that emulate the EMEA keyboard layout such as French, Polish or Dutch.
For more information, see the online help of the input method preference editor (iiim-properties).
x86: Concurrent FPDMA READ/WRITE QUEUED Under SATA Module
This device driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, concurrent READ/WRITE FPDMA QUEUED commands are supported. There is considerable performance enhancement when performing I/O operations using the Solaris marvell88sx driver under specific workload conditions. Other workloads benefit to a smaller degree. There is also significant performance enhancement under many workloads for drives that support this optional portion of the SATA specification.
ACM Driver of USB Communication Device Class
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the usbsacm driver supports USB modems that conform to the specification for the Universal Serial Bus Communication Device Class Abstract Control Model (USB CDC ACM). You can attach the usbsacm driver with your mobile phone, PCMCIA cards, or any modem-like devices. The usbsacm driver generates term nodes under /dev/term/. You can then use pppd(1M) to transmit datagrams over these serial ports.
Enhanced USB EHCI Host Controller Driver
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Enhanced USB EHCI host controller driver provides isochronous transfer support for USB 2.0 or high speed isochronous devices.
For more information, see the usb_isoc_request(9S) man page.
USCSI LUN Reset Support
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
This feature is to supply the logical unit number (LUN) reset support by uscsi commands. Users can use LUN reset commands with uscsi_flags set as USCSI_RESET_LUN with this feature.
x86: Solaris Audio Driver for ATI IXP400
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The audioixp driver is the Solaris audio driver for the ATI IXP400 Southbridge chipset from ATI Corporation. The ATI IXP400 chipset includes an embedded AC97 audio controller. This chipset is widely adopted by many motherboard vendors, for example, the new Ferrari4000 model. The audioixp driver follows the Solaris Audio Driver Architecture (SADA) framework.
pcwl and pcan Drivers
These driver enhancements are new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The pcwl driver is used for Wavelan and Prism II 802.11b devices. The pcan driver is for Aironet 802.11b devices. These two drivers have been used by internal users through frkit.
ipw and iwi Drivers
These driver enhancements are new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, two wireless drivers are provided: the ipw or the Intel Pro Wireless 2100b driver and the iwi or the Intel Pro Wireless 2200bg/2915abg driver. These drivers increase the coverage of WiFi support in Solaris and improve the user's WiFi experience. For more information on WiFi drivers, see the Laptop community at http://opensolaris.org/os/community/laptop/.
USB Video Class Driver
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The USB video class driver, usbvc, supports web cameras that are compliant with the USB video class specifications at http://www.usb.org/home. The usbvc driver supports the following web cameras: :
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Logitech Quickcam Ultra Vision
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Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000
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Logitech Quickcam Fusion
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Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP
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Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks
The usbvc driver, enables a few video applications, for example, the video conference application, Ekiga.
For more information, see the usbvc(7D) man page.
MPxIO Extension for Serial Attached SCSI Devices on mpt(7D)
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The mpt driver has been enhanced to support MPxIO with supported storage devices. When MPxIO is enabled for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and SATA devices, they are enumerated under scsi_vhci(7D) just like fibre channel devices under fp(7D).
Starting with this release, stmsboot(1M) has also been enhanced to support multipathed SAS devices. stmsboot(1D) operates on all attached and multipath-capable controllers by default.
If you wish to only enable multipathing on fp or mpt controllers then you can use the new flag which has been added to restrict operations. The command, /usr/sbin/stmsboot -D mpt -e, will enable MPxIO only on attached mpt controllers. Replacing mpt with fp in this command will make stmsboot enable MPxIO only on attached fp controllers.
HP LTO-4 Tape Drive Support
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Solaris OS supports the HP LTO-4 tape drive.
IBM LTO-4 Tape Drive Support
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Solaris OS supports the IBM LTO-4 tape drive.
x86: Support for Lucent/Agere Venus Internal PCI Modems
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
The Solaris serial port driver is enhanced to support internal PCI modems based on the Lucent/Agere Venus chipset. These 56–Kbyte modems appear as ordinary serial ports in Solaris.
For more information, see the asy(7D) man page.
SPARC: ntwdt Driver for UltraSPARC-T1 (Niagara) Systems
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with release, there is a user-programmable watchdog timer on sun4v platforms that supports backward compatibility. The user can manipulate the Application Watchdog Timer through IOCTLs provided by the backward compatible ntwdt pseudo driver.
Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI Controllers
This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 5/07 release.
Starting with this release, the Ultra320 SCSI HBA with PCI Express interface from Adaptec can run in native MSI interrupt mode and not in legacy fix mode.
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