Launch a User Shell From Solaris Install to Identify Network Interfaces by Logical and Physical Names

This topic explains how to launch a user shell during the Solaris installation to identify network interfaces by logical and physical names. It assumes you are referring to this topic from either:

Before You Begin

What to Do

  1. In the Install Type menu, select Option (6) Single User Shell and press Enter.

    If a message appears about mounting an OS instance, select q. You should not mount any OS instance.

    The message Starting shell appears, see the following figure.

  2. At the command prompt (#), type the following command to plumb all network interfaces.

    # ifconfig -a plumb

    Note

    The plumb process may take some time.

  3. At the command prompt, type the following command to output a list of all network interfaces by their Solaris logical name and physical MAC address name.

    # ifconfig -a

    The output of Solaris named interfaces and MAC addresses appear, for example see the following sample output.

    In the sample output above, the:

    • e1000g# entry in the first column refers to the Solaris logical named interface. This first column in the output identifies the logical names assigned by Solaris to the network interfaces.

    • ether #:#:#:#:#:# entry in second column (third row) refers to the physical MAC address name of the network port.

    For example:

    The physical MAC address for the Solaris named network interface e1000g0 is 0:14:4f:c:a1:ee.

  4. Do the following:

    1. Refer to the list of MAC addresses previously gathered as part of the Solaris OS Installation and Network Configuration Worksheet.

    2. Match each MAC address in the Configuration Worksheet with each associated entry in the ifconfig -a output.

    3. Record the Solaris network interface name next to the physical port MAC address previously recorded (per the Configuration Worksheet).

  5. When you are done, type exit at the command prompt.

    The Solaris Installation program will resume where you last left off.

    Refer to the next step in the installation process:

    • Step 5- Select Option (1) User Interactive - ("In the Install Type Menu, do one of the following:") (PXE installation).

    or