What's New About Installing

The Solaris 7 environment introduces a number of changes in the way you install software on systems, which makes it different than installing the SunOS release 4 software. These include:

• The Solaris 7 software is distributed on compact disc (CD) only. This means you must have access to a CD-ROM drive before you can install the software. For systems without a local CD-ROM drive, you can set up a system that has a CD-ROM drive to act as an install server on the network. For more information about network installations, see Solaris Advanced Installation Guide.

• The Solaris 7 software is bundled into modules called packages. You can select which packages to install on your system and control the amount of space each installation requires.

  Also, related packages are grouped into clusters. This means that you can select a cluster to install without having to select each package separately.

• Solaris 7 installation also provides a set of software groups, which are groups of packages and clusters for typical users (for example, there is an end-user software group). You can select a software group to get systems running without selecting individual packages and clusters. This can be useful when you are first installing the Solaris 7 software in a limited environment for testing. You can add or remove packages later as you gain more experience with the system.

• The Solaris 7 environment includes architecture-specific kernels rather than the generic kernel configuration provided in earlier SunOS software releases. You will find the installed kernel in /kernel instead of /vmunix.

• The Solaris 7 installation program guides you step-by-step through the installation process.

• The Solaris 7 environment provides custom Solaris JumpStart^TM technology to automate installations. This can save time when you need to install many systems. For more information, see Solaris Advanced Installation Guide.