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Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Guide

Chapter 1 Configuring Devices

This chapter describes how to use Solaris 8 Intel Platform Edition Device Configuration Assistant software, manufacturers' device configuration media, and documentation to solve configuration problems. The next chapter contains Device Reference Pages and describes how to use them to configure your Intel 32-bit processor architecture (IA) system to run in the Solaris operating environment.

Identifying and Correcting Problems

Use the Solaris 8 Intel Platform Edition Device Configuration Assistant program to identify devices and the resources each device uses. If there is a problem, you must provide device names and resource parameters so the Configuration Assistant can pass this information to the Solaris kernel.

Physical Address Extension (PAE) Mode

With the release of Pentium Pro, Intel introduced a mode called PAE (physical address extension) on its advanced processors. By using PAE, Solaris Intel Platform Edition can address up to 32 Gbytes of physical memory. Individual processes are still limited to a maximum of 3.5 Gbytes of virtual address space.

PAE mode enables you to run multiple instances of databases and memory-intensive applications, and to support large numbers of online users on your machine.

It is best to use PCI disk controllers that support dual address cycle (DAC) in your machine because they can transfer data to and from any physical location. Other cards are limited to 4 Gbytes of physical memory; as a result, performance might slow down because the system needs to copy additional memory to transfer data.

Caution - Caution -

Some device drivers are not yet able to take advantage of PAE mode. PCI device drivers written by Sun have been tested on IA machines with more than 4 Gbytes of memory. Its OEM partners intend to test their machines with devices they supply on IA machines with more than 4 Gbytes of memory. In some cases, however, if you add a third-party device driver to your system, it might become unstable, and panics and data corruption might result. If your system becomes unstable and you need that driver, you must disable PAE mode.

Disabling PAE Mode

To disable support for PAE mode, follow these steps:

  1. Reboot your machine.

  2. Interrupt autoboot by pressing the Escape key.

    The Solaris Device Configuration Assistant starts.

  3. Press F2_Continue until the Boot Solaris screen is displayed.

  4. Press F4_Boot Tasks.

    The Boot Tasks screen is displayed.

  5. Select View/Edit Property Settings.

    The View/Edit Property Settings screen is displayed.

  6. Press F4_Create.

    The Create Property screen is displayed.

  7. In the Specify Property Name field, type mmu-modlist and press Enter.

  8. In the Specify Value field, type mmu32 and press Enter.

    The message "Updating Saved Configuration information..." is displayed on the Updating screen. When the property and value are saved successfully, the View/Edit Property Settings screen is displayed.

  9. Press F2_Back.

    The Boot Tasks screen is displayed.

  10. Press F3_Back.

    After drivers on your machine are loaded, the Boot Solaris screen is displayed.

  11. Continue booting your machine as you normally would.

ISA Devices

If your system hangs or resets when you scan for ISA devices, perform these tasks (in order, as explained in the next three sections) until you can successfully complete the scan.

Identifying a Problem With an Existing Device

  1. Consult the manufacturer's documentation. Ensure that the device is properly configured and does not conflict with other devices in the system.

  2. Boot the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant from the boot diskette or the installation CD.

  3. Select Specific Scan to identify the devices that are automatically detected.

  4. Select the device that you think caused the hang, and start the scan.

    • If the scan doesn't hang, the problem might be due to the order in which the devices were scanned. Go to Step 5.

    • If the scan hangs, there is probably a hardware conflict. Verify that the device is in your machine. Double check for conflicts by consulting the manufacturer's documentation for all installed hardware. Proceed to "Finding and Resolving Resource Conflicts".

  5. Scan for each remaining device in the system.

    If the hang is caused by a "software probe conflict," you might be able to prevent the hang by scanning for each device in a different order from the one used to scan for all devices.

  6. When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.

    • If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.

    • If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.

    • If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.

  7. Boot and install the Solaris software.

Finding and Resolving Resource Conflicts

  1. Boot the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant from the boot diskette or the installation CD.

  2. Select Specific Scan to identify only the automatically detected devices.

  3. Select each device in the system that did not cause the initial hang.

  4. Go to the Device Tasks menu, select View/Edit Devices, and examine the list of devices provided to determine if the problem device conflicts with another device.

    Note -

    This method might not work if a hardware conflict interferes with the ability of the device scan to correctly determine the configuration of a device.

    • If a conflict is found for a device that requires setting jumpers and switches, turn the system off, manually change settings for the problem device, turn the system on, boot the Configuration Assistant, and go to Step 5.

    • If a conflict is found for a device that requires a manufacturer's configuration utility, do the following:

    1. Insert the manufacturer's configuration utility diskette.

    2. Change device settings.

    3. Boot the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant from the boot diskette or the installation CD, and go to Step 5.

      If a conflict is not found, go to Step 2 in "Providing Information About the Device Manually". You don't have to reboot.

  5. Select Specific Scan.

  6. When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.

    • If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.

    • If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.

    • If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.

  7. Boot and install the Solaris software.

Providing Information About the Device Manually

  1. Boot the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant from the boot diskette or the installation CD.

  2. If all other devices have been found by selective scanning, select View/Edit Devices from the Device Tasks menu and manually add the name of the problem device.

    The program should warn you if there is a conflict.

  3. When the scan is successful, go to the Boot Solaris menu and select a device to boot from.

    • If you plan to boot or install from a CD-ROM, select CD.

    • If you plan to boot or install using the network and your machine is registered as a netinstall client, select NET.

    • If you plan to boot from the machine's installed hard disk, select DISK.

    Note -

    If the device hangs again when attempting to go the Boot Solaris menu or the device does not function, contact your support provider.

Unrecognized Devices

Issue

What to Do

How a known ISA or EISA device can be recognized by the Configuration Assistant software 

The I/O port address chosen for the unrecognized device might conflict with the I/O port adress of another system device. Provide nonconflicting address information for the unrecognized device using the system BIOS, the EISA configuration utility (ECU), or the configuration programs supplied by the hardware manufacturer. The Configuration Assistant uses that information to identify that device for the Solaris environment. 

Identifying ISA or EISA Devices--Sample Procedure

To set the configuration parameters for an ISA or EISA adapter, run the manufacturer's ECU. This utility must be run every time an ISA or EISA board is added, removed, or moved to a different bus slot. Although the function of this utility is standardized, implementations vary among manufacturers, each providing unique user interface screens or menus.

  1. Boot DOS.

    Note -

    Back up the board manufacturer's EISA configuration diskette before using it to configure your hardware.

  2. For each ISA or EISA add-in adapter to be configured, copy the EISA .cfg and .ovl configuration files from the board manufacturer's configuration diskette to the system EISA configuration diskette.

  3. Run the ECU.

    The program is called CF.EXE or CFG.EXE.

  4. For each device, set the appropriate configuration parameters and any special operating modes.

Autobooting

Issue

What to Do

How to recover if your machine fails to autoboot 

If you have a loopback serial cable between COM1 and COM2 with autobooting enabled, use the eeprom command to set one of the following properties:

eeprom com1-noprobe=true

or  

eeprom com2-noprobe=true

Using Manufacturers' Configuration Programs

Self-Identifying Plug and Play ISA Devices

Issue

What to Do

How to activate Plug and Play mode 

Set the switch to Plug and Play mode, and plug the device into the system. The software will configure it automatically. 

PCI Devices

Issue

What to Do

How to control the assignments of IRQs to PCI devices 

In the chipset configuration of the system, verify that an IRQ is enabled for PCI bus use. After checking IRQs used by ISA devices, assign as many available IRQs to PCI devices as possible so the PCI bus can resolve device conflicts. 

System BIOS

Issue

What to Do

How to use the system BIOS to change device settings 

Refer to the manufacturer's documentation for the method of accessing the BIOS setup for your system and the features it provides. 

How to set up a cachable region in system memory for American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) BIOS 

For the best performance, make the cachable region equal to the total memory installed in the system. 

 

Configuring Video Display Devices, Monitors, Keyboards, and Pointing Devices

The kdmconfig program attempts to identify and configure the hardware devices required for running the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) or other windowing system. These devices include the video controller, monitor, keyboard, and pointing device. kdmconfig is automatically run during system startup and if it detects that any of the required hardware has changed, it gives you the chance to test or change the new configuration. kdmconfig can also be run from the command line.

After all the required devices have been specified, kdmconfig lets you test the configuration by putting up a simple test display. Click Yes to accept the current configuration; otherwise, click No or press any key to reconfigure.

kdmconfig might not be able to properly identify some supported hardware devices. In these instances, use kdmconfig to manually specify the devices.

Ethernet Device Configuration

Duplex Settings

An Ethernet adapter and its link partner (such as a hub, switch, or another network adapter connected via a crossover cable) must operate at the same duplex settings.

Connector Types

Device Reference Pages specify the supported connector type where appropriate. All network devices are assumed to work at 10 Mbps only, unless otherwise specified in the Device Reference Pages. Following are network connectors and the media they support.

Connector  

Supported Media 

Comments 

Speed 

RJ-45 

10BASE-T 

Category-3 Twisted Pair cable 

10 Mbps 

RJ-45 

100BASE-TX 

Category-5 Twisted Pair cable 

100 Mbps 

BNC 

10BASE2 

Coax cable ("Thin" Ethernet cable) 

10 Mbps 

AUI 

10BASE5 

Shielded Twisted Pair ("Thick" Ethernet cable) 

10 Mbps 

100-Mbps Ethernet Performance

Some PCI motherboards contain DMA chipsets that are unable to support 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet. The Solaris environment does not support 100-Mbps PCI network operation on systems containing the slow chipsets. This problem affects PCI cards only.

These chipsets are known to exhibit this problem:

These chipsets do not exhibit this problem:

In particular, PCI cards supported by the dnet and iprb drivers don't perform well on machines with the problem chipsets. You must decide whether the performance on a particular machine is adequate for the intended purpose.

Postinstallation Configuration

Replacing a Network Card

If you replace your network adapter with one that uses a different network driver, before rebooting the second time, rename the /etc/hostname.olddriver0 file as follows:

# mv /etc/hostname.olddriver0 /etc/hostname.newdriver0
Note -

Any time you add, remove, or replace hardware, run the Configuration Assistant utility.

After renaming the driver, perform a reconfiguration boot for your changes to take effect: 

# touch /reconfigure
# reboot