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What's New in the Solaris 9 9/04 Operating Environment

Chapter 1 What's New in Solaris 9 Releases

The current Solaris 9 release is the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

This chapter summarizes new and enhanced features in the following Solaris releases:

For a summary of enhancements that were previously made available in the Solaris 9 release (originally distributed in May 2002), see Chapter 2, Features in the Solaris 9 Release.

Two important announcements are included in this chapter. Sun Microsystems announces new AMD Opteron servers and workstations. See New AMD Opteron Servers and Workstations. See also Sun Java Enterprise System Joins Solaris. Sun Java Enterprise System includes Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) products.

All of the features in the Solaris 9 9/04 release pertain to both UltraSPARC systems and x86 systems unless otherwise noted. In this document the term x86 refers to the Intel 32-bit family of microprocessors and compatible 64-bit and 32-bit microprocessors made by AMD. Many more x86 systems now run Solaris software, as the Solaris Hardware Compatibility List shows. See http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

New Features by Solaris Release

This overview lists all the new features that are described in this chapter. For your reference, this list is sorted by release. Descriptions of these features are provided in the remaining sections of this chapter.

Solaris 9 9/04 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

The description for USB 2.0 Device Features and Compatibility Issues has been revised in the Solaris 9 9/04 release. In addition, see New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 9/04 Release.

Solaris 9 4/04 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The following USB feature descriptions are new or have been revised in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

Solaris 9 12/03 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

Sun ONE Application Server Integration has been revised in this release.

Solaris 9 8/03 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

The following features have been revised in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris 9 4/03 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The following features have been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Solaris 9 12/02 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

Solaris 9 9/02 Release

The following features are new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

New AMD Opteron Servers and Workstations

Sun Microsystems introduces the following new AMD Opteron Servers and Workstations:

Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z Servers

The Sun FireTM V20z server is an AMD Opteron processor-based, enterprise-class one-rack-unit (1U), two-processor (2P) server. The Sun Fire V40z server is also an AMD Opteron processor-based server, but is a three-rack-unit (3U), four-processor (4P) server.

The AMD Opteron processor implements the x86 64-bit architecture which delivers significant memory capacity and bandwidth.

These servers include an embedded Service Processor (SP), flash memory, RAM, a separate Ethernet interface, and server-management software. The servers are equipped with server-management tools for greater control and minimum total cost of ownership. You can use the command-line interface (CLI), SNMP integration with third-party frameworks, or IPMI to configure and manage the platform with the SP. The dedicated SP provides operating-system independence and maximum availability of server management.

For further information, visit the product web sites at: http://www.sun.com/v20z/ and http://www.sun.com/v40z/.

These product web sites also include links to extensive documentation for these new products.

Sun Java Workstations W1100z and W2100z

The Sun Java Workstation W1100z and the Sun Java Workstation W2100z are AMD Opteron processor-based systems. These workstations come with one or two AMD 64 Opteron processors that are preinstalled on the onboard AMD socket 940 receptacles. A maximum of 16 Gbytes of dual-channel registered ECC 400 DDR SDRAM is available for the two-processor system (four DIMMs per processor). The harddrive capacity includes one or two internal PATA-100 80–Gbyte hard drives, or as many as five 73–Gbyte Ultra 320 SCSI hard drives.

These workstations are equipped with one AGP-8x/Pro slot for high-end graphics cards, one 133 MHz slot, and four 100 MHz PCI-X slots. The workstations also include a Gigabit Ethernet interface, two IEEE 1394 interfaces, five USB 2.0 interfaces, and industry-standard audio interfaces.

For further information, see the product web sites at: http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/w2100z/index.xml and http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/w1100z/index.xml.

These product web sites also include links to extensive documentation for these new products.

File System Enhancements

The Solaris 9 9/04 release has UFS enabled by default. Prior Solaris 9 releases included the following file system enhancements:

UFS Logging Enabled by Default

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

Logging is now enabled by default for all UFS file systems except under the following conditions:

In previous Solaris releases, you had to enable UFS logging manually.

UFS logging packages into a transaction the multiple metadata changes that compose a complete UFS operation. Sets of transactions are recorded in an on-disk log, and then applied to the actual UFS file system's metadata.

UFS logging provides two advantages:

For more information, see UFS Logging Is Enabled by Default in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems. See also the mount_ufs(1M) man page.

Enhancements to the NFS Client

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The following enhancements have improved the performance of the NFS client:

Multiterabyte UFS File Systems

Multiterabyte UFS file system support is available only for systems that run a 64-bit kernel. This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

This Solaris release provides support for multiterabyte UFS file systems on systems that run a 64-bit Solaris kernel. Previously, UFS file systems were limited to approximately 1 terabyte (Tbyte) on both 64-bit systems and 32-bit systems. All UFS file system commands and utilities have been updated to support multiterabyte UFS file systems.

You can initially create a UFS file system that is less than one Tbyte. You can specify that the file system can eventually be grown to a multiterabyte file system by using the newfs -T command. This command sets the inode and fragment density to scale appropriately for a multiterabyte file system.

Support for a multiterabyte UFS file system assumes the availability of multiterabyte LUNs. These LUNS are provided as Solaris Volume Manager or Veritas VxVM volumes, or as physical disks that are greater than one Tbyte.

Features of multiterabyte UFS file systems include the following:

Limitations of multiterabyte UFS file systems include the following:

For more information, see What’s New in File Systems in the Solaris 9 Update Releases? in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

Multiterabyte Volume Support With EFI Disk Labels

This multiterabyte disk support is available only for systems that run a 64-bit kernel. This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

This Solaris release provides support for disks that are larger than 1 terabyte (Tbyte) on systems that run a 64-bit Solaris kernel.

The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) label provides support for physical disks and virtual disk volumes. The UFS file system is compatible with the EFI disk label, and you can create a UFS file system that is greater than 1 Tbyte. This release also includes updated disk utilities for managing disks that are greater than 1 Tbyte.

The EFI disk label differs from the VTOC disk label in the following ways:

For more information on using the EFI disk label, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration. This guide contains important information and restrictions that apply to using the EFI disk label with existing software products.

The Solaris Volume Manager software can also be used to manage disks greater than 1 Tbyte in this Solaris release. See Multiterabyte Volume Support in Solaris Volume Manager.

System Administration Tools

The Solaris 9 9/04 release provides enhancements to the Solaris Volume Manager. System administration features from prior releases include the following:

Multi-Owner Disk Set Support With Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster introduces volume management features that work specifically with Sun Cluster and with applications such as Oracle9i Real Application Clusters. Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster enables you to create and manage storage that is grouped into multi-owner disk sets. A multi-owner disk set enables multiple nodes to share ownership of a disk set. Multi-owner disk sets provide scalability because an instance of the application runs on each node in the cluster. Since each instance of the application directly accesses the shared storage, multi-owner disk sets also enhance the performance of the application.

For more information, see the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide. For information on Sun Cluster, see http://www.sun.com/software/cluster/.

Expanded Disk Set Support in the Solaris Volume Manager

The feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

The Solaris Volume Manager has expanded the functionality of device IDs. In addition to tracking movement in local sets, the Solaris Volume Manager now also automatically tracks disk movement within named disk sets. This device ID support also enables two hosts to share access nonconcurrently to disk sets, even with dissimilar views of accessible raw storage.

The Solaris Volume Manager has also been enhanced with the metaimport command. This command uses the expanded device ID support to enable you to import disk sets, even disk sets that were created on different systems.

See the metaimport(1M) man page for further information.

Top-Down Volume Creation in Solaris Volume Manager

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The top-down volume creation feature of Solaris Volume Manager provides a new command that enables system administrators to quickly and easily create quality of service-based Solaris Volume Manager configurations. Rather than manually partitioning disks, creating stripes, and assembling mirrors, the metassist command manages the details and provides functional logical volumes. The volumes are based on the criteria that are specified at the command line or in referenced configuration files.

For further information, see the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Signed Packages and Patches

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

This Solaris release enables you to securely download Solaris packages and patches that include a digital signature by using the updated pkgadd and patchadd commands. A package or a patch with a valid digital signature ensures that the package or patch has not been modified after the signature was applied to the package or patch.

In previous Solaris releases, you could only add signed patches to your system if you used the Solaris patch management tools with PatchPro 2.1.

Additional software management features in this Solaris release include the following:

A signed package is identical to an unsigned package except for the signature. The package can be installed, queried, or removed with existing Solaris packaging tools. A signed package is also binary-compatible with an unsigned package.

Before you can add a package or patch with digital signatures to your system, you must set up a keystore with trusted certificates that are used to identify that the digital signature on the package or patch is valid.

For information about setting up the package keystore and adding signed packages or patches to your system, see the Adding and Removing Signed Packages (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

For information about booting and retrieving Solaris installation images from an HTTP or an HTTPS server, see WAN Boot Installation Method.

NIS-to-LDAP Transition Service

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The NIS-to-LDAP transition service can be used to enable a network transition from using NIS to using LDAP as the primary naming service. By using this transition service, administrators can utilize the bundled Sun ONE Directory Server, which works with LDAP naming service clients.

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).

BIND 8.3.3

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

For this Solaris release, the version of BIND is 8.3.3. DNS clients can now connect to IPv6 DNS servers by using IPv6 transport.

Multiterabyte Volume Support in Solaris Volume Manager

Multiterabyte volume support is available only for systems that run a 64-bit kernel. This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Solaris Volume Manager has been enhanced with multiterabyte volume support. With this support, the Solaris Volume Manager can create, manage, and delete large (>1Tbyte) RAID-0 (stripe), RAID-1 (mirror), RAID-5, and soft-partition volumes. In addition, this large volume support enables Solaris Volume Manager to construct volumes on large or EFI-labeled logical unit numbers (LUNs).

Solaris Volume Manager large volume support is not available for systems that run a 32-bit Solaris kernel. For example, systems that run the Solaris software (x86 Platform Edition) or the Solaris software with the SPARC 32-bit kernel cannot use large volume support.

For further information, see the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

See also Multiterabyte Volume Support With EFI Disk Labels.

Reconfiguration Coordination Manager Support in Solaris Volume Manager

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Reconfiguration Coordination Manager (RCM) support adds to Solaris Volume Manager the ability to respond appropriately to dynamic reconfiguration (DR) requests. This addition ensures that removal of devices under Solaris Volume Manager control is blocked with an appropriate warning. This block remains in effect until the devices are no longer in use. This warning prevents system administrators from accidentally removing active volumes from a DR-configured system.

For further information, see the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Solaris Patch Update Feature

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

You can use the Update option of the Solaris Management Console's Patches Tool to analyze, download, and install recommended patches from the SunSolve OnlineSM Web site. Or, the smpatch update command can be used for this purpose.

This Solaris update feature was previously only available for systems that run the Solaris 2.6, Solaris 7, or Solaris 8 releases.

You must install the PatchPro 2.1 software on your system before running the update feature. Download the PatchPro 2.1 packages from http://www.sun.com/patchpro. Then follow the instructions to install the software on your system.

For more information, see the smpatch(1M) man page.

Combine Data Address and Test Address for Single IP Network Multipathing Group

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The use of a dedicated test IP address for failure detection on single-adapter IP network multipathing groups is no longer required. Sometimes, failover is not possible because only one network interface card (NIC) is in an IP network multipathing group. In this situation, you can now combine the test address and the data address. The in.mpathd daemon uses a data address to detect failure when a test address is not specified.

For further information on Solaris IP multipathing, see the IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide.

Device Management

The Solaris 9 9/04 release includes expanded printer support, new mouse features, and improved compatibility with USB 1.1 devices. Device management features from prior releases include the following:

Expanded Printer Support

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

In this release, modifications have been made to incorporate support for a wide array of printers. This is accomplished through the use of additional transformation software, raster image processor (RIP), and PostScriptTM Printer Description (PPD) files.

These additions provide functionality that enables you to print to printers, such as the Lexmark Optra E312 and Epson Stylus Photo 1280, by using PPD files.

This feature is useful in an environment where printers do not have resident PostScript processing capabilities.

In addition, the existing Solaris printing tools have been modified to include a new -n option to the lpadmin command. With this option, you can designate a PPD file to use when creating a new print queue or when modifying an existing print queue.

Also, the Solaris Print Manager screens have been updated to enable you to choose a PPD file for the printer queue through the selection of make, model, and driver. This new feature differs greatly from previous Solaris software releases. In previous releases, the provided list of printer types, and information about whether the printer accepted PostScript or ASCII text, was limited.

For more information, see the lpadmin(1M) man page and the System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration.

Wheel Mouse Support

The following mouse features are supported in the Solaris 9 9/04 release:

USB 2.0 Device Features and Compatibility Issues

Note –

In the Solaris 9 9/04 release only, USB 1.1 devices will operate on USB 2.0 hubs that are connected to 2.0 ports. [This configuration was not available in prior releases.]

This feature description is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release and applies to both x86 platforms and SPARC platforms.

USB 2.0 devices are defined as high-speed devices that follow the USB 2.0 specification. You can refer to the USB 2.0 specification at http://www.usb.org.

Some of the USB devices that are supported on SPARC based and x86 based systems in this Solaris release are as follows:

For a full listing of USB devices that have been verified on the Solaris release, go to:

http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/usb.html

Additional storage devices might work by modifying the scsa2usb.conf file. For more information, see the scsa2usb(7D) man page.

Solaris USB 2.0 device support includes the following features:

For more information about USB 2.0 device support, see the ehci(7D) and usba(7D) man pages.

For information about USB cables and bus-powered devices, see About USB in the Solaris Environment in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

USB Dual Framework

This feature description is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release. This feature is available for x86 platforms and SPARC platforms.

The USBA framework, found in the Solaris 9 12/03 release, was originally developed for USB 1.1 devices. A new framework, called USBA 1.0, was created to meet the more demanding requirements of USB 2.0 devices. The framework operates USB 1.1 devices as well. This Solaris release provides both frameworks, as a dual framework. The purpose of the dual framework is to facilitate a smoother transition from the original framework to the newer framework. The original USBA framework operates devices that are connected to a system's USB 1.1 ports, while the new USBA 1.0 framework operates devices that are connected to a system's USB 2.0 ports.

All Sun motherboard ports are USB 1.1 ports, while most PCI card ports support USB 2.0.

For specific details about how the USB dual framework works, go to http://www.sun.com/desktop/whitepapers.html.

For information about USB dual framework compatibility issues with the USB dual framework, see What’s New in USB Devices? in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

USB 2.0 Features

The Solaris 9 4/04 release includes the following USB 2.0 features, available for both x86 and SPARC platforms:

For a description of USB devices and terminology, see Overview of USB Devices in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

Solaris Support for USB Devices

This feature description is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release and is available for x86 platforms and SPARC platforms.

The following table describes Solaris support for USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices.

 

Solaris 8 HW* Releases 

Solaris 9 Releases 

Solaris 9 4/04 Release 

USB 1.1 

SPARC and x86 

SPARC and x86 

SPARC and x86 

USB 2.0 

SPARC 

N/A 

SPARC and x86 

Note –

Solaris 8 HW does not describe the Solaris 8 releases, but the Solaris 8 Hardware (HW) releases, starting with the Solaris 8 HW 5/03 release. The patch number for the USB dual framework that is found in the Solaris 8 HW 5/03 release is 109896.

For information about USB support on Sun hardware, see Chapter 7, Using USB Devices (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

USB Mass Storage Devices

This feature description has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/04 release. These features are now available for x86 platforms and SPARC platforms.

All USB storage devices are now accessed as removable media devices through volume management. This change has the following advantages:

For more information about using USB mass storage devices, see the scsa2usb(7D) man page.

For information about troubleshooting USB mass storage device problems, see What’s New in USB Devices? in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

USB Driver Enhancements

This section describes USB driver enhancements in the Solaris 9 4/04 release. These enhancements are available for x86 and SPARC platforms.

EHCI and OHCI Drivers

This feature description is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

Features of the EHCI driver include the following:

If you have both USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 or 1.1 devices on your system, the EHCI and OHCI drivers hand-off device control, depending on the type of device that is connected to the system.

Language Support Enhancements

The Solaris 9 9/04 release introduces the locale administrator feature and new Solaris Unicode locales. Language support features from prior releases include the following:

Locale Administrator

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

Locale administrator allows the user to query and configure the locales for a Solaris OS through a command-line interface. By using the localeadm tool, a user can display information about locale packages that are installed on the system or that reside on a particular device or directory. The user can add and remove locales on the current system on a per-region basis. For example, the user can add all locales in the Eastern European region to the current system. See the localeadm(1M) man page.

Prior to this feature's introduction, after a system was installed the user had to add or remove individual packages to change the locales on the machine. This process is prone to error because it is easy to miss or overlook packages. This tool is a supplement to the locale selection logic in the Solaris installer. The installer is still the primary application for the correct installation of Solaris locales.

New Solaris Unicode Locales

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

The following new Unicode locales have been added to Solaris:

The new locales are available from system login.

Code Conversions for Internationalized Domain Name Support

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) enables the use of non-English native language names as host and domain names. To use such non-English host and domain names, application developers must convert the names into ASCII Compatible Encoding (ACE) names in their applications as specified in the RFC 3490. System administrators are also required to use ACE names in system files and applications where the system administration applications do not yet support the IDNs.

This feature aids in the conversion by providing the conversion API with various supported option arguments. Refer to the following man pages for more detail:

Standard Type Services Framework

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The Standard Type Services Framework (STSF) is a pluggable, object-based architecture that allows users to access typographically sophisticated text layout and rendering. The pluggable architecture of the framework gives users the ability to use different font rasterization engines and text layout processors to achieve the desired visual representation. The pluggable architecture also manages fonts and enables application-specific fonts to be created. STSF includes both a standalone API and an X server extension to handle rendering on the server side for improved efficiency. STSF is an open source project that is sponsored by Sun Microsystems.

For more information about the project and how to use the API, see http://stsf.sourceforge.net.

Common Transliteration-based Input Method for All Indian languages

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

Users who operate within any Unicode (UTF-8) locale in the Solaris software can now easily and intuitively input characters from Indian regional languages. Users who interact with CDE applications, StarOffice, or Mozilla can more easily interact with Indian scripts. After selecting the transliteration-based input method (IM), users can type phonetic equivalents of Indian language scripts in English. These equivalents are then displayed in the script that is selected, and are correctly shaped and rendered with the help of an underlying layout and shaper module. As transliteration is the most commonly used input method to input Indian languages, this support can greatly enhance the usability of the eight Indian scripts that are provided in the Solaris software.

Unicode Version 3.2 Support

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris Unicode locales now support the Unicode Version 3.2. The Unicode Version 3.2 introduces 1016 new characters. This version also includes both normative changes and informative changes, as described in the Unicode Standard Annex #28: UNICODE 3.2 at the following Web site:

http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr28/

The UTF-8 character representation has been changed to a more secure form as specified in the Unicode Version 3.2. This feature implements the more secure UTF-8 character representation, form, and byte sequences in UTF-8 related iconv code conversions. This feature also implements all OS-level multibyte and wide character functions, such as the following:

Additional Keyboard Support

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Software support for three additional keyboards has been added to the Solaris 9 4/03 release: Estonian keyboard Type 6, French-Canadian keyboard Type 6, and Polish programmer's keyboard Type 5. This software support gives users in Canada, Estonia, and Poland greater flexibility for keyboard input. The support modifies standard U.S. keyboard layouts to different language needs.

Refer to the Solaris 9 4/03 Release Notes for instructions.

Wubi Input Method

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The Wubi input method (IM) is widely used in China. The encoding rule for Wubi IM is based on the radical or stroke shape of Chinese characters. Users can rapidly type Chinese characters through a standard keyboard rather than through slower, phonetic-based input methods.

Input Method Support for Indic

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Input support for Indian regional language keyboards has been added to the Solaris software. Indic language users can type Indic language characters by using their preferred keyboard layouts in the Solaris software.

Seven Additional Indic Scripts for Support in Unicode Locales

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

In addition to the current support for Hindi, the following Indic scripts are supported in this Solaris release:

Speakers of these Indian regional languages have language support in the Solaris software for any of the Unicode locale environments that Solaris supports.

Development Tool Enhancements

The Solaris 9 9/04 release includes changes to the makecontext() function. Prior Solaris 9 releases included the following enhancements for development tools:

Changes to makecontext() Function

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

The semantics of the uc_stack member of the ucontext_t structure have changes as they apply to inputs to the makecontext() libc library function. Binary compatibility is preserved between previous versions of Solaris and Solaris 10.

Applications that use this interface must be updated before they are recompiled. See the makecontext(3C) man page for further information.

SPARC: Locality Groups

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The Programming Interfaces Guide now includes a chapter that explains the interfaces that interact with locality groups (lgroups). These interfaces can be used to help an application efficiently allocate CPU and memory resources. This capability results in improved performance on some systems.

Linkers and Libraries Updates

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

See Appendix D, New Linker and Libraries Features and Updates, in Linker and Libraries Guide for the most current updates. This manual describes new linker-editor features in the Solaris 9 system, such as string table compression, unreferenced section elimination, and unreferenced dependency detection.

Smart Card Interfaces

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris smart card interfaces are a set of public interfaces for Smart Card Terminals. Card-terminal vendors can implement these interfaces in a user-level shared library to provide device-level support for their smart card terminals in Solaris. The set of Solaris smart card terminal interfaces is based on card terminal interfaces that are available as part of the Linux Smartcard framework. Card terminal support libraries from Linux can be ported to Solaris with minimum effort.

Stack Check APIs

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Stack Check APIs allow for advanced interaction with stack-checking compiler support. Stack-checking compiler support is available in ForteTM 7.0. These APIs should be used in applications that are compiled with stack checking enabled. These are applications that manage their own stacks or attempt to detect their own stack overflows.

Developers who maintain their own thread library need to use the setustack interface to enable consumers of their library to compile with stack checking enabled.

See the stack_getbounds(3C), stack_setbounds(3C), stack_inbounds(3C), and stack_violation(3C) man pages.

Memory Allocation With libumem

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

libumem is a user-mode (nonkernel mode) memory allocator library. libumem has features that enable you to debug memory leaks and other aberrations that involve memory usage.

This feature is used in the same way that a standard application binary interface (ABI) allocator, such as malloc(), is used. A user-mode application requests an arbitrary number of bytes of memory. Then a pointer is returned that is loaded with the address of the allocated memory.

For further information, see the libumem(3LIB) man page.

A technical white paper about Solaris Memory Placement Optimization and Sun Fire Servers is available at the following Web site:

http://www.sun.com/servers/wp/docs/mpo_v7_customer.pdf

Sun ONE Application Server

This feature is new for the SPARC platform in the Solaris 9 12/02 release. In the Solaris 9 12/03 release, this feature is also available for the x86 platform. For further information, see Sun ONE Application Server Integration.

Sun ONE Message Queue

The Sun ONE Message Queue is a new feature for the SPARC platform in the Solaris 9 12/02 release. In the Solaris 9 8/03 release, the Sun ONE Message Queue is also available for x86 platforms.

The Solaris 9 12/02 release supports JMS messaging applications. These applications are based on Sun ONE Message Queue, a JMS provider. For further information, see Sun ONE Message Queue.

Enhanced crypt() Function

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

This Solaris release includes new extensions to the crypt() function and introduces the crypt_gensalt()function. These enhancements allow administrators to change the algorithm that is used to obscure users' UNIX login passwords.

Modules are included for MD5 and Blowfish. The MD5 modules are at crypt_sunmd5 and crypt_bsdmd5. The Blowfish module is at crypt_bsdbf.

Developers can create new modules for alternate password-obscuring algorithms. Application developers must use the crypt_gensalt() function instead of manually generating the salt string for passing to the crypt() function.

Modules for alternate algorithms are specified in the crypt.conf(4) file. The module_path field specifies the path to the shared library object that implements the two required functions:

For further information, see the crypt(3C) and the policy.conf(4) man pages.

New Flags for madvise() Function

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The madvise() function enables the kernel to optimize access to a user-defined region of memory. This Solaris release includes three new flags for the madvise() function:

For further information on the madvise() function, see the madvise(3C) man page.

Smartcard Middleware APIs

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

The Solaris Smartcard framework now provides low-level middleware APIs. These APIs can be used to exchange data with a smart card by using a smart card reader. The APIs can be used in platforms such as the Sun BladeTM and Sun RayTM systems. Applications that are written in the Java language, or in C, can use these interfaces.

For more information, see the libsmartcard(3LIB) man page and the JavaDocs in /usr/share/javadoc/smartcard.

Solaris Documentation Changes

The Solaris software includes the following documentation changes.

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 9/04 Release

In the Solaris 9 9/04 release, the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide has been revised. See Multi-Owner Disk Set Support With Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster.

The Solaris 9 system administration guides have been reorganized in the Solaris 9 9/04 release:

The content in the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration has been reduced to include only the following topics:

Complex device and file system topics were moved to the System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems. This new guide includes device and file system administration topics including the following:

The System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration contains the same topics from the previous Solaris releases.

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 4/04 Release

The following new and revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 4/04 release:

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 12/03 Release

The following new and revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 12/03 release:

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 8/03 Release

The following revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 8/03 release:

The following new documentation is available in the Solaris 9 8/03 release:

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 4/03 Release

The following revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 4/03 release:

The following new documentation is available in the Solaris 9 4/03 release:

New Solaris WBEM Developer's Guide

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The new Solaris WBEM Developer’s Guide is a combination of the two books on WBEM that were part of earlier Solaris 9 releases: the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide and the Solaris WBEM Services Administration Guide. This change was made to order sequentially the tasks that are associated with WBEM development and deployment. Other changes are listed here:

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 12/02 Release

The following revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 12/02 release:

The following new documentation is available in the Solaris 9 12/02 release:

NIS+-to-LDAP Transition Documentation

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

The “Transitioning From NIS+ to LDAP” appendix has been moved from the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (FNS and NIS+) to the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP). Additionally, explanations and examples of various components have been added to the LDAP-related chapters in the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP). No new features, however, are documented.

New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 9/02 Release

The following new documentation is available in the Solaris 9 9/02 release:

The following revised documentation is available in the Solaris 9 9/02 release:

Installation Enhancements

Installation features introduced in the Solaris 9 releases include the following.

Creating RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors) With Custom JumpStart

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The custom JumpStartTM installation method now enables you to create RAID-1 volumes (mirrors) during the installation of the Solaris Operating System. By mirroring file systems, you can protect your system by duplicating data over two physical disks. If one of the mirrored disks fails, the system data is still accessible from the second mirrored disk.

In JumpStart, the following new custom profile keywords and values enable you to create mirrored file systems.

For more information, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

x86: Specifying Boot Properties With add_install_client Command

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The add_install_client command now enables you to set boot properties for Solaris x86 clients during a PXE network boot. The -b option enables you to perform the following tasks with the add_install_client command.

For more information, see the install_scripts(1M) man page, the eeprom(1M) man page, and the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

WAN Boot Installation Method

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The Solaris software now enables you to boot and install software over a wide area network (WAN) by using HTTP. The WAN boot installation method enables you to install the Solaris software on systems over a large public network where the network infrastructure might be untrustworthy. You can use WAN boot with new security features to protect data confidentiality and installation image integrity.

The WAN boot installation method enables you to transmit an encrypted Solaris Flash archive over a public network to a remote client. The WAN boot programs then install the client system by performing a custom JumpStart installation. To protect the integrity of the installation, you can use private keys to authenticate and encrypt data. You can also transmit your installation data and files over a secure HTTP connection by configuring your systems to use digital certificates.

For more information about this feature, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

Solaris Live Upgrade 2.1

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris Live Upgrade provides a method of upgrading a system while the system continues to operate. While your current boot environment is running, you can duplicate the boot environment, then upgrade the duplicate. Or, rather than upgrading, you can install a Solaris Flash archive on a boot environment. The original system configuration remains fully functional and unaffected by the upgrade or installation of an archive. When you are ready, you can activate the new boot environment by rebooting the system. If a failure occurs, you have a safety net. You can quickly revert to the original boot environment with a simple reboot. Thus, you eliminate the normal downtime of the test and evaluation process.

New features in Solaris Live Upgrade 2.1 provide the following new functionality.

For further information, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

Custom JumpStart Installation Method Creates New Boot Environment

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

You can now use the JumpStart installation method to create an empty boot environment when you install the Solaris software. The empty boot environment can then be populated with a Solaris Flash archive for later use.

Solaris Flash Archives

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The Solaris Flash installation feature enables you to use a single reference installation of the Solaris software on a system. This system is called the master system. Then, you can replicate that installation on a number of systems, which are called clone systems. The installation is an initial installation that overwrites all files on the clone system.

Solaris Flash Differential Archives and Configuration Scripts

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

New enhancements for the Solaris Flash installation feature are available.

For further information, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide. This guide also includes information on how to use Solaris Live Upgrade to install a differential archive.

Customizing Content in a Solaris Flash Archive

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The flarcreate command is used to create a Solaris Flash archive. In this Solaris release, this command has been updated with new options that increase your flexibility to define archive contents when creating an archive. You now can exclude more than one file or directory. From an excluded directory, you can add back a subdirectory or file. This feature is useful when you want to exclude large data files that you do not want cloned.

For information about how to use these options, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

Note the following name change: Solaris Flash (formerly Web Start Flash).

Command-Line Interface Enhancements to the Solaris Product Registry

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The prodreg command has been updated to include functionality that is similar to the Solaris Product Registry graphical user interface. You can now use the following prodreg subcommands on the command line or in administration scripts to perform a variety of tasks.

For more information, see the prodreg(1M) man page and the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Support for LDAP Version 2 Profiles

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The Solaris installation programs now support LDAP Version 2 profiles. These profiles enable you to configure your system to use a proxy credential level. During the Solaris Web Start or suninstall programs, you can specify the LDAP proxy-bind distinguished name and proxy-bind password. With any installation method, you can preconfigure LDAP before installation by using the proxy_dn and proxy_password keywords in the sysidcfg file.

For information, see the Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide.

Additional Software

The Solaris 9 4/04 release includes the new SRS Net Connect 3.1 software on the Extra Value CD.

Sun Remote Services Net Connect 3.1

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

SunSM Remote Services (SRS) Net Connect 3.1 is now available on the Solaris 9 Update 6 Extra Value CD. SRS Net Connect 3.1 allows you to self-monitor systems, create performance and trend reports, and receive automatic notifications. These features help you maximize system availability and reliability and manage potential issues.

For information about installation of SRS Net Connect, see the SunSM Remote Services Net Connect Solaris 9 Update 6 CD Installation and Activation Guide. This manual is located on the Solaris Software 2 of 2 CD at the following location: Solaris_9/ExtraValue/CoBundled/NetConnect_3.1/docs/InstallActivate.pdf

Sun Java Enterprise System Joins Solaris

Sun Java Enterprise System is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

Solaris software now includes products from the Java Enterprise System that you can choose to install with the Solaris software. Java Enterprise System includes Sun ONE infrastructure and cluster software in one open-network computing package. Java Enterprise System offers enterprises a complete set of services to integrate Web applications, services, and legacy applications. The Java Enterprise System software provides a common user experience. The software includes the same language support, consistent documentation, component standardization, a common installer, and other features that deliver integrated functionality. Java Enterprise System includes the following component products:

Communication and Collaboration Services

Web and Application Services

Directory and Identity Services

Availability Services

For further information about the Java Enterprise System, see Sun Java Enterprise System 2003Q4 at http://docs.sun.com.

* These products are available within the Solaris operating system. See the following descriptions for further information.

The Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 is available as a component product in the Java Enterprise System. The Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 is available within the Solaris operating system. For further information about the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1, see Sun ONE Directory Server.

Networking Enhancements

The Solaris 9 software includes the following networking enhancements:

Sun ONE Application Server Integration

This feature is new for the SPARC platform in the Solaris 9 12/02 release. In the Solaris 9 12/03 release, this feature is also available for the x86 platform.

Sun ONE Application Server 7, Platform Edition (formerly iPlanetTM Application Server) is integrated in the Solaris operating system. The Platform Edition of the Application Server provides the foundation for enterprise-class application services and web services. The server provides a high-performance, small-footprint Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EETM). J2EE enables the development, deployment, and management of enterprise applications and web services to a broad range of servers, clients, and devices.

The Sun ONE Application Server provides application portability and fast time to market for new Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications. These new applications are J2EE 1.3 platform compatible. The Application Server enables developers to build applications that are based on JavaServer PagesTM (JSPTM), Java Servlet, and Enterprise JavaBeansTM (EJBTM) technology. This technology supports a broad range of business requirements from small departmental applications to enterprise-scale, mission-critical services.

Feature highlights include the following:

The following name changes have been made:

For further information, see the Sun ONE Application Server 7 Collection Update 1 (Solaris Edition). Further information about this collection is available at New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 8/03 Release. See also http://wwws.sun.com/software/products/appsrvr/home_appsrvr.html.

For specific licensing terms, refer to the binary code license.

Sun ONE Message Queue

This feature is new for the SPARC platform in the Solaris 9 12/02 release. In the Solaris 9 8/03 release, this feature is also available for the x86 platform.

The Solaris software now supports Java Messaging Service (JMS) applications. This Solaris release uses Sun ONE Message Queue (formerly iPlanet Message Queue for Java) as a JMS provider.

JMS messaging enables applications and application components to exchange messages asynchronously and reliably. Processes that run on different platforms and different operating systems can connect to a common message service to exchange information.

Sun ONE Message Queue, Platform Edition provides a full implementation of the JMS specification. The message queue provides additional features such as the following:

For further information, see the Sun ONE Message Queue 3.0.1 Administrator's Guide and the Sun ONE Message Queue 3.0.1 Developer's Guide. For information about Sun ONE Message Queue editions and features, see also the following Web site:

http://www.sun.com/software/products/message_queue/

TCP Multidata Transmit

Multidata transmit (MDT) is available only for systems that run a 64-bit kernel. This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

MDT enables the network stack to send more than one packet at one time to the network device driver during transmission. Use of this feature reduces the per-packet processing costs by improving the host CPU utilization or network throughput.

The multidata transmit feature is only effective for device drivers that support this feature.

The following parameter must be enabled in the /etc/system file to use the MDT parameter:

set ip:ip_use_dl_cap = 0x1

MDT is disabled by default. The TCP/IP stack can be instructed to enable MDT as follows:

# ndd -set /dev/ip ip_multidata_outbound 1

Review the following cautions before enabling MDT:

For more information, see the Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual and the ip(7P) man page.

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) 6to4 Router

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

IPv6 networks can now transfer packets over Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) networks by configuring one or more routers to support a 6to4 tunnel. System administrators can use 6to4 tunnels as a transitional method for migrating their networks from IPv4 to IPv6. This feature implements RFCs 3056 and 3068.

For further information on IPv6, see the IPv6 Administration Guide.

Packet Tunneling Over IPv6

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

This feature enables tunneling over IPv6 for both IPv4 over IPv6 tunnels and IPv6 over IPv6 tunnels. IPv4 packets or IPv6 packets can be encapsulated in IPv6 packets.

For more information, see the IPv6 Administration Guide.

Hosting Multiple Web Sites on a Single Solaris Machine

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA) kernel module now supports multiple instances of a web server. This support enables you to use a Solaris machine to perform Internet protocol (IP) address-based virtual web hosting. The Solaris software uses a single configuration file, /etc/nca/ncaport.conf, to map NCA sockets to IP addresses.

For further information, see the ncaport.conf(4) man page.

IP Quality of Service

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

IP Quality of Service (IPQoS) enables system administrators to provide different levels of network service to customers and to critical applications. By using IPQoS, the administrator can set up service-level agreements. These agreements provide an Internet service provider's (ISP) clients with varying levels of service that are based on a price structure. A company could also use IPQoS to prioritize among applications so that critical applications get a higher quality of service than less critical applications.

For further information, see the IPQoS Administration Guide.

User Selector for Internet Protocol Quality of Service (IPQoS)

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

The Solaris IPQoS feature now includes the user selector, which supplements the existing uid selector. The user selector enables you to specify a user name or userID as criteria in a filter clause in the ipqosconf file. Previously, the uid selector only accepted a userID as a value. The following filter clause from an ipqosconf file shows the user selector:


filter {
        name myhost;
        user root;
}

For information about filters and selectors, refer to the IPQoS Administration Guide and the ipqosconf(1M) man page.

Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2)

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

Solaris system software now supports Routing Information Protocol version 2 (RIPv2).

RIPv2 adds Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and Variable-Length Subnet Mask (VLSM) extensions to the RIPv1 protocol. Message Digest 5 (MD5) extensions protect routers against intentional misdirection by malicious users. The new in.routed implementation also includes a built-in Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Router Discovery (RFC 1256) mechanism.

RIPv2 supports multicast, if the point-to-point links are enabled with multicast. RIPv2 also supports unicast. If you configure a broadcast address by using the /etc/gateways file, then RIPv2 supports broadcast.

For information on how to configure RIPv2, see the in.rdisc(1M), in.routed(1M), and gateways(4) man pages.

Security Enhancements

The Solaris software includes the following security enhancements from prior Solaris 9 releases:

sadmind Security Level Raised

To improve security with the sadmind command, the default security level has been raised to 2 (DES). If you do not require sadmind, comment the entry out of the inetd.conf file.

For further information, see the sadmind(1M) man page.

Kerberos Enhancements

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The Solaris Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) is now based on MIT Kerberos version 1.2.1. The KDC now defaults to a btree-based database, which is more reliable than the current hash-based database.

See the kdc.conf(4) man page for more information.

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Key Storage on Sun Crypto Accelerator 4000 Board

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

IKE runs on IPv6 as well as IPv4 networks. For information on keywords that are specific to the IPv6 implementation, see the ifconfig(1M) and ike.config(4) man pages.

When a Sun Crypto Accelerator 4000 board is attached, IKE can offload computation-intensive operations to the board, thus freeing the operating system for other tasks. IKE can also use the attached board to store public keys, private keys, and public certificates. Key storage on a separate piece of hardware provides additional security.

For further information, see the IPsec and IKE Administration Guide and the ikecert(1M) man page.

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Hardware Acceleration

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

Public-key operations in IKE can be accelerated by a Sun Crypto Accelerator 1000 card. The operations are offloaded to the card. The offloading accelerates encryption and reduces demands on operating system resources.

For information about IKE, see the IPsec and IKE Administration Guide.

Auditing Enhancements

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Enhancements to the audit features in this Solaris release reduce noise in the trail, and enable administrators to use XML scripting to parse the trail. These enhancements include the following:

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Smart Card Terminal Interfaces

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris smart card interfaces are a set of public interfaces for Smart Card Terminals. See Smart Card Interfaces.

Enhanced crypt() Function

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

Password encryption protects passwords from being read by intruders. Three strong password encryption modules are now available in the software:

For information on how to protect your user passwords with these new encryption modules, see the System Administration Guide: Security Services. For information on the strength of the modules, see the crypt_bsdbf(5), crypt_bsdmd5(5), and crypt_sunmd5(5) man pages.

Password Management Feature in pam_ldap

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The pam_ldap password management feature strengthens the overall security of the LDAP Naming Service when used in conjunction with the Sun ONE Directory Server (formerly iPlanet Directory Server). Specifically, the password management feature does the following:

For further information on Solaris naming and directory services, see the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP). For information about Solaris security features, see the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) Enhancement

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The PAM framework was expanded by including a new control flag. The new control flag provides the ability to skip additional stack processing. This skipping is enabled if the current service module is successful and if no failure occurred on the previous mandatory modules.

For more information about this change, see the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

System Resources Enhancements

The Solaris software includes the following system resources enhancements from prior Solaris 9 releases.

Physical Memory Control Using the Resource Capping Daemon

This is a new feature in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The resource capping daemon rcapd regulates the consumption of physical memory by processes that run in projects that have defined resource caps. Associated utilities provide mechanisms for administering the daemon and reporting related statistics.

For additional information, see Chapter 4, Solaris 9 Resource Manager Topics, in System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services. See also the man pages rcapstat(1), rcapadm(1M), project(4), and rcapd(1M).

Extended Accounting Subsystem

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

You can now use extended accounting processes in conjunction with the flow accounting module for IPQoS. For information about IPQoS, see the IPQoS Administration Guide.

For information about the extended accounting feature, see “Extended Accounting” in the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services.

A Perl interface to libexacct is available in the Solaris 9 4/03 release. This interface enables you to create Perl scripts that can read the accounting files which are produced by the exacct framework. You can also create Perl scripts that write exacct files.

The new interface is functionally equivalent to the underlying C API.

You can use the Perl interface to record system resource consumption on a task or process basis. Or, you can record consumption on the basis of selectors provided by the IPQoS flowacct module.

For information about the Perl interface to libexacct, see Chapter 7, Extended Accounting, in System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services.

See also the following man pages:

System Performance Enhancements

The Solaris software includes the following performance enhancements from prior Solaris 9 releases:

UFS Logging Performance Enhancements

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

UFS logging enables faster system reboots. Because the file system transactions are already stored, checking the file system is not required if the file system is already consistent.

In addition, the performance of UFS logging improves or exceeds the level of performance of nonlogging file systems in this Solaris release. Results of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation system file server (SPECsfs) benchmark show that the performance of NFS-mounted file systems that have logging enabled equals the level of non-UFS logging performance. In some I/O-bound configurations, logging UFS file systems exceed the performance of nonlogging UFS file systems by approximately 25 percent. In other tests, performance of logging UFS file systems is 12 times better than the performance of nonlogging UFS file systems.

For information on how to enable logging on a UFS file system, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration or the mount_ufs(1M) man page.

SPARC: Memory Placement Optimization (MPO)

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

The Solaris dispatcher and the virtual memory subsystem are enhanced to optimize the time that is required for an application to access memory. This enhancement can automatically improve the performance of many applications. This feature is currently implemented to support specific platforms such as the Sun Fire 3800–6800, the Sun Fire 12K, and the Sun Fire 15K.

A technical white paper about Solaris Memory Placement Optimization and Sun Fire Servers is available at the following Web site:

http://www.sun.com/servers/wp/docs/mpo_v7_customer.pdf

SPARC: Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory (DISM) Large-Page Support

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 9/02 release.

Large-page support is now provided for Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory (DISM). This large-page support can increase the performance of applications that are capable of dynamically adjusting shared memory sizes.

For further information on DISM, see System Performance Enhancements.

Web Browser Enhancements

The Solaris 9 software includes the Netscape 7.0 browser.

Netscape 7.0

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The NetscapeTM 7.0 cross-platform browser integrates features for navigating the Web, communicating with colleagues, participating in discussion groups, and creating dynamic Web pages. The following features are provided in Netscape 7.0.

Netscape 7.0 includes the following highlights.

Netscape 6.2.3

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release. In the Solaris 9 4/03 release, Netscape 7.0 is provided. See Netscape 7.0.

Desktop Features

The Solaris 9 software includes the GNOME 2.0 desktop.

GNOME 2.0 Desktop

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

The GNOME 2.0 desktop is an advanced, intuitive desktop for the Solaris software. The GNOME 2.0 desktop provides an alternative to the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), which was provided with the Solaris environment through several releases.

The GNOME 2.0 desktop provides a familiar environment that enables users to easily interact with the applications and documents on their desktop. The GNOME 2.0 desktop includes the following features:

The GNOME 2.0 desktop includes the following important components:

  1. Nautilus is an advanced file manager that enables users to organize and locate applications and documents. Nautilus also enables users to view the contents of text and picture files directly in the file manager.

  2. The Panel bar on the desktop contains the following:

    • Application launchers

    • System menus

    • Panel drawers (subpanels)

    • Applets

    Panels provide a quick way to launch applications and view the system status. You can create an unlimited number of panels.

  3. Applications support a variety of everyday tasks. Applications in the GNOME 2.0 desktop include the following:

    • Text Editor

    • Calculator

    • Character Map

    • Image Viewer

    • PostScript or PDF Viewer

    • Media Player

    • Sound Recorder

    • Performance Meter

    • Print Manager

    • Terminal

  4. Applets are sets of utilities that run in a panel. Applets in the GNOME 2.0 desktop include the following:

    • Clock

    • Inbox Monitor

    • CD Player

    • Volume Control

    • Character Palette

    • Command Line

    • Keyboard Layout Switcher

    • Window List

    • Workspace Switcher

For further information about the GNOME 2.0 desktop, see the GNOME 2.0 Desktop Collection. Further information about this collection is provided in New and Revised Documentation in the Solaris 9 8/03 Release.

X11 Windowing Features

The Solaris software includes the following X11 windowing enhancements from prior Solaris 9 releases.

Xscreensaver Program

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

The Xscreensaver program locks your monitor screen after a period of inactivity in order to prevent others from gaining access to your system session. Xscreensaver supports a variety of animation displays that can be used while the screen is locked. This program is used in the GNOME 2.0 desktop.

X Event Interception Extension (XEvIE)

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

XEvIE is a low-level interface that intercepts all the keyboard and mouse events so that these events can be read, consumed, or modified as needed. This X extension enables better integration of assistive technologies, including those technologies in the GNOME 2.0 desktop.

FreeType 2.1.x

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

FreeType 2.1.x is an open source library that provides a simple application programming interface (API). This API can access font content in a uniform way, independently of the file format. Additionally, some format-specific APIs can be used to access special data in the font file.

Xserver Virtual Screen Enhancement

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The Xserver Virtual Screen enhancement provides accessibility support for the GNOME 2.0 desktop for the Solaris software. This capability enables support of magnification software on systems that have just one frame buffer.

Xrender Extension

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The new Xrender feature increases performance for applications, such as the StarOffice software suite, that run on the Solaris software. The Xrender feature provides a modern appearance for these applications. Xrender uses hardware processing for alpha-blending and transparency effects.

Freeware Enhancements

The Solaris release includes the following freeware enhancements from prior Solaris 9 releases.

Note –

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for these freeware packages, see the license path included in each of the following descriptions. If the Solaris software has been installed anywhere other than the default, modify the path to access the file at the installed location.

For a list of freeware in the Solaris 9 release, see Freeware Enhancements.

Ghostscript 7.05

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

The Ghostscript 7.05 freeware package is included in the Solaris release. Ghostscript 7.05 reads PostScript and PDF files, and displays these files on screen or converts the files to a form that is usable by many printers. See the gs(1) man page under /usr/sfw/share/man.

Note –

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for Ghostscript, the license path is /usr/sfw/share/src/<freeware name>.

New Freeware Packages: libxml2 2.4.16 and libxslt 1.0.19

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The following new freeware packages are new or revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release:

Note –

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for these packages, the license path is /usr/share/src/<freeware name></filename>.

ANT 1.4.1 Freeware Package

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release.

The following new freeware package is included in the Solaris release: ANT 1.4.1 – This is a Jakarta ANT Java and XML-based build package.

Note –

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for ANT, the license path is /usr/sfw/share/src/<freeware name>.