New Features in Solaris Express 10/06

This section describes all features that are new or have been enhanced in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

System V Resource Controls for Zones

This system resource enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

To limit the total amount of System V resources used by processes within a non-global zone, the following zone-wide resource controls are now included:

• zone.max-shm-memory

• zone.max-shm-ids

• zone.max-msg-ids

• zone.max-sem-ids

The resource controls are set through the add rctl resource property in zonecfg command for non-global zones.

To limit the global zone's consumption, the resource controls can be set through the prctl command.

For more information, see:

• prctl(1) man page

• zonecfg(1M) man page

• resource_controls(5)

• System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System

Internet Printing Protocol Client-Side Support

Client-side support for the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) enables Solaris client systems to communicate with IPP-based print services, such as those on the Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, as well as other platforms.

Small improvements are also featured in the server-side support for the IPP listening service. These improvements promote better interoperability, including some minor changes that result in a more standard representation of printer and job attribute data.

The IPP server and client implementation in the Solaris OS is one of several OpenSolaris^TM printing projects that are currently under development. OpenSolaris printing provides a set of specifications and implementations of software that enables you to create standardized, scalable printing components for the Solaris and Linux software, or any operating system that contains a set of POSIX interfaces.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing.

For more information about OpenSolaris Printing, see http://opensolaris.org/os/community/printing/.

Selectable Use of localhost for Solaris Print Server Database Hostname

This printing feature enhancement was introduced in the Solaris Express 5/06 release.

This printing feature enables the Solaris print system to recognize and use localhost as the local host in the print system databases. In prior releases, /bin/hostname was used solely to generate the print hostname. The print system depended on this name remaining constant. The ability to use localhost as the name of the current system enables print servers to maintain the same print hostname, independent of the system's host name.

The modification applies to the setup of local print queues exclusively.

To support this feature, the following modifications are effective for the lpadmin command and the Solaris Print Manager graphical user interface (GUI):

• The lpadmin command uses the -s option when creating a local print queue.

  To use localhost as the host name that is specified within the print server, set the print hostname to localhost, as shown:

  # lpadmin -p <new-print-queue> -s localhost -v <device>

  For example:

  # lpadmin -p foo -s localhost -v /dev/term/a

  ---

  Note –

  The default behavior of the lpadmin command has not changed.

  ---

• Solaris Print Manager now includes an added tool attribute check box, Use localhost for Printer Server. The localhost attribute is selected by default. To deselect the localhost attribute, uncheck the box. Unchecking the box selects the previously chosen behavior for this attribute.

For more information, see the following:

• printmgr(1M) man page

• lpadmin(1M) man page

• System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing

Single Hosts File

This networking enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

Starting with this release, the Solaris OS does not have two separate hosts files. /etc/inet/hosts is the single hosts file that contains both IPv4 and IPv6 entries. Solaris system administrators do not need to maintain IPv4 entries in two hosts files that are always synchronized. For backward compatibility, the /etc/inet/ipnodes file is replaced with a symbolic link of the same name to/etc/inet/hosts.

For more information, see the hosts(4) man page and the ipnodes(4) man page.

SPARC: New sysidkbd Tool Configures Your Keyboard

This installation enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

For SPARC based platforms, a new sysidtool, sysidkbd, configures your USB keyboard layout during system installation.

Previously, the USB keyboard attached on the SPARC platform always assumed a self-identifying value of one during the installation. Therefore, all of the keyboards that were not self-identifying always configured for a U.S. English keyboard during installation.

With the new sysidkbd tool, the following procedure occurs:

• If the keyboard is self-identifying, the keyboard layout automatically configures during installation.

• If the keyboard is not self-identifying, the sysidkbd tool provides you with a list of supported keyboard layouts during installation, so that you can select a layout for keyboard configuration.

If the keyboard is not self-identifying and you want to prevent being prompted during your JumpStart installation, select the keyboard language in your sysidcfg script. For JumpStart installation, the default is for a U.S. English keyboard layout. To select another language, set the keyboard entry in your sysidcfg script as in this example:

keyboard=German

The value provided for sysidcfg must be a valid value. Otherwise, an interactive response is required during installation. Valid keyboard strings are defined in a file which is referenced in the sysidcfg(4) man page.

For more information, see the sysidcfg(4) man page and the sysidtool(1M) man page.

Device Naming Enhancements

This device management enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

Starting with this release, the /dev name space supports multiple file system instances as needed. When the system is booted, a global instance of the /dev file system is created automatically. Subsequent /dev instances are created and mounted when needed. For example, when devices are added to a non-global zone. When a non-global zone is shut down, the available /dev instance is unmounted and unavailable.

In addition, device configuration is improved in the following ways:

• Reconfiguration boot is eliminated. In release prior to Solaris Express 10/06, a reconfiguration boot was needed if you connected a device to a system that is powered off.

  Starting with this release, you do not need to perform a reconfiguration boot when attaching devices to a system that is powered off. When you reboot the system, the system automatically recognizes newly attached devices and creates the appropriate links.

  For more information, see the devfs(7FS) man page.

• Zone device support is simplified. As described above, device support for Solaris zones is enhanced by providing specific instances of the /dev directory for non-global zones. In addition, zones are no longer dependent on the devfsadm daemon for reconfiguration of devices within a zone.

• Pseudo device creation is improved. Starting with this release, the content of the /dev/pts directory is created on demand in the global /dev name space and in the /dev instance when needed in a non-global zone. In addition, the ptys links are only visible in the global zone or the non-global zone from which they are allocated.

  For more information, see the grantpt(3C) man page.

Linker and Libraries Updates

This developer tools enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 10/06 release.

Starting with this release, there is greater flexibility in executing an alternative link-editor with the link-editor -z altexec64 option and the LD_ALTEXEC environment variable.

Symbol definitions that are generated using mapfiles can now be associated to the executable and linking format (ELF) sections.

The link-editors now enable the creation of static thread-local storage (TLS) within shared objects. In addition, a backup TLS reservation is established to provide for limited use of static TLS within post-startup shared objects.