Solaris install process black screen

Discussions about using Solaris guests in VirtualBox.
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SRD
Posts: 6
Joined: 6. Dec 2018, 13:30

Solaris install process black screen

Post by SRD »

Hi Folks,

I'm on a Windows 10 64-bit host with VirtualBox 5.2.22 installed.

I've created a VDI disk, and mounted the sol-11_4-ai-x86 iso as a disc image.

After system startup, I get a list to choose from, I choose Install Custom, I get a screen where some packages are unpacked at a text prompt, and then I receive a pure black screen.

The VM has 1024 MB RAM - is that enough?

Help appreciated.
Steve
andyp73
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Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by andyp73 »

SRD wrote:The VM has 1024 MB RAM - is that enough?
Short answer: no!

Longer answer from Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes:
The recommended minimum system memory is 4 GB.
-Andy.
My crystal ball is currently broken. If you want assistance you are going to have to give me all of the necessary information.
Please don't ask me to do your homework for you, I have more than enough of my own things to do.
SRD
Posts: 6
Joined: 6. Dec 2018, 13:30

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by SRD »

Thanks Andy.

I've increased to 4GB of RAM, and restarted.

The black screen has been there for 5 minutes, but the Windows Task Manager task CPU has been running @ 30%. Is the ISO being unpacked?
andyp73
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Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by andyp73 »

I have never had the need to install a Solaris guest nor a machine with enough free RAM and CPU cores to be able to do so with any hope of any success.

Can you close the Solaris guest (by brute force if necessary) and zip the VBox.log file so we can check there is nothing obviously wrong.

-Andy.
My crystal ball is currently broken. If you want assistance you are going to have to give me all of the necessary information.
Please don't ask me to do your homework for you, I have more than enough of my own things to do.
socratis
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Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by socratis »

Another usual suspect is the VRAM, it's usually forgotten at the default 16 MB. VM Settings » Display » Screen » Video Memory, set that to 64 MB.
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SRD
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Joined: 6. Dec 2018, 13:30

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by SRD »

VRAM was already 16M, I increased to 32M with no difference.

I can't see the log file for the VM.

My VM vdi files are in D:\VirtualBox VMs - in this folder I have a subfolder for Linux Mint, and this subfolder contains the log file.

In D:\VirtualBox VMs I have no subfolder for Solaris, just D:\VirtualBox VMs\Solaris.vdi with no Solaris log files.

The folder Machines does not exist in C:\Users\steve\.VirtualBox\
andyp73
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Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by andyp73 »

In the VirtualBox manager, right-click on the guest and choose "Show log..." from the menu. Save only the VBox.log, we don't need the .1, .2 or .3 versions.

-Andy.
My crystal ball is currently broken. If you want assistance you are going to have to give me all of the necessary information.
Please don't ask me to do your homework for you, I have more than enough of my own things to do.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by stes »

Are you sure you want to use the sol-11_4-ai-x86.iso ?

Careful: be sure to use the sol-11_4-ai-x86.iso only when really needed, it can erase your operating system as it will wipe out automatically the OS !

This is "normal" behavior in this sense that it is meant to be used for unattended (automatic) installations ...

The AI in there (sol-11_4-ai-x86) is the Automated Installer, which is not what you want if you want to do a normal installation.
Normally you want the sol-11_4-text-x86.iso the text installer or the Live CD.

The AI installation is usually for Automated Installer (where you need a machine, possibly a VM with DHCP, DNS, and installadm software loaded on it) to support PXE network based installations or , with sol-11_4-ai-x86.iso booting from CD where you can load a "custom" manifest).

A guest can be installed with 2GB so far as I can see and hard disk absolute minimum of about 5GB but 4GB ram is better or evern required as was already pointed out ...

The requirements of 11.4 seem a little higher than of 11.3, I believe 11.3 can be installed with about 1,5GB of ram. Those are probably not the official recommendations (to low, the manuals have the right prereqs indicated).
SRD
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Joined: 6. Dec 2018, 13:30

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by SRD »

Thanks, I've changed the optical drive to sol-11_4-text-x86, the image unpacks to 100%, then the next screen is black.

If I up from 1 to 2 CPU cores, the install runs!

Thank you.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by stes »

Regarding the CPU, I'm not sure I understand. In VirtualBox under Settings -> System -> Processor I set up a guest with 1 CPU and it works ... Also under Settings -> Display -> GraphicsController I use VBoxVGA. All of the Solaris guests on virtualbox.

Those are for me the defaults when I create "new machine" Type Solaris - Solaris 11 64-bit.

I change the default 1,5 GB to 2GB for my Solaris 11.4 guests and increase the default to 2GB.

It seems the text installation works.

Perhaps there's some other issue ... what kind of network adapter do you use for the guest ? disk controller on the guest ? In my case I usually use "Bridged Adapter" for network adapter and SATA controller or SCSI/SAS controller sometimes.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by stes »

Although your text install seems to work, you could double check for example network adapter

Code: Select all

VBoxManage showvminfo pluto
(where 'pluto' is the name of a VM)

Code: Select all

Number of CPUs:              1
Memory size                  2048MB
for the adapter

Code: Select all

NIC 1:                      ... Attachment: Bridged Interface 'est0 - Ethernet', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), [color=#FF4000]Type: 82540EM,[/color] Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
Perhaps the type of the LAN adapter matters.

or the controller

Code: Select all

Storage Controller Name (0):            SATA
Storage Controller Type (0):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      4
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: Solaris install process black screen

Post by stes »

Also I disable audio ...

That may be an important one: try disable audio (in the VirtualBox guest definition).

One of the reasons that I currently disable audio is because I'm having issues with the "pulseaudio" system on Solaris

Code: Select all

 pulseaudio[1438]: [ID 295310 user.error] [(null)] ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to open module module-solaris.so: ld.so.1: pulseaudio: module-solaris.so: open failed: No such file or directory
This is not a big issue for me personally (don't use audio anyway) - but it may also impact the install.

I suspect that if you have to change the number of CPUs to 2 (instead of 1) you have some other sort of problem, and the CPU 2 instead of 1 is a "red herring", i.e. a piece of information which is or is intended to be misleading or distracting, because Solaris 11.4 obviously installs perfectly fine with 1 CPU.

But it is true that sometimes when there is some other problem, one can obtain slightly better or different results when changing the number of CPUs.
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