How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Discussions about using Solaris guests in VirtualBox.
Bone
Posts: 25
Joined: 15. Apr 2019, 21:03
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Linux
Location: Florida

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by Bone »

stes wrote:There are 2 different forums : Solaris host and Solaris guest.

If you want to install the "guest additions on a Solaris guest" (where VirtualBox runs on a Windows host),
then your question can be posted in the "VirtualBox on Solaris guest" forum.

If on the other hand, you want to install the "extension pack" for the VirtualBox host software then that question can be asked in the "VirtualBox on Windows host" forum.

In fact I think there is confusion between "Vbox Guest Additions" and "Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.10.vbox-extpack".

The Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.10.vbox-extpack is the extension pack which for example provides Intel firmware support for PXE boot and some other "extensions" to the VirtualBox host software.

So there is confusion here between 2 different components (or more) of VirtualBox.
You're right that there was initially confusion about the extension pack for windows and the guest additions for solaris, but
I noted above that I recognized that.

Thanks stes for the clarification. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum. Can it be moved by an admin?
mpack
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Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by mpack »

Topic moved.
Bone
Posts: 25
Joined: 15. Apr 2019, 21:03
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Guest OSses: Linux
Location: Florida

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by Bone »

I'll continue on with my installation findings in any case.
First, I think it is a documentation bug not to mention that for Solaris guest, the Solaris-desktop
is mandatory for clipboard to work. I don't know what else might or might not work, but it was a
huge waste of my time trying to get it to work with the standard text installation.
When I got it working with VirtualBox Manager 6.0.4, I then upgraded back to the latest
6.1.10 and that worked...once.
It seemed that for the desktop gui to load, it required a lot more OS memory....around 20mb
and that is more than I wanted to afford one instance. So, I was hoping to disable the gui and lower the
memory back down to about 8mb, and re-enableonly when I really needed clipboard. To do that, I read
somewhere that I could disable the gui via:
svcadm disable application/graphical-login/gdm:default
then re-enable when I needed it via bumping the memory back up and using startx to restart.
Problem is it's not restarting once I did that. It freezes up and the only way to get in is to click
on the frozen screen and control-c until it gets to the end of some script it's hung on. I tried to attach
a jpg, but the message says it's too large and is over 2mb, but the size is 372k, so we'll have to do without
that. Mostly the errors are like Pulseaudio - Failed to load module "module-oss". I have audio disabled
in vbox. Not sure what this is. I've seen it quite a few times when this fails. Unless I can reasonable get
the gui to work, I'll have to finally give up on solaris as not worth the hassle and go back to Linux despite
that my current client is on solaris.
Anyone know what's going on here?
thx
Bone
Posts: 25
Joined: 15. Apr 2019, 21:03
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Linux
Location: Florida

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by Bone »

mpack wrote:Topic moved.
Thank you sir.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by stes »

OK it's good that the topic was moved from "Solaris host software for VirtualBox" to "Solaris guest".

Because you are trying to run a Solaris guest on a Windows host.

Some of the remarks you make seem to be related to Solaris in general.


For example if you install Solaris in 'text only' mode with the text installer, that obviously will not deliver X based clipboard. There is no concept of X windows with the 'text only mode installer'.

Note however that Solaris provides an easy upgrade path from text-only to a GUI. It is sufficient to install :

pkg install solaris-desktop

This will install tons of packages for the GUI but it will upgrade the text only Solaris to a GUI based environment ...
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by stes »

So basically the text-only installer or installation was fine.

You can do that, in fact if I'm not mistaken that's the way it would normally be done unless you use an automated installer (AI) server which is an advanced topic for kickstarting/jumpstarting any customized solaris instance.

So basically if you install a text-only solaris you then make sure you have sufficient disk space (I'd say 20-30Gigabyte or more) and install

# pkg list -v solaris-desktop
FMRI
pkg://solaris/group/system/solaris-desktop

assuming that you want a GUI. Note that modern Solaris uses lots of RAM.

So I'd assign 8GB-16GB-32GB of RAM to the Solaris guest.

The days of Solaris 2.5 where we could run Solaris with 8MB or 16MB are long ago ...

I believe the minimum they list is around 4-5GB but 8GB-32GB would be more realistic.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by stes »

Maybe it's best to take larger values to start like an install disk of 100GB as the root of your Solaris guest.
and 32GB RAM to assign to the guest.

This means that you have sufficient space for the solaris-desktop install.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by stes »

So basically
I was hoping to disable the gui and lower the
memory back down to about 8mb,
If you were hoping to lower the memory back to do 8mb , that would be a flashback to long ago.

It's not realistic for heavy server oriented OS like modern Solaris where you'd better start with 32-64-256GB of RAM.
I'm serious.
stes
Posts: 154
Joined: 28. Apr 2018, 11:07

Re: How to install guest additions on Solaris 11.4 guest on Windows host

Post by stes »

Given sufficient RAM, you could try to run a Solaris guest on your Windows host.

But as I wrote you'd have to use a 100GB disk to install and 32GB of RAM for the guest.

This could be useful to simulate for example on a Windows how a heavy Solaris OS running some Oracle grid software with terabytes of RAM in production (on physical hardware for instance) would run on Solaris.

The 32GB RAM that I mentionned is for Solaris only, if you start with application sw. for Solaris you'd have to add a lot more RAM like e.g. 256GB RAM.
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