Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 Issues

The following issues apply to the Developer 9/07 release.

x86: Vista Multiboot Installation Might Fail (6598208)

Windows Vista fdisk program has a new approach to allocation of extra sectors on a disk drive. Vista allocates space in multiples of 2048 sectors. This change affects the Developer 9/07 multibooting process for some laptops that have Vista pre-installed. The fdisk command reports errors during installation while reading the existing partition table.

While installing the Developer 9/07 release on a system that has Windows Vista, one of the following two failures might occur:

Install might fail with the following error message:
```
Not enough free space
```
fdisk might fail with the following error message:
```
fdisk: Cannot Create partition table
```

Confirm that the problem exists by using the following command:

fdisk -d <device>

For example:

# fdisk -d c0d0p0
  Physical Geometry:
    cylinders[30400] heads[255] sectors[63]
    sector size[512] blocks[488376000] mbytes[896]
  Virtual (HBA) Geometry:
    cylinders[30400] heads[255] sectors[63]
    sector size[512] blocks[488376000] mbytes[896]
  Partition Table Entry Values:
  SYSID  ACT   BHEAD  BSECT  BEGCYL  EHEAD  ESECT  ENDCYL  RELSECT  NUMSECT
  191    128   0      1      1       254    63     1023    16065    488359935
  100    0     0      0      0       0      0      0       100      100   
  100    0     0      0      0       0      0      0       100      100  
  100    0     0      0      0       0      0      0       100      100

The maximum disk capacity is shown in the blocks as 488376000. The highest sector allocated is calculated from the partition table 16065 + 488359935 which is 488376000. If the highest sector allocated is greater than the disk capacity then the problem exists.

Note - If Solaris is not installed on this system, you can boot using the install CD or DVD and early in the install process select the option to exit to shell.

Workaround: Create a recovery CD of the affected hard disk partitions. Perform the following steps:

Boot Windows Vista.
Shrink the last partition. Go to Windows -> Control Panel -> System Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Create and format hard disk partitions.
Right-click on the last partition on the right and select Shrink Volume. Shrink the volume by about 9 Mbytes.
Given the difference between the Vista fdisk calculations and the Solaris installer fdisk calculations, an adjustment of 9 MBytes to the existing size of the last Vista partition will resolve the Solaris installer errors.
Reboot the system and install the Solaris OS.

Unexpected European Locales Are Installed (6594145)

Using new Solaris streamlined installer, if you select any of European language support, including English, some other European locales are also installed because of the current geographic based packaging. No error message is displayed.

Workaround: None.

Sun4U Systems Lose Network Access After CPR Resume (6593956)

After resuming from a suspend operation, Sun4U^TM systems with hme will lose network access. The Ultra 10, Ultra 60, and Ultra 80 systems lose communications and cannot ping or be pinged. No error message is displayed.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

Do not use the suspend command by disabling system wide power management.
After resuming from a suspend operation, use the command snoop -d hme0 -c1.

Prompt Messages for Logout and Shutdown Wrongly Translated in Chinese and Korean Locales (6592664)

This bug affects simplified Chinese and Korean users. When a user wants to log out or shut down the system, a dialog is displayed with one of the following messages:

You will be automatically logged out in 60 seconds

Or:

The system will be automatically shutdown in 60 seconds

The simplified Chinese and Korean translations of these messages are not meaningful. No error message is displayed.

Workaround: Download the gnome-panel.mo from the OpenSolaris community and replace the original gnome-panel.mo with the downloaded one. Perform the following steps:

Download the l10nmessages-vermillion_*.tar file from http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/current/.
Replace the original gnome-panel.mo file with the SUNWgnome-l10nmessages-zhCN/reloc/share/locale/zh/LC_MESSAGES/gnome-panel.mo.

The messages will then be in English.

x86: Signal 11 `SIGSEGV` Terminates After RTC Startup (6584707)

Runtime Checking (RTC) fails in the Developer 9/07 release. RTC instruments memory, access instructions for access checking. These instructions are handled by a SIGSEGV handler at runtime. Since RTC requires its own SIGSEGV handler and signal alternate stack, attempts to install a SIGSEGV handler or sigaltstack will either be ignored or result in an EINVAL error. SIGSEGV handler calls cannot be nested. The following error message is displayed:

terminating signal 11 SIGSEGV

Workaround: Use the rtc skippatch command to skip instrumentation of the affected function.

For example, the following dbx commands workaround the nested segv problem:

rtc skippatch libc.so -f lrw_rdlock lrw_unlock lrw_wrlock _lock_try
rtc skippatch libc.so -f read_lock_try read_unlock_try write_lock_try
write_unlock_try
rtc skippatch libc.so -f queue_unlink mqueue_spawner thread_queue_dump
rtc skippatch libc.so -f thread_queue_fifo thread_queue_spin
thread_queue_verify
rtc skippatch libc.so -f __rw_unlock __rw_trywrlock __rw_workerscnt
rtc skippatch libc.so -f __rwlock_destroy __rwlock_init

x86: Unnecessary I/O Resource Warnings on Some Machines (6573171)

On some machines, for example Sun V40z, and laptops, for example Acer Ferrari 5000, you might see warning messages about booting with I/O resources. These warnings indicate potential failure on hot-pluggable add operations on the slots displayed in the warning messages.

However, on some machines these warnings are inaccurate and invalid when hot-plugging is not supported on the displayed slots. Ignore the warnings when hot-plugging is not supported.

When hot-plugging is supported, the warnings are valid and you might experience a hot-pluggable operation failure on the specified bridge slots. These types of failures do not affect the current state or functionality of the system in any way.

The examples below show various warning messages that are displayed:

WARNING: out of I/O resources on bridge: 
bus 0x20, dev 0x3, func 0x0, for secondary bus 0x23

WARNING: devices under bridge bus 0x20, dev 0x3, 
func 0x0 will not be assigned I/O ports

WARNING: detected unsupported configuration:
non-empty bridge (bus 0x0 dev 0x7 func 0x0) 
without I/O resources assigned by bios for secondary bus 0x7

WARNING: devices under bus 0x0, dev 0x7, 
func 0x0 will not be assigned I/O ports

Workaround: None.

x86: Incorrect Disk Size Causes `libspmistore.so` Calls Faults (6570738)

fdisk reports an incorrect size. This error makes the last partition appear to extend beyond the drive limits. Installation might fail or default to using the entire disk. The following error message is displayed:

Installation can not create Solaris fdisk partition (c1t0d0p0),
causing installation failure.
Or, invalid fdisk partition causes installation to overwrite the entire disk.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

Move the last partition by using gparted or a similar tool, so the partition fits within the drive size limit as reported by fdisk. This change enables the installation to complete.
For Windows Vista systems which have recovery partitions, which use NTFS, use the Vista disk partitioning tool to shrink the last partition on the disk. his shrinking ensures that the partition size does not exceed the drive size limit. Shrinking the last partition by about 1 Mbyte enables complete installation.

x86: gnome—about Error Message (6561499)

After installation, the following error message is displayed:

application gnome-about has crashed.

This error message may be ignored.

Workaround: None.

Menu Items Displayed in English When Logged in With Chinese Locale (6555226)

Some menu items and many GNOME On-Screen Keyboard (GOK) UI items are displayed in English when logged in with the Chinese locale. The menu items listed in All Applications are in English. No error message is displayed.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

Choose the zh_CN.xxx locale instead of the zh locale.
Modify the /usr/dt/config/Xinitrc.jdsfile as follows:
1. Locate the following code in the file:
```
export G_FILENAME_ENCODING=@locale,UTF-8  
export G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=yes (2)
```
2. Insert the following code before code in step 1:
```
if [ "x$LANG" = "xzh" ] ; 
then
export LANGUAGE=zh:zh_CN.EUC 
fi
```
3. Save the file and log in again to the system.

512 Mbytes Install Option (6512362)

512 Mbytes of memory is insufficient to install the Solaris Express Developer Edition GUI installer. You need at least 768 Mbytes of memory to install the Developer release.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

x86 systems: In the GRUB menu, choose the Solaris Express Serial Console ttyb installation option (#4). This option provides a text-based installation that works with 512 Mbytes of memory. This installation includes only the operating system and not the developer tools. You can add the developer tools after the installation.
SPARC systems: Use the following installation command:
```
ok boot cdrom - text
```
This option also provides a text-based installation that works with 512 Mbytes of memory. This installation will include only the operating system, not the developer tools. You can add the developer tools after the installation.

For more information about these installation options, see the Solaris Express Installation Guide: Basic Installations.

Help Document Only Contains Two Topics When in Locales Other Than C/POSIX (6412835)

When you log in to the Solaris OS and choose Help from the Launch menu, a window with 12 topics on the left side is displayed. While in locales other than C/POSIX, only two topics are displayed instead of 12. The displayed topics are:

Manual pages
GNU Info pages

No error message is displayed.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Use the following commands:

- scrollkeeper-update -q
- cp -rf /var/lib/scrollkeeper/C /var/lib/scrollkeeper/xx_yy.zzz

xx_yy.zzz stands for the locale name with which you log in.

x86: Sun Studio Express June 2007 and NetBeans Default Browser Not Found (6512279)

The Developer Guide HTML page that is displayed when you first log in as a user describes Getting Started documentation within Sun Studio 12 and NetBeans 5.5 applications as a way to learn about these products. The text on the right-hand side of this HTML page includes:

Launch Sun Studio Express and follow the Getting Started Tutorial within the IDE
Launch NetBeans 5.5 and select the Getting Started within the IDE

There are two issues with the above instructions. The issues and workarounds follow:

The correct name of the Sun Studio document is Quick Start Guide, not Getting Started Tutorial and is found under the Help menu. No workaround is needed for this issue.
Sun Studio and NetBeans IDEs expect to find Mozilla at /usr/dist/exe/. The Solaris Express Developer Edition includes the Firefox browser and not Mozilla. In order to access the Getting Started documents or any documentation on the internet, both Sun Studio and Netbeans must specify Firefox as the browser to use.
Workaround: In order to select Firefox as the browser perform the following steps:
1. Click on the Tools menu item in the application's menu bar and select Options.
2. A dialog box is displayed with Options as the title. In the General section, search for the following line:
```
*Web Browser*: Mozilla
```
  Click on the right hand arrow following the box containing Mozilla and select Firefox.
3. Click on the OK box.
Select the Getting Started document or any internet link within the application to test whether the Firefox browser is used.

Note - If you do select the Getting Started documentation or other link with Mozilla still set as the browser, you will see a dialog box explaining what to do to correct this problem. Ensure that you use the above instructions instead of the ones in the dialog box.

Changes to `uid_t` and `gid_t` Types in the Developer 9/07 Release

To promote compatibility with other operating systems, the uid_t and gid_t types have been changed from long (32-bit binaries) and int (64-bit binaries) to the uint32_t type. For more information about this feature, see uid_t and gid_t Type Changes in Solaris Express Developer Editicon What’s New.

The following are the consequences of these changes:

Impact to Newly-compiled C binaries:

When code is recompiled, standard development practices should catch any problems that are caused by changes in the uid_t and gid_t type.

Problem areas to be aware of include the following:

1 #include <unistd.h>
2 #include <stdlib.h>
3 #include <stdio.h>
4
5 int
6 main(void)
7 {
8 uid_t negone = -1;
9
10 if (getuid() < 0)
11 exit(1);
12
13 (void) setreuid(negone, getuid());
14
15 (void) printf("%ld\n", getuid());
16
17 return (0);
18 }

The following warning is generated by Sun's Studio 11 compiler:

"uid.c", line 8: warning: initializer does not fit or is out of range: -1"

The following warnings are generated by Studio 11 lint:

((8) warning: constant truncated by assignment

(8) warning: initializer will be sign-extended: -1

(10) warning: suspicious comparison of unsigned with 0: op "<"

function argument ( number ) type inconsistent with format

The following warnings are generated by gcc -Wall -Wextra:

uid.c:10: warning: comparison of unsigned expression < 0 is always false

uid.c:15: warning: long int format, uid_t arg (arg 2)

Note - Newly-compiled C binaries can be intermingled with old objects and system objects. The size of the type has not changed.

Impact on C++ code.

The change in the uid_t and gid_t type results in different name mangling for C++ functions and objects.

As with C binaries, C++ binaries and libraries continue to function as before. The exception is when libraries contain interfaces that use uid_t and gid_t. In this instance, the libraries that contain these interfaces, and the applications that use these interfaces, would need to be recompiled at the same time.

Because the Solaris OS does not expose C++ interfaces of this nature, no incompatibilities with Solaris libraries are expected.