Bring back lx brand?

It is hard to say why the BrandZ code was removed from the OpenSolaris. However this can be corrected. With small fixes I've now got CentOS running in a zone on Illumos:

The Illumos Project SunOS 5.11 illumos-gate June 2011
root@indy:~# zoneadm -z centos boot; zlogin -C centos
[Connected to zone 'centos' console]
Welcome to CentOS
Press 'I' to enter interactive startup.
Configuring kernel parameters: [ OK ]
Setting hostname centos: [ OK ]
Checking root filesystem: [ OK ]
Activating swap partitions: [ OK ]
...
CentOS release 3.7 (Final)
Kernel 2.4.21 on an i686

centos login: root
Password:
Welcome to your shiny new Linux zone.

- The root password is 'root'. Please change it immediately.

- To enable networking goodness, see /etc/sysconfig/network.example.

- This message is in /etc/motd. Feel free to change it.

For anything more complicated, see:
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/brandz/

You have mail.
-bash-2.05b# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 3
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 30
model name : Intel(r) Core(tm) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
stepping : 5
cpu MHz : 1596.146
cache size : 0 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm pni monitor ds_cpl est tm2 cx16 xtpr
...


Sample client for istatd

IPhone owners can use a great app for servers monitoring - istat. On the server you must install the istatd daemon. More information can be read here: http://blogs.sun.com/karim/entry/monitoring_opensolaris_from_an_itouch.
Here an example of a console client for istatd, you can use this data for plotting, etc:
$ gcc -o istatd_client istatd_client.c -lsocket -lnsl
$ ./istatd_client
Usage: istatd_client <server_ip> <server_port> <server_code>
Example output from OpenSolaris server:

/istatd_client XX.XXX.XX.X 5109 12345
Connected to XX.XXX.XX.X on port 5109

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><isr ready="1"></isr>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><isr pl="2" ath="0" ss="6" c="7788968" n="7788967"></isr>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><isr ds="8" ts="8" fs="8" rid="1"><CPU><c id="-1" u="1" s="3" n="0"></c></CPU><NET if="1"><n id="-1" d="12545352948" u="276928235931" t="1279010768"></n></NET><MEM w="1568" a="326" i="0" f="190" t="2086" su="51" st="1043" pi="79363" po="17312"></MEM><LOAD one="0.230469" fv="0.238281" ff="0.234375"></LOAD><UPT u="7788967"></UPT><DISKS><d n="/" uuid="rpool/ROOT/opensolaris-1" f="43352" p="21.1999"></d><d n="/hosting" uuid="hosting" f="134024" p="4.63293"></d></DISKS></isr>
...

Looking through istatd code, you can easily recognize what's mean all these variables (for example "u" in <CPU> denotes cpu_user usage).

Osstat 0.3

Osstat applet now reaches version 0.3 - minor fixes, new graphs and some features.



Feel free to optimize code or change parts to use better ways.
Download here.

Using ddu scripts

Have you ever looked in the "/usr/ddu" directory? Console-lovers can use some of these scripts and get the almost same output as from the "ddu" graphic utility. For example, I changed the probe.sh script a bit and now I can get ddu-like info from console:

(root@elvis)# ./ddu.sh
AUDIO
   Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller : audio810
CPU
   1 X Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.26GHz, 1-core : ---
CD_DVD
   Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller : pci-ide
   Optiarc DVD RW AD-5200A : 0
MEMORY
    1G (512M + 512M) ;  2G maximum : ---
NETWORK
   Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ : rtls
STORAGE
   Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller : pci-ide
USB
   Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 : uhci
   Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 : uhci
   Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 : uhci
   Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller : ehci
VIDEO
   Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device : i915
OTHERS
   PC standard floppy disk controller : fdc
   16550A-compatible COM port : asy
   ECP printer port : ecpp
   PS/2 Port for PS/2-style Mice : mouse8042
   System keyboard : kb8042
(root@elvis)#

Boot chart for MilaX 0.5

Conky 1.7.2 on OpenSolaris

I've tried to compile the last Conky 1.7.2 version with Lua Cairo bindings on OpenSolaris and should say it impress me. It was necessary to tinker with code a little but I liked the result.



I hope to prepare clean patch soon.

Installing OpenSolaris on a Sparc using LiveCD

I've written a sample installation script for Sparc snv125 LiveCD. Taking as basis my "zfsinstall" script for MilaX Sparc LiveCD and improving some hacks for BE, I've now a working OpenSolaris system on my old Ultra 60, with possibility for next upgrading.
Required steps:
1. Boot from LiveCD. (After booting I disabled some services like AI,LDOM which are not necessary on my Ultra).
2. Configure network (plumb interface and enable ssh).
3. Download and run zfsinstall_sparc script (i.e. ./zfsinstall_sparc c4t1d0s0)
4. Reboot.

Sample output:

root@opensolaris:/jack# ./zfsinstall c4t1d0s0
Test TI started in real mode...
Target type specified: BE
BE target prepared successfully
BE target created successfully
Starting to copy data from UFS root to /zfsroot - this may take some time.
Updating vfstab
Updating boot-archive
updating /zfsroot//platform/sun4u/boot_archive
Installing zfs bootblk on /dev/rdsk/c4t1d0s0
###################################################

OpenSolaris now installed.

root@opensolaris:/jack# beadm umount opensolaris
root@opensolaris:/jack# reboot -- disk1
...
Sun Ultra 60 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-II 360MHz), Keyboard Present
OpenBoot 3.17, 512 MB memory installed, Serial #
Ethernet address 8:0:20:b8:a3:b9, Host ID: 80b8a3b9

Rebooting with command: boot disk1
Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@1,0  File and args: 
SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_125 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
WARNING: consconfig: cannot find driver for screen device /SUNW,ffb@1e,0
Can't find driver for console framebuffer
Hostname: opensolaris
Configuring devices.
Loading smf(5) service descriptions: 137/137
Reading ZFS config: done.
Mounting ZFS filesystems: (6/6) 

opensolaris console login:
...
# beadm list
BE           Active Mountpoint Space   Policy Created
--           ------ ---------- ------- ------ -------
opensolaris  NR     /          580.69M static 2009-11-10 01:45
#

P.S. Now I've already updated the system to snv126.