[TriLUG] Making Solaris "feel" like Linux?

Scott Chilcote scottchilcote at earthlink.net
Fri Jan 17 12:43:01 EST 2003


Geoff Purdy wrote:
> I've been working almost exclusively with Linux at home and
> at work for the past two years.  I recently changed jobs and
> my new employer is a Solaris shop.  Since I've grown
> comfortable with Linux, I'm wondering what I can do to give
> Solaris a similar feel.
> 
> I don't have root on any of the unix systems at work so I'm
> limited in the software I can install (i.e.  I can't install
> XFree86 or GNU ls).
> 
> An obvious first step was to switch my shell to bash. 
> Anyone care to share other tips?  Thanks.

Hi Geoff,

You're really only limited by the disk space you have in your home 
directory.  I used a Solaris system up until 2000 and was able to build 
a lot of the applications I normally use in Linux.

Although you can download these tools directly from gnu.org, Sun also 
has a freeware tools site:

    http://www.sunfreeware.com/

You can build a lot of the GNU tools in your home directory.  During the 
configuration step, just use

    ./configure --prefix=$HOME

Or if you prefer, a common subdirectory.

I strongly recommend installing GCC for building the GNU tools.  The 
stock C compiler on the Solaris versions I used (up to 2.7) was just 
sufficient to compile the kernel and not much else.  A binary version of 
GCC (such as from sunfreeware) is a good start, but I recommend just 
using it to build your own GCC.  Search for "bootstrap" in "info gcc".

I was able to build Enlightenment and quite a bit of Gnome under Solaris 
2.6.  The great shortcoming was the number of available colors, which 
was pegged at 256 on the hardware I had.  It was still running Solaris 
underneath.  I don't know which I enjoyed more; having a much improved 
development system, or the sighs I used to get from the sysadmins who 
happened to look in my cube  ;-)

If you plan to use the GNU tools for development on Solaris, there are 
some more issues that need to be resolved.  Let me know if this is the case.

Best of luck.

      Scott C.





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