newbie stuff 3

[fluid11]

I have Red Hat experience and just installed my first Solaris 8 server. I noticed a few annoying things right from the start.

1. no tab completion
2. can't use the backspace key
3. gray background with black lettering
4. no history commands using the up arrow

Is there a different way to do all of this or do I have to configure the server to do it somehow?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[fluid11]

one more thing...

5. It looks like the max file name length in Solaris is 8 charachters, like the old DOS?

 

[Kegnut]

Linux's default shell is bash. Which you can get from

http://www.sunfreeware.com

for Solaris. That will take care of 1 and 4.

As for 2.) In a command window type stty erase ^H <press backspace key to generate the ^H> .

And lastly numero 3, I've never seen a grey background with black lettering...does it pop up like that as soon as you log in? You should be able to change that by right-clicking in an open area-->Tools-->Desktop Controls-->Color Style Manager.

Hope this helps,
Josh

All in all, bash will take care of most of your shell issues.

 

[fluid11]

Thanks for your response.

About the background...I was talking about the commmand line. I didn't install the GUI. The background on the command line is gray and the lettering is black, as opposed to black background with white lettering.

What about #5? Does Solaris 8 only support an 8 charachter file max?

ChrisP

 

[KenCunningham]

Certainly our Solaris (7) supports filenames over 8 characters. How does this limit manifest itself on your box? Any error messages if you try to save from vi, say, or does the filename get truncated automatically?

 

[gerudman]

Chris

I'm to too clued up on SUN systems, but on HP you'd do the following for history stacking. Add the following to you profile or type direct from command line as temp solution:
(perhaps someone could confirm if this will work on Sun)

export HISTSIZE=100
export HISTFILE=~/.sh_history
export EDITOR=vi

 

[fluid11]

About the 8 charachter file max. I'm sorry, but I messed up and its only with CDROMs. I mounted a CDROM and it had 3 folders at the root of the drive called...

Lotus Domino R5 5.0.8 Mail Server (Solaris)
Lotus Domino R5 5.0.8 Mail Server (WinNT)
Lotus Domino R5 5.0.9 Mail Server (Linux)

When I do an &quot;ls /cdrom/cdrom0&quot;, it reads the files as lotus_do, lotus_d2, and lotus_d3.

Darn, I thought that Solaris was going to be easy to pick up with my prior Linux experience. It totally different! Will this improve when I change the shell to bash? Anyone else with Linux experience trying to pick up Solaris and having problems like me? All I want to do is get my Domino server running on Solaris to see if its any better/worse than on Red Hat.

Chris

 

[KenCunningham]

I'm sure the compatibility issues will ease when you install bash.

As far as the 8-character 'limit' is concerned, we get similar issues when receiving new software from Companies who have burned the disks using NT or similar. Generally speaking, you can navigate around and install whatever's necessary, however. Are you still having problems with this?

 

[fluid11]

Yes, the disc was burned on a Windows machine. I was able to grab the tarball off of the CD that I needed. I just went into each folder on the CD until I found the file that I needed. I'm going to install bash IMMEDIATELY I'm very lost with this shell...I coulnd't even figure out vi with the current shell! It wouldn't let me delete charachters and I couldn't tell when I was in Insert Mode! What shell do you prefer?

Can you recommend a good Solaris 8 book so that I can convert my knowledge to the new OS?

 

[KenCunningham]

I know what you mean about vi, but once you get the hang of knowing almost intuitively what mode you're in, it's not too bad. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get the intuition. I always say 'if in doubt, q! out', but that is annoying if you have done a lot of work on a script. An alternative is to wq! to a new filename.

I'm sorry I can't help with Solaris 8 book recommendations, but I'm sure there are many who can. We have yet to make the leap from Solaris 7 and the majority of whatever I know comes from practice and various generic flavours over the years.

As I say, once you install bash I'm sure you'll find your way easier. Good luck.

 

[fluid11]

Yes, I did q! about 10 times and all I was doing was trying to edit the /etc/hosts file! Will vi improve with the bash shell?

Thanks to everyone who posted...Ken, Kegnut, and gerudman

 

[cfsalmeida]

about vi issues it could be your terminal type at the moment, bash 2.03 is included in Solaris 8 distribution, you could also use &quot;ksh&quot; with vi as command line editor and history, try something like:
# ksh -o vi
# export TERM=vt100
# vi /etc/host

with &quot;vi&quot; settings in ksh (korn shell), you can e.i user (ESC + k) to command line list, (ESC + |) to command completion, etc, etc .

for a book you can take a look at System Administration Hand book, is not a Solaris book, but because confronts the other Unix's (Red Hat/HP-UX) with Solaris it could be a good read.

http://vig.pearsoned.com/store/product/0,,store-562_banner-0_isbn-0130206016,00.html

Regards,

Carlos Almeida,