[H-GEN] Sun Solaris

[David Makepeace]

On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Frank Brand wrote:
> David Makepeace wrote:
> > On Fri, 5 Dec 1997, Frank Brand wrote:
> > > Can any of you who run or know of CDE tell me if the screen resolution
> > > can be reset with keystrokes like X Windows can (Ctrl-Alt-+) or is the
> > > resolution fixed and can only be reset from the coniguration files.
> > 
> > I'm pretty sure that there is no way to do that with the native Solaris X
> > server.  The Solaris X86 edition of Accelerated-X probably does have that
> > feature though.  See: http://www.xig.com
> > 
> Thanks very much David, I sort of determined this by trial and error. I
> can change the resolution by changing the configuration files but you
> would think that SUN would have implemented it.

Most SPARC machines only have two resolutions (1280x1024 & 1152x900) AND
you have to reboot if you want to change the resolution.  (After changing
the EEPROM settings.)  So I guess Sun probably wouldn't consider the
implementation of keystroke resolution changes on Solaris X86 to be a high
priority while most Sun SPARC users consider that editing a configuration
file would be a luxury.  :-) 

I forgot to mention that you can get Xfree86 for Solaris X86:
    ftp://x.physics.usyd.edu.au/pub/XFree86/3.3.1/binaries/Solaris/

That should give you a Ctrl-Alt-+.

> I had a bigger problem changing shell with Solaris having no chsh
> command and the bourne shell being pretty rudimentary. I tried to edit
> the etc/password file from sh to ksh but it simply  prevented login. I
> do not find Solaris the simplest system to negotiate but I suppose that
> if you are fully conversant with any system it is easy.

I have never had any problems changing the shell, and all I usually do is
vi /etc/passwd.  Don't forget that there is an /etc/shadow on SVR4 systems
as well.  One thing you must never do is change the shell for root, this
can render your machine unbootable.  If this is what you want then you
should put "exec /bin/ksh" at the end of /.profile.

There is a file somewhere in which you can list the valid shells but a
freshly installed Solaris (2.5) will let you use anything as a shell.  You
should also check the flags field in /etc/shadow if you have continuing
problems with logging into an a/c.

The easiest way to change the shell is to use admintool.  You don't have
to "su" to root to run admintool, just put yourself in the sysadmin group.
If this group isn't in your /etc/group file then just create it with ID
14.

Cheers,
David.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
David Makepeace   Ph:  +61 7 3378 4299   http://www.keays.com.au/
KEAYS Software    Fax: +61 7 3378 7922   D.Makepeace at mailbox.uq.edu.au
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