Installing OpenSolaris on VirtualBox

Finally got around to installing Sun's OpenSolaris on VirtualBox. It turned out to be easier than I expected. Just grab the latest release (2008.05 at the time of this writing), and follow thru the install just as you would any other guest OS on VirtualBox. You can find details for installing OpenSolaris on VirtualBox here and here, but believe me, it is surprisingly sweet and smooth.

The only hitch I had was getting the network interface going. Apparently, OpenSolaris ships with the Network AutoMagic, which sadly is not all that automagical when installing on VirtualBox. But the solution is quite simple. Just keep on reading...

After what should be a successful install, confirm that nwam is running:

  # svcs nwam

It will be enabled by default. We don't need this, we need to configure the Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (NAT) e1000g0 network adapter interface, and activate it. Let's turn off nwam, and set things up:

  # svcadm disable physical:nwam
  # svcadm enable physical:default

Next, we configure and activate the e1000g0 connection. In the OpenSolaris' guest window menu, select System > Administration > Network. Select the e1000g0 connection, and click on the Properties button. In the Interface Properties window, check the boxes for Enable this connection and Activate on boot. Select DHCP for Configuration, and click OK. Lastly, click on the Activate button to bring e1000g0 up. You can reboot to complete the process, and hey, whoa!



Network love!

Time to install the JDK, NetBeans, and other tools...