Hi, Guys! I am trying this install for the first time (on Dell Optiplex GX1 - the Hardware is on the HCL). After re-partitioning, the installer starts copying the files, and then.... nothing happens, it just sits there with the cursor rotating. Any ideas? I'm a newbie, so please speak English :) Your help is greatly appreciated.

there are many well known problems with using disc 1 (installation cd) or the install floppy. boot with disc 2 (software 1).

Thanks for your response. However, the scenario you are suggesting is even worse. The installation craps out at an even earlier stage with a misterious error message saying it was going to fast and failing to find files and devices. Gee, could they make it more complicated than that?! They put the hardware on their HCL, and it doesn't work (no wonder Microsoft sells better - pardon my French). Obviously, I am not the only one with exactly the same problem, so there's got to be a simple solution to that. Please, help! Thanks a bunch Genia.

can you be a bit more specific? which options have you selected for install? what tasks have you performed when the install dies? you said before that your install hung up right after the disk partitioning, did you go with the defaults or customize the layout? i understand your frustrations, the setup of the intel version for solaris is far from forgiving, especially if you are new to unix in general. solaris is normally deployed on risc systems, and was specifically designed to work with that (sparc) hardware... the intel version is more of a port than a seperate product in it's own right, and as such there are quite a few odd problems and work arounds for them. if you are in search of a unix operating system written specifically for i386, and a little easier to "get into" you should take a look at linux.

Thanks again for your response. I have no problem with Linux. I've installed it countless times. I am running Oracle 8i and 9i on it (RH6.2 and RH7.2 and I have no problems whatsover). It's just that I was expecting challenges (you know when you actually have to use your brain) rather than stupid error messages when you can't get the basic OS up and running for reasons unknown. Basically, during the installation I was following the documentation provided by Sun (http://docs.sun.com/db?p=/doc/806-0956/6ja9b7voe&a=view#planning-step-8), religiously followed every step accepting defaults (it's a dedicated machine, no dual boots, no fancy hardware, all standard), and it craps out on me at step 25 (Copying mini-root to local disk....) and I never get the 'done' word that would take me to the next step 'Copying platform specific files...'. It just sits there with the cursor spinning. There is some hard drive and CD-ROM activity for a minute or so at the beginning (so something is being copied), then everything quiets and nothing happens after. If you think you can help me, that would be great. And thanks for your time and understanding. Cheers, Genia.

i've had something close to that happen to me before, it sounds like you are having some disc problems... there are a few known problems with the solaris fdisk and certain scsi and ide devices. try pre-partitioning your disk using linux, boot off one of your linux install discs and enter linux rescue, use the linux version of fdisk to create A SINGLE partition of type 0x82 (linux swap). try your install again, booting from the second disc (software 1). if the install craps again, just let me know where.

Thanks, I'll try that. I believe you might be right because when I was blowing the partition table (yet again) from within DOS using fdisk, it was dispaying some weird partition sizes or something suspicious of the sort. But I'll definitely try your recommendation and see how that goes. Thanks again. Genia.