openSolaris 2008 - What's New in the Solaris Express 1/06 Release for Solaris Installation - Solaris Express Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade

What's New in the Solaris Express 1/06 Release for Solaris Installation

This section describes the following new installation features in the Solaris Express release.

x86: GRUB Based Booting

Starting with the Solaris Express release, the open source GNU GRand Unified Boot Loader (GRUB) has been adopted in the Solaris OS for x86 based systems. GRUB is responsible for loading a boot archive into the system's memory. A boot archive is a collection of critical files that is needed during system startup before the root (/) file system is mounted. The boot archive is used to boot the Solaris OS.

The most notable change is the replacement of the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant with the GRUB menu. The GRUB menu facilitates booting the different operating systems that are installed on your system. The GRUB menu is displayed when you boot an x86 based system. From the GRUB menu, you can select an OS instance to install by using the arrow keys. If you do not make a selection, the default OS instance is booted.

The GRUB based boot feature provides the following improvements:

Faster boot times
Installation from USB CD or DVD drives
Ability to boot from USB storage devices
Simplified DHCP setup for PXE boot (no vendor-specific options)
Elimination of all realmode drivers
Ability to use Solaris Live Upgrade and the GRUB menu to quickly activate and fall back to boot environments

For more information about GRUB refer to the following sections.

Task	GRUB Task	For More Information
Installation	Overview information about GRUB based booting	What's New: x86: GRUB Extended Support for Directly Loading and Booting the UNIX Kernel x86: GRUB Based Booting (Overview)
	Installation planning for GRUB based booting	x86: GRUB Based Booting (Planning)
	How to boot and install over the network with the GRUB menu	Installing the System From the Network With a DVD Image in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations
	How to boot and install with the GRUB menu and the Custom JumpStart installation method	Performing a Custom JumpStart Installation in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Custom JumpStart and Advanced Installations
	How to use the GRUB menu and Solaris Live Upgrade to activate and fall back to boot environments	Activating a Boot Environment in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning Chapter 6, Failure Recovery: Falling Back to the Original Boot Environment (Tasks), in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning
	Locating the GRUB menu's `menu.lst` file	Locating the GRUB Menu’s menu.lst File (Tasks) in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning
System Administration	How to perform system administration tasks with the GRUB menu	System Administration Guide: Basic Administration System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems `bootadm`(1M) `installgrub`(1M)

Note - GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not UNIX.” For more information, go to https://www.gnu.org.