About the lx Brand

The lx brand uses the branded zones framework to enable Linux binary applications to run unmodified on a machine with a Solaris Operating System kernel.

The machine must have one of the following supported i686 processor types:

• Intel

  • Pentium Pro

  • Pentium II

  • Pentium III

  • Celeron

  • Xeon

  • Pentium 4

  • Pentium M

  • Pentium D

  • Pentium Extreme Edition

  • Core

  • Core 2

  AMD

  • Opteron

  • Athlon XP

  • Athlon 64

  • Athlon 64 X2

  • Athlon FX

  • Duron

  • Sempron

  • Turion 64

  • Turion 64 X2

Supported Linux Distributions

The lx brand includes the tools necessary to install a CentOS 3.x or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x distribution inside a non-global zone. Versions 3.5 to 3.8 of each distribution are supported. The brand supports the execution of 32-bit Linux applications on x86 and x64 machines running the Solaris system in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode.

The lx brand emulates the system call interfaces provided by the Linux 2.4.21 kernel, as modified by Red Hat in the RHEL 3.x distributions. This kernel provides the system call interfaces consumed by the glibc version 2.3.2 released by Red Hat.

In addition, the lx brand partially emulates the Linux /dev and /proc interfaces.

Caution - Note that you must maintain a supported configuration if you add packages to an lx branded zone. See About Maintaining a Supported Configuration for more information.

Application Support

The Solaris system imposes no limit on the number of Linux applications you can run in an lx branded zone. Sufficient memory must be available. Also see System and Space Requirements.

Regardless of the underlying kernel, only 32-bit Linux applications are able to run.

The lx zone supports only user-level Linux applications. You cannot use Linux device drivers, Linux kernel modules, or Linux file systems from inside an lx zone.

See https://opensolaris.org/os/community/brandz/applications for a list of some applications that have been successfully run under the lx brand. See How to Install an Application in an lx Branded Zone for an example of installing an application.

You cannot run Solaris applications inside an lx zone. However, the lx zone enables you to use the Solaris system to develop, test, and deploy Linux applications. For example, you can place a Linux application in an lx zone and analyze it using Solaris tools run from the global zone. You can then make improvements and deploy the tuned application on a native Linux system.