Summary

In this chapter, you looked at the first critical step to ensuring proper operation of your Solaris 9 computer, the installation. Good installations generally result from good planning. Be sure to know your goals of the installation before you begin the process. Solaris 9 can be installed locally from CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, or over the network from an installation server. The installation programs are suninstall, Web Start, JumpStart, and Live Upgrade.

You then looked at installing software on Solaris 9. Solaris programs are distributed as software packages. Packages can be added during installation or after the system is operational. The graphical Admintool and Product Registry, as well as the command-line pkgadd, pkgchk, and pkgrm utilities, can be used to manage software.

Finally, you explored software patches. If bugs are found in an existing application, or a potential security breach is discovered, Sun will create and issue a patch to eliminate the problem. Patches can be managed with the graphical Patch Tool in the Solaris Management Console, or with the patchadd and patchrm utilities at the command line.