Solaris on the Precision 650

Posted on Feb 13, 2004

Installing Solaris on the Precision 650 was easy once I'd figured out how to turn on PXE booting in the BIOS. Look for Integrated Devices, open the sub-pane and then find Network Interface Controller. It toggles through On, On w/ PXE, On w/ RPL and Off. Switch it to On w/ PXE and then, when booting, hit F12. Booting via the Intel Gigabit Ethernet adaptor is option 3 in the list (for me at least).

PXE based install is straightforward if you have everything set up already (DHCP, etc.). Solaris "just works", though you need to get the Solaris XFree86 Video Drivers and Porting Kit for decent video resolution, depth and performance.