July 7, 2003

Attendees

• Chris Baker - Sun
• Eric Boutilier - Sun
• Alan DuBoff - Sun
• Steve Christensen - Sunfreeware
• Bruce Riddle - x86 rep
• Phil Brown - x86 rep
• Dennis Clarke - Blastwave
• Mariusz Zynel - Solaris-x86.org (Poland)

Companion CD

Community software is moving down the path of using NetBSD source tree. The Companion CD is headed down the road to using this now, and in progress. No timeframe, but if people want to jump in and integrate with Solarpack right now, they're encouraged to.

Additionally, with Update 4 will come a new CCD. (note - while "U4" is convenient shorthand, the naming convention required by Solaris Lifecycle is "8/03 Update" )

Alan mentioned the -R/usr/sfw/lib should be added to runpath of CCD compilations, as some packages moved into /usr/sfw. The new packages are gcc 3.x, 3.3 will be there in Update 5. QT, KDE, mysql, mutt, tcpdump, curl, file, fltk, rxvt, snort, pine, xmms, lynx, lxrun supports red hat 7.3, rpm 4.1, etc...

Community LX50s

Dennis Clarke mentioned the LX50 hasn't arrived yet. Steve Christensen received his but Blastwave didn't receive their LX50 yet.

Chris Baker answered in response to Dennis' question on whether 8/03 would be possible to get on these systems, "Solaris 9 Update 4 will release early to V60/V65 owners, but will not be available generally till August. LX50 owners can use any S9 update"

Drivers

Bruce asked what happened to drivers that John Loiacono mentioned in a phone call. Chris answered that it's being looked at, and we're trying to come up with a set of drivers that make sense.

Sun will continue to focus on server platforms, but is interested in supporting Sys Admins and Engineers who need to run Solaris x86 as a desktop.

Phil Brown asked about SPARC OpenGL and it was pointed out that the OpenGL is owned by a hardware group. Alan suggested the community might look at using XFree86 along with MESA or other options, to take a proactive initiative.

Working Groups

Eric commented that the community needs to decide on how to move forward, and Bruce agreed. All feel that this is a good idea and should be done as a community effort.

Installer workgroup was mentioned as an example. Alan explained the how the installer is used as a "scapegoat" in some cases where it shouldn't. Dennis used an example of installation issues with a SPARC V480.

Community Bug Filing

Steve, "can we utilize the BETA program?", and Eric responded that we have a plan to use the BETA program feedback tools to have the community file bugs and Eric had been looking into this previously. Chris mentions that we need to consider whether the bug being submitted can be reproduced on Sun certified hardware. This is what the LX50s were put in the community for.

HCL

Sun is moving forward with the HCL and getting it improved. Alan encouraged everyone to add their hardware at Tier 3, at minimum so that the community knows what pieces of hardware currently have support.

Eric asked about getting stats on top selling laptops and/or creating specific docs for installing and/or running on specific hardware.

Laptops and/or Desktop, it was mentioned that Sun is committed to supporting laptops and desktop installations for sys admins and developers.

RealNetworks

Alan mentioned we're best to work the Helix route at this time, and that we don't have enough resources inside Sun at the moment to have folks like Chris Baker address RealNetworks properly. For better or worse, it seems we're best off with this approach to the RealPlayer.

Storage

Dennis asked how important storage is for Sun and specifically how likely it is to see Veritas support on V60/V65s? Chris emphasized that storage is very important to us, and we're looking at all of the Sun solutions as well as 3rd party solutions as well. It was pointed out that there are some solutions such as Qlogic that support Solaris x86 at the current time.

New software

StarOffice, Mozilla, Acrobat, Flash, Real, etc...the basic message is that where we have problems with specific companies that we work on an open source solution (i.e., StarOffice vs. OpenOffice). Also, this might be a good area for a workgroup to setup that would work issues with companies such as Adobe, Star Division, etc..

Patches/PatchPro

No real update on this front, Chris mentioned that the ultimate goal is parity in patching tools/process between SPARC and x86.

Scientific Computing

Eric mentioned there were areas that are looking at - Sun Grid Engine is available.

SunOne

Sun is working towards trying to get an external BETA for the SunOne stack but there is no word on when that will happen.

HCTS

Chris mentioned that we're interested in getting it run by as many people as possible and to get results posted on BigAdmin. Chris explained the 3 tiers of HCL that now exist and how they relate to the HCL and/or Sun support. (new support policy will be linked from the Bigadmin HCL site)

BOFs

USENIX BOF at San Antonio was completed and went well, the attendance was low due to economy, in the 40-50 range. Sun is looking at the upcoming LISA conference in San Diego and Eric will be going to that. Sun is also looking at having Solaris x86 BOFs at the upcoming SunNetwork in San Francisco.

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