Has anybody ever tried running Solaris (natively) on a 13" MBP (mid 2010)?

[alpha754293]

I was reading on Anandtech that they've made MacBook Pros become Windows machines. Has anybody ever had any luck on turning/converting MacBook Pros into (native) Solaris machines (i.e. without the usage of VM)?

Most of the research that I've done up to this point have all pointed to some form of VM method; and I was just curious if it could be done (at all) natively.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[DeltaMac]

You shouldn't need a vm solution. In fact, Apple has included a support "wizard" to install Windows natively, since early in 2007 - called BootCamp. Using that as a prep provides most of the means to get most any OS that will boot and install on an X86-type system.
Here's one method to get there with Solaris. http://gregalbrecht.com/2010/04/06/macbook-solaris/
And, a couple of others here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1391008
Some will be experiences with vms, but you certainly don't need to do that, if you don't need a vm solution
I've not had real experience with Solaris, but I'm sure there's others that prowl around on this site, and you may get other responses, eh?

[alpha754293]

You shouldn't need a vm solution. In fact, Apple has included a support "wizard" to install Windows natively, since early in 2007 - called BootCamp. Using that as a prep provides most of the means to get most any OS that will boot and install on an X86-type system.
Here's one method to get there with Solaris. http://gregalbrecht.com/2010/04/06/macbook-solaris/
And, a couple of others here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1391008
Some will be experiences with vms, but you certainly don't need to do that, if you don't need a vm solution
I've not had real experience with Solaris, but I'm sure there's others that prowl around on this site, and you may get other responses, eh?

I didn't think that Boot Camp worked for Solaris. Hmmm....

[DeltaMac]

You did seem surprised that someone has figured out how to install Windows on a Mac, and I though I would point out that Apple knows about that, and has provided tools as a standard install in OS X to simplify that, and it's been in use for more than 5 years. Some folks use the same tool for a quick start on installing other OSes, usually some flavor of Linux. I would think that Solaris would not be that much different to install. In the end, there's not huge differences in the motherboard/chipsets used by Apple, compared to other good quality current computers.
Some will point out that Apple hardware tends to be slightly behind 'cutting edge' in some ways. But, I think that should make the process for installing Solaris simpler when you don't have to figure this out on your own (someone else has likely done Solaris on your specific model, and posted some helps on the 'net, somewhere)

[alpha754293]

You did seem surprised that someone has figured out how to install Windows on a Mac, and I though I would point out that Apple knows about that, and has provided tools as a standard install in OS X to simplify that, and it's been in use for more than 5 years. Some folks use the same tool for a quick start on installing other OSes, usually some flavor of Linux. I would think that Solaris would not be that much different to install. In the end, there's not huge differences in the motherboard/chipsets used by Apple, compared to other good quality current computers.
Some will point out that Apple hardware tends to be slightly behind 'cutting edge' in some ways. But, I think that should make the process for installing Solaris simpler when you don't have to figure this out on your own (someone else has likely done Solaris on your specific model, and posted some helps on the 'net, somewhere)

No, I already knew about Boot Camp. Like I said, I read through Anandtech's review and it mentions that it used Boot Camp to turn the MacBook Pro into a Windows machine.

And like I said, my search already has only brought about results where people were going through Parallels or some other kind of VM method; but the installation wasn't native.

For example, Boot Camp is able to drive the touchpad so that the multi-gestures that's used in OS X is available in Windows. And per the Anandtech review, it was also saying that if you were to touch the lower right corner of the touchpad; it would be a right click where a right-click button usually resides on a Windows laptop.

Would that option or would Solaris recognize Mac's touchpad gestures? Would Solaris recognize the WLAN adapter or the GbE NIC for that matter. (Solaris x86 hardware compatibility has always been...."sparse" compared to other Linux distros; but when it works, it has always worked well).

Obviously, I can try and run it through VM, but the point of this thread is to NOT go through a VM, but rather natively. Would Solaris recognize Boot Camp or is Boot Camp a Windows-only thing? (i.e. running Linux natively may not work either).

That's the crux of this thread.

So when you have a tool that helps the Windows installation, it's no surprise that it can be done. Now the question is there isn't a tool (as far as I know) for Solaris. Can it STILL be done? (without a VM/Parallels).

Already checked the net - that's why I'm here.

(See my other thread about wanting to replace /usr/bin/top with the /usr/bin/top from Solaris procps.)

[DeltaMac]

Ah - I see you have the misconception that (somehow) Boot Camp has some function, other that providing a means to install Windows, and provide driver support for that install. If you install Windows (you don't need Boot Camp at all to do that) by simply booting to the Windows installer CD, and erase the hard drive, then Windows will certainly install, and you can boot Windows natively. You can do the same with various flavors of Linux (whatever might support the hardware). It's especially easy if you don't want to continue to have OS X installed, so the ONLY choice is whatever OS you have installed.
The challenge is the various bits of hardware that are, to some extent, unique to the Apple hardware, such as the trackpad, and the multitouch capabilities that may have. You can then get the "Boot Camp" drivers for that (and the other stuff, such as power management/cooling, vid drivers, etc) that may give you the best optimization for whatever Mac model you have. Nothing in Boot Camp will help you with drivers for operating systems other than Windows, and there's limits to Windows versions that are supported, too. I suppose that the multi-touch gestures would be the biggest surprise, if that works in Solaris.

What does top in Solaris pro cps give you that the unix top in your OS X system does not do? Seems like you could simply replace that file, give it the correct permissions, and (assuming it works at all) then hope that it actually would work properly with a unix system. (as you can tell, I don't know - never tried)

Finally - what prevents you from trying Solaris? Boot to your choice of a Solaris install, erase the MBPro hard drive, and install away! I think the Solaris 10 or 11 should get you a booting install. Everything should (mostly) function, and the trackpad would be - just a trackpad (no gestures, probably) Left click/right-click would likely be exactly where you would expect (front left and front right corners), or might need a control key press to get a right click menu.

Have you tried booting the MacBook Pro to a liveCD, and running the Device Driver Utility? That looks like a good way to determine if you will have large challenges for drivers (or not)

[alpha754293]

Ah - I see you have the misconception that (somehow) Boot Camp has some function, other that providing a means to install Windows, and provide driver support for that install. If you install Windows (you don't need Boot Camp at all to do that) by simply booting to the Windows installer CD, and erase the hard drive, then Windows will certainly install, and you can boot Windows natively. You can do the same with various flavors of Linux (whatever might support the hardware). It's especially easy if you don't want to continue to have OS X installed, so the ONLY choice is whatever OS you have installed.
The challenge is the various bits of hardware that are, to some extent, unique to the Apple hardware, such as the trackpad, and the multitouch capabilities that may have. You can then get the "Boot Camp" drivers for that (and the other stuff, such as power management/cooling, vid drivers, etc) that may give you the best optimization for whatever Mac model you have. Nothing in Boot Camp will help you with drivers for operating systems other than Windows, and there's limits to Windows versions that are supported, too. I suppose that the multi-touch gestures would be the biggest surprise, if that works in Solaris.

What does top in Solaris pro cps give you that the unix top in your OS X system does not do? Seems like you could simply replace that file, give it the correct permissions, and (assuming it works at all) then hope that it actually would work properly with a unix system. (as you can tell, I don't know - never tried)

Finally - what prevents you from trying Solaris? Boot to your choice of a Solaris install, erase the MBPro hard drive, and install away! I think the Solaris 10 or 11 should get you a booting install. Everything should (mostly) function, and the trackpad would be - just a trackpad (no gestures, probably) Left click/right-click would likely be exactly where you would expect (front left and front right corners), or might need a control key press to get a right click menu.

Have you tried booting the MacBook Pro to a liveCD, and running the Device Driver Utility? That looks like a good way to determine if you will have large challenges for drivers (or not)

I don't have my MBP with me at work, but when I get home, I should probably be able to answer that question better.

I kind of grew up with Solaris (to somewhat of an extent) and there are a number of tools from Solaris that I really like that I have found them to be tremendously efficient and useful.

And since OS X is based off of *BSD, I figure that I should be able to get the source (I think -- say from like OpenSolaris or something like that); download it and compile it, or maybe download the binaries; make a backup of the existing copies, and then do the straight-up replace (hopefully it won't drag along too many dependencies).

The live CD is a good idea. Does the MBP automatically try to boot from CD first, or do I have to press a function key to bring up the boot menu?

And it isn't a misconception. It's a "is there something like it"? (of sorts).

But like you said, the live CD should be able to tell me whether it's going to work or not. I should give that a try. Thanks.

[DeltaMac]

You should be able to boot to the LiveCD - restart while holding the C key (with the disk in the drive). You could also try holding Option during a restart. Any bootable partitions/disks will appear on the screen. Just tab to select the drive, and press return to boot from it.
However, holding the C might work where the boot select screen doesn't always show every possibility.

And, then because the OS X system would be completely gone, and you have then installed Solaris, then the 'top' question is a moot point, eh?

And, finally, Apple has a large amount of info and downloads, that might even give you the information that you need. Keep in mind that Darwin, which is the unix core upon which OS X is based, is open source.
http://opensource.apple.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)