New Stuff in OpenSolaris 2008.11

OpenSolaris 2008.11 is coming soon. Build 101 is the stabilization build before it, and as usual, new features are excluded from this build. So we can say pretty certainly what features are in, and what are out.

While there are a lot of new features coming in this release, there are some in particular that I've been more involved with.

  1. SDcard support. Numerous laptops can now use SDcard and MultiMediaCard media directly. A good way to know if you're laptop is one of them is to search for pciclass,0805 in the output of prtconf -vp. While it isn't completely conclusive (in particular some models from Texas Instruments are schizophrenic here), if you see this, there's an excellent chance it will work. I'd always like to hear feedback about this feature -- if your unit works, or doesn't work, let me know. (Also, of course, the Tadpole SPARCLE models are supported. )
  2. AudioHD improvements. Notably, many more laptops will now have working audio. The audiohd driver is also updated to support Suspend/Resume.
  3. Fast Reboot. I participated as a consultant. I'll also be updating (post OpenSolaris 2008.11) additional drivers to support this feature. The upshot of this project is that a healthy system can reboot much more quickly now.
  4. Brussels (NIC Administration). I've participated in converting several drivers to Brussels, and in generally improving Brussels (I'm also the ARC sponsor for this work.) The upshot of this project is greatly improved manageability for network interfaces.
  5. Suspend (S3) Support. I helped review the conversions of several drivers, and provided fixes for several NIC devices.
  6. Bug Fixes. I've worked on a number of them, and of course, there are huge numbers of bugs that have been fixed in this release.
All said, I think OpenSolaris 2008.11 is going to be great -- I confess that I was skeptical about the earlier releases, but this release is shaping up to be really awesome.

Comments

CA said…
Great stuff! that release will great, and about openSound integration, or suspend/resume support on openSound drivers? any news?

CA,
October 4, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Unknown said…
My team is working hard on integration of OpenSound technology in Solaris, including addressing major feature issues like suspend/resume. Unfortunately we won't have this done in time for the 2008.11 release, but I expect that sometime late this year, or very early next year I should have bits for folks to test with.

I'll publish more on my blog as it evolves.
October 4, 2008 at 6:56 PM
.:: AuroraUX ::. said…
Hi Garrett,

Great work.
But sadly the audiohd driver makes this HP dv6129TX kernel panic!

I filed a report on bugs.opensolaris.org and here is my blog with a picture:
http://ultravioletos.blogspot.com/2008/10/panic-on-boot-of-install-dvd-sxce-snv99.html

Best Regards,
Edward O'Callaghan.
October 9, 2008 at 7:14 AM
Unknown said…
Can you give me the bugid assigned to your bug? Or, the exact synopsis you used? I'm trying to locate the bug in our database and I can't find it.

Thanks.
October 9, 2008 at 7:43 AM
.:: AuroraUX ::. said…
Hi Garrett,

Thanks for the quick reply !
CR 6757777, I just filed it and it took a few min to come though..

Thanks,
Edward.
October 9, 2008 at 9:11 AM
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