Download the full Linux for SPARC DVD image file (linux-sparc-1.0-DVD.iso) from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/linux-sparc/files to the control domain.

From the control domain, create a guest domain.

For example, create a guest domain with two virtual CPUs and 2 GB of RAM, connected to an existing network service (virtual switch) named primary-vsw0.

# ldm add-domain guest_domain
# ldm add-vcpu 2 guest_domain
# ldm add-memory 2g guest_domain
# ldm add-vnet vnet0 primary-vsw0 guest_domain
# mkfile 20g /path/to/disk_image
# ldm add-vdiskserverdevice /path/to/disk_image linuxdisk@primary-vds0
# ldm add-vdisk vdisk1 linuxdisk@primary-vds0 guest_domain

Make the ISO image available to the guest domain, set it as the default boot device, and disable automatic booting:

# ldm add-vdiskserverdevice /path/to/linux-sparc-1.0-DVD.iso lfs.iso@primary-vds0
# ldm add-vdisk cdrom lfs.iso@primary-vds0 guest_domain
# ldm set-var boot-device=cdrom guest_domain
# ldm set-var auto-boot\?=false guest_domain

Start the guest domain:

# ldm bind-domain guest_domain
# ldm start guest_domain

Determine the console TCP port of the guest domain:

# ldm list-domain guest_domain
NAME          STATE    FLAGS  CONS   VCPU MEMORY   UTIL  UPTIME
guest_domain  active   -t---  5014   2    2G       42%   5s

The console TCP port is the value in the CONS column (5014 in this example).

Connect to the console of a guest domain, and press Enter to display the OpenBoot prompt ({0} ok):

# telnet localhost port
Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to t4-2.
Escape character is '^]'.

Connecting to console "guest_domain" in group "guest_domain" ...
Press ~? for control options .. <Enter>

{0} ok

Choose between performing text-based installation or graphical installation. You can perform text-based installation with or without networking configured. Graphical installation requires you configure networking and a VNC server on the system being installed so that you can use a remote VNC client to access the system. You can configure networking to use DHCP to obtain a network address or you can manually assign an IP address.

The following are some examples of the combinations that are possible:

Perform the Linux installation by using the menus provided.

To allow the installed system to boot automatically from the virtual disk, log into the control domain and change the boot device from the virtual CD-ROM to the virtual hard disk:

# ldm set-var boot-device=vdisk1 guest_domain
# ldm set-var auto-boot\?=true guest_domain

After the installation has finished, reboot the guest domain.

Download the full Linux for SPARC DVD image file (linux-sparc-1.0-DVD.iso) from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/linux-sparc/files.

Write the image file to a DVD or copy it to a local disk that is accessible using Oracle ILOM.

Perform one of the following steps to access the OpenBoot prompt:

The {o} ok prompt indicates that the OpenBoot firmware is in control of the system.

If you have difficulty accessing the OpenBoot prompt, refer to the guidelines at:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19836-01/E20746/z40002fe1298584.html

Use the setenv command to set the value of auto-boot? to false:

{0} ok setenv auto-boot? false
auto-boot?  false

If auto-boot? is set to false, the system does not attempt to bootstrap the system from the defined boot devices (usually disk and net). You can change the value back to true after installation when you are satisfied that the system is performing as expected.

Use the show-disks command to examine the drives that are attached to the system, and select the disk on which you want to install Linux for SPARC:

{0} ok show-disks
a) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk
q) NO SELECTION
Enter Selection, q to quit: a
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk has been selected.

For convenience, you can use the nvalias command to create a device alias for the selected device:

{0} ok nvalias oldisk [Ctrl]+Y

OpenBoot expands [Ctrl]+Y inline to the currently selected disk, /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk.

You can use the devalias command to check what aliases are defined, for example:

{0} ok devalias
screen                   /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/pci@0,2/display@1
nvram                    /virtual-devices/nvram@3
cdrom                    /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@2,0:f
disk3                    /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@3
disk2                    /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@2
disk1                    /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@1
disk0                    /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@0
disk                     /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk@0
oldisk                   /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0/disk
scsi                     /pci@0/pci@0/pci@a/scsi@0
display                  /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/pci@0,2/display@1
net0                     /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/network@0
net                      /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/network@0
virtual-console          /virtual-devices/console@1
name                     aliases

The @N syntax refers to the port number on a physical connector. disk@0 is the disk controller. disk@1, disk@2, and so on are the physical disks. In this example, the installation is performed on disk1.

Insert the DVD containing the ISO image into the system's DVD-ROM drive or use Oracle ILOM to make the image available as a virtual CD-ROM (rcdrom).

Choose between performing text-based installation or graphical installation. You can perform text-based installation with or without networking configured. Graphical installation requires you configure networking and a VNC server on the system being installed so that you can use a remote VNC client to access the system. You can configure networking to use DHCP to obtain a network address or you can manually assign an IP address.

The following are some examples of the combinations that are possible:

Perform the installation by using the menus provided.

After the installation has finished, reboot the system.

{0} ok boot disk1 linux-uek

You can specify additional boot options on this line. For example, to disable NUMA:

{0} ok boot disk1 linux-uek numa=off

When you are satisfied that the system boots correctly, return it to the OpenBoot prompt, and use the setenv command to set the value of auto-boot? to true:

{0} ok setenv auto-boot? true
auto-boot?  true

If not already installed, download and install the ovmtutils package for Oracle Solaris 11 in the control domain:

Download the Linux for SPARC OVA file (linux-sparc-1.0.ova) from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/linux-sparc/files to the control domain.

Use the ovmtdeploy command to deploy the OVA file in a new guest domain at a specified domain-storage location:

# /opt/ovmtutils/bin/ovmtdeploy -s -d guest_domain -o domain_storage_path linux-sparc-1.0.ova

The -s option prevents ovmtdeploy from starting the domain automatically. Otherwise, the virtual appliance configuration script eventually time outs and proceed with the deployment instead of waiting for input.

Start the guest domain.

# ldm start guest_domain

Use the ldm list command to find the port number of the console for the guest domain, for example:

# ldm list guest_domain | awk '{print $4}'
CONS
5000

Connect to the guest domain console at the port number, for example:

# telnet localhost 5000

The configuration script prompts you to set the root password and set up the network configuration for the system.