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All,

I am in the process of creating a DEV box for hosting my projects and I am wanting to install Solaris 11.1 onto a Lenovo Desktop PC .

PC Details:

Lenovo M92p Thinkcentre 3227
Intel Core i5 3rd Gen
4Gb Ram
500gb HDD (MBR Partition)

Technical Specs

http://support.lenovo.com/en_GB/product-and-parts/detail.page?DocID=PD024409

Currently the system has a OEM version of Windows 7 installed on it.

I downloaded the latest Live image of Solaris from Oracle and burned it using Windows burn utility.

I then boot the DVD using UEFI mode and the GRUB menu displays all the various options to start the Solaris install process.

enter image description here

No matter which option I choose the install hangs on the black screen saying the OS version and the Copyright notice.

The text cursor is not blinking (has it crashed?)

I found this screenshot which shows what I get (note screenshot is from VM)

enter image description here

Things I have done:

  • Flashed the BIOS to latest version
  • Tried booting solaris from a live usb
  • Reburned the solaris iso image
  • Waited an hour to see if it progresses, still same screen
  • Booted DVD using Legacy mode

Things I am going to do:

  • Use a different ISO burner utility
  • Test if Linux can boot from PC

Any ideas?

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5
  • You have to have a non-EFI disk if you want to use legacy mode. Is the hdd using a MBR or GPT partition currently?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 15:03
  • How do I find that out, the SATA hardrive is using AHCI mode if that helps?
    – tomaytotomato
    Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 15:06
  • Disk Manager would tell you.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 15:09
  • I already knew what type of filesystem you were using. I am interested if its a MBR or GPT disk.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 15:40
  • Ok I just used DISKPART and it says it is MBR
    – tomaytotomato
    Commented Jan 7, 2014 at 16:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4
+50

From Lenovo UEFI Bug Only Likes Windows and RHEL :

It looks like Lenovo only knows of Windows and RHEL where their Thinkcentre M92p desktop is concerned. While investigating UEFI boot issues, Matthew Garrett found the PC's firmware actually checks the descriptive string for the operating system, and will prevent unlisted operating systems from booting.

Garrett writes:

Every UEFI boot entry has a descriptive string. This is used by the firmware when it's presenting a menu to users - instead of "Hard drive 0" and "USB drive 3", the firmware can list "Windows Boot Manager" and "Fedora Linux". There's no reason at all for the firmware to be parsing these strings. ... there is a function that compares the descriptive string against "Windows Boot Manager" and appears to return an error if it doesn't match. What's stranger is that it also checks for "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" and lets that one work as well. ... This is, obviously, bizarre. A vendor appears to have actually written additional code to check whether an OS claims to be Windows before it'll let it boot. Someone then presumably tested booting RHEL on it and discovered that it didn't work. Rather than take out that check, they then addded another check to let RHEL boot as well.

So it looks like Lenovo will not let you install Solaris on this model.
You may be obliged to install it in a VM.

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3
  • There must be a way to fool Lenovo UEFI, maybe by renaming the descriptive string to Windows?
    – tomaytotomato
    Commented Jan 9, 2014 at 15:56
  • That will have to be done on the DVD before burn. You will need an ISO editor to extract it and a hex editor to scan the boot sector for "Oracle Solaris..." and replace one of them by the exact string used by Windows. Lots of work and time will be needed to acquire the knowledge necessary to achieve all this. Are you sure this is worth it?
    – harrymc
    Commented Jan 9, 2014 at 16:37
  • I think I will return this Lenovo p.o.s :)
    – tomaytotomato
    Commented Jan 10, 2014 at 10:44
0

I am using oios openindiana on a Z170 HD3P from new. Initial install was uneventful and the operating system was almost fully functional. However I then installed windows 10 on a parellel disk and updated the bios to F20. It now stops as discribed. However running on Vb works well from USB. I have tried to install via VB but it only recognises EFI partitions to upload to.I have not tried reloading the firmware F20 or data migration cloning of disks.

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2
  • Is this intended as a solution, or are you just describing that you have a similar problem?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jan 29, 2017 at 17:15
  • This is not an answer to the original question. If you have a new question please ask your own question (referencing this one for context if it helps).
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Feb 5, 2017 at 10:01

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