Adding a Peripheral Device to a System

Adding a new peripheral device that is not hot-pluggable usually involves the following:

• Shutting down the system

• Connecting the device to the system

• Rebooting the system

Use How to Add a Peripheral Device to add the following devices that are not hot-pluggable to a system:

• DVD drive

• Secondary disk drive

• Tape drive

In some cases, you might have to add a third-party device driver to support the new device.

For information on hot-plugging devices, see Chapter 4, Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks).

How to Add a Peripheral Device

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.

2. (Optional) If you need to add a device driver to support the device, complete the procedure How to Add a Device Driver.
3. Shut down the system.

   # shutdown -i0 -g30 -y

   -i0

   Brings the system to the 0 init state, which is the appropriate state for turning the system power off for adding and removing devices.

   -g30

   Shuts the system down in 30 seconds. The default is 60 seconds.

   -y

   Continues the system shutdown without user intervention. Otherwise, you are prompted to continue the shutdown process.

4. Select one of the following to turn off power to the system after it is shut down:

   • For SPARC platforms, it is safe to turn off power if the ok prompt is displayed.

   • For x86 platforms, it is safe to turn off power if the type any key to continue prompt is displayed.

5. Turn off power to all peripheral devices.

   For the location of power switches on any peripheral devices, refer to the hardware installation guides that accompany your peripheral devices.

6. Install the peripheral device, making sure that the hardware configuration adheres to manufacturer specifications.

   Refer to the hardware installation guide that accompanies the peripheral device for information on installing and connecting the device.

7. Turn on the power to the system.

   The system boots to multiuser mode, and the login prompt is displayed.

8. Verify that the peripheral device has been added by attempting to access the device.

   For information on accessing the device, see Accessing Devices.

How to Add a Device Driver

In the Oracle Solaris 11 release, the pkg commands are used to add packages to the system. Device driver packages might still be in SRV4 package format so the steps below use the pkgadd command instead of the pkg install command.

This procedure assumes that the device has already been added to the system. If not, see How to Add a Peripheral Device.

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.

2. Place the media into the drive.
3. Install the driver.

   # pkgadd [-d] device package-name

4. Verify that the package has been added correctly.

   # pkgchk package-name
   #

   The system prompt returns with no response if the package is installed correctly.

Example 3-2 Adding a Device Driver

The following example shows how to install and verify a package called XYZdrv.

# pkgadd XYZdrv
(licensing messages displayed)
.
.
.
Installing XYZ Company driver as <XYZdrv>
.
.
.
Installation of <XYZdrv> was successful.
# pkgchk XYZdrv
#