Burning Solaris Installation CD-ROMs for Intel Using Nero Burning ROM

This document outlines a process for burning CD-ROM images of the Sun's Solaris 8 OS for Intel using Nero Burning ROM for Microsoft Windows (95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/___) users who are just starting to look at Solaris and may not be familiar with certain issues. This was the position I found myself in when I first attempted create a set of CDs. I found bits an pieces of information scattered in news groups and on various websites but didn't find anything that tied everything together. I figured I would put this page together and share my mistakes to help others coming after me. I hope it helps you.

Feel free to send me an email if I have something wrong on this page. Otherwise, I probably can't answer any questions for you. I know nothing about Solaris. That's why I'm doing this.

Burner Configuration
Preparing the Images
Burning the Images
Incorrect Assumptions
Links
Additional Comments

Burner Configuration

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP2
Nero Burning ROM CD-ROM Burning Software

I have version 5.5.9.0. This is later than the version I got with my burner. I went to the website and downloaded a free update.
Imation CD-R 700MB/80MIN blanks

Sometimes you can get these from Best Buy on sale for $1.99 (after rebates) for 50 blanks.
PINE CD-Rewritable Drive Kit (32x12x40) (actually a Mitsumi CR-48XATE)

This was bundled with Nero and some other CD-RW software.

Preparing the Images

Download all of the Solaris image files from Sun

I won't describe this process in detail. Sun has a page for that. I downloaded the "Multiple File Segments" as suggested at the time.
Name the ISO 9660 image files with the .iso extension

Follow Sun's instructions on combining the image parts. Nero knows how to work with ISO 9660 files and will treat files with an .iso extension as such.

Burning the Images

Get the latest update for Nero and apply it to your machine
Open Nero
Choose "File | Burn Image "
Select the .iso file and click Open
If you are in Wizard mode, then just click Burn. If you are not in Wizard mode, click Cancel, get back into Wizard Mode and then start with step 3 again. If you feel comfortable with making manual configurations to Nero, have fun. I didn't. I used the Wizard and had successful burns.

Incorrect Assumptions

So, you did all of the above already and you still don't think you have good CDs? So did I. Then, I discovered by accident that everything had actually worked and I just didn't realize it.

The following is a list of incorrect assumptions that I made and that you might also make as a user of the Windows operating system. Making these assumptions caused me to waste a lot of time. If you are assuming these things, you may want to reconsider why.

The burn is bad because I only see a few files

Just because you can only see a few files on the CD-ROM in Window's explorer does not mean that the image didn't burn. You can't see all of the files in the Windows explorer because the files are in a non-Windows compatible file system, i.e. Solaris. Remember that you are working with Solaris, not FAT, FAT32, NTFS, MS-DOS, etc. Just because the CD image is ISO 9660 compliant doesn't mean that you can see it.

Here's a sample of what you should/might see though:
```
.BOOTIMAGE
.CATALOG
.VOLUME
ADD_INSTALL_CLIENT
BOOT
COPYRIGHT
MODIFY_INSTALL_SERVER
RM_INSTALL_CLIENT
```
The burn is bad because I can't boot from the CD-ROM

If you are trying to test the CD-ROM on the same computer as your burner, you might simply have your IDE cables and BIOS configured incorrectly for booting.

I accidentally discovered that my machine was trying to boot from my burner drive instead of my reader drive when I forgot to move the newly burned CD-ROM from my burner to my reader and rebooted. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Solaris install screen come up. My CDs were burning correctly the whole time!

If you are going to install Solaris on a different machine than the one you are burning the CDs on, you might also consider giving the CD-ROM a try in that machine before you give up. Especially it if only has one CD-ROM reader. The configuration is probably OK on that box.
I need the Installation CD-ROM to install Solaris

Nope. You don't need it. In fact, many people don't even bother to burn this instead opting for the Software 1 and 2 CD-ROMs instead. The Software 1 CD-ROM is bootable as well.