Sun Microsystems X4640 manual Using a System Console

Using a System Console

■rootpw=des-crypted-password

The rootpw=des-crypted-passwordargument enables SSH remote access on a PXE boot without passing a plain text password across the network.

Create des-crypted-passwordusing the following perl script:

# perl -e ’print crypt("password","42"). "\n"’

The string output is what to supply after the rootpw=argument.

■vncauth=hex-string

This argument enables a password for VNC access.

The remote VNC authorization file is eight binary bytes. You create those eight bytes with vncpasswd and then convert them to a hex-string to be entered here.

Create the hex-string using the following commands:

#vncpasswd /tmp/vncauth

#od -t x1 /tmp/vncauth awk ’/0000000/ \ {print $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9}’

The string output is what to supply after the vncauth=argument.

■ptextpass=password

The ptextpass=password argument provides a way of passing a plain text password that is to be used for both the root password and the VNC password.

Using a System Console

Typically the system console displays a splash screen during an unattended network installation that prevents you from viewing the console messages. To dismiss the splash screen and view the console messages, press the Esc key.

Using a Virtual Console or Secure Shell (SSH) Connection

The installation interface runs a Linux kernel and provides virtual console access. To access the virtual console, press Ctrl-Alt-F2. You can also use Ctrl-Alt-F3 and Ctrl-Alt-F4 for additional console screens.

Before logging into a virtual console, you must set a root password as a boot argument to the installer. For more information see “Set Up Passwords for Root and Virtual Access” on page 55.

After you have established a connection to a virtual console, you can determine the VNC server IP address and view the standard log files. Alternatively, you can also establish a SSH connection through a serial console using the VNC IP address.

56 Sun Installation Assistant 2.2 User's Guide for the Sun Fire X4640 Server • October 2009, Rev. A