ask | dr. root

Sun has released a Java technology-based Device Detection Tool that lets you check whether the Solaris OS supports the devices that are detected in your x86 system -- Whether you're running Windows or Linux.

There are some prerequisites to running the Sun Device Detection Tool:

• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Linux (2.6 kernel) distributions:
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
• Fedora Linux Core 5
• Ubuntu 6.06
• SUSE Linux 10.0

(If you're running Linux, make sure you're running a Linux distribution that includes PCI Utilities. To verify that you have PCI Utilities installed, check whether the lspci command is available and executable)

Your system must also have Java Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.5 or later installed. The JRE lets you run Java applications.

JRE Free Download – Scroll down to "Java Runtime Environment (JRE)"

Download Sun Device Detection Tool

So how does it work?

Well, the Sun Device Detection Tool will basically probe the devices on your system and compare them with a database of devices that are supported in the Solaris OS.

If the Solaris OS comes with a built-in driver that supports the device, then the Sun Device Detection Tool will tell you which release of the Solaris OS includes that driver.

If a third-party Solaris driver is available for that device, then the table shows where you can get that third-party driver.

Lastly, if no Solaris driver is known to exist to support that device, then a message will be displayed.

You can copy and paste the driver data from the Sun Device Detection Tool window into a text file for later use.