I've done some extensive searching on these forums, on newsgroups and on google, but it
seems like only one person so far has experienced the same problem as I
have. If someone already posted this problem in the past, I apologize for
not finding it and I would appreciate a link to the post.

I have a Toshiba 5105-S501 laptop. Although it's not included on the laptop
list (http://www.bolthole.com/solaris/x86-laptops.html), I've seen many,
many toshiba models to have hosted Solaris 9 succesfully.

My problem is the following; If I boot from either the CD-Rom (Software 1)
or from a bootable floppy, the first the Primary Boot screen appears, and
finally the Secondary Boot screen, version 3.00. This screen is completely
gray, except of the words, and nothing happens anymore. I have not yet found
a solution to this.

Someone posted on Computing.Net (this forum) an exact same problem:
"I am trying to install Solaris 9 (Intel) on my Toshiba Tecra 9000. I have
Win XP installed on one partition and one (8Gb free) for Solaris.
When I boot on the software CD nr.1 (of 2) it hangs on "SunOS Secondary Boot
version 3.00".
Does anyone knows what to do about this?"
and the reply was:
"In order to keep Solaris 9 x86, on a Toshiba Tecra 9100, from hanging on
"SunOS Secondary Boot version 3.00"; disable the USB-FDD Legacy Emulation in
the BIOS Setup. Note: To get into setup, hold the ESC key down while booting
then hit F1."

However, my laptop has only a software BIOS, modifiable by running HWSetup.
No option of disabling the USB-FDD Legacy Emulation, unfortunately.

I have as of yet no clue yet what causes the problem, so I'll give all
relevant details about my system, maybe someone can pinpoint the problem.

I have a 40GB hard drive, with three primary partitions.
The first one (16 GB - NTFS) hosts Windows XP
The second one (16 GB - NTFS) hosts another install of Windows XP (I've done
this so I can run it as a game machine, without having all unneccesary
programs and drivers installed that clog up the system and its resources -
it really works great)
The third one (6 GB) I created using Ranish Partition Manager, formatting it
in the Solaris UFS filesystem, which is to host my Solaris 9 install
The remainder (1 GB) will be formatted later using FAT so I can share files
between Solaris and my Windows XPs.

other details:
floppy drive: external USB
graphics: Nvidia Geforce4 440 Go (laptop customized), max resolution
1400x1050
NIC: Intel Pro/100VE

I was wondering if someone could give me a hand with this. Maybe some of the
boot parameters can be changed on the boot floppy, so it doesn't hang
anymore? Maybe the partitioning isn't correctly setup so Solaris setup can't
copy the temporary install files to the hard drive, and I need to create or
modify the existing first primary boot filesystem (to FAT32?)?
Would a network install, if I setup some other system to act as a server, do
the trick maybe?

Thanking you in advance,

Bart

Hi Bart,

Had this problem 2 with my previous Tecra8100

could only cold-boot the system:

See this, taken from the bolthe website:

Toshiba Tecra 8100 Sol 9 You must cold-boot or hard-reset every time you reboot, or the machine will lock up on you.

Thanks, Boarddude.

The only problem is... I'm still trying to install the Solaris 9 OS. I haven't even been able to get into the installation setup yet!
To get there, you must boot the laptop from CD-Rom or floppy and you'll get into the Primary Boot, next up is Secondary Boot, where supposedly some things happen... only nothing happens on my laptop :(

Any other suggestions?

Bart

Have to dig into my memory...

After installing the first cd.
switch off the laptop..
Switch it back on and it will continu with installing the cd 2.
I also remembered... that i used standard vga settings for the screen.. and installed X86 accel.. for graphics afterwards. Gave a 1024 X 768 screen resolution....