I’ve made attempts at installing Solaris on my Thinkpad in the past, with mixed success. I’m happy to report that, as of OpenSolaris 11.08, the installation is straightforward and almost everything works out of the box.

Go ahead and follow the procedures for installing OpenSolaris. Once the installation is complete, do a software update:

$pfexec pkg image-update –v

The pfexec command raises your privileges to root—like sudo in Linux. The -v part of the command will give you feedback on how everything is going. Once you’re done, you’ll have an entirely new boot image, courtesy of ZFS and snapshots. Next time you boot, your update OS will be the default option in GRUB, and you’ll be able to boot back into your previous, unpatched OS.

To enable suspend/resume, edit /etc/power.conf:

$pfexec vi /etc/power.conf

At the bottom, insert:

S3-support-enable

Save the file and run:

$pfexec pmconfig

On the next reboot, Suspend will be added as an option to the shutdown menu. Unlike other systems, you’ll have to press the power button to resume. In your Gnome Power Preferences, you’ll now be able to select Suspend as an option for “When laptop lid is closed:”

Wireless, including support for WPA, works out of the box. So does the nVidia card, including 3D acceleration and Compiz Fusion. The desktop is beautiful and performance is outstanding.

The only thing I’ve not got working yet are the softkeys for the volume controls. I’ll post an update when I get that sorted.