Desktop Issues

This section describes desktop issues that apply to this Oracle Solaris 11 release.

Evolution Application Crashes After New Installation (7077180)

The Evolution email application, does not start after installing Oracle Solaris.

Workaround: After installing Evolution, log out and log in again. The application will start successfully.

SPARC: Desktop Issues With USB Keyboard, Mouse, and Physical Monitor (7024285)

When using a physical keyboard, mouse, or monitor, repeated attempts to open and use a terminal window in the Oracle Solaris Desktop can result in loss of characters and mouse control.

The cause of this issue could be because of errors caused by missing microframes. These errors occur when full or low speed USB 1.0 or 1.1 keyboard and mouse devices are connected to the USB ports on a system under an onboard USB 2.0 hub. However, these errors do not occur when the keyboard and the mouse devices are connected to a system USB port, which is in turn connected to an internal hub that is manually bound to the ohci (USB 1.0 or 1.1) driver.

Note - If you are using a virtual keyboard and mouse, all devices under the hub are forced to run with low speed. The devices will still work, but they run at a lower USB 1.0 or 1.1 speed.

Workaround: Set the value for the ehci_forced_port_to_companion variable in the /kernel/drv/ehci.conf file. The value of this variable is used by the ehci (USB 2.0) driver to release control of a particular port on the USB controller. This workaround (CR 7102052) is available in Oracle Solaris 11 patch (SRU version 3).

The value of the ehci_forced_port_to_companion variable differs based on the type of platform and the type of USB device used. The following table lists the recommended usage of USB connectors and the corresponding value of the ehci_forced_port_to_companion variable.

Table 3-1 Recommended Usage of USB Connectors and Values

SPARC Platform	Type of USB Device	Recommended Usage of USB Connectors	Value of the `ehci-port-forced-to-companion` variable in the `/kernel/drv/ehci.conf` file
T3-1, T3-2, T4-1, T4-2	Physical keyboard or mouse	Use the front USB connector	4
T3-4, T4-4	Physical keyboard or mouse	Use the rear USB connector	3
T3-1, T4-1, T3-2, T4-2, T3-4, T4-4	Virtual keyboard or mouse	None	2

To implement the workaround, perform the following steps:

Connect the USB devices.

The recommended USB connectors for the devices on various platforms are listed in Table 3-1.
Apply the Oracle Solaris 11 patch (SRU version 3).
Set the value of the ehci-port-forced-to-companion variable in the /kernel/drv/ehci.conf file.

For example, if the SPARC platform is T3–4 and you are using a physical keyboard, set ehci-port-forced-to-companion=3.

For information about the value that you can set for this variable, see Table 3-1.
Reboot the system.
```
# init 6
```

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