OpenSolaris 2008.05 strikes out again

After being assured that my test on the Dell Optiplex GX520 didn't work because 512 MB of RAM is usually enough but not always, I tried to boot OpenSolaris 2008.05 on my Gateway Solo 1450 -- featuring a 1.3 GHz Celeron M processor and a whopping 1 GB of RAM.

I got to the console, but no GUI, no matter how hard I tried. At least on the Dell I got a GUI, albeit one I couldn't use because the CD-ROM wouldn't stop running.

And I even tried the official OpenSolaris CD I got in the mail. Sure it was a little scratched (what are they doing up there in Sun country, anyway?) but I tried it and one of the two I burned myself. Same results. Console only, no GUI.

Other reviewers seem to be having better luck. I think OpenSolaris is TRYING to start the X Window system, but it can't properly do the auto-configuration.

I'm sure I could hack into xorg.conf and try to make it work, and I might just do that, but this isn't a system that is hard to run X on. Every once in awhile I need to make an adjustment for proper resolution, but in this case I've got nothing.

If as they say, "OpenSolaris is what Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up," I think we've got to look at conditions on the ground. My conditions are that Ubuntu works, OpenSolaris doesn't.