(last updated: 27-Jan-2017)
The current configuration is in its original 'as acquired' condition, with the exception that the hard disk and CD-ROM drives have been added.
| IP22 R4400 @ 200Mhz w/ 1MB Sec. Cache, 128MB RAM | |
|---|---|
| GIO64 | XZ (GR3-Elan) Graphics (2-board set) |
| EISA | (empty) |
01-Aug-2008
I was browsing the University of Utah's surplus store and saw several SGI boxen on the shelves. One was this Indigo2, and some Indys (two of which I also picked up). The price was $80, and only after I got home did I discover that it has not hard disks, nor sleds which are necessary.
There are three banks of four memory SIMMS. In this system, two banks are filled.
I don't know the actual size of all this memory yet, and I couldn't find any imformation online about the individual chips on the SIMMs. I'll just have to wait until I get a chance to boot the system, with a monitor.
24-Aug-2008
I found an eBay seller with some sleds under the 'Buy-it-now-Best-Offer' type of auction. I was able to get (2) 3-1/2" and (1) 5-1/4" sleds
so I'm ready to go once I can find a suitable hard disk.
04-Sep-2008
I found that the memory chip on the Toshiba SIMMs is a 4Mx4bit chip. So, working it out, I think each SIMM has 16MB on it, with ECC.
The NEC chips appear to be 4Mx1bit chips, so that suggests that each SIMM is 4MB.
So, I think I have 64MB + 16MB for a total of 80MB onboard. That's enough to run, I think!
22-Sep-2008
The U. of U. has placed a sticker on the front and on the rear panel. They are blackened out, but I can still easily read "Alanine / 155.100.74.29". I think I'll go ahead and adopt the same name for this system.
27-Sep-2008
In order to image a disk that was acquired already mounted to an Indigo sled, I wanted to get this machine setup to boot NetBSD, which would allow me to make that drive's image easily, without dismounting it from the sled.
As I had done with the SGI Indy #1, after making the appropriate connections on the rear panel, I powered up and entered the Command Console with F5, then set the environment variables according to the INSTALL document, and tried to boot:
>> setenv SystemPartition bootp(): >> setenv netaddr 192.168.1.161 >> boot
The system downloaded the installation kernel and started sysinst. It's working, but there is some strange behavior, probably related to this system's graphics board. Each sysinst screen is very slow to appear, and the highlighted menu item is blank, as if it is being shown in the same color (black, not white) as the background. But with patience, I can exit to the command prompt where everything seems normal again.
Like the Indys, the ethernet device is not properly started, so I entered:
# ifconfig sq0 192.168.1.161
and that does it! The netmask and broadcast addresses are set accordingly automatically. And, luckily, it doesn't show the same 'unexpected interrupt' errors once like the indys.
The one other strange thing is that the backspace key will reverse the cursor, but the underlying character is not erased. So typing the correct character simply overlays the old one. Another issue related to the graphics, no doubt.
So, it looks good. I can netboot NetBSD! Ready for imaging of one of the eBay SCSI drives.
Now that the system is bootable into NetBSD, I have the means to easily make copies of the handful of SCSI disks that I've recently bought for these SGI machines. Before I use them for real SGI related activities, though, I want to get them imaged, just in case there is something worthwhile stored on them already.
I needed to image a Seagate ST12550N that was acquired already mounted to a Indigo sled, so I planned to use this system for that imaging activity. Those notes can be found in "SCSI disk imaging.txt".
I can see that the printed ribbon cable going to the 3-1/2" drive bays reaches the upper connector first, then ends at the lower connector. I don't know if it is terminated there or not. It doesn't look like it.
The drive in this case, a Seagate Barracuda ST12550N (which is a full 1/2-height, not 1/3-height, drive), has a front panel sticker reading: "2GB 5.2 EX XZ / AUG 16, 1994". It must have been an SGI OEMed drive. Also, it has a special cable from the sled that connects to the SCSI Address selection pins, probably making it software configurable, seeming to confirm my thoughts as an OEMed drive.
04-Oct-2008
With some imaging of new SCSI drives complete, I'm ready to install the disks into this system and try out an IRIX install.
Here is my configuration:
- SCSI 1: Seagate ST15150N (4.1 GB) (lower bay) - SCSI 2: Seagate ST15150N (4.1 GB) (upper bay) - SCSI 4: Plextor PX-6XCS CD-ROM (all jumpers off, except SCSI ID)
I inserted the IRIX 5.3 INSTALL miniroot disk into the CD-ROM caddy and mounted it into the drive. Then rebooted and chose "Install System Software". That didn't work.
After a bit of this and that, I hit upon a website (http://software.majix.org/irix/install-bootcd.shtml) that suggested these commands to boot from the CD-ROM:
>> boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS sash: boot -f dksc(0,4,7)stand/fx.ARCS --x
and this worked!
I poked around the menus a little and then exited, answering 'yes' to save the partition changes. The system then rebooted. Now, *this time around*, when I choose 'Install System Software' the machine read from the CD-ROM and wrote the necessary intallation files to the hard disk
Once back to the Inst Main Menu, I simply select 'g' for Go. Indeed it did the installation! When it completed, I exited the Inst Main Menu, and waited for it to wrap up the post install configuration, then I answered 'y' to Restart. I saw this flash by in a 'popup' window:
IRIS's Internet address is the default. Using standalone network mode.
Then the system just booted up as cool as could be. Very nice. Looks just like what I'm used to seeing with IRIX 6.5.16f on my O2. So at least the user interface didn't change much from 5.x to 6.x.
14-Dec-2008
I mounted a 9GB IBM DHCS-09F drive that I found at Deseret Industries for just $5. I had trouble with it set as SCSI device 0, so I changed it to device 1 which is now recognized fine.
Using the method from October 4, 2008, I started the IRIX 5.3 installation procedure, but soon discovered that there is an 8GB size limit for the filesystem, and I see:
Doing: mkfs /dev/dsk/dks0d1s6 mkfs_efs: filesystems may not exceed 8 gigabytes! /dev/dsk/dks0d1s6: Invalid argument
and the prompt to make a new file system repeats. So, looks like I'm going to have to reduce the disktabel settings to use only 8GB of the disk. [I wonder, would IRIX 6.5 have this same problem? No, shouldn't since I'm using an 18GB disk on my 02 running IRIX 6.5.] I guess I could try the IRIX 6.5 next if I can't figure this out.
I went back and rebooted to the fx.ARCS tool, and resized the /usr partition to 8000 MB. This leaves 1GB at the end of the drive unused, but for now I'll go ahead. Indeed, the process continues now without complaint. From this point I just followed the remaining steps from October 4th to complete the installation using the 'go' function.
Once started, to get on the internet, I entered the following commands at the console prompt:
# ifconfig ec0 192.168.1.51 up # route add default 192.168.1.1 1 # echo "nameserver 209.210.176.9" > /etc/resolv.conf # echo "nameserver 209.210.176.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf # hostname analine
Now I need to learn more about IRIX and how it's startup commands are configured. Maybe some kind of rc.local file is used.
17-Dec-2008
As I continue to learn about this machine and the IRIX operating system, I took a few minutes to discover how to prepare this machines second 4GB hard drive for use as extra space. I browsed the installation's 'online books' and thanks to information found in the "IRIX 5.3 Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide", I learned what to do.
First, to prepare the disklabel and partition on the new disk (SCSI ID #2), I had to shutdown and reboot from the installation CD as if I were doing an fresh intsall, using the PROM Monitor:
>> boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS >> boot -f dksc(0,4,7)stand/fx.ARCS --x
This creates the default settings for a root+usr drive, but I don't want that, so I got into the partition editor and created an 'option' drive, one with a single partition:
[r]epartition -> [o]ptiondrive
which changed the configuratoin to just a single full-disk partition (plus the volhdr and entire). I simply exited and the system rebooted.
Once IRIX booted up, I had to figure out what /dev devices are what, and after a few false starts I learned that this new disk parition is referenced with /dev/dsk/dks0d2s7, which seems odd. The ending 's7' hints that the volume is in partition 7, not 0 like the partitioner made, but it works, and it is clearly something that I need to learn more about.
Once the device was identified, I could create the filesystem, and mount it up with:
# mkfs /dev/dsk/dks0d2s7 # mount /dev/dsk/dks0d2s7 /root
Works!
06-Jul-2009
Today I received from Doc Shipley (a fellow cctalk'er) a pair of feet allowing the unit to be used in a tower or desk-side orientation instead of a horizontal desktop orientation. The feet are necessary to provide clearance above the floor for cooling airflow, and without the feet the unit should not be situation vertically. With these feet the unit will now be more easily positioned in future setups, saving space on the desktop.
15-Sep-2010
The second hard disk (5GB) is generating read errors now on a mount. After about 30 minutes of operation the drive still showed these errors so it would seem that it is not a heat related issue. This drive may require a low-level format.
12-Aug-2012
Playing with the second hard disk in the system, still shows errors and I want to try to do a low-level format of that drive. I don't know if or how to do what with IRIX or in this system. I do have some PC SCSI equipment by Adaptec that has a low-level formatter built into the SCSI card ROM. I'll try using that.
Results: no go. The drive is not responsive to the format command when I tried it in a PC using my Adaptec AHA-1542 controller. I guess the drive just died on me completely. I can get nothing out of it now. Hmmm...I wonder...if the electronics are what has gone bad, not the drive mechanism, then I may be able to swap the drive's electronics with another identical drive that has mechanical problems ("blinkgirl2" #3). It's an idea anyway.
14-Aug-2012
The best way I came up with to 'scratch' the disk was by booting up into the standalone 'fx' program, then filling a memory buffer with random data, writing that to block 0 and then proceeding with the normal process of preparing a new disk. I could have used the 'auto' option from the top 'fx' menu, but that low-level formats the disk and there was no need for that, so here are the steps I took after getting into the PROM monitor:
>> boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS dksc(0,4,7)stand/fx.ARCS(it loads up)
fx> debug fx/debug> fillbuf fx/debug/fillbuf: buf offset = (0) fx/debug/fillbuf: "fill string" = () ABCDEFG fx/debug/fillbuf: nbytes = (524288) fx/debug> writebuf fx/debug/writebuf: buf offset = (0) fx/debug/writebuf: nblocks = (4294967296) fx/debug> .. fx> label fx/label> create fx/label/create> all fx/label/create> .. fx/label> sync fx/label> .. fx> repartition fx/repartition> usrrootdrive fx/repartition/usrrootdrive: type of data partition = (xfs) efs ... Continue? yes fx/repartition> .. fx> exit
14-Aug-2012
After the system restarted, I selected "Install System Software", chose "Local CD-ROM" and clicked "Install". I was off and running.
The installer first noticed that the hard disk didn't have valid filesystems so it prompted me to create filesystems for both the 'root' partition and the 'usr' partition. I said 'Yes' to those prompts, and used a block size of 512 since this device is not overly huge. Now I'm at the Inst prompt, and I first need to set my hostname and IP address:
Inst> admin
Admin> sethostname
What is the hostname (system name) of your machine? alanine
What is the netmask for 192.168.1.51?
Press Enter for the IP class default [0xffffff00]:
Starting network with hostname: alanine, at ip address: 192.168.1.51
Admin> ..
Inst> go
{snip of the README}
Do you wish to run the otional installation startup script?
1. Run the installation startup script now
2. Ignore the startup script
3. Show the contents of the startup script
4. Help/Show the introductory "README" statement again
Please enter a choice [1]:
At this point with a blank disk, there is no point in running the script, but it doesn't hurt anything to do so, either. I just hit enter and moved on.
I was presented with a choice of reading more CDs for software packages, and since my IRIX 6.5 installation set includes mulitple CDs I choose the first and default option (to read more CDs) and loaded each in turn. All loaded except the IRIXAPPS1.ISO and IRIXAPPS2.ISO discs from my set (turns out they contain ISO files that need to be burned to their own discs!). I also tried to load the three CDs from the 6.5.22 Overlay set, but they didn't load either.
At this point, I entered 'done' and proceeded with the installation. After some time doing some checks (%s) I was prompted to insert CDs:
IRIX 6.5 FOUNDATION-1 IRIX 6.5 APPLICATIONS JUNE 1998 IRIX 6.5 DEVELOPMENT LIBRARIES ONC3/NFS VERSION-3 FOR IRIX 6.2 THROUGH 6.5 IRIX 6.5 FOUNDATION-2 IRIX 6.5 INSTALLATION TOOLS JUNE 1998
Software from each CD was installed, patience was required.
Eventually, I saw:
Running exit-commands .. 97% The Netscape Web Browser is not installed. Please add the following information to the mailcap file for your Web Browser. application/x-enterlicense; /usr/etc/enterlicense %s; \ application/x-licensemgr; /usr/etc/LicenseManager %s; \ description="Software License Installation" The Netscape Web Browser is not installed. Please add the following information to the mailcap file for your Web Browser. type=application/x-enterlicense exts=lic type=application/x-licensemgr exts=licmgr
and other messages. Then:
Running exit-commands .. 99% Checking dependencies .. 100% Done. Installations and removals were successful. You may contineue with installations or quit now. To install from another CD, change the CD in the drie and enter command "from". Inst>
For now, I think I'm done. I can try to add additional software, or update to 6.5.22, later on.
Inst> quit
Requickstarting ELF files (see rqsall(1)) .. 100% Done.
Automatically reconfiguring the operating system.
Ready to restart the system. Restart? { (y)es, (n)o, (sh)ell, (h)elp }: yes
The system came up, but indicated that it was running the default network address, and it came up with hostname 'IRIS', so my attempt to give the system a new name and IP address using the installation tools didn't work. Need to figure out how to change that stuff another way, I guess, after installations.
I used Toolchest -> System -> System Manager -> Network and Connectivity -> Network Interface Manager and updated the values there. Then, Modify Netwroking Settings was used to set the default gateway address to 192.168.1.1, disabled IP Forwarding, added Nameservers to 209.210.176.9 and 209.210.176.8, changed the Host Resolution Order to Files / DNS / NIS, and ????????????????????? ITSNOTWORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next a restart.
Restarting was successful and I logged in as user root. All looks well and good. I launched the 'Welcome to SGI' icon, which starts Netscape, and read the information there. One item that was interesting is that the messages I saw during installation regarding not having Netscape browser installed can be ignored. These messages appear only on clean-disk installations, and are not applicable.
Reading through the material on this system's own webserver(!) I found a reference to SoftWindows95, an emulator for IRIX. Googling turned up this from:
http://phaq.phunsites.net/2009/10/20/resurrecting-insignia-softwindows95-for-sgi-irix/
To activate SoftWindows95 just place this text into /usr/lib/SoftWindows95/FLEXlm/license.dat:
FEATURE Insignia_SoftWindows95 insignia 4.000 01-jan-0 0 \ ECE41259D5BE4700DC27 VENDOR_STRING=”5100 0100 0000 0001? \ HOSTID=ANY vendor_info=SOFTWINDOWS95 ISSUER=”Silicon Graphics, \ Inc.”
The license won’t show up from the GUI _but_ SoftWindows95 will work.
05-Jan-2016
Installation of the 6.5 IRIX operating system went fine, back then, and I used the GUI System Configuration tool to set up the networking. This worked just great on my local network, but for some reason I was not able to access the Internet, even though I had set the gateway, etc. At last, today, I discovered a little golden nugget of information that solved the problem. While reviewing the nekochan.net post about setting up a new installation of IRIX I found it. It's innocuous and not something that one would think mattered, but indeed it does matter. That is, the 'domain' entry must be in /etc/resolv.conf. At first I tried it with just 'domain' on a single line, but it wasn't until I tried 'domain junk.dom' that things started to work. It's a completely bogus domain name, not matching anything that I own and it isn't even a valid top-level-domain name (.dom), but with that little extra in the resolv.conf file, suddenly all is right with the world. So, here are the key files to check/adjust for an IRIX 6.5.x installation:
- /etc/sys_id # make sure host name is set as desired - /etc/resolv.conf - include 'domain' # a bogus domain name is fine - include 'nameserver ' # up to three nameserver entries allowed - /etc/hosts # make sure to include both entries - '127.0.0.1 localhost' - ' ' - /etc/nsswitch.conf - 'hosts: files dns nis' # make sure 'files' is first, then 'dns' - /etc/config/static-route.options - '#$ROUTE $QUIET add net default '
With these changes, particularly setting the bogus (or not) domain in /etc/resolv.conf, the system should now have full Internet access.
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