(last updated: 18-Jan-2017)
The current configuration is in its original 'as acquired' condition, but I've...
...added 1GB hard disk
...added IndyCam
01-Aug-2008
I was browsing the University of Utah's surplus store and saw several SGI boxen on the shelves. One was an Indigo2 (which I also picked up), and the rest were Indys. This is one of the two Indys that I bought for $30 each, diskless. I did get an SGI keyboard and 3-button mouse.
A quick peek inside reveals that the CPU is an R4600 at 133Mhz. I can't tell whether this CPU module has the Secondary Cache or not.
There are two banks filled with 4 SIMMs each. Memory size yet unknown.
19-Sep-2008
While browsing the web for various bits of Indy related information I ran accross this page that discusses the failure of the onboard battery in the RTC chip (Dallas DS1386-8K-150):
http://www.pimpworks.org/sgi/dallas.html
Apparently, this chip's integrated lithium battery is good for about 10 years maximum, and this Indy is about that age. When the battery fails, it forgets the machine's Ethernet MAC address, which is BAD. I'm fairly convinced that this will be an issue, and so I plan to get replacement RTC chips for this system, and the other Indy #2.
22-Sep-2008
With a working VGA adapter, I connected a keyboard (but no mouse, just yeet) and I finally power up the system. I'm happy to report that the system did indeed power up, gave the wakeup jingle, and presented the normal screen. Time to look at the detected inventory. I hit 'ESC' which presented the maintenance menu, and I soon discovered that the keyboard function keys map to the selections on the screen this way:
F1 - Start System F2 - Install System Software F3 - Run Diagnostics F4 - Recover System F5 - Enter Command Monitor F6 - Select Keyboard Layout
I pressed F5 to go to the PROM monitor. I entered 'hinv' and then 'printenv'. Here are the results:
Command Monitor. Type "exit" or click on "done" to return to the menu.
>>
>> hinv
System: IP22
Processor: 133 Mhz R4600, with FPU
Primary I-cache size: 16 Kbytes
Primary D-cache size: 16 Kbytes
Memory Size: 64 Mbytes
Graphics: Indy 24-bit
Audio: Iris Audio Processor: version A2 revision 4.1.0
>>
>> hinv -v -t
system ARC SGI-IP22 key 0
processor CPU MIPS-R4600 key 0
processor FPU MIPS-R4600FPC key 0
cache primary icache 16 Kbytes (block 2 lines, line 32 bytes)
cache primary dcache 16 Kbytes (block 2 lines, line 32 bytes)
memory main 64 Mbytes
controller display SGI-Indy 24-bit key 0 ( ConsoleOut Output )
peripheral monitor key 0
controller network ec0 key 0
v: net SEEQ NQ8003 - type: Ethernet MTU: 1500 HW: 8:0:69:6:db:ee
peripheral network key 0 ( Input Output )
adapter SCSI WD33C93B key 0
controller serial IP22 tty key 0
peripheral line key 0 ( ConsoleIn ConsoleOut Input Output )
controller serial IP22 tty key 1
peripheral line key 0 ( ConsoleIn ConsoleOut Input Output )
controller audio HAL2 key 16400 ( Input Output )
controller keyboard pckbd key 0
peripheral keyboard key 0 ( ReadOnly ConsoleIn Input )
controller pointer pcms key 0
>>
>> printenv
AutoLoad=Yes
TimeZone=PST8PDT
console=g
diskless=0
dbaud=9600
volume=80
sgilogo=y
autopower=y
netaddr=155.100.74.23
eaddr=08:00:69:06:db:ee
ConsoleOut=video()
ConsoleIn=keyboard()
cpufreq=133
gfx=aliv
>>
And the good news is that I have a valid Ethernet address. Much commentary is online about the trouble with Indys when their onboard Dallas DS1386-8K-150 Real-Time-Clock chip's embedded battery fails. Apparently the system's serial number/Ethernet MAC address are stored in this chips NVRAM and if that goes, well, there goes the ability to boot and communicate. I'm happy to report that this system's RTC is still alive, despite a date code on the chip of 9337! It's now 15 years old!
Nevertheless, I have located information that describes a method to 'replace' the battery when it fails, and how to restore the serial number/Ethernet MAC address to the NVRAM once that is done. This is good information, since this RTC chip is no longer produced.
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 "Leucine / 155.100.74.23". I think I'll go ahead and adopt the same name for this system.
And, one more interesting tidbit. This machine's serial number is the next one in sequence, compared to my Indy #1. They were probably purchased and deployed in the same project at the university.
03-Jun-2010
Today I received some Indy drive mounting brackets from Herb Johnson in New Jersey (along with some other material), and mounted up a 1GB drive that I've had in my spares (Seagate ST31230N - "hayis4" #1) in one bracket, and mounted the Insite floptical ("hayis4" #3) into another. After a little fiddling I changed the hard drive from SCSI ID #3 to SCSI ID #1. The floptical is at SCSI ID #5, which I left as is.
With these two devices installed, and since I couldn't remember if I had already done so, I imaged the hard disk by netbooting NetBSD from Aero-6 and dd'ing the drive to Astaroth. As usual, I now feel better about fooling around with the hard disk.
Well, what do you know?! As it turns out, the hard disk has an installation of IRIX 5.2 on it! What luck! As I had hoped when I bought these drives, seeing that they were grouped with the Insite floptical, it turns out that they are indeed from SGI systems. This makes the adventure just that much more fun, now. I was planning to simply do a fresh install of IRIX 5.3, but now I have something new to explore.
Alas, there is a root password, so I'm stuck. I rebooted into single user mode (escaping to maintenance console and enterin 'single') but it still asks for the root password.
I thought again about netbooting NetBSD, but I actually tried to mount the drive while I was running NetBSD, but that install-only version of NetBSD doesn't have the correct mount for this file system. So, I'll connect an external CD-ROM drive and boot to my IRIX 5.3 install CD, then go from there, hoping to mount the volume and edit /etc/passwd.
Stupid me! I connected the CD-ROM drive, inserted the IRIX 5.3 INSTALLATION disc, interrupted the normal boot, selected the Install Software option on the PROM menu, and said "go!" which promptly overwrote a portion of the hard disk with installation tools! Argh! I'll image the disk back tomorrow, and try again to just boot from the intallation media this next time.
05-Jun-2010
In order to solve the root login password issue, I removed the hard disk from this unit, and mounted externally to the Indigo2 running IRIX 5.3. This worked fine and I was able to mount the disk and edit the /etc/passwd file. All I did was simply remove the root password from the file, allowing root to login with no password. Then I returned the disk to this Indy and fired up.
After a few case of false starts trying to boot and system's HW date being change to Jan 3, 2003 among other dates, I finally booted the system by first booting into single-user mode, fsck'ing the /usr partition, then exiting the shell with CTRL-D and choosing Runlevel 2. This worked, getting me to the desktop.
Well, the desktop is empty of all icons. There is nothing. Further investigation shows that the system used to use IP-ADDR 171.78.40.25, which could, I suppose, lead to the original owner of this disk. But dig and nslookup show nothing. Fine.
Further, this installation appears incomplete. Many references to tools point to some unmounted filesystem on /usr/etc/fam which is just a mount point in this system. So I'm guessing that this disk was used on a satellite system.
Looking at /etc/fstab shows some commented-out mounts to external disks and to lovecanal.bbn.com which turns out to be an R&D outfit in Cambridge, Massachusetts which is part of Raytheon. It's possible this disk originated from that organization. More scouting turns up the domain BBN.COM in /etc/resolv.conf and in /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname shows 'visible.bbn.com' so I'm now convinced that BBN is the souce of this disk drive.
Still, as it stands, I have an incomplete installation of IRIX 5.2, so it's not very useful to me, and I'll just wipe it and re-install IRIX 5.3 or 6.5 for grins.
05-Jun-2010
The Insite floptical drive that was part of the same lot of drives that the hard disk was part of appears dead. It takes power, and the front LED will light, but inserting a floppy fails to activate the insertion/mount motion, so I think I'll just leave it out of the system. No need to install it now.
05-Jun-2010
I wasn't sure that the Indy was capable of running IRIX 6.5, particularly on such as small disk as I have on this system. Reviewing the requirements suggests that the Indy can run 6.5, though there is a 2GB hard disk recommendation, along with 64 MB RAM. Well, I have the RAM, but just 1GB of hard disk storage.
Using information from the web, found during an install to my 02 box, I installed using just the first four CDs from my base 6.5 set.
07-Jun-2010
The IRIX 6.5 installation using only the required set of packages still was too big for my small 1GB disk. It also felt sluggish on the Indy, so I've decided to go back to 5.3.
The key steps for me to accomplish this successfully were: - re-write the disk label - re-write the disk partitions - re-make the file system - install system software
Since the disk had had the 'xfs' file system from 6.5 it was important that I re-create the disk, as if from scratch. Here's what I did starting with the PROM console:
>> boot -f dksc(0,2,8)sashARCS dksc(0,2,7)stand/fx.ARCS --x
then, choose:
l)abel --> .. r)epartition --> b)oot --> .. exi)t
then, boot to the cd using PROM screen button 2. Once in the 'inst' tool:
> admin --> sh # umount /root # mkfs_efs /dev/dsk/dks0d1s0 # mount /dev/dsk/dsk0d1s0 /root # exit (or CTRL-D)
now, we are ready for the installation, and I just used these three commands:
> keep * > install default > go
and it took off installing the basic IRIX 5.3 system.
Once that was complete, I rebooted and logged in as root, then opened the SoftwareManager and installed all of the other packages from the CD. I could have done this in the initial installation, I guess. (There is one package related to ISDN that is a conflict and won't be installed.)
Copyright © 2006-2025 Jared Blaser. All rights reserved.