Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Just bought a working octane off ebay, and have an IRIS on its way in the mail.
Im not sure how to proceed from here. Seems to be in fully working condition, but im not sure where to get / Install irix.
Is the irix media something I can just download from somewhere, or am I going to need to buy it from somewhere? Can I buy it from SGI still?
There seem to be all kinds of differnt install media, what CD's do I need to get my Octane up and running?

Please forgive me if these are all beginner questions, Any help is much appreciated.

a) We're not supposed to even breathe the word "commercial software" here because the site owner (quite reasonably) doesn't need to be hassled by the SBA.

b) fleaBay is your friend

c) there is a good chance it will come with a running installation. If not, experience is what you get when everything turns to shit. Seriously, in the old dayes this was a major problem for privateers and one that you learned about quick. Nowadays, see (b)

d) If you don't have to, don't get all excited about reinstalling Windows. This is Irix. I'm running the same installation that I did eight years ago. The same installation has gone through three computers and several hard disks.

e) The easiest way in the beginning might be to pick up a disk installed for an Octane. One's first Irix install can be frustrating. After about the third time it's no big deal but the first time can be a pita.

Oh. It's an Octane. Unless you have an external scsi CD-ROM drive you'll be doing this over a network connection. More fun. Not that it's intolerably difficult but if you just want to get running and this is your first Irix experience ...

Your profile doesn't show where you are located - in this forum that's useful because people here come from all over the world. Maybe there is someone close by who wouldn't mind coming over to help for a pizza and a beer. Does your girlfriend have good hooters ? A little eye candy can help in these situations.

d) Last and least is the dreaded Loonix Install. If you want a 60 lb box that performs as well as a 486-66DX, go for it.

good luck

Thanks for the tips. Sadly the Octane Didn't come with an IRIX installation,sanatized sticker on it, the hard drive was loose in the machine with no caddy, sounds like its failing.
I didnt think the machine would be able to netboot, but thats good to hear, ive done it with other machines so at least i wont have to run out and buy a scsi cd drive.

Sadly no girlfriend, but up for the pizza and beer suggestion if anyones nearby. For the record im in Vero Beach, Florida.
Ive got lots of other linux machines here, No sense running linux on the octane too.

I'm not going to suggest a certain illegal download website from Sweden, because that's illegal.

If you buy the media from flea bay, make sure you get the Foundation CDs. That means more than 5 CDs. Less than that is probably an overlay/update set, which will get you nowhere.

Oh, different MrBill than I thought - welcome either way!

Even if you have a compatible optical drive, swapping physical CDs gets old fast. When you get your IRIX media you'll want to have a look at (Harry) DeBug's IRIX Netboot Appliance, or DINA. Check out the wiki page here , and you can find Harry's official page here . The v1.0 appliance needs some configuration out of the box, so I'd highly recommend keeping that wiki page handy. You'll also want a reference on the IRIX install process, which you can find by skipping down through this netinstall of an Octane from FreeBSD wiki page. See also Ian Mapleson's IRIX installation guide and netboot guide .

Good luck!

Excellent. Thanks, i was actually having some trouble setting up a netboot server, this will make things much easier thanks.

Alright, I got a copy of the install cd's elsewhere, however Im not quite sure how to proceed. I burned the Installation tools and overlays disk, put it in and told it to boot from the cd, and this is what im presented with.

http://s20.postimg.org/5i0bojxyl/MVC_589_F.jpg

IM not sure how to proceed. I did manage to get a scsi drive, although its an internal drive, ive got it connected through a bunch of adapters and the octane acknowledges that there is a cd drive connected and the scsi id doesnt conflict with the hard drive

HINV output - http://s20.postimg.org/9sezk531p/MVC_591_F.jpg

scsi setup External scsi port goes to an adapter which connects to the cd drive using an ultrawide cable.

- http://s20.postimg.org/45immo0j1/MVC_593_F.jpg

for an unpartitioned disk you need to run fx first to install the disklabel.
see http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/6.5inst.html specifically the section "For systems with the 64bit ARCS PROM"

F-ing useless boot failure messages; "The bandersnatch doesn't match the silibub in the maxcanwhoa, aborting" instead of "The primary hard drive is unpartitioned, please see http://blah.blah.com/blah/blah/blah for simple instructions that will extricate you from this difficulty"...

Surely you've heard the one about what a car would look like if it were designed by UNIX guys? All instrumentation replaced by a single "?" light. Once you see that light come on you can figure out what the problem is with basic test equipment while driving down the highway.

Then again cars do that now (somewhat), don't they. A "Service Required"/"Check engine" light when they could just as easily have a soothing voice come on and say "I've just picked up a fault in the number one spark plug, Dave."

HAL!

Alright, i made some progress, however im still stuck. I got my scsi cdrom working, and started installing following this guide.
http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/6.5inst.html

Everything goes fine, i swap out the cd's and the system seems to be installing, then im asked if i want to reboot. I select yes, but the system doesn't restart on its own, it just drops to a black scren and stays there. after about 5 minutes i manually turn the octane off and back on. (not sure if thats normal) The system says it is booting the os, then gives the error :

unable to execute xio(0)pci(15)scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(0)/unix: media not loaded

Autoboot failed.

Press enter to continue.


Im not sure how to proceed from here, I was on a roll once it started installing off the cd's and i thought i had it installing right, then this happens...

you might need to set one or more of the 4 boot related prom variables:


to do so hit esc right after pushing the power button so it doesn't boot. instead you're in the "basic" menu now. there press 5 which leads to the intial command prompt.
there you can check and set those variables as needed. check your scsi ids via "hinv" and use "printenv" to see how it's set now. then use "setenv variable blablabla" to set the stuff. it follows csh syntax.

Or, as a wiser voice than mine once said, reconfigure the PROM to the factory defaults by running "resetenv" <without the quotes> at the PROM command line (thanks recondas !) ...

I ran resetenv. Still no luck. I took a look at the values with printenv, they seem to be set correctly.

Output of hinv and printenv:

http://s20.postimg.org/e5ba18bl9/MVC_612_F.jpg
http://s20.postimg.org/8ijihhygd/MVC_613_F.jpg

Trying to swap in the pages covering IRIX install... has your machine already built the kernel when you select restart? If it hasn't then that can take a while.

You can see what is on the disk with the following: Stop for maintenance, select 5 (command monitor), and then try typing "boot" (ONCE). That will load SASH from the default location, if it errors out then you either have a SAU problem or a variable problem. From sash you can ls dksc(0,1,0) to see if you can find unix or not.

I can boot to sash, however when i run the command ls dksc(0,1,0) it tells me its not a directory.

Just do a bare ls, don't reference the disk. SASH should see it as something like scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(0)/:

Set up a serial console. Output of ls :

Nothing's installed yet! You should be seeing directories and the file "unix" which is the kernel it would be trying to boot into...