Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

My Octane saga continues. I loaded the latest distributions up on a linux server, configured it and got it to load sash over the network and I can begin a net install but it halts returning:

Unable to execute xio(0)pci(15)multi(0)network(0)bootp()192.168.1.1:/cd1/miniroot/unix.IP30: execute format error
Unable to load <same as above>
Failed to boot

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Can you give us the IRIX version you want to install and the exact specs of the Octane?

Gladly, dexter1!

By the latest dist, I mean specifically 6.5.26. The hinv -v is thus:



When configuring the linux box, I have gotten some mildy confusing directions to install rsh-server and symbolically link bin/sh to usr/bin/pdksh
I have to undo this link to reboot the redhat linux 7.3 box (since it's normally linked to bash in this config). I can still load sash from this box whether or not I've changed the above mentioned linkage. Does anyone know specifically what the installer is issuing command-wise when it finishes loading the miniroot?

My thought is that I have some misconfiguration of either rsh-server or the guest account is not getting the pdksh shell, but being woefully ignorant of the mysteries of the miniroot I don't know what it wants with either of these (rsh or pdksh) Any help is appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I have now verified "guest" logs into the ksh shell and can issue rsh commands so these are not problems as far as I can determine.

Does anyone have experience doing a clean install from 6.5.26 to Octanes of this config? I even tried another motherboard (with a single 300 and 256MB of different memory) I keep as a backup--to rule out hardware problems, no joy!

I am securing another hard drive today to rule it out as well, but this is a known-good drive that is excercised/repartitioned/resized.

This thing is really kicking my butt, any help is appreciated!

In combing the web for and possible help I came across this from SGI's TPL:

Initiating automatic miniroot installs from multi-user mode may fail on certain Octane machines. The failure will occur when attempting to boot from the CDROM drive and a message will be displayed on the textport stating that there was an execute format error. If this occurs, a standard miniroot install must be used to install 6.5.

Issuing "single" from the command monitor does not succeed, is this a red herring? And what pretell would a "standard miniroot install" entail?

Well, first of all read up on net-installing IRIX machines via linux:

http://software.majix.org/irix/install- ... inux.shtml

Then observe the following caveats:
1) Make sure the machines are on the same subnet
2) Make sure you boot from the 6.5.26 overlay sa and mr. If you boot from the 6.5.0 overlays/base, it will not recognize the R12K CPU
3) dhcpd can be tricky at times. Use separate bootpd and tftpd and make them run from the command-line in debug
4) tcpdump can be handy to follow the connection
5) pdksh as a replacement for sh is very necessary to make miniroot install run!
6) Don't try to boot from the CDROM's via efs. Put the CD's on disk in Linux before starting the bootp game

That's it. I can help some more, because i've done this a dozen or so times, so don't be afraid to experiment a bit and ask questions. Maybe a forum search with keywords 'Linux AND bootp AND pdksh' will give you some more threads...

dawnview wrote:

Initiating automatic miniroot installs from multi-user mode may fail on certain Octane machines. The failure will occur when attempting to boot from the CDROM drive and a message will be displayed on the textport stating that there was an execute format error. If this occurs, a standard miniroot install must be used to install 6.5.

Issuing "single" from the command monitor does not succeed, is this a red herring? And what pretell would a "standard miniroot install" entail?

nonono, that is for automatic installations, i guess they mean 'Roboinst' with that. Forget it, it has nothing to do with standard miniroot install we attempt.
Booting 'single' is only needed when the IRIX on disk is hosed and you need to repair it in some way. But you already need an IRIX on your harddisk in the first place to boot 'single'...

Thanks for that dexter1, I thought as much.

Please check (anyone) me on the following: from what I can glean from comp.sys.sgi.admin posts, this error means that sash is not recognizing the unix.IP30 file as a "proper Unix kernel."

Is there something special I should have done in handling the distribution tar.gz on the linux box? If I recall correctly I invoked tar -zxvpf. Does the Red Hat distribution tar mangle SGI files?

Here are working instructions for netbooting a miniroot (the server is FreeBSD, but it shouldn't be very different with the tux).

1) /etc/bootptab

2) /etc/ethers

3) /etc/hosts

4) /etc/inetd.conf (the tftp line usually is commented out on my host, so don't forget the killall -HUP inetd)

5) /usr/src/bin/sh/builtins.def (this step is essential as IRIX expects a Korn shell in place of /bin/sh and Bourne's shell builtin echo is not compatible with ksh, while the external /bin/echo command is. Requires rebuilding of sh after the change - make && make install && make clean)

6) ~/.rhosts (that is, /home/chervarium/.rhosts)


With the files set up like this I'd fire bootpd with (-h option 'coz my SGI/Sun workstations live in separate vlan and the only way to tell bootpd to listen on the appropriate interface is to supply -h), then'd reboot the workstation and choose the "Install System Software" from the PROM menu. I'd set the server to 192.168.13.1 and the path to /usr/data/IRIX/6.5.26/cd1 (that's the latest inst.tools CD, gunzipped and untarred from the SupportFolio files). Boots like a charm. The only drawback of this method is that it'd require (I'd never ever let anything to log in as root from the network, never).

Thanks to you all for your kind and able help, I have finally gotten this Octane up and humming.

The key (for me) was setting the srvaddr environment variable from the command monitor and using the DEBUG 1 variable to diagnose the communications with the redhat box.

Regards!