Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Hi,

I sure hope someone can help me out...I'm halfay through a netboot, but keep getting stuck after I start INST.

Linux box:
FC4 kernel 2.6; dhcp; tftp; rsh; rlogin; xfs support -- are all working.

SGI:
Octane 2 - 2x600 R14; IP30; 1x 36 GB sys disk; 2 x 72 GB Seagates - working. (sweet, eh?)

I had the thing up and running, but decided to do a clean install (ha ha).

Media: I have SCSI CDROM on SGI
6.5 foundation 1 in native efs
same foundation 2
same NFS
**the overlay cds exist on the linux box HD, and ISO CD,and on my XP box but not bootable efs (otherwise I'd be done by now!)
I have copied the install media to one of the local SGI HDs, before I started the clean istall, just in case. I have root.

The problem:
I can netboot overlay 1, and I did, and I fx'd the sys drive. Then it starts INST, and tells me "conection lost" ....fu**##@$!). After it loads the install tools, it asks me:
"What is the name of your machine?"
"What is the IP address of your machine?"
and netmask. To which I reply with the same IP #s I've been using. That's when it all seems to go wrong.

***EDIT -- Here's what I've been doing:
Boot SGI, pause for maintainence. Select Install System Software. Select remote location. [email protected] <accept location> /one/dist <accept directory>. Then it loads install tools 10%....20%...etc. Then it asks me about my host name, IP addr, netmask. I answer Octane then 192.168.0.200 (same info in DHCP on Linux box), accept the default netmask, and I get the main inst screen, if I try to 'open' another source from the net, I get "Error: Lost connection to 192.168.0.100". And then it sucks. Could these hostname/IP questions be over-ridden somehow?

***end EDIT

I have read almost every FAQ I could find, as well as searched this forum, and I can't understand what I'm missing. My dhcpd.conf has a fixed address line for the SGI. irix media is in /tftpboot.

Like I said, I can get as far as loading INST, but then it won't talk to the Linux box anymore?
I have a linux user called "instsrv" who uses the ksh, the .rhosts file, etc. like the FAQs suggest.

These two machines are on a dlink router seperate from the world, so security is not an issue.

Something is going right, as I got this far, but I'm going out of my mind trying to get the rest of 6.5.24 in.

Anyone know a fix? Mount the 73G from inst admin (How?!)
Make efs CDs from ISOs? Fix the netboot?

Any help greatly appreciated.

PS I'm better at Irix than Linux, but not by that far

TIA

----------------------CTM

The fix is simple, external scsi cdrom or another SGI machine. I tried the linux netboot and it was waaaaaay more hassle than it was worth, seriously. It was wiser just to spend 20 usd on the drive.

VenomousPinecone wrote: The fix is simple, external scsi cdrom or another SGI machine. I tried the linux netboot and it was waaaaaay more hassle than it was worth, seriously. It was wiser just to spend 20 usd on the drive.

I have one(!) My bad, I was not clear about it being external, which it is, and it works. If you re-read my post above...

Media: I have SCSI CDROM on SGI
6.5 foundation 1 in native efs
same foundation 2
same NFS
**the overlay cds exist on the linux box HD, and ISO CD,and on my XP box but not bootable efs (otherwise I'd be done by now!)
I have copied the install media to one of the local SGI HDs, before I started the clean istall, just in case. I have root.

The problem is that my overlay CDs (the bootable ones for 6.5.2x) are not native efs, so are no use even with the external CD.

You are right about the netboot, it sure is a pain.

Thanks anyhow,

----CTM

hmmm.....
why not install foundation from cd-drive as common, and the rest of the crap over nfs from the linux box or from an local dir. i see no need to boot from the overlays at all.
discussions welcome!

yetanother**ixuser wrote: hmmm.....
why not install foundation from cd-drive as common, and the rest of the crap over nfs from the linux box or from an local dir. i see no need to boot from the overlays at all.
discussions welcome!

I'm interested...Could you be a little more explicit. Are you suggesting I put the foundation CDs in and install from there? I was under the impression that 6.5 foundation CDs could not detect, or rather do not have the image for, an IP30 system or was it the R14000 CPUs. Can you confirm this?
Could you geek -> english "common" for me? <g>

Another plan was to use 6.5.19 CDs, of which I have "Aquired", and then do a live upgrade. I have 3 of 4 IRIX 6.5.19 CDs (efs) which will boot. I tried this, but then I get an "autoboot failed" after. I may have hosed my sys disk after the fx.64 I did last night. I may try to find fx and re-partition again.

Oh, a cool tip...you know those "burn with nero" .nrg images that, uh, float around. Well, it turns out that you can mount those directly in Fedora Core 4. 'mount -t efs -r -o loop thing.nrg /mnt/place'. You may then copy, search, etc. the files in the image as if they were a mounted filesystem, which I guess they are. No need for dd or anything. A netboot will definately not see a loopback device, but you can certainly get files this way, say if you DIDN'T have a 512 byte capable cd. --Just trying to add something to the world if I can.

Now, could you, per favore, give me some more detailed procedures/instructions?

I'm googling about now, so wish me luck ,

tia

CordlessTucanMania wrote: Another plan was to use 6.5.19 CDs, of which I have "Aquired", and then do a live upgrade. I have 3 of 4 IRIX 6.5.19 CDs (efs) which will boot. I tried this, but then I get an "autoboot failed" after. I may have hosed my sys disk after the fx.64 I did last night. I may try to find fx and re-partition again.

Yes; if it's clean, you'll need at least a swap partition on your system disk to 'autoboot' IRIX for installation.

CordlessTucanMania wrote:

yetanother**ixuser wrote: hmmm.....
why not install foundation from cd-drive as common, and the rest of the crap over nfs from the linux box or from an local dir. i see no need to boot from the overlays at all.
discussions welcome!

I'm interested...Could you be a little more explicit.

Install foundation from the CDROM, and install the overlays from the nix box or from the local machine.

CordlessTucanMania wrote: Oh, a cool tip...you know those "burn with nero" .nrg images ...

On a related note, I compiled a utility to convert Nero .nrg images into iso's ... it's in my folder. I've only used it a few times but it seems to work okay.

hi ,
Maybe this can help :
You need an open passwordless guest account on the remote box .

VenomousPinecone wrote: Install foundation from the CDROM, and install the overlays from the nix box or from the local machine.

This makes sense, does it matter how I boot, either net 6.5.2x overlay1 or CD 6.5.1x overlay1 ?

I also have a downloaded "Irix 6.5 Installation CD" which makes me a bit nervous. It did burn to efs from .nrg, and I can ls dksc(1,1,8) and see some files (sash, IP30, etc.), though if I try to use it from the graphical install, it copies installation tools to disk...and hangs during the procedure. Just now I think I'll try to boot it from the command line PROM and se if that's any different.
Any thoughts on best boot?

octavia wrote: hi ,
Maybe this can help :
You need an open passwordless guest account on the remote box .

Hi, I have tried that, and exev made a .rhosts file in the /home/guest dir. Then deleted the guest:X:yadayada to guest::yadayada in /etc/passwd.

Is there not some kind of hidden/secret passwd file on FC4/modern Linux systems I don't know about? That might be it, perhaps I'm not removing the password after all. There is no way to add a user and specify that the user have no password that I know of, am I right or is there a trick?

Also, is it guest or nobody that PROM logs into?

Thanks everybody for your help.

actual passwords are usually stored in /etc/shadow, I'm not sure what happens if you delete the :X: marker from /etc/passwd. I think as root you can use the passwd program to change the password to an emtpy one.

zappa wrote: actual passwords are usually stored in /etc/shadow, I'm not sure what happens if you delete the :X: marker from /etc/passwd. I think as root you can use the passwd program to change the password to an emtpy one.

Hmmm. See I knew there was some Linux sh** I was probably missing. Though I'm not sure how that would help the lost connection error, I may try it.

In the meantime (as if you all want a play-by-play) I have booted sa from net, then when in inst, switched distributions to local CD, foundations 1 and 2. The only missing bit was desktop_base.sw.dso62. I reckon it's on an application CD, or one of the overlays. I just hit 'GO' , it doing stuff. I resolved the conflict by not installing deasktop_bas_...62eos or whatever it was. Hopefully I can log in OK and live install it, as per, uh, sorry dude, forgot your name, sugestion.

I do not want to mix versions at all, so didn't use an application CD from (I think) 6.5.27 that I have. Does this matter?

Oh, did I mention that infact I have 7 CD drives? I got an old tower CD thing from 1998. They did not read efs. I was bummed. Turns out that they were and are, all toshiba 5701's. One needs to jump the parity jumper in back #5 but that's from memory, to get it to read 512 blocks, and therefore efs. I'm only using one right now, but in theory I could become a CD install uber machine. All irix CDs loaded at once. Of course that assumes one would want to do this more than once in their life...

ALmost there...

There are two gotchas when using a Linux box as an install server:
1) local port range. You obviously got that covered, or the thing wouldn't boot at all.

2) During the install process, the IRIX miniroot rexec's several shell scripts on the install server. On Linux, /bin/sh is GNU bash which isn't quite the same. Read the faq again about using csh or ksh or recompiling bash with a special flag. Be advised that most Linux distributions don't boot when /bin/sh != bash, which is pretty bad in itself.

I'm currently rebuilding my Linux server and plan to setup a virtual install server using vserver (similar to BSD jails and Solaris zones). This way I can hopefully find a combination that works for IRIX without causing crazy mods to the Linux side and doesn't require wide open BSD r* services on the actual server. If I figure out a recipe I'll turn it into a FAQ.

jan-jaap wrote: There are two gotchas when using a Linux box as an install server:
1) local port range. You obviously got that covered, or the thing wouldn't boot at all.

I think, I do a "echo 2048 32767 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/local_port_range" and a "echo 1 > <samedir>/ip_no_pmtu" or ptmusomething, what is in one of the FAQs.

jan-jaap wrote: 2) During the install process, [snip] Read the faq again about using csh or ksh or recompiling bash with a special flag.[snip]

Yes many say pdksh is the one, but my FC4 has ksh installed, so I assume it's the same. And yes, if you forget to unlink it before shutting down, you will have to boot from CD and 'rescue', to re-link sh -> bash. Odd.

jan-jaap wrote: I'm currently rebuilding my Linux server[snip]. If I figure out a recipe I'll turn it into a FAQ.

Which I would love to read. What would be really hand is an in depth FAQ specific to FC4.

On a note to everybody, I am standing down for the moment, as I have picked some last minute 'emergency' work today. I may wait until I have propper IRIX media, either bought or imaged directly from orig boxed set. Then just CD install like normal people .
Meantime I think I found the problem w my linux config. I can test my rsh by doing 'rsh <local system> -l guest
It then tries to klogin I think, fails, says trying regular rlogin, and works, HOWEVER, when I'm guest with the $prompt and I try something like 'cat /etc/passwd/ I get a permission denied error. Same error SGI box gives trying to connect. Seems like loading sa and opening dist folders are slightly different. May try to address this when I get back (late) tonight. Otherwise I'll stop fighting a losing battle and wait a few days for proper media.

Thanks though, to all who have helped, your suggestions have been good.

Cheers,