SGI: Hardware

I just tried the whole afternoon to install IRIX 6.5.22 on my Indigo R4400.

Before I installed IRIX on an O2 and it worked flawlessly. So I wanted to continue to my Indigo. But there it started with that the Indigo has a problem with my external CDROM (the id is wrong and every time at 1). So I tried another external CDROM and with this one the id was correct, I could repartition my harddrive.
Another problem is, that I can only start the installation when I first loaded sashARCS and fx.ARCS. If I don´t do this, ARCS cannot read from the CD.
If I then start the installation, ARCS copies the miniroot over (GUI) and then when it wants to copy over IP20 from the CD I get a read error, but the drive and CD work on the O2.

So what can I try to get it runnning?

Did anyone else also have such trouble getting IRIX on an Indigo R4400?

I'm not sure 6.5.22 is supported on the Indigo.

IRIX 6.5.22 supports all machines with R4000 or higher processors, except the Crimson.
Your CDROM drive needs the capability to switch to 512 byte sectors. What drive is it?

depending on what you wanna use 6.5.x doesn't make much sense on an indigo because whatever is available for 6.5.x only will likely not run very well there.

As I just have IRIX 6.5 it´s the only OS I can install at the moment, but wanted to try OpenBSD/NetBSD anyway.

AS for what I drive I´ve got, I need to have a look if it has the capability to switch to 512 bytes sectors.

FlasBurn wrote: wanted to try OpenBSD/NetBSD anyway.

oh that's not what i meant at all but an older irix version.

FlasBurn wrote: If I then start the installation, ARCS copies the miniroot over (GUI) and then when it wants to copy over IP20 from the CD I get a read error, but the drive and CD work on the O2.

I'm assuming you've used the internal CD-ROM on your O2. Perhaps the external CD-ROM or the SCSI cable has some problem. To avoid this, you could make your O2 act as an installation server. There's a good documentation how to do this in the wiki . Just change the 64-bit stuff to 32-bit stuff for your O2, e.g. fx.ARCS instead of fx.64 etc.
Perhaps this will help to avoid the read error on the Indigo.

I should give this a try for my other SGIs, but as the the Indigo has only AUI and I have no adapter, this won't work for me

Indigo is one of the earlier ARCS boxes, pre-ARCS are really picky so it wouldn't surprise me if Indigo might be a bit pickier than later ARCS boxen such as your O2.

See if you can get your hands on a Plextor or Sun SL-CD. Those work nicely with SGIs. Toshibas can work also, but they seem to be more often broken for me (except for the 4101/SL-CD). I think I used a Plextor to install on my IP20.

I´m still looking for another CD-ROM drive, but have not found one so far. I also ordered an AUI adapter so that I can try to install IRIX over the network.