IRIX and Software

I have been following the install routine here http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/6.5inst.html
I have found it to be very helpful and clear but once I have completed the step below

The system will return to the System Maintenance menu. Select Install System Software (or press 2) and choose the appropriate icon for the attached CDROM. After reading in the installation tools, which will take between 20 second to 1 or 2 minutes depending on your CPU/CDROM speed, some IRIX copyright information will be shown.

The system seems to hang with no response from the mouse or keyboard ?
Is this some sort of known issue or maybe a potential problem with the hardware ?
I can post additional info if people would like I am new to SGi hardware and Irix
The system itself is an Octane2 with V8 Graphics and an external CD-ROM connected to the external SCSI port bus ID 1,3

Thanks

Which IRIX CD are you attempting to load, and tell us more about the external CD drive (and anything that might also be connected to your external SCSI bus). Make/model of the drive, SCSI ID, cabling, any adapters involved, and how termination is supplied.

And hope you have a very happy birthday!

1. Learn to wait.
2. In that "Stop for maintenance menu" choose the command monitor option, Type hinv and see if your CD-ROM is there. You know about SCSI bus termination, etc, right?

R.

The CD's are the backup copies supplied with the machine I believe its 6.5.22 judging by the installed version on 1 of the disks. it is entirely possible that its just overlays that have been applied at a later date though to be honest. The CD Drive is as follows

NEC Corp
Model CDR-222
SN 59269144212
Man Date September 1995
Made in Japan ( I cant see that that is relevant but you never know !)

The hinv for the machine I have typed in as telnet is not working right now

IP30
400Mhz R1200K
Network: ef0
SCSI Disk: scsi 0 disk 1
SCSI Tape: scsi 0 tape 3
Audio: RAD Audio Processor
PCI Bus: XTALKPCI (13)
PCI Bus : MSCSI (10)
PCI Bus: Fibre Channel (9)
Graphics: Odyssey

PymbleSoftware wrote: 1. Learn to wait.
2. In that "Stop for maintenance menu" choose the command monitor option, Type hinv and see if your CD-ROM is there. You know about SCSI bus termination, etc, right?

R.

I think I have waited long enough ?
I did give it 60 mins and there was no activity at all nothing no optical drive lights and the keyboard and mouse both stopped responding totally.
The hinv it does say that the drive is connected although in the previous post its not there as it was disconnected to get the SN etc.

hinv says that the drive is 1,3, CDROM Drive or words to that effect. I can connect and confirm if needed.

If it does make a difference in the hinv when it is connected or not then it is probably properly terminated, etc. Assuming that the media is in good condition and you have the correct CD in the drive, I am running out of ideas. I have never had problems following Ian's SGI depot IRIX install guide.

Someone else here, probably has ideas for you to try.

R.

Juda$ wrote: The CD's are the backup copies supplied with the machine I believe its 6.5.22 judging by the installed version on 1 of the disks. it is entirely possible that its just overlays that have been applied at a later date though to be honest.

Even if it is just an overlay set, the installation tools cd should be able to boot and load the installer.

When you say "backup copies," does that mean that they are CDs that someone burned, as opposed to actual CDs from SGI? If the former, it is very possible that they weren't burned correctly. Among other things that can go wrong, the filesystem on the boot CD must be in SGI EFS format, and the CD header must be correctly created (there is a thread on that somewhere on Nekochan).

Can you read the CDs on a PC? If so, they are probably in ISO format, not EFS. That's not the end of the world, however. You may be able to perform a net install, using your CDs in conjunction with the DINA virtual machine .

Of course, it could also be that the installation CD is damaged, and you need to get your hands on another.

PS. Yes, you were waiting long enough. It really should only take a couple of minutes at most in the step you mentioned.

It sounds as though it is hanging AFTER copying the miniroot to the drive and restarting from that, correct (the "copying" bar will go all the way across the box and the system will restart)

If you don't have a miniroot version that supports your hardware you'll run into that, also if for some reason the miniroot is corrupted you'll get that. If your disk doesn't specifically say "IRIX 6.5.22 installation tools and overlays disk 1" then it's possible it's not 6.5.22, or it's possible that bitrot has set in on recordable media. Try downloading the DINA and giving it a go with netbooting.

The backup copies do not read in a windows based pc but also if I try and back them up within Irix they also fail to I am pretty sure the media is broken.
The CD drive does read other CD's no problem. can someone with a little more experience than me tell me if the link below contains all the software I need to perform and install ? It does contain the installation tools and overlayswhich I believe are the important parts for booting the system but I would not mind a 2nd opinion.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SGI-SOFTWARE- ... 3a6d1112b1

I haven't seen that particular set of CDs before. If the list of CDs is accurate, it looks like someone mixed and matched CDs. I doubt that it is really "new in box," unless it was a special order. It looks like a partial 6.5.3 Overlay set (missing the Applications CD), an O2 LCD patch CD, and the patches for an O2 running the older IRIX 6.3.

It has an Installation Tools CD, which is enough to boot into the installer on many machines, but since it lacks the Foundation 1 and 2 CDs, it is not enough to perform a clean installation.

One other note: your Octane has a 400 MHz R12000 cpu. Since the R12ks weren't shipping when IRIX 6.5 first started shipping, early versions of the IRIX 6.5 installer won't work. I think you'll need at least IRIX 6.5.8, but I might be wrong.

I recommend getting your hands on an IRIX 6.5 Foundation 1 CD, an IRIX 6.5 Foundation 2 CD, and an IRIX Overlay set in the high teens or higher. IRIX 6.5.21 or 6.5.22 seem to be where many people land. You can also download the 6.5.22 Overlays from SGI. Also, again, consider running a net install using DINA.

Juda$ wrote: an someone with a little more experience than me tell me if the link below contains all the software I need to perform and install ? It does contain the installation tools and overlayswhich I believe are the important parts for booting the system but I would not mind a 2nd opinion.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SGI-SOFTWARE- ... 3a6d1112b1

Thanks again,

I will have a look at DINA over the weekend and update,

I had the exact same issue on exactly same machine, only my Octane2 is V6. Like SAQ says you are using too old installation tools. Cant't remember now but i think i failed with 6.5.15?, later i obtained 6.5.26 and 6.5.30 and that was a go with no problems.

cybercow wrote: I had the exact same issue on exactly same machine, only my Octane2 is V6. Like SAQ says you are using too old installation tools. Cant't remember now but i think i failed with 6.5.15?, later i obtained 6.5.26 and 6.5.30 and that was a go with no problems.

Support for the V6 and V8 first appeared in IRIX 6.5.8.

recondas wrote: Support for the V6 and V8 first appeared in IRIX 6.5.8.

Now thats a nugget of knowledge that could have been applied to the V6 and V8 wiki pages..

I'll do it.

R.

Just to update the thread, I have started the install process using original 6.5.10 media via my locally attached CD-ROM and so far so good, although I am sure I will have more questions are the process goes on. I think the original problem must have been damage to the Backup media.