The collected works of The radar guy

Hello! I wish to know how to access the BIOS settings on an O2 machine, since at power-up there isn't any "Press XY to enter BIOS", like on PCs...

Thank you!

Many thanks to both of you! I will try tomorrow morning, first thing! By the way, I wish, to set the boot options so that the system can be started from CD-ROM, in other words, I wish to set the boot devices sequence to "CD first - HD second"... I suppose to be able to do that from PROM in the same way as from BIOS on a PC. Am I correct?..

there's almost nothing that can boot from cd

Well, my actual need is to find a "live-CD" (running from CD) file manager/partition editor, like Parted Magic or Gparted if you know them, which can run from CD without booting IRIX. I don't think that Parted Magic (or Gparted) is compatible with the microprocessors used in the various versions of the O2, so I would need to find a suitable one, too.

for doing what and why?

My company acquired this system as a special OEM configuration many years ago, but they never purchased a "life-long" maintenance/upgrade contract from the supplier, and now we need to perform some modifications in several files, which are "locked-out" due to the original customization. I need to run a file/partition editor without booting IRIX in order to gain full access to all files.

oh so this is a commercial request ...

Not at all!

@guardian452

Thank you very much! Actually, it doesn't have anything to do with pirating software. My company legitimately purchased the system but they lacked foresight when they decided not to purchase an all-inclusive maintenance contract. I am trying to keep wheels turning where our very technicians lack of the necessary documentation. As a matter of fact, I *do have* the access as root user, but I don't have enough documentation from the original OEM supplier, and our technicians told me that they were unable to find certain settings. I am not at liberty to fully disclose the details of the specific application for that machine here, but look at my avatar and draw your conclusions...

foetz wrote: what i meant by "commercial request" is that the OP gets paid for what he wants help with here for free. in other words he gets the bucks for what we do. unless he's working for free of course
simple question to sort this: is this o2 adventure part of your job you get paid for?

if that's not the case and this is about a voluntarily private/non-profit project i'm wrong and will of course contine helping out.

I get paid to the last cent even if I don't care at all about the damn radar (ooops! ), it's not part of my job on the paper , but as a matter of fact, most of my job tasks are about the output of the r@d@r... if I don't take care of it, nobody does because bureaucracy submerges it all. I might even be criticized by the "high brass" of my agency for taking care of something that, theoretically, is not part of my job. I even paid from my pocket money to upgrade the PC in my office with extra RAM, extra HD and a new video board. I needed them badly and I could not get them in decent time through the official channels. But I love my job more than I care about being paid for such trivial things or for taking care of extras.

In other words: I don' get any bucks from the radar nor from what you guys do here. Should I drop it, nobody would care about, and I would probably work less (and worse).

Thank you very much for understanding my position. It may sound paradoxical, but in this country very often it's the only effective way to keep things moving.

About the privileges of the root user, I do have the credentials to access as the root user, and our maintenance technicians too, but they told me that, even in this way, there are some files and menus which stay locked out. Such files and menus were only accessible to the personnel of the equipment manufacturer (when they were still in charge of the maintenance, of course). In my knowledge, it is the root user who has the highest "power" in terms of authorizations, but facts seems to indicate otherwise. It's for this reason that I need an editing tool, running from CD, to view/edit the contents of the HD without starting IRIX.

robespierre wrote: IRIX has NCSC B2 features under its MAC controls, so simply being root does not grant access to everything.
See clearance(4) and dominance(5).

Ugh! sounds thorny... What document "clearance(4) and dominance(5)" are referred to?
Okay, it's my boss who sets my agenda, as soon as she allows me some breath, I will investigate further!
For the time being, THANK YOU SO MUCH to you all!

Especially if you're operating slightly beyond your remit here - the higher-ups might get very testy if something goes wrong, even if they're too apathetic to care beforehand.

Holy words!!!