The collected works of maciac

Hi all,

I'm trying to resurrect an O2 system ... the system got mashed, something to do with an error with an executable in /unix.
Being an SGI newbie I decided to just reinstall the system from the supplied IRIX 6.3 CDs. And people complain linux is hard! I have no backups , only a useless HD and the original CDs.



The problem(s) are:
-- inst gives me two errors, that look as if they come from a script, about fasttrack and a mail program ( -- libmal from memory)
-- as soon as I restart the machine after an install, it goes straight back into the miniroot


I stumbled around for a bit and managed to perform the following steps:
1) Load fx
. . . . format the HD
. . . . partition the disk as root-only
. . . . write the label to disk
2) Reboot the system
. . . . Stop the system for maintenance
. . . . Select "Install System"
. . . . load the miniroot
. . . . create a 512 block fs on the HD (from the prompt)
3) Watch inst start
. . . . enter "from /CDROM/dist"
. . . . feed the O2 the CDs in this order:
. . . . . . . . IRIX 6.3
. . . . . . . . IRIX 6.3 Applications
. . . . . . . . IRIX 6.3 Recommended/Required Patches
. . . . type "done"
. . . . type "go"
4) Watch inst work away for 30 mins
5) Type "quit" and confirm that I wish to restart
6) The miniroot loads instead of the system, and I start all over again ...

Thanks for the quick (and accurate) response!

I ran upstairs and did that, and it goes fine. Now why didn't SGI put something about that in their documentation that I read ...

Yeah, ditto. The instructions are crap -- but this is by far the distro. with the best user support; you guys rule!

I followed the instructions word for word (3 times this morning, and twice before I went to bed at 11pm last night!) changing things slightly each time.

That Futuretech link got me started as well, but it didn't occur to me to reset the environment variables (typing "resetenv" into a command window).

BTW, can anyone recommend any "must have" software for me? I'm just getting hooked on my little O2

I saw on a screenshot somewhere, a sort of MacOS X dock clone (transperant and everything) ... can someone give me a pointer?

Thanks all!

Maciac.