crash020297
asked on
Old SGI Indy.
Hello,
I want to re-install the system software for this old Indy I picked up. It has a minimal Irix 6.5 installation on it but I want to try writting some software on it and stuff like that.
I have an external SCSI cd-rom that I'm hooking into the back of the INDY and it came with one of those big monitors that only work with it.
Ok, it says that in order to install Irix on this machine I have to press escape or something while it's booting...I'm sure that would work fine except shows up on the monitor until it wants me to login!
I really don't know where to change this setting...and the devices are so oddly named that I don't even know if I'd be able to choose the correct device to install from (my external CD...which I don't even know how to access). Irix is so different from other *ix's. I normally use FreeBSD so when I got it I figured it couldn't be THAT different...but it really is.
If someone could give me a little helping hand I'd totally appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chip
I want to re-install the system software for this old Indy I picked up. It has a minimal Irix 6.5 installation on it but I want to try writting some software on it and stuff like that.
I have an external SCSI cd-rom that I'm hooking into the back of the INDY and it came with one of those big monitors that only work with it.
Ok, it says that in order to install Irix on this machine I have to press escape or something while it's booting...I'm sure that would work fine except shows up on the monitor until it wants me to login!
I really don't know where to change this setting...and the devices are so oddly named that I don't even know if I'd be able to choose the correct device to install from (my external CD...which I don't even know how to access). Irix is so different from other *ix's. I normally use FreeBSD so when I got it I figured it couldn't be THAT different...but it really is.
If someone could give me a little helping hand I'd totally appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chip
If the system already has a minimal 6.5 OS installed it would actually be easier to simply add what you want to the existing installation. You can do that quite easily from the software manager. It's been quite a while since I've had my hands on an Indy, but I remember it allowing you to drop into maintainence mode at powerup. I don't remember any setting that would disable that screen, but there could be such a setting. Someone else my know for sure.
ASKER
While we're waiting to hear about that, perhaps you could tell me somemore about the Software Manager. I've seen it and run it...but like I said..I have no idea what device my cd-rom is. This thing doesn't have a floppy either. It also doesn't use DHCP...which I prefer but can live without.
but back to the cd-rom, what are the device naming semantics of Irix and should I put it in fstab before trying to use the software manager?
I've got the cd-rom set to 10 and I have looked at the drive but I figured it wouldn't boot had their been a problem.
but back to the cd-rom, what are the device naming semantics of Irix and should I put it in fstab before trying to use the software manager?
I've got the cd-rom set to 10 and I have looked at the drive but I figured it wouldn't boot had their been a problem.
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ASKER
THANKS!!
You've been a big help. I found out that 'nvram console g' is what I needed to do to reset the indy to use my monitor at boot time. My cd-rom is working great and I've even managed to get it all hooked up to my local network..so I'm happy to be writting you from an old version of netscape from my indy.
I've cleaned up and added a bunch of software...but much of what comes with the IRIX install cd's requires a license (the c++ compiler specifically)...so now I'm going to go download gcc and start playing around!
I still wish I could put FreeBSD on this machine but I'll live without it :)
Thanks again and if you happen to have any dev tips for acessing serial devices then drop a comment, other wise I'll talk to ya later.
-Chip
You've been a big help. I found out that 'nvram console g' is what I needed to do to reset the indy to use my monitor at boot time. My cd-rom is working great and I've even managed to get it all hooked up to my local network..so I'm happy to be writting you from an old version of netscape from my indy.
I've cleaned up and added a bunch of software...but much of what comes with the IRIX install cd's requires a license (the c++ compiler specifically)...so now I'm going to go download gcc and start playing around!
I still wish I could put FreeBSD on this machine but I'll live without it :)
Thanks again and if you happen to have any dev tips for acessing serial devices then drop a comment, other wise I'll talk to ya later.
-Chip