In article ,
Jan-Frode Myklebust wrote:
:we have a Origin200 that needs to be reinstalled from scratch.
:The node doesn't have any CDROM, but we have a full copy of
:the IRIX 6.5.21 disks on a SCSI disk. Shouldn't it be possible
:to start the install from this disk? Does anybody have a
:step-by-step guide?

Yes, if it is a faithful copy, preserving the directory structure,
then go into the prom, request to install system software, and
choose that you want to install from a remote directory and give
the details. If, that is, the SCSI disk is on a tftp-able remote host.

If you are trying to do this off of a local SCSI drive... it is
possible, but I forget the exact magic incantation. You have
to go into sash and 'cp' the miniroot file on top of the swap
partition. That miniroot file has a complete filesystem structure in it,
so you then boot the /unix out of that filesystem. The part I don't
remember is how to address the correct miniroot file for the 'cp'
command purposes.
--
I've been working on a kernel
All the livelong night.
I've been working on a kernel
And it still won't work quite right. -- J. Benson & J. Doll

Walter Roberson wrote:
> If you are trying to do this off of a local SCSI drive... it is
> possible, but I forget the exact magic incantation. You have to go
> into sash and 'cp' the miniroot file on top of the swap partition.
> That miniroot file has a complete filesystem structure in it, so you
> then boot the /unix out of that filesystem. The part I don't remember
> is how to address the correct miniroot file for the 'cp' command
> purposes.

Origin200 with at least 2 different harddiscs inside:

drive 1 : old system that is going to be destroyed (we actually only
need the volumeheader of that drive, it doesnt need to have a working
system on it)

drive 2 : a drive with version 1 XFS or even EFS containing all the
installation CDs content (thats 4 CDs for the 6.5 base installation:
Foundation 1,2 + Developer Lib,Foundation and another 3-4 CDs for the
overlay you want to install; f.e. 6.5.21). I recommend to put base
into a subdirectory called 6.5/ and the overlay into 6.5.21/. It
should look like this:

/6.5 $ ls
4Dwm c_dev.books dps_eoe.man
impr_base.idb license_dev.books [..]

You see that beside miniroot/ extra/ dev/ and unbundled/ there are no
other subdirectories inside 6.5/ and 6.5.21/ - all on one hierarchy
(it saves you keystrokes afterwards :-).

Another file that you will need is the miniroot installation file (mr)
that will be copied into the swap partition and if you want to
repartition drive 1 prior to install you need a coff version of fx
on drive 2 too that can be loaded from sash on drive 1.
It is also a good idea to fill the volumeheader of drive 2 with sash
too - just to prevent yourself from locking out of the system by
nuking the volumeheader on drive 1 :-).

/ $ ls
6.5 6.5.21 mr
fx

That mr file is a 0 sized file on the CD filesystem; i think the
actual file is inside the sa file so all you have to do is to retrieve
the mr file from the CD from another SGIs PROM and copy it to the
Origin200s drive 2 (its up to you how to do this step with the
machines you have at your site :-}). Maybe this should work to copy
the mr file from an attached CD-ROM into the root filesystem of your
machine from within sash (not tested!):

> cp -b 32k dksc(0,4,8)mr dksc(0,1,0)/mr


The needed steps for the installation (not proved! just out of my mind,
maybe its completely wrong - read possible followups on my post at first
to get the whole story :-}):

1) boot sash from drive 1 from the PROM monitor

> dksc(0,1,8)sash

2) optional step: fx'ing the drive

> dksc(0,2,0)/fx -x

3) copy miniroot (mr) from drive 2 into swap of drive 1

> cp -b 32k dksc(0,2,0)/mr dksc(0,1,1)

4) boot into the installer on swap space of drive 1

> dksc(0,1,1)/unix

5) format drive 1, go to admin menu, enter sh, mkdir /install, mount
drive 2 into /install and finaly choose from /install/6.5.21/ and
from /install/6.5/ as your installation source


Conclusion: its prolly much easier to get a used double speed SCSI drive
from eBay for about $10 and put it into the 5.25" cage of the O200 and
install your IRIX from there ;-).

--
PGP2 Key-ID: 666R/36540865 1997-06-09 Marcus Herbert
GPG Key-ID: 1024D/2E2DAB44 2000-01-30
Geek-Code: GCS b O e+ h