> ive bought octane
> but rootpwd from him doesnt work

Indeed? (:-D

> i did all the things with octane manual (disabling root pwd with jumper)
> but nothings changed
>
> is it the matter of uncomplete system?

It's a matter of booting from either the IRIX Foundation-1 (part of the 6.5
base CDs) or from "IRIX 6.5.x Installation Tools & Overlays 1 of x CDs.
Since you didn't specify which IRIX revision the machine is running, for an
Octane, it would be a sane assumption that it's some rev of IRIX 6.5.

1. immediately after system power on, start hitting the [ESC] key, to get to
the menu
2. select "Install system software"
3. select the boot device
4. when the miniroot loads, select the option to go into the shell
5. root FS on the boot disk will be mounted under /realroot IIRC; use `vi`
to edit /etc/shadow (if it exists) and the /etc/passwd and clear only the
field for the password itself.
6. exit out of the shell
7. choose "quit" in the `inst` menu
8. select "reset" when `inst` prompts you
9. let the system reboot from the root disk
10. login in as root; it should just let you in, if you cleared the passwd
field(s) correctly
11. have fun!

But honestly, why would you even want to use a system with an OS/OE that
someone else installed? How do you know that they installed or configured it
correctly? How do you know that there aren't any trojans on the system?
Usually when you buy a system, any system, the first thing to do is to whack
everything and do a clean OE install.

UNIX admin schrieb:
> But honestly, why would you even want to use a system with an OS/OE that
> someone else installed? How do you know that they installed or configured it
> correctly? How do you know that there aren't any trojans on the system?
> Usually when you buy a system, any system, the first thing to do is to whack
> everything and do a clean OE install.
>

Funny, the first thing I do when buying used computers is to have a look
at whatever software might be installed ;-)

> Funny, the first thing I do when buying used computers is to have a look
> at whatever software might be installed ;-)

What good does that do you? If it's freeware, it's not worth the risk, or
the assumption that it's been configured properly/to your liking/to your
standards.
If it's licensed software, again it's no good, because usually you don't
get the license or the media with the system. So again, what good does it do
you?

> It mostly satisfies my curiosity. What over reason is there to
> purchase an Octane computer nowadays?

Eeeeeugh... for doing development work on an e-bay like project (running a
DB + Apache + PHP + XML + XSLT) and using only a fraction of the electricity
a Power Challenge XL would use? (;-)
Octanes are like machines from a fairytale for that kind of work! Lotsa raw
CPU power and pah-lenty of resources to spare with a demonic throughput.

UNIX admin schrieb:
>>It mostly satisfies my curiosity. What over reason is there to
>>purchase an Octane computer nowadays?
>
>
> Eeeeeugh... for doing development work on an e-bay like project (running a
> DB + Apache + PHP + XML + XSLT) and using only a fraction of the electricity
> a Power Challenge XL would use? (;-)

Heh heh. That is a valid point I guess.

> Octanes are like machines from a fairytale for that kind of work! Lotsa raw
> CPU power and pah-lenty of resources to spare with a demonic throughput.
>

No doubt, it still is a nice machine, but you do need to be a bit of an
SGI enthusiast to fully appreciate it. Also it is WAY too loud to make
it onto my desktop, so my machine will have to keep on serving web pages
and hosting CVS repositories from within the closet ;-)