Setting up a BOOTP / TFTP server sounds tricky, but in reality it is marvellously simple. I used it to install IRIX over the network,on my SGI’s.
In this example I shared IRIX 5.3 from my Origin 200 running IRIX 6.5.xx to my Indigo R3000. If you are struggling with SCSI bus reset errors from that old cdrom drive, this is a much simpler route to take.
on the server:
08:00:69:c0:ff:ee iris
iris 1 08:00:69:c0:ff:ee 192.168.1.118 /cds/irix53/stand/sash.IP12
bootp dgram udp wait root /usr/etc/bootp bootp
tftp dgram udp wait guest /usr/etc/tftpd tftpd -s /cds/irix53
on the client
enter the command monitor by selecting option 5, and a quick hinv -v to double check all the hardware is recognised may avoid confusion later on.
setenv netaddr 192.168.1.118
setenv notape 1
boot -f bootp()192.168.1.9:/path/to/diskimage/stand/fx.IP12 –x
now repartition / format the drive as necessary (I had to do this a couple of times, it appeared to keep the old installation the first time, and the second time, the amount of freespace was well below the 2GB capacity, which left me with 2 failed installations, but was successful on the third attempt – hint: during the inst phase, I selected the admin commands and looked for the mkfs option. Even though the miniroot was copied to the drive, I wiped it clean – it recovered from the shock by offering to restart the interrupted distribution.
Right, now you’ve hopefully got a clean drive – restart and
setenv netaddr 192.168.1.118
setenv notape 1
boot -f bootp()192.168.111.9:/path/to/diskimage/stand/sash.IP12
install -n
for some reasoon, this didnt work too well for me, it kept looking for /dev/tape and I couldnt trick it by setenv tapedevice /path/to/diskimage =(
in this case, just select option 2, install the os.
are you using remote tape [y/n] : n
enter the hostname:directory – 192.168.1.119:/path/to/diskimage/dist
once you have the miniroot, and inst running, you should be able to select additional distributions by setting the ‘from’ to /path/to/disk2image/dist, as appropriate.
HINTS:
This assumes the server is IP 192.168.1.119, and the client is 192.168.1.118
It also assumes you have copied the IRIX 5.3 disc from /CDROM to /cds/irix53/ on the server.
BOOTP wont work across a router, but if you can NFS mount the files across the router, you could establish a nearby BOOTP server on the local segment.
In order to edit the files, especially on a text console, a quick ‘man vi’ should help
serial port settings are often 9600-8n1 no flow control, see ‘man serial’
LINKS:
securing IRIX (more 6.5.xx specific, but still useful)
http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/IRIX_65.html
http://sgistuff.g-lenerz.de/tips/security.php
http://www.siliconbunny.com/irix-security/
Upgrading an SGI Indigo R3000 – an 18 year old machine – is not without risks: the Magick Smoke already escaped once, forcing me to replace the z-buffer board. However, I have sourced an alternative, and coupled with an extra 3 GE’s, should be able to take my XS24-Z up to an Elan. Well that’s the plan.
Big thanks to Ian Mapleson, for his help sourcing the parts: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgidepot/
I also have plans on trying to get a newer version of PERL on IRIX 5.3, so I can possibly run Webmin. The guys at work think im crazy. You know, they could have a point. =)
Thank you, Jamie Cameron http://www.webmin.com
watch this space!!
update: 24/04/09 – the parts have been despatched via special delivery! should arrive soon. Who put the idea in my head of getting Mozilla FireFox to run on Irix 5.3, eh, Ian – Who indeed? Damn you, there goes my social life this year. Oh well, no great loss =)
update: 04/05/09 – Finally succeeded in booting the machine, but not able to restore the IRIX 5.3 OS yet, due to SCSI CDROM trouble (SCSI bus reset). I’ve swapped drives, and cables, to no avail. Was hoping to avoid this grief, but since my last update, I’ve lost 5 servers. (Its been a tough week). The 13 year old SGI O2 which I was hoping to become the network CD share / mount point decided to blow the PSU with a tremendous explosion, the resulting electrical power surge causing a fair amount of collateral on that circuit.
However, I’m back up and running now, limping along on a spare PC server, and an Octane with a dodgy graphics card – at least one of those should help me get the CDROMs online. I might even get around to installing the upgraded hardware, soon!!
Oh, well… looks like Im going to end up installing a BOOTP server again – so look out for the post on that!
Usualy accompanied by a caffeinated beverage - although we’re more likely sipping a latte than some Jolt! cola these days!
If you found anything on this site useful and want to say thanks, then you could always:
We work with your company in a constructive way to refine your vision, exploring the Art-of-the-Possible, help write IaC (Infrastructure-as-Code) with Terraform, promote a DevOps culture and build a World Class Cloud Platform.
We can also provide help to go from the very basics of designing your API contract in Swagger/OAS to building a container by writing a Dockerfile, through to a creating a fully orchestrated CI/CD pipeline in Jenkins to deploy to Rancher, Kubernetes and Istio. We can help set up Kong API Gateways, and lots more besides!
More