Subject: Linux on Indy

From: "Ian Chilton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 14:39:20 +0100

Hello,

OK...I now have a 2nd disk in my Indy. I have read the MIPS/HOWTO, the
SGI/Linux mini-HOWTO (by: Raju) and the Hard Hat 5.1 installation
instructions, but I still haven't got a clue how to do this....

I have an SGI Indy running Irix 6.5.8m (now with a 2nd hard disk).
I also have a PC running Win98 and another running SuSE Linux.

I have got the hardhat-sgi-5.1tar.gz file...can't I just copy this to the
Indy while running IRIX, and unpack from there?

Please could someone explain how I do this?
(incl partitioning this new disk for Linux...I ran fx, but didn't have a
clue how to use it...)

Thanks!

Bye for Now,

Ian

                     \|||/
                     (o o)
 /----------------ooO-(_)-Ooo----------------\
 |  Ian Chilton                              |
 |  E-Mail : [email-masked]              |
 \-------------------------------------------/

---

From: "J. Scott Kasten" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:31:05 -0300

Let's try and keep this discussion on the list as I'm going to be trying
the same thing in a few weeks.

>From what I have observed, the 5.1 tarball has under the mipseb directory
a minimal root file system with etc, sbin, lib, etc. in addition to the
RedHat/RPMS directory.  I suspect that you will need to get that minimal
root file system mounted, and then use that to run the install and explode
the RPMS to the disk.  I'm further going to speculate that you will
probably netboot the thing the first time and do an NFS mounted root to
make that happen.  But again, this is pure speculation...

-S-

--

J. Scott Kasten
Email: jsk AT tetracon-eng DOT net

"The only future you have is the one
 you choose to make for yourself..."

---

From: Guido Guenther <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 17:46:35 +0200

On Fri, Jun 09, 2000 at 10:31:05AM -0300, J. Scott Kasten wrote:
[..snip..] 
> make that happen.  But again, this is pure speculation...
That's the way to go. As far as I remember the hardhat installer fires
up automatically when you mount the rootfs per nfs. It will create a fs
on the disk and unpack the rpms. As I did that, most of the scripts failed so
I had to fix up some things by hand(the mailing list archive is a good
read on that). I wrote a short description of what I did after the
hardhat installer finished: 
http://honk.physik.uni-konstanz.de/~agx/mipslinux/install/fix-install.txt
I partitioned the disk from within irix but I can't remember that
cryptic irix device names. Recently someone posted about a mini-distro
he built(search the archives on that). This one might be easier to
install than hardhat.
Regards,
 -- Guido

-- 
GPG-Public Key: http://honk.physik.uni-konstanz.de/~agx/guenther.gpg.asc

---

From: "Ian Chilton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 17:05:05 +0100

Hello,

> I suspect that you will need to get that minimal
> root file system mounted, and then use that to run the install
> and explode the RPMS to the disk

eakkK!

Sorry to be a pain..but is there anyone that wouldn't mind spening a few
mins just to list the commands that I would use to do this...

I have been using Windoze and Linux for years, but am *completely* new to
SGI/Indy's and IRIX.
I don't even have a clue how to partition use the 2nd hard disk I have put
in....

HELP!

Thanks Again!

Bye for Now,

Ian

                     \|||/
                     (o o)

---

From: Ken Wills <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 12:01:46 +0000

> I don't even have a clue how to partition use the 2nd hard disk I have put

There are a couple of docs on http://www.linux.sgi.com that describe how to 
install Linux on an Indy. If you don't know the device names under irix,
user the system manager to install and partition your new disk - then you'll
see it's device name in the disk-manager app thingy - after that, a few minutes
with 'fx' and 'man fx' should be sufficient, or you can consult a copy of
Frisch's 'Essential System Administraton' (O'Reilly) for a step by step
on adding disks under Irix.

The linux installer is capable of partitioning your disk too, AFAIR, use
fdisk though, and not disk druid.

Hope that helps a little,

Ken

---

From: "J. Scott Kasten" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 13:52:49 -0300

> mins just to list the commands that I would use to do this...

Actually, net booting is not as hard or as bad as it sounds.  Typically,
you'll need utilities like rarp, bootp/dhcp, bootparamd, tftp, and NFS to
pull it off.  I've not gone through the process first hand yet with an
SGI, but from what I've glanced at somewhere here in the docs it looks to
be slightly different from what a Sun does.  I know this will sound
strange, but go to www.netbsd.org and look at their docs on net booting
Sun boxes to do a network install of NetBSD.  Their docs are quite
thurough on how to set up tftp, rarp, etc on BSD and Linux servers for net
booting a Sun client.  Although some of the details will be different for
an SGI client, the docs are still invaluable to you as they describe how
to edit the configuration files on the server to get what you want.
Comming from the Bill's world, it will also help give you a basic
understanding of how the process works so you'll know better what
questions to ask if you do get stuck.

---

From: "Ian Chilton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 21:10:25 +0100

Hello,

> If you don't know the device names under irix,
> user the system manager to install and partition your new disk -
> then you'll see it's device name in the disk-manager app thingy

When I go into Disk Manager, I only see SystemDisk(0,1) 4.04GB, which is my
normal IRIX disk......does this mean my 2nd disk isn't working?

The 2nd disk I put in was a 1GB, straight out of my Linux box, still with an
EXT2 partition on....does this matter?

Thanks!

Bye for Now,

Ian

                     \|||/
                     (o o)

---

From: "J. Scott Kasten" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 23:13:28 -0300

> EXT2 partition on....does this matter?

Yes, it does.  IRIX won't like the Linux partition table one bit.  The
simplest thing to do would be to stick it in the linux box and do this:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd# bs=512 count=10

Where /dev/sd# is the SCSI device, IE /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc...

Don't use a name with a numeric suffix or you'll just zap the partition,
not the partition table itself.

However, IRIX should have seen the drive regardless, but would have told
you it could not create a file system on it or some such thing, so there's
still the possibility something is not in place right here.