IRIX Installation Howto

From Iris Indigo

1) Powerup your SGI

2) If your SGI tries to boot press the ESC key to enter the 'System Maintenance Menu"

  2a) Choose option 5 "Enter Command Monitor"

3) Type hinv to get a hardware inventory of your SGI. Take note of the SCSI ID that

  the CDROM drive, and root hard disk are on. You need this information to boot the
  sash, and fx programs.Also take note of the CPU board. Here is an example output:
  
             Memory size: 96 Mbytes
  Instruction cache size: 32 Kbytes
         Data cache size: 32 Kbytes
          System options: Audio processor, revision 3
                Graphics: LG1
               SCSI Disk: dksc(0,1)
              SCSI CDROM: Controller 0, ID 6
               CPU board: IP12 33 MHz, with FPU
  

4) Now you need to boot the standalone shell. Type "boot -f dksc(0,x,8)sashARCS" substitue the

  x with the SCSI ID of your CDROM drive, and substitute ARCS with the IP?? number you got 
  from hinv. For this system the boot command should look like this: 
  
          boot -f dksc(0,6,8)sashIP12

5) If all goes well you should see a prompt that looks something like this:

  Standalone Shell SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Dec 19, 1994 (BE)
  sash:
  

6) Next you need to boot the fx program to partition the disk, and build a filesystem to

  install IRIX on. CAUTION!!! This will destroy all data on your hard disk!!
  Type "boot -f dksc(0,x,7)stand/fx.ARCS" once again, substitute the x with the SCSI ID 
  of your CDROM drive, and ARCS with the IP?? number you used in the previous step. Your
  final command should look like this:
  
         boot -f dksc(0,6,7)stand/fx.IP12
         
         

7) You should now see a screen like this:

  Currently in safe read-only mode.
  Do you require extended mode with all options available (no)
  
  7a) You will need the extended options to get the "auto" function of fx, so type the word "yes"
 

8) Now you have a prompt like this:

  SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Dec 19, 1994
  fx: "device-name' = (dksc)
  
  8a) Just press enter to choose the default
  
  fx: ctlrs = (0)
  
  8b) Just press enter again, to choose the default SCSI controller, If you have more than once
      controller, you will need to choose the appropirate controller number.
  
  fx: drives = (1)
  
  8c) Enter the SCSI ID of the hard disk you want to install IRIX on. This will become your root disk.
      You should now see a menu that looks something like this:
  
  ...opening dksc(0,1,0)
  ...controller test ...OK
  Scsi drive type == SEAGATE ST11200N            3136
  
  ------ please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-------
  [ex]it                 [d]ebug/            [l]abel/            [a]uto
  [b]adblock/            [exe]rcise/         [r]epartition/      [f]ormat
  fx> 
  
  

9) Tye "a" to auto partion your hard drive. You will no have a menu that looks like this:

  -------create sgiinfo------
  ...creating default sgiinfo
   * * * * * W A R N I N G * * * * *
  about to destroy data on disk dksc(0,1,0)1 ok?
  
  9a) Type the work "yes" and press enter, next you should see:
  
  ------ format -------
  format will take approximately 30 minutes....
   

Not finished...