Network Install (IRIX)

This article describes the installation of IRIX 6.5.30 on an SGI Fuel. The installation is performed over a local network (LAN), using a SGI Indy workstation as installation server. The main focus of this article is to demonstrate the feature of driving inst using a pre-written command file instead of manually performing all needed software selection steps. Although the example specifically describes an IRIX 6.5.30 installation, the demonstrated methods will work with any 6.5.x installation.

Host Server

The Host OS/Server should be a recent install of IRIX (i.e. 6.5.22 or later)

Ensure the IP configuration is within the same subnet as the machine installed, i.e. 192.168.1.0/24 This guide will use 192.168.1.7

Directory Structure

A directory structure has to be created first. The chosen directory names can be different from this example, but they have to be consistent with the following steps:

As an alternative, the overlays can all be combined into a single directory:

Permissions

All files must be readable by the guest user. This can be accomplished a variety of ways, but two of them are:

chown the files to guest:
# chown -R guest:guest /netboot

chmod the files to allow world readability:
# chmod -R 755 /netboot

Next, verify that the guest user is not locked.

It should look similar to this:

guest::998:998:Guest Account:/usr/people/guest:/bin/csh

Not like this:

guest:*LK*:998:998:Guest Account:/usr/people/guest:/bin/csh

And also not like this:

guest:XOmXlVxyVdlA2:998:998:Guest Account:/usr/people/guest:/bin/csh

(Or with a * where the password hash is above)

Services

Verify that the following services are on:

• tftp
• shell (rsh)

This can be verified in /etc/inetd.conf

Additionally, add the directory created above to TFTP's line:

tftp dgram udp wait guest /usr/etc/tftpd tftpd -s /usr/local/boot /usr/etc/boot /netboot/6.5.30

Then reboot or restart inetd using /etc/killall -HUP inetd

On the off chance IPFilter is enabled, a rule will need to be created to allow the client access.

Client Configuration (Fuel)

Stop the booting process by pressing the esc key and enter the maintenance menu. Open the "Command Monitor" (or press button 5). Assign a temporary IP address to the machine by setting the following environment variable:

setenv netaddr 192.168.1.174
setenv srvaddr 192.168.1.7

The IP has to be in the same subnet as your install server. It is NORMAL for the ping, trace and other utilities to fail from PROM.

The next step is to load the "fx" program and create the needed partitions.
bootp()/netboot/6.5.30/install/stand/fx.64 --x

The command for older machines like the Indigo2, Indy, O2 etc. is:
boot -f bootp()/netboot/6.5.30/install/stand/fx.ARCS --x

This is not a tutorial on use of fx, but generally:

• Create a [ro]ot drive.
• Check if the [la]bel contains the bootfile=/unix entry in the bootinfo section. If not, create it.
• [sy]nc the label
• exit fx via /exit

This will revert back to the maintenance menu.

Installing IRIX

Press button 2 to enter the "Install System Software" menu. Choose "remote directory" and specify the name of the remote host by providing the IP address of the server (192.168.1.7). The name of the remote directory is the one which contains the "sa" file. In this case its "/netboot/6.5.30/install/dist". Press the "install" button to load the installation tools.

Next it will likely be asked to provide IP addresses and hostname of the machine being installed on and to confirm the creation of a fresh XFS file system on the newly created root partition. Do so.

Install File

Now an installation list can be used to automate the process of setting this up. Here is an example list which can be modified.

The final keep command removes obsolete components commonly supplemented with a modern installation of Nekoware or some other distribution.

Now, load the resulting file (with modifications as needed) like this:
admin source 192.168.1.7:/netboot/6.5.30/fuel.install

After the file runs, check for conflicts with "conflicts". Assuming the version of the file created above has a similar set of commands, it should not be the case. If there's no conflicts, proceed with "go". Once installed, type "quit" and reboot into the newly installed IRIX instance.