Network Install NetBSD

This article describes installation of IRIX on an Indy, but it should work with slight modifications if applied to other systems. Refer to other installation guides for variance.

This guide should work with a NetBSD machine of any architecture. It has been tested on a Pentium II, Raspberry Pi, and a Power Macintosh.

Setup of the Host Server

First, install NetBSD onto the host server machine. Great guides already exist for this, so please refer to the NetBSD Handbook for more information.

Record the ip address and hostname of this machine. For the purposes of this article, the following will be used. Replace as needed:

• Hostname: yuuko
• Host IP: 172.16.0.123

The SGI workstation will need to be configured as well with a static ip and hostname. the
following will be used in this document:

• Hostname: mio
• Host IP: 172.16.0.234

This setup requires no additional packages, so pkgsrc and/or pkgin is not necessary.

The following changes must be made to the system:

The IRIX installation program requires /bin/sh on your host server to accept ksh syntax.
Replacing /bin/sh with the system ksh does not cause any notable problems and satisfies IRIX's requirements.

The IRIX installation program requires that both the host and target hostnames resolve to their network ip address on the host system.

# mkdir -p /srv/irix/i/22

This creates the directory structure where installation files will be placed.

# useradd -d /srv/irix/i irix

This adds a new user, irix, which the IRIX installer will use to log in and access installation files. This user's home directory is set to the /srv/irix/i folder, under which the installation files will be placed.

Configuring TFTP and RSH

rsh is a very insecure and exploitable service. One should not ever run an rlogin server on any machine that is publicly accessible, that contains sensitive data, or that is on a network that may expose it to attackers. Should someone throw caution to the wind and do it, you risk giving full access to the machine and any data it contains to anyone who asks nicely.

Open /etc/inetd.conf in an editor and find the following lines:

Uncomment both of them by removing the # from the beginning of the line. Then, change tftp's directory from /tftpboot to /srv/irix, so that it looks like this:
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/libexec/tftpd tftpd -l -s /srv/irix

And then, save the file, and restart inet: service inetd restart

Run the following command, replacing 'mio' with the SGI machine's hostname:
echo "mio +" > /root/.rhosts

This will enable the IRIX installer to log in as root on the server, which is required for the installer to work.
# echo "mio +" > /srv/irix/i/.rhosts

This is the same as above, but allowing for the 'irix' user.

Prepare the Installation Files

As with the other articles here, this assumes that one is grabbing them from the IRIXNet FTP, which has them in tarball, not EFS, format. An explanation of all of the URLs is coming soon.

• Foundation 1
• Foundation 2
• Development Foundation
• Development Libraries
• ONC3NFS

These should be extracted into /srv/irix/i/ resulting in the following directory structure, with each folder containing at minimum a "dist" subdirectory:

The next set of images is:

• Overlays 1 of 3
• Overlays 2 of 3
• Overlays 3 of 3
• Applications

And for IRIX 6.5.30 only:

• Complementary Applications

For IRIX 6.5.22, these should be extracted into /srv/irix/i/22 resulting in the following
directory structure:

If one is installing 6.5.30, extract into /srv/irix/i/30 instead.

It is also highly recommended to acquire the following distributions, both to ease the
installation process and to provide a better base on which to bootstrap more recent software
once your system is ready:

• Freeware 1 of 4
• Freeware 2 of 4
• Freeware 3 of 4
• Freeware 4 of 4

If acquired as tarballs, one can extract them normally.

If one wishes to install other software distributions such as the MIPSPro C Compiler and Compiler Execution Environment, Performance Co-Pilot, and so on, one can extract those now into /srv/irix/i/ as well.

Preparing the Target System

Power on the SGI, and press escape or click the button to stop the boot process and enter the maintenance menu. Press '5' or 'enter command monitor', and do the following:

This will clear your existing nvram variables, set the machine's ip address, and set the ip address that it will use to contact the host server.

Next, format the drive:

>> bootp()i/22/overlay1/stand/fx.ARCS

This will bring you into the partitioner. It will ask if one requires extended mode. Answer "no". Use the default values for device name, controller, and drive, unless there's a specific target to install to. And then type the following:

This will tell it to repartition the drive with a root partitioning layout, and accept the default filesystem choice of XFS.

Type 'yes' when it prompts in order to erase the drive.

Then:

This will synchronize the disk label .

Then type the following to exit:
fx> exit

Boot the Installer

Exit from the command monitor by typing exit, and then choose the menu option on screen labeled as Install System Software. Choose "remote directory" and enter the IP address of the server (in this case, 172.16.0.123) and press accept.

For the remote directory, enter 'i/22/overlay1/dist", and press accept, then press install.

This should begin copying installation files to the machine's drive, and then launch into the IRIX installation environment.
On boot, the system will complain about not having a valid filesystem, and ask to create a new one
on /dev/dsk/realroot. Type 'yes' here. It will ask for a block size. If the drive is under 10G, use 512, otherwise, 4096 is a good choice.

Enter the hostname and address of the new machine (in this case, mio and 172.16.0.234) when prompted. Tt will also prompt you for a netmask. On most home networks this should be 0xffffff00, but one will want to double check to be sure.

This should drop into an inst> prompt

Configure Distribution Sets

At the inst prompt, enter the following command:

inst> from yuuko:/srv/irix/i/22/overlay1/dist

This will set up the installation to pull from the foundation 1 distribution. It will ask now to select a maintenance or feature stream.

Next, open each distribution set that is intended to be installed. In total, one should have at minimum:

• f1
• f2
• devf
• devl
• 22/overlay1
• 22/overlay2
• 22/overlay3
• 22/apps

As well as (optionally):

• onc3nfs

It is imperative not to enter any additional sets such as the freeware distributions until after the
main installation.

Once all of the distributions have been entered, type "done" to return to the installation prompt.

Installing Software

Firstly, tell the installer to "keep" all packages, which resets the installer's packages to be installed:

inst> keep *

Then, select the standard meta-installation package:

inst> install standard

Once it is done, run the following to disable java packages that will cause installation
conflicts:
inst> keep java_* java2_* java3d*

Optionally, remove obsolete components rarely required:

inst> keep appletalk kerberos openssl openssh OpenOffice outbox sgi_apache ftn* gsview ghostscript sgitcl_eoe

These are, from left to right:
Appletalk, an old network protocol
Obsolete kerberos, OpenSSL, OpenSSH.
OpenOffice, pretty slow and useless due to its age.
Outbox, a dependency of OpenSSL and a security risk
sgi_apache, an ancient apache server, and a security risk.
ftn*, FORTRAN77/Fortran90 compilers, and not necessary for IRIX.
Ghostscript components
the installed SGI TCL, which conflicts with later TCLs introduced.

These are optional to remove, so mind the choices.

Once this is done, you should see no problems fromthe conflicts command:

At this point, start the install:
inst> go

That done, grab a cup of coffee, tea, herbal tea, or a bottle or can of beer, soda, seltzer etc. and wait a while.

Once it is completed, the installer will return to the inst prompt. At this point, you can open a new distribution with 'from' to install additional optional software. Otherwise, type 'quit', wait for rqsall to finish, and reboot.

Credits, Citations, and Thanks

Thank you to forum user "linear" for her guide that was really helpful in making this version. The original is here:

https://paste.sr.ht/~ky0ko/e4bbad9942fe3af5a6b63849baff40b16201a38c