SGI O2 installation problem (Technical)

niallb

Hi,
anyone out there with SGI experience?
I have an old O2 (R10k 175MHz 256M RAM)
which I've been trying to wake up.
Just before I got it, someone tried to install linux on it,
learning halfway through that this was not at the time possible.

I have a set of Irix Install and Overlay disks (6.5.13), but can't get them to reinstall.
I'm aware of the "Disable Sync Negotiation" jumper being possibly required.
Suspecting the disk might have been damaged (or rejumpered) I've tried
to install on 3 other disks as well with similar results.

When I reboot after running fx, my disk appears to shrink down to 16 blocks.
I get a "miniroot installation may have failed" type message, and the options
to reinstall, fix, or cancel. This also happens after choosing a(uto) in fx.
Reinstall fails, fix fails badly, and cancelling back to sash to run fx
shows me a tiny harddrive. repartitioning as default root drive complains
the drive is not big enough.

My sash is SGI Version 6.5 ARCS Jul 5, 2001 (32 Bit)
My fx.ARCS gives default filesystem type of xfs rather than efs,
though I doubt if that is a major problem - might be evidence of a mismatch.
Actually installing the miniroot and booting from it gives the below error report.
Running boot -f dksc(0,4,7)stand/ide.IP32 gives an almost identical error, as does the menu item (Run diagnostics).

Something's broken! I've been at this on and off for a few months now.
Any suggestions, or does anyone have an O2 to test my disks on? (I'm in Meath, near Dunshaughlin)
Anyone tried NetBSD on one recently?

Thanks,
NiallB

#Exception: <vector=UTLB Miss>
Status register: 0x34050082<CU1,CU0,FR,CH,DE,IPL=8,Kx,MODE=KERNEL>
Cause Register: 0x800c<CE=0,IP8,EXC=WMISS>
Exception PC: 0x80005be4, Exception RA: 0x80005ba0
exception, bad address: 0x72b80008
Saved user regs in hex (&gpda 0x81060768 &_regs 0x81060968):

arg: 81070000 0 b 8ffff31c
tmp: 81070000 8ffde8f0 8ffff2c8 810771c0 8fffefc0 810484d4 810484dc 31
sve: 81070000 3d498aa 0 460f892a 0 0 0 80ee80d5
t8 81070000 t9 0 at 0 v0 0 v1 0 k1 0
gp 81070000 fp 0 sp 0 ra 0

PANIC: Unexpected exception

[ Press reset or ENTER to restart. ]

Hecate

Yeah installing Irix is a pretty involved process alright, I managed to get it working on my o2 after following the instructions on this page:

http://futuretech.mirror.vuurwerk.net/6.5inst.html

niallb

Hi Hecate,
thanks for the input.

I've come across this page alright - good overview, but it glosses over the part I'm failing at in one sentence.
To quote the page...

The OS installation is done by a program called inst, which is on the CD entitled,
"IRIX 6.5 Installation Tools, June 1998".
This must be loaded and read first from miniroot.
Normally, one uses the fx and mkfs programs to prepare the disk ready for installation.

My problem is with the miniroot installation,
so I never gain access to the inst program.
I have access to fx, but never to mkfs.

Can you recall how that early section of your install went?
Did you set the partitions to use xfs or efs filesystem?
Did you get straight into inst, or did you find mkfs somewhere else?

Thanks,
NiallB