Thanks for the help. I'll start on it (hopefully) tomorrow or at the
latest this weekend. I am lucky that this system has two hard drives
already in it. I just have to make sure that the previous owner didn't
put /usr on the second partition or anything similar.
C
On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, Stephen Frost wrote:
> Okay, my suggestions:
>
> * Get a 2nd disk.
> * Use fx -x to set up the partitions on the 2nd disk, use fx -x to give
> yourself expert ability and adjust the partitions such that you
> have around a 10M volume header (it's useful later). Also, you need
> a minimum of 2 regular partitions.
> * Get a kernel like 'vmlinux-2.2.14-r4x00-cvs-INDY.ecoff'
> * Use 'dvhtool' to drop the kernel into the volume header on the 2nd
> disk. Something along these lines:
> dvhtool -v add vmlinux-2.2.14-r4x00-cvs-INDY.ecoff linux
> /dev/rdsk/dks0d2vh
> * Set up a dhcp server somewhere on the lan using something like this:
> ------------------------
> host test {
> hardware ethernet 03:00:23:0e:13:20;
> fixed-address 10.1.1.10;
> option host-name "test";
> option domain-name-servers 10.1.1.1;
> option broadcast-address 10.1.1.255;
> option routers 10.1.1.1;
> option root-path "/home/sgi-linux";
> }
> -------------------------
> * Grab the Debian-mips tarball
> * Set up an NFS server on the dhcp server to export '/home/sgi-linux'
> -------------------------
> /home/sgi-linux 10.1.1.10(ro,no_root_squash)
> -------------------------
> * Set up a TFTP server on the dhcp server serving up a useful kernel
> like 'vmlinux-2.2.14-r4x00-cvs-INDY.ecoff', your /etc/inetd.conf
> would look something like:
> -------------------------
> tftp dgram udp wait tftp /usr/sbin/tcpd
> /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftp
> -------------------------
> With 755 permission on /tftp and 644 permissions on the kernel in
> /tftp.
> * Remove the IRIX disk from the system
> * Change the SCSI ID of the other disk to '1'
> * Boot it up and hit 'Stop for maintenance' or whatever it is.
> * Select 'command prompt' or similar from the menu
> * Do 'unsetenv netaddr'
> * Now do: 'boot -f bootp()vmlinux-2.2.14-r4x00-cvs-INDY.ecoff
> init=/bin/sh'
> This should grab the kernel, boot the system and drop you at a prompt.
> * Now we have an interesting issue. df reports '/dev/sda1' as being the
> root device, except that it isn't really, your root is the NFS mount.
> The
> problem with this is that mke2fs won't let you create an ext2 filesystem
> on '/dev/sda1'. So, we get around this:
> # mke2fs /dev/sda2 # Need some play area, remember, root is ro
> # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt # Mount the play area
> # mknod /mnt/sda1 b 8 1 # Create our 'fake' sda1
> # mke2fs /mnt/sda1 # Create the filesystem on sda1
> # rm /mnt/sda1 # Don't need it any more
> # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt # Mount up what will be the real root
> # tar -clf - . | (cd /mnt && tar -xvpf -) # Copy over files
> # sync; sync; sync
> * Reboot the box (you may have to punch the reset button, it's recessed
> between the groves below the power switch)
> * Stop for maint. again, go to command-line
> * Run 'linux root=/dev/sda1' (Otherwise it'll try and use the NFS mount)
>
> This should boot you into Debian at least to play with.
> Couple notes:
> You don't *have* to go through the 'dvhtool' part if you
> don't want to, but if you don't you'll always be having to boot off of the
> network or have a efs partition on the disk that you can put the kernel on to
> and then boot to that. I'm hoping to at some point be able to figure out the
> format of that volume header and be able to write something like dvhtool to
> allow you to modify it.
> Be very careful with fx -x, obviously. You don't want to mess up your
> Irix install (well, probably not anyway). If you don't care about Irix and
> don't mind using the net boot stuff all the time and nuke Irix. At the
> moment
> I've got a pair of Indy's up, one in Irix and one in Debian that I'm playing
> with.
> I havn't found a compiler yet, though hopefully once I do I can get rid
> of having to stop and go into command-prompt mode and do 'linux
> root=/dev/sda1'.
> I havn't figured out how to get the prom to pass a parameter to the
> kernel by default. You can do 'setenv OSLoader linux', which will make it use
> the linux kernel by default, but 'setenv OSLoader linux root=/dev/sda1'
> doesn't
> work (it's too long to be saved in the prom).
> Anyhow, this is mostly off the top of my head, so read over it carefully
> and if you have questions/problems feel free to email me and I'll do what I
> can
> to help...
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
