This chapter shows you how to install software products that you received from Silicon Graphics, Inc. To install products from other vendors, please see the software installation instructions that accompany the products.
You can install software from a CD-ROM drive that's connected either to your own system or to another Silicon Graphics system on your network. Only the administrator can install or remove software if there is a password on the Administrator account.
If you need advanced information on software installation or troubleshooting, please order the comprehensive IRIS Software Installation Guide from your local service provider.
The administrator can install a new version of the IRIX operating system by following these steps:
Make a full system backup; For more information, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Backing Up and Restoring Files” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
If you do not have a CD drive connected directly to your system, find a CD drive on your network.
Choose “Disk Drives” from the Find toolchest.
In the Search window, choose “Type” from the Match menu, and choose “CD-ROM” from the menu button next to whose type is. See the online help in the Search window for details.
Click the Search button to find the drive.
When the drive's icon appears, it is labeled systemname:cdrom. systemname is the name of the system to which the drive is connected.
Note: If the search does not find a device that you know is available, choose “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and see “Troubleshooting Network Errors” in the online Personal System Administration Guide. Contact the administrator of the system to which the drive is connected, and make sure remote installations are allowed from that CD drive. For more information, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Allowing Remote Users to Install Software From Your CD Drive” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
Insert the CD into the drive you are going to use.
Check the full pathname of the drive.
If you're using a drive that's connected to your own system, double-click the drive's icon. The title bar shows the full pathname (for example, /CDROM); write down the pathname.
If you're using a remote drive, double-click its icon. A window appears in which the field labeled “Open Remote Directory” shows the full pathname of the CDROM directory (for example, /CDROM).Write down the full name, then click the Cancel button to close this window.
Read and, if you like, print all or part of the online release notes.
If you're using a drive that's connected to your own system, double-click the drive's icon, then, in the directory view window that appears, double-click the CDgrelnotes icon to view the release notes. To print all or part of the release notes, choose “Print” from the File menu.
If you're using a remote drive, double-click its icon. In the Open Remote Directory window, click the OK button, then, in the directory view window that appears, double-click the CDgrelnotes icon to view the release notes. To print all or part of the release notes, choose “Print” from the File menu.
Shut down the system, restart it, and start the software installation tool.
Choose “System Shutdown” from the System toolchest.
You see a dialogue box that says System is Shutting Down.
When you see a dialogue box that says Okay to power off, click the Restart button.
When you see a dialogue box that says Starting up the system, click the Stop for Maintenance button. You see a list of six icons.
Click the icon labeled Install System Software.
Specify the location of the new software to install.
If the CD is in a drive connected to your system, click the Local CD-ROM icon. When the notifier appears asking you to insert the CD, insert the it in the drive, and click Continue.
If the CD is in a drive that's connected to another system on the network, click the Remote Directory icon. When a notifier appears asking you for the remote hostname, type the system's name, a colon (:), and the full pathname of the CD, and add /dist to the end. For example, to access a CD-ROM on the system mars, type:
mars:/CDROM/dist
When the notifier appears asking you to insert the CD, click Continue.
Note: If you see error messages after you insert the CD and click the Continue button, see “System Cannot Find the New Software”.
When the system finds the software, it takes several minutes to copy the software installation tools onto your system. The system is ready to install software when you see the inst menu:
1. from [source] 2. list [keywords] [names] 3. go 4. install [keywords] [names] 5. remove [keywords] [names] 6. keep [keywords] [names] 7. step [keywords] [names] 8. versions [args] 9. help [topic] 10. admin 11. quit Inst>
Install all or some of the subsystems that make up the operating system.
To install all of the default subsystems, type:
go
To install all optional and required subsystems that are available on the CD, type:
install all
go
Note: Usually you do not want to install all subsystems, as they occupy a very large amount of disk space. See the online release notes for product sizes. To select only required subsystems or to select all required subsystems plus some optional subsystems, see “Choosing Subsystems to Install or Remove”.
If you see an error message that says the system cannot find the software, see “System Cannot Find the New Software”. If you see any other messages, see “System Cannot Complete an Installation”. The installation is complete when you see this message:
Installation and/or removal succeeded. You can insert another tape or CD-ROM now. Type “quit” if you are ready to leave the inst tool Inst>
Remove the CD. If you have another CD from which you want to install an optional product, insert the CD, and go back to step 7.
When all the software is installed, type:
quit
You may see several messages as inst communicates your changes to the operating system, and configures the new kernel.
The software is successfully installed and your system is ready to restart when you see this message:
Ready to restart the system. Restart? [y, n]
Type y then press <Enter>.
If you see a different message or question, see “System Reports Errors After an Installation”.
The system starts up as usual.
When the login window appears, log in to your own account.
See your Release Notes by choosing “Release Notes” from the Help toolchest, then by choosing products from the Products menu.
The Release Notes for each product list the directories where applications are stored on your disk so you can drag icons onto your desktop or onto a particular page of the Icon Catalog. The Release Notes also cover new features and known problems with the product.
Before you install a new product, check its Release Notes (see step 5 below for details) for this information:
The version of the operating system (IRIX) that must be running in order for this product to run.
A list of prerequisite products or subsystems (smaller parts of the products) that must be installed before you install the new product.
A list that shows which subsystems are optional, which are required for product operation, and how much disk space each subsystem uses.
An indication of whether you can use the instructions in this section to install the software while the system is up and running (an IRIX install) or whether you need to install the product while the system is running on a limited version of the operating system (a miniroot install). If the product requires a miniroot installation, follow the steps in “Installing a New Version of the Operating System Software”.
To make sure your system is ready for the new software, follow these steps:
Check which version of the operating system your system is running by choosing “System Manager” from the System toolchest.
The System Manager window shows the operating system version just to the left of the system's model name.
Check whether required subsystems are already installed by choosing “Show Installed” from the Software menu in the System Manager window; press the <Space Bar> to page through the listing.
Check whether you have enough disk space by choosing “Disk Manager” from the System toolchest.
If you do not have enough space to install the entire product but you do have enough for the required subsystems, during installation you can choose to install only required subsystems. To free up disk space by removing or archiving old or unneeded files, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Freeing Up Disk Space” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
If you do not have a CD drive connected directly to your system, find a CD drive on your network.
Choose “Disk Drives” from the Find toolchest.
In the Search window, choose “Type” from the Match menu, and choose “CD-ROM” from the menu button next to whose type is. See the online help in the Search window for details.
Click the Search button to find the drive.
When the drive's icon appears, it is labeled systemname:cdrom systemname is the name of the system to which the drive is connected.
Note: If the search does not find a device that you know is available, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Troubleshooting Network Errors” in the online Personal System Administration Guide. Contact the administrator of the system to which the drive is connected, and make sure remote installations are allowed from that CD drive. For more information, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Allowing Remote Users to Install Software From Your CD Drive” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
Read and, if you like, print all or part of the online release notes.
If you're using a drive that's connected to your own system, double-click the drive's icon, then, in the directory view window that appears, double-click the CDgrelnotes icon to view the release notes. To print all or part of the release notes, choose “Print” from the File menu.
If you're using a remote drive, double-click its icon. In the Open Remote Directory window, click the OK button, then, in the directory view window that appears, double-click the CDgrelnotes icon to view the release notes. To print all or part of the release notes, choose “Print” from the File menu.
To install the product, follow these steps:
Insert the CD into the drive that's connected to your system, or the network drive that you found earlier.
Check the full pathname of the drive.
If you're using a drive that's connected to your own system, double-click the drive's icon. The title bar shows the full pathname (for example, /CDROM); write down the pathname.
If you're using a remote drive, double-click its icon. A window appears in which the field labeled “Open Remote Directory” shows the full pathname of the CDROM directory (for example, /CDROM).Write down the full name, then click the Cancel button to close this window.
Start the software installation tool by choosing “Software Manager” from the System toolchest.
A text window with a menu appears. Check the top line:
Default location of new software is: source
source is the location of the drive in which you placed the CD, followed by dist (the name of the directory on the CD that contains the software). Usually source is either:
/CDROM/dist
CD in a local drivehost:/CDROM/dist
CD in a drive connected to hostIf the location shown in the top line is correct, go on to step 5.
If the pathname for the CD drive that you found earlier is not /CDROM, you need to specify its pathname. For example, if the pathname is /drives/cdrom on a system named mars, you would type:
from mars:/drives/cdrom/dist
Install all or some of the subsystems of this product:
To install all of the default subsystems, type:
go
To install all optional and required subsystems on the CD, type:
install all
go
Note: Usually you do not want to install all subsystems, as they occupy a very large amount of disk space. See the online release notes for product sizes. To select only required subsystems or to select all required subsystems plus some optional subsystems, see “Choosing Subsystems to Install or Remove”.
If you see an error message that says the system cannot find the software, see “System Cannot Find the New Software”.
If you see any other messages, see “System Cannot Complete an Installation”. The installation is complete when you see this message:
Installation and/or removal succeeded. You can insert another tape or CD-ROM now. Type “quit” if you are ready to leave the inst tool Inst>
Remove the CD. If you have another CD from which you want to install another product, insert the CD, and go back to step 4.
When all the software is installed, type:
quit
The installation is complete when the Software Manager window disappears. If it does not disappear, and you see an error message, see “System Reports Errors After an Installation”.
See your Release Notes for the product by choosing “Release Notes” from the Help toolchest, then by choosing your product from the Products menu.
The Release Notes tell you where the application is stored on your disk so you can drag its icon onto your desktop or onto a particular page of the Icon Catalog. They also cover new features and known problems with the product.
When you are running inst, you can see all the subsystems that make up the products, and check whether they have been selected for installation by typing:
list
You see one or more screenfuls of information.
To see the next screen, press the <spacebar>.
To stop the listing, press <q>; you see the Inst> prompt.
To see the inst menu again, press <?>.
list displays a key to the listing, followed by the list of available subsystems. The first two columns of the listing show:
whether the available (usually newer) version of a subsystem is selected for installation (i) or is not selected (k)
Note: If you have a version of a subsystem already installed and you would like to remove it while other software is being installed, you can select it for removal (r). See also “Removing Optional Software”. whether you have already installed an older (X), newer (N), or identical (I) version of a particular subsystem
Here are some samples of the first three columns of subsystem listings:
| i X nfs.sw.nis |
| |
| k I pfa.sw.lib |
| |
| k N insight.sw.client |
| |
| i dmedia_tools.sw.soundtools |
| |
| systour.sw.eoe |
|
The other columns of the listing show:
the name of the subsystem
if the subsystem is required for system operation (+), is selected as a default subsystem by the manufacturer (*), and/or must be installed when the system is running the miniroot (@)
Note: Most software that is required for system operation must be installed from the miniroot, as well as some optional products. The steps in “Installing a New Version of the Operating System Software” detail a miniroot installation. how much additional disk space (in blocks, where 1 KB = 2 blocks) the subsystem will occupy (a positive number such as +100 shows that it will take an additional 50 KB, while a negative number such as -60 shows that the new version of the subsystem is smaller than the old version and will free 30 KB)
a brief description of the subsystem
At the end of the listing, inst shows whether you have enough disk space to install all the subsystems that are selected for installation, including temporary overhead needed for the installation process. For more information on the products and subsystems, see the product's release notes.
You can change which subsystems are selected for installation in these ways:
To select a subsystem for installation, type:
install subsystem
For example, when a new version of a product is available and you have an older version installed, list shows you this information:
X dmedia_tools.sw.soundtools X dmedia_tools.sw.movietools X dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
To select one subsystem for installation, type:
install dmedia_tools.sw.soundtools
To select all subsystems of the product for installation, type:
install dmedia_tools
list then shows this information:
i X dmedia_tools.sw.soundtools i X dmedia_tools.sw.movietools i X dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
To prevent a new subsystem or a different version of an existing subsystem from being installed, type:
keep subsystem
For example, when a large, new subsystem that you do not want to install is selected for installation, list shows this information:
i dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
To prevent inst from installing it, type:
keep dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
list then shows this information:
dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
To remove a subsystem that is currently installed, and to prevent a new version from being installed in its place, type:
remove <subsystem>
For example, when a subsystem is already installed and a newer version is available, list shows this information:
i X dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
To remove the current version and prevent inst from installing the new version, type:
remove dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
list then shows this information:
r X dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
When you have made your choices, start the installation. At the Inst> prompt, type:
go
This section covers the three most common problems that may arise during software installation. See the section that describes the problem you have encountered.
For comprehensive troubleshooting information, please order the IRIS Software Installation Guide from your local support organization.
The system cannot find the software when:
There is no CD in a drive that you specified.
The remote CD drive that you specified is not enabled for remote software installation. Contact the administrator of the system to which the drive is connected, and make sure remote installations are allowed from that CD drive. For more information, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Allowing Remote Users to Install Software From Your CD Drive” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
Your system cannot contact the system on the network that has the software. Select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest and search for “Troubleshooting General Network Errors” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
You entered an incorrect directory name.
This typically happens when you are installing from a remote CD drive, and the drive is not accessible from (is not mounted at) the /CDROM directory. Choose “Disk Drives” from the Find toolchest to find the drive, insert the CD into the drive, then double-click it to see the directory from which you can access it.
Also, be sure to complete the full pathname with dist, which is the name of the directory on the CD in which the software is stored. For example, the full pathname for new software on a CD whose pathname is /drives/cdrom on a system named mars is mars:/drives/cdrom/dist
Typically the system cannot complete an installation when:
There is not enough disk space to install all the products you selected for installation. In this case, you could:
Select fewer subsystems to install (see “Choosing Subsystems to Install or Remove”).
Remove subsystems that are already installed (see “Removing Optional Software”).
If your system is up and running (that is, if it is not doing a miniroot installation such as installing new system software), quit the Software Manager (inst) and remove or archive files or directories. For more information, select “On-line Books” from the Help toolchest, and see “Freeing Up Disk Space” in the online Personal System Administration Guide.
You need to install companion or prerequisite subsystems. In this case, you see an error message about “Incompatible Subsystem.”
Check the Release Notes for the products, and see “Choosing Subsystems to Install or Remove” to choose the correct combination of subsystems.
During optional product installation, the version of the operating system cannot support the product. In this case, you need to install a new version of the operating system, then install the optional product. See “Installing a New Version of the Operating System Software”.
If the system reports errors after an installation is complete, read the error message carefully, and follow its instructions. The message suggests that you type help <topic> for online instructions.
 | Warning: If the errors occur after you install new system software, do not turn off the system or press the Reset button. This could result in a system that cannot restart. |
If you cannot solve the problem using the online help, contact your local support organization.
When your system starts getting low on disk space, you may want to review the software products and the subsystems of these products. You may no longer need certain products, or you may discover that some products include large, optional subsystems that you can remove without removing the core product.
The administrator can remove software by following these steps:
Start the software installation tool by choosing “Software Manager” from the System toolchest.
A text window with a menu appears. At the Inst> prompt at the bottom of the window, type:
versions
You see a list of all software products that are installed.
Check the list for products that you do not need, or for subsystems of products that have data or movies in their names. Then check the Release Notes for these products to find out which subsystems are optional and which are required, and to find out how large the subsystems are.
To check the Release Notes, choose “Release Notes” from the Help toolchest, and choose the product from the Products menu.
Remove an entire product or a specific subsystem.
To remove an entire product, such as the Digital Media Tools, type:
versions remove dmedia_tools
To remove a specific subsystem, such as the large, optional sound samples that accompany the Digital Media Tools, type:
versions remove dmedia_tools.data.prosonus
When you are done removing software, type:
quit
The software installation window disappears.