CD Installation of IRIX

Note that CD Installation of IRIX requires good condition CDs, ideally originals, a CD drive in good mechanical condition, and if using burned CDs, a DAO (disc-at-once) CD burning program like ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP. For this reason, and the onerous task of disc swapping, we advise using a network install method. If insisting, check Burning EFS CDs for tips and tricks.

IRIX can be installed via a local CD drive. This tutorial covers IRIX 6.5.22, but other versions are broadly similar.

Required CDs

To successfully install IRIX 6.5.22 the following CDs are required:

IRIX 6.5.22 Overlays 1 through 3
IRIX 6.5 Foundation 1 and 2
IRIX 6.5.22 Applications November 2003
IRIX 6.5 Development Foundation 1.3
IRIX 6.5 Development Libraries

It would also be prudent to install:

ONC3/NFS (for NFS server support)
IRIX 6.5 Complimentary Applications November 2003

Partitioning

Boot up the system with Overlay 1 in drive, press ESC then enter the Command Monitor. Enter hinv if necessary to confirm the SCSI controller number and SCSI ID number of the CDROM. Enter the following command to boot from the CD (make sure the 'Installation Tools' CD is in the CDROM drive):

    boot -f dksc(X,Y,8)sashARCS dksc(X,Y,7)stand/fx.ARCS --x

where X is the SCSI controller number, and Y is the SCSI ID of the CDROM drive. According to the fx man page, the above command applies to systems with the 32bit ARCS PROM, namely Indigo, R4K Indigo2, Indy, Onyx, Challenge and O2.

For systems with the 64bit ARCS PROM - POWER Challenge, POWER Onyx, POWER Indigo2, Indigo2 10000, Origin, Onyx2, Octane, and all newer systems - use this command:

boot -f dksc(X,Y,8)sash64 dksc(X,Y,7)stand/fx.64 --x

although note that some systems may show the device as cdrom(x,y,z) rather than dksc(x,y,z).

boot -f cdrom(1,6,8)sash64 cdrom(1,6,7)stand/fx.64 --x

In some cases, often R4K IRIS Indigo for unknown reasons, one may have to boot in two stages, first into the sash and then into fx. Either way, just split the boot command sequence into two steps if required, eg. the typical sequence might be:

    boot -f dksc(X,Y,8)sashARCS
    boot -f dksc(X,Y,7)stand/fx.ARCS --x

Press enter until you see the main menu (Assuming that controller 0, ID 1 is the root disk). Enter 'r' for repartition, 'ro' for root drive option, press Enter to confirm XFS, enter 'yes' to confirm the request, '..' to change menus up one level, 'l' to create a new disk label, 'sy' to sync the disk (write out the new label), and finally '/exit' to quit fx.

Erasing Drive Data

Partitioning in SGI systems does not run format/mkfs. To do that, boot the miniroot by selecting option 2 and selecting the CD with Overlay 1 in the drive.

From the inst menu, hit 13 to enter admin mode, 11 to select mkfs, y to confirm, then .. to return. This will erase all data, and ensure the install won't fail from file conflicts.

Loading the CDs

Enter 1 at the inst prompt and then enter the following to read in the installation tools CD:

   /CDROM/dist

A description of the 6.5 installation script will appear. Read through, select f or m. The CD is read and then a prompt appears. After it reads the CD, eject, then insert the others. Note for onc3/nfs it's CDROM/dist6.5, not dist (some editions will be without the period in the file path.).

Read each CD in turn, using a checklist to verify that all CDs have been checked in.

Install Mode

To get a standard install without conflicts:

keep *
install standard
keep java_* java2_* java3d*

Optionally, remove obsolete components rarely required:

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

Then type

go

There should be no conflicts. Now follow the disc swapping prompts.

Once finished, reboot the installation as instructed by inst and it should reboot into the desktop of the new IRIX install.