Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

indy

Status
Not open for further replies.

pperk97

Technical User
Dec 6, 2002
2
US
i picked up a sgi indy and can't get it to boot.. i'm not very familiar w/ sgi systems.. it keeps repeating it doesn't know who i am.. figured it's looking for a network connect but then goes into standalone network mode and does a panic then double panic & stalls... says something about a heap error... any help & pointers would be great...
 
I would try to boot the system in single user mode (follow the instructions on screen after power on) and then check the configurations and settings.
Do you know the root password (if it exists)?
 
thanks for the info.. like i said i'm not familiar w/ irix, or unix much either.. some of these systems show up at the local recycle place and since i like to mess... i picked the "stop for diagnostics" and got that to come up.. i don't know the root password.. there's a pick for diagnostics, i ran that & it showed what looks like hardware info.. it has 6.5 installed, r5000 cpu, 512 cache, 128 ram (8 x 16mb), 2 scsi drives and 24 bit video.. the only software i have is a 5.2 install cd.. i have an external cd drive that should work... will i need to reload it..?? how do i get to single user mode..?? i seen it try that as it booted before..
thanks again
 
OK - as the system tries to boot up, it starts up the network script. During this phase, the script notices that the IP Address for IRIS is set at 192.168.1.2 - the default setting. Since this is factory set, the system assumes you have not set up your network yet. It disables the network information to avoid accidentally duplicating the address. It goes into "Stand Alone Mode". This is normal.

IRIXFAN recognized this and also noted that the system correctly booted to this point. He is suggesting that you bypass the network script completely by entering the Single mode. This requires a root password. Since the network is default, the root password has probably not been set. When prompted, just hit enter.

You were able to get to the PROM monitor by hitting the escape key (or using the mouse) when prompted to "stop for maintenance." You selected diagnostics - instead, choose the fifth choice: Enter Command Monitor. From the prompt, type in "single". A quick boot will be performed and you should get a prompt asking for your root password. If you succeed - collect any information you can.

uname -R (the Os is 6.5 but it will identify any overlays)
hinv -mv (you have and Indy R5000 but write it all down)
sysinfo (the first digits should match your serial number)
df -h (identifies attached disks and their capacity)

Check the contents of the SYSLOG looking for issues involving warnings and errors. The SYSLOG can be checked using the command: more /var/adm/SYSLOG. Now would also be a good time to check the crash logs. Change directories to /var/adm/crash and use the ls command to see if there are any files (panics should create crash logs). Look at the summary and fru (field replaceable units) files using the more command.

At this point I would be tempted to rebuild the kernel. If the software is corrupted, this would repair it. The command is: autoconfig -vf

Let's discuss the original issue. You said that as the system booted you would get first a panic screen and eventually the double panic screen. There are several levels of error in the IRIX OS. Usually they involve warnings similar to the default IP Adress. If the system detects a recoverable error it will warn about it in the SYSLOG and console. These may be similar to errors detected in SIMM 2 or SCSI bus resets.

A kernel panic occurs when IRIX detects an error that continued operation of the OS would lead to possible data corruption. A double panic occurs when the continued operation of the OS would result in data loss.

I would be suspicious of the second drive - with power unplugged, you may want to open the Indy (the black tab in the back)and disconnect the top drive - both power and SCSI cable.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top