[geeks] IRIX install thoughts and questions

[Kurt Huhn]

William Barnett-Lewis <wlewis at mailbag.com> wrote:

> In my continuing quest to turn this Indigo2 into a productive
> workstation, I have gotten a copy of Irix - 6.5.1 with the 6.5.14
> update. I successfully installed 6.5.1 onto a 2 gb disk with 256 mb as
> swap as the original 128 mb caused an out of swap barf during the first
> install attempt. It's set up as XFS with 512k blocks. With Dev
> Foundation, Dev Libs, NFS, and Freeware installed this leaves me with
> 320k free. 

Sounds about right.  A full install of Irix 6.5.x is a serious space hog. 
I'm actually very surprised that you got it onto 2GB at all.  My 9GB drive
in my Octane is seriously cramped for space with some freeware installed and
a typical homedir.

> 
> Somethougts - Irix doesn't set the root password on install???? 
> 

You need to complete the setup by logging in to the ezsetup account.

> And that is one wierd installer. IIUC the things I read on the net, this
> is an _improvement_ over earlier IRIX installers??? Eeekkk!!! 
> 

Some people really dislike the installer - I actually like it that way. 
It's a refreshing change from other installers.

> Is there a cdrom automounter running - ie is /usr/etc/mediad (for ex or
> is it something else?) like vold under solaris?  
> 

Yes.

> How do I get emacs to be happy on a serial console? The usual tricks are
> not working tonight, though it may be the VT100 emulation of my Ampex
> VT220 clone. The disk grinds forever and then nothing appears to happen,
> however once the disk stops spazing, ^X^C gets me back to a prompt as it
> should. I have not been brave enough to play with ^z yet... :'>
> 

Can't help you there - I don't use emacs.

> One other thing, how do I tell how much disk I need for an update? The
> 6.5.14 update just failed because I was 300k short on the root
> partition. Obviously I can whack something, but I do need an idea of
> where to begin. The original install was pure defaults and I did not see
> (which is not to say it wasn't there) anything in the relnotes.
> 

When you attempt to load the update, inst (or swmgr) will tell you how much
free space you'll need.  Of course, this all depends on what you already
have installed, what you want to install, and what you're going to update. 
These are cumulative updates, not incremental, so the more stuff you have
installed to begin with, the more free space you're going to need in order
to install all the updates.

> One last bit, is there a good web site that talks of whatever
> differences there are between admining "average" unix and Irix?
> 

As with any UNIX, Irix is just slightly different.  It's really not all that
hard to figure out.  If you can figure out the differences between Linux and
Solaris you're all set.  I really don't know of any Irix -> UNIX
translators, most of what you need to know can be found by poking around in
/etc.

-- 
Kurt                 "I am not aware that any community has a right to 
kurt at k-huhn.com       force another to be civilized." 
                                                   --John Stuart Mill