[SunRescue] Continuing foibles of Tim and SGI

[TimHarrisonharrison at timharrison.com]

Mark Davies wrote:

> If you've just ftp a file to IRIX 5.2 then the file is stored in a EFS
> system state. Am I right so far?

The file is an ISO of the IRIX installation CD.  I don't have a Sun/SGI
bootable CD-ROM to install off of.  I've got IRIX 5.3 on CD (5 CDs worth
of stuff, including NFS, IRIS development option, etc), and IRIX 6.5 as
an ISO.

So, as I have no external CD-ROM, I wanted to mount the ISO file on the
Indigo, and install the Indy from that mounted ISO.  Now, under Linux,
you can mount an ISO (I don't mean a CD-ROM that's of the ISO9660
filesystem, I mean the actual "operating_system.iso" file) through the
/dev/loop0 device.  The system thinks that you're mounting a block
device (like a CD-ROM, hard drive, etc), and allows you to mount the ISO
image as if it were a CD-ROM.

However, I can't find a way to do this on IRIX 5.2 (which is the OS
version running on the Indigo).  There doesn't seem to be anything
similar to the /dev/loop0 device under Linux.  So, if I try to mount the
640M irix_install.iso file, it won't do it, because the file isn't
associated with a block device.  

So, I've got the installation CD stuck inside this .iso file, and a box
to install, and no way to mount the .iso file onto the EFS filesystem.
 
> These are just ideas atm, because I'm not fully understanding were you
> are at. But I will say that, if you've copied the files to the INDIGO,
> then the filesystem is already mounted (on the INDIGO) if you are trying
> to mount the filesystem on the INDY to install... well.. it just doesn't
> work like that. You don't need to mount. boot will do it for you.

It's not a matter of copying the installation files.  The installation
files are nicely wrapped up into an ISO image of the installation CD. 
Hence, my inability to get to them.  If I could mount the ISO file, I'd
be able to install without a problem.
 
> Sorry if I've not understood you Tim and wasted your time etc, but I'm
> willing to help you, but you'll have to explain in detail what you have
> done etc...  Maybe the Atalnatic ocean is causing some dumbness on my
> side.

Nah, my family's English, so I can verify there isn't any dumbness being
caused by the ocean. :)

I don't know if I can make my problem any clearer, though.  I could burn
the iso to a CD, but then I'm still stuck with the same problem:  no
Sun/SGI bootable CD-ROM drive. 

Of course, the easy answer is to go out and buy a Sun/SGI bootable
CD-ROM drive.  We did, off of eBay, but the losers seem to have taken
our money, and vanished. :/  I guess that's bound to happen with eBay
sooner or later.  Everywhere you might find one in Canada, you'll be
paying ridiculous amounts of money.  I'm trying to find someone around
here who has one, or a place where I can get one cheap.  Not going well,
that.

Anyone wanna sell me a nice CD-ROM drive for USD$40 (shipping included),
and willing to ship to Canada? ;)

-- 


Tim Harrison
Network Engineer
harrison at timharrison.com
http://www.networklevel.com/