When SGIs come to play

[Steve]

I think earlier you said that you had the Octane and the Pi on the same switch - I think from memory you don't do that. I think you're supposed to connect the Pi directly to the Octane.

https://github.com/unxmaal/booterizer#p ... structions

Connect your SGI system via ethernet to your Pi

Then once you've followed the Pi specific parts, you then move on to 'Booting':

https://github.com/unxmaal/booterizer#b ... booterizer

[rubber_jonnie]

I think earlier you said that you had the Octane and the Pi on the same switch - I think from memory you don't do that. I think you're supposed to connect the Pi directly to the Octane.

https://github.com/unxmaal/booterizer#p ... structions

Connect your SGI system via ethernet to your Pi

I tried it both ways and it still didn't work. If I can't build it with my battered old CD drive I may try again.

[Steve]

All I can think is you must have missed part of the configuration somehow... You gotta follow the Pi specific part, then go to the 'Booting' part.

[rubber_jonnie]

All I can think is you must have missed part of the configuration somehow... You gotta follow the Pi specific part, then go to the 'Booting' part.

Which is what I did, however I think what I need to try next is building an image specifically for my RPi in case it's different to the one in the original build. It should be trivial to do, but I don't have time tonight as it's my last Karate training of the year.

I might try if I'm not home too late, we'll see.

[rubber_jonnie]

So I've tried to build my own RPi image for Booterizer, but the Ansible part keeps failing. I've chased so many issues to try and get there, but I've just had enough of trying to make it work now.

So back to the traditional build it by CD version at the moment, but I may try Reanimator if I get nowhere.

I am beginning to wonder if my HDD is faulty as it's not mounting the mini root after the tools are installed...

[rubber_jonnie]

Ok, and no joy with the CD drive either. I can get to the point where the installer runs the partitioner, and then it should mount the mini root, but all that happens is it sits there resetting SCSI until it eventually gives me the inst prompt, but as soon as I try reading in the /CDROM/disc1 part, it does the timeout thing again.

I did try to build on my other chassis, but had the same results.

I did wonder if it was SCSI termination, as I seem to have lost some of my terminators, and it didn't work for either chassis and gave the same errors, plus I know the drive works fine in the currently working machine, as it mounts fine and can be used as extra storage.

So I think I'll give Reanimator a try, see if I have any more success than with Booterizer.

[rubber_jonnie]

Well, so far it looks like Reanimator is a winner. Booted fine and at the inst prompt already.

PXL_20221222_163036335.jpg

Lets see how much further I can get :)

[Steve]

Ah nice - I'll use Reanimator next time too. I remember the Booterizer instructions being a little obtuse and I got stuck many times too.

[rubber_jonnie]

Ah nice - I'll use Reanimator next time too. I remember the Booterizer instructions being a little obtuse and I got stuck many times too.

@WDB Good call with Reanimator!

@Steve It's definitely Reanimator all the way, I have a booting, running system:

PXL_20221223_091903098.jpg

The install took a couple of hours, but it worked straight out of the box with no problems and none of the problems I was having with Booterizer or the CD installation.

I'm sure if you can get it to work, Booterizer is fine, but even when I tried to build my own image following the instructions to the letter, I couldn't get Booterizer going.

Reanimator I just wrote the image to the SD card, followed the online instructions and off it went. Happy days, my previously dead Octane is now running just fine :)

[PhilC]

Talking about SGIs coming out to play I thought it’d be rude not to post a pic of the two Indigo 2s sat on the floor in the geek room.

2A323236-B649-4E8E-BA2E-D56D1ECCDA21.jpeg

The left one, an Impact 10000 was given to me by @Steve and wasn’t working but now is. The right one is an XZ with 384mb ram, 200mhz and was one I bought off of eBay to help me fix up the Impact.

So I did a bit of dry joint fixing in the PSU of the impact and took everything apart and reseated it and then put it back together.

Now what I’d planned to do was to get the scope out etc and see what voltages the XZ had on it during standby and then work through the PSU on the Impact and get that working.

Surprisingly the Impact went and booted up!

Anyway, I just need to get a 50pin SCSI HDD sorted for the impact and then it should be fully functional.