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The Hard Hat 5.1 (Manhattan) version 5.1 Pre-release

for SGI Indy(tm)

Wednesday, July 15, 1998

You'd think we were kidding, but we're not. This is an almost complete port of Red Hat's Manhattan (5.1) distribution. The only significant thing it is missing is an X server, but that is under serious development now.

The hardware supported is generally any SGI Indy(tm).

These are instructions on how to get the unofficial port of the Hard Hat 5.1 (Manhattan) for SGI Indy's version 5.1 pre-release 1 running on your Indy/Challenge S. This is neither a product of Red Hat nor of SGI.

Stuff you'll need:

You are strongly encouraged to report problems and feedback back to Alex deVries.

Alright. Here's what you need to do to get this all running:

Server side

On your i386, setup the following:
  1. Setup tftp
    You need to have the following lines configured in your /etc/inetd.conf: 
    tftp    dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd \
						/usr/src/sgi/installfs/
bootps  dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/bootpd /etc/bootptab
    I'm using /usr/src/sgi/installfs for all my file placement. You can choose something else if you want. After changing that, restart inetd with something like /etc/rc.d/init.d/inetd restart.

  2. Setup bootp
    You need to setup your /etc/bootptab file to contain: 
    alex3:hd=/usr/src/sgi/installfs:\
               :rp=/usr/src/sgi/installfs:\
               :ht=ethernet:\
               :ha=080069088717:\
               :ip=140.244.9.208:\
               :bf=vmlinux:\
               :sm=255.255.255.0:\
               :to=7200:
    Here, alex3 is the name of the SGI host, 080069088717 is the mac address of the SGI which you'll have to get from IRIX, and 140.244.9.208 is the address of the SGI/Linux box. Modify to taste.

  3. Setup root NFS permissions
    Ensure that in your /etc/exports you have something like: 
    /usr/src/sgi/installfs 140.244.9.208(no_root_squash,rw)

  4. Copy all the files
    Take all the installation files from ftp://oss.sgi.com:/pub/linux/mips/redhat/hardhat-sgi-5.1.tar.gz and put them in /usr/src/sgi/installfs. Yes, you'll need to preserve permissions. (See also more information about mirrors on the Linux on SGI software page to save bandwidth where possible.)

Configure your disks

With IRIX tools, create an EFS partition on your Linux disk. Use command fx to do that. I recommend that you create the default "root" layout on the disk (provided you have the whole second disk for Linux). At this point, a swap partition won't be recognized. Yes, we're working on it. The installer does include fdisk, although it is untested.

Start the install

Alright. This is the fun part. Assuming all your bootp/tftp/nfs root stuff is working properly, you should be able to just go into the command monitor (boot manager) and go: 
boot bootp():/vmlinux
You should see the kernel load, and install should run. It might happen that you need to run bootp from different machine than where you have the nfs root filesystem. You can do that by booting vmlinux from the bootp while specifying different root like 
boot bootp():/vmlinux nfsroot=1.2.3.4:/export/sgi/installfs
The problems with either bootp or tftp can be traced using the tcpdump(8) program on the server machine or on machine that is on the same hub.

The actual install

Just go through the dialog boxes. A few notes:

Configure your kernel

Boot in IRIX, then copy over vmlinux which is in /usr/src/sgi/installfs/vmlinux to the / of your IRIX filesystem. Then, from within the boot manager, you should be able to boot with: 
boot vmlinux root=/dev/sdb1
Presto!

Last, but not least

Let us know if it worked!

Alex deVries

Updating the installation

After you have installed your Hard Hat, you might want to spend another minute to install recommended updates. These fix minor problems that were found after the big tar.gz was released.

You can update your system by doing: 

rpm -Uvh ftp://oss.sgi.com/pub/redhat/updates/hardhat-5.1/portmap-4.0-12.mipseb.rpm
rpm -Uvh ftp://oss.sgi.com/pub/redhat/updates/hardhat-5.1/rpm-2.5.2-3.mipseb.rpm
rpm -Uvh ftp://oss.sgi.com/pub/redhat/updates/hardhat-5.1/rpm-devel-2.5.2-3.mipseb.rpm
where you might of course use address of your closest SGI/Linux mirror. There might be some more updates coming later, so please check the list of them.

RPM has been updated to have a correct rpmrc so it will install .noarch.rpm files without having to use the --ignorearch flag. Portmap has been installed in order to run at an earlier stage on bootup so that NFS server loads properly.

If you are successful in installing and running your Indy, you might also consider checking the RPM database of packages available and also the list of packages that still need to be done.

Saving keystrokes when booting Linux

Tip from Leon Verrall

Instead of typing 

boot bootp():vmlinux nfsroot=/scratch/linux/installfs etc. etc.
everytime to boot, on an SGI machine use: 
setenv -p linux "a_very_long_command_its_a_pain_to_keep_typing"
and boot the machine with 
$linux
at the console prompt.

Running Linux on Challenge S

Notes from Richard Hartensveld

Hook-up a terminal to the serial port, link /dev/console to /dev/ttyS1 on your NFS root. Don't forget to change setup-1.9.1-2.noarch.rpm to add some securetty's so that you can log in over the network as root.

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