Irix version for Indigo 2 Extreme
Roger Redman
This is probably a strange post, but I recently aquired an SGI Indigo 2 from
a company that went bankrupt. Looks like a great machine, but I cannot log
on because they never supplied me with a password for the root account, or
even any user names. I can get to the system diagnostics to find out exactly
what the machine has, but other than that, it is useless.
Is there any way to get in and find out or change the root password? If not,
can I install a fresh version of Irix and start from scratch? The problem
there is that I cannot find a copy of Irix anywhere. There are sometimes
Irix versions on Ebay, but the price keeps getting run up to over $100, and
I'm not sure I wanna spend that much if I'm not sure it's gonna fix my
problem.
One other thing, I read somewhere that an Indigo 2 with a 250Mhz processor
and 2MB secondary cache needs a specific version of Irix 6.2 to work. Is
this true, or can I install a newer version (say 6.5) and have it work?
Thanx for any help you guys can provide.
Roger
ro...@rahjnet.com
Walter Roberson
Roger Redman <ro...@rahjnet.com> wrote:
:Is there any way to get in and find out or change the root password?
FAQ, http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/
:One other thing, I read somewhere that an Indigo 2 with a 250Mhz processor
:and 2MB secondary cache needs a specific version of Irix 6.2 to work. Is
:this true, or can I install a newer version (say 6.5) and have it work?
The original Irix 6.2 will not work on that machine, but the newer
IRIX 6.2 will, as will any IRIX 6.5 (but not any IRIX 6.3 or IRIX 6.4).
Greg Douglas
Roger Redman wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> Is there any way to get in and find out or change the root password? If not,
> can I install a fresh version of Irix and start from scratch? The problem
> there is that I cannot find a copy of Irix anywhere. There are sometimes
> Irix versions on Ebay, but the price keeps getting run up to over $100, and
> I'm not sure I wanna spend that much if I'm not sure it's gonna fix my
> problem.
A complete set of Irix 6.5.x CDs (notice the "complete" part) will
definitely fix the problem you mentioned above, i.e. not being able to
log in or get the root password. You would also need a SCSI CDROM drive
and cable for the Indigo.
>
> One other thing, I read somewhere that an Indigo 2 with a 250Mhz processor
> and 2MB secondary cache needs a specific version of Irix 6.2 to work. Is
> this true, or can I install a newer version (say 6.5) and have it work?
6.5.x supports every Indigo, Indigo 2, and Indy ever made. And all
newer
systems as well.
--
Greg Douglas
http://www.reputable.com
Roger Redman
original system CD's. Can you point me to somewhere I can get a set of 6.5
CD's? I've tried Ebay, but I keep getting outbid.
Roger
Walter Roberson <robe...@ibd.nrc.ca> wrote in message
news:a1ahd4$k4v$1...@canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca...
Tony Mantler
<gdou...@reputable.com> wrote:
[...]
: 6.5.x supports every Indigo, Indigo 2, and Indy ever made. And all newer
: systems as well.
Except the R3000 Indigo, of course.
Cheers - Tony 'Nicoya' Mantler :)
--
Tony "Nicoya" Mantler - Renaissance Nerd Extraordinaire - nic...@apia.dhs.org
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -- http://nicoya.feline.pp.se/
Ralf Beyer
>
> Roger Redman wrote:
> >
> 6.5.x supports every Indigo, Indigo 2, and Indy ever made. And all
> newer systems as well.
>
> --
> Greg Douglas
> http://www.reputable.com
Great news: that's the first time I hear that 6.5.x supports
every Indigo ever made ;-)
Regards
Ralf Beyer
--
beyer.bra...@freenet.de
Greg Douglas
Tony Mantler wrote:
>
> In article <3C3934AC...@reputable.com>, Greg Douglas
> <gdou...@reputable.com> wrote:
>
> [...]
> : 6.5.x supports every Indigo, Indigo 2, and Indy ever made. And all newer
> : systems as well.
>
> Except the R3000 Indigo, of course.
Ooops. I forgot about those pesky R3Ks. Tony is right of course,
I stand corrected, should have read: "every R4K Indigo, and every
Indigo 2 and Indy...".
--
Greg Douglas
Reputable Systems
Randolph J. Herber
|Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 21:15:52 +0000 (GMT)
|From: Roger Redman <ro...@rahjnet.com>
|Subject: Irix version for Indigo 2 Extreme
|To: info-ir...@ARL.ARMY.MIL
|Hi all,
|This is probably a strange post, but I recently aquired an SGI Indigo 2 from
|a company that went bankrupt. Looks like a great machine, but I cannot log
|on because they never supplied me with a password for the root account, or
|even any user names. I can get to the system diagnostics to find out exactly
|what the machine has, but other than that, it is useless.
|Is there any way to get in and find out or change the root password? If not,
|can I install a fresh version of Irix and start from scratch? The problem
|there is that I cannot find a copy of Irix anywhere. There are sometimes
|Irix versions on Ebay, but the price keeps getting run up to over $100, and
|I'm not sure I wanna spend that much if I'm not sure it's gonna fix my
|problem.
|One other thing, I read somewhere that an Indigo 2 with a 250Mhz processor
|and 2MB secondary cache needs a specific version of Irix 6.2 to work. Is
|this true, or can I install a newer version (say 6.5) and have it work?
|Thanx for any help you guys can provide.
|Roger
|ro...@rahjnet.com
[Note: the following is a form letter response to a FAQ.]
If you have both a hardware (PROM) password and a system root password
that is unknown to you, then remove the system disk, install it on another
SGI system as a data disk, mount the system partition (usually 0) as some
directory (call it /mnt), edit /mnt/etc/passwd to remove the root password,
reinstall the system disk, boot, put a known password on root.
If another SGI can not be availed, then call SGI and get the method for
removing the PROM passwd by jumpering or battery removal according to
the type of your system.
Given that the PROM password is known or blank, bring the system up under
miniroot (a.k.a. Install System Software) by any means available, e.g.
local CDROM or remote directory, admin, shroot, setenv TERM iris-tp,
vi /etc/passwd to remove root password, exit, return, quit and reboot.
Given that the root password is known and the PROM passwd is unknown which
may be a result of doing the first case above, login as root, do:
nvram passwd_key ''
If both keys are known, then what's the problem. If unknown people may
have them, then I suggest changing them. The root password can be changed
with the passwd root command.
I suggest installing a PROM pasword key to make physical breakins harder.
This requires a system shutdown, entering the PROM monitor and doing a
passwd command there, followd by a system boot.
This URL also may help: http://www.mesa-sys.com/sgi/LostPassword.htm
Dick Snippe <di...@omroep.nl> suggests the following procedure:
"Use dvhtool on an SGI box (or my sgidisklabel.c on a linux box) to copy
a valid /etc/passwd into the volume header. Then move the disk back to
your [machine] and use sash to copy the passwd file from the volume
header to the filesystem."
Randolph J. Herber, her...@dcdrjh.fnal.gov, +1 630 840 2966, CD/CDFTF PK-149F,
Mail Stop 318, Fermilab, Kirk & Pine Rds., PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510-0500,
USA. (Speaking for myself and not for US, US DOE, FNAL nor URA.) (Product,
trade, or service marks herein belong to their respective owners.)
Ian Soboroff
> [Note: the following is a form letter response to a FAQ.]
>
> If you have both a hardware (PROM) password and a system root password
> that is unknown to you, then remove the system disk, install it on another
> SGI system as a data disk, mount the system partition (usually 0) as some
> directory (call it /mnt), edit /mnt/etc/passwd to remove the root password,
> reinstall the system disk, boot, put a known password on root.
>
> If another SGI can not be availed, then call SGI and get the method for
> removing the PROM passwd by jumpering or battery removal according to
> the type of your system.
alternatively, you can mount the disk on a Linux system with EFS or
XFS filesystem support. there may be other unices which support SGI
filesystems (*BSD?) as well. It Worked For Me (tm).
for the brave there's always editing the raw disk blocks, of course,
just add the extra bytes to the GECOS field ;-)
ian