How to install Debian GNU/Linux on Indy (MIPS)

Update
2007-07-15: Matthew Delacruz let me know the tftpboot.img was missing. Link now points to woody(!) at archive.debian.org. (But just maybe netboot-boot.img from etch would work as a drop in? Would have to insert `filename "/tftpboot/netboot-boot.img";` in `/etc/dhcpd.conf` I guess.)
2005-05-22: I've got this email from Shaun Prince: "I have tried your excellent how-to, however, failed to install woody on my SGI Indy. I have created a how-to for installing Debian 'sarge' on my Indy. I have it posted here: http://techfusion.ca/read.php?4,36 "

Content
Preparations The MAC-address of your Indy The dhcp-server The tftp-server The tftpboot.img Last preparations Installation Partition your harddisk Make the disklabel Calculate boundaries Make the partitions Example Making it boot Links

I've got an Indy with Irix installed. I want to delete everything and install Linux.

This is my notes for the process. I've highlighted input, filenames and output.

Preparations

What you need: the MAC-address of your Indy, a dhcp-server, a tftp-server, the tftpboot.img and Internet access.

The MAC-address of your Indy

Boot the Indy
Abort the boot into maintenance
Enter command monitor, and:

printenv

Now you will see the MAC-address (eaddr) to insert into the /etc/dhcp.conf below.

The dhcp-server

To make the dhcp-server work you need a kernel with CONFIG_PACKET and CONFIG_FILTER configured in.

Install the software: apt-get install dhcp

Edit /etc/dhcp.conf:

# dhcpd.conf

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {}

# Entry for the Indy!

host indy {
   hardware ethernet 08:00:69:08:5a:af;
   fixed-address 192.168.0.2;
   option host-name "indy";
   option domain-name-servers 213.178.66.2;
   option routers 192.168.0.1;
   filename "/tftpboot/tftpboot.img";
}

Restart the server: /etc/init.d/dhcp restart
Check /var/log/daemon.log for errors

The tftp-server

Install the software: apt-get install tftpd

Edit /etc/inetd.conf:

tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftpboot

Reload the server: /etc/init.d/inetd reload

Note: If your tcpd is to restrictive then you have to loosen up /etc/hosts.allow (see man hosts.allow).

The tftpboot.img

Create /tftpboot/
Download tftpboot.img into /tftpboot/
Make sure it is world-readable: chmod o+r /tftpboot/tftpboot.img

Last preparations

The PROM of the Indy don't handle source ports over 32767. So we have to:

echo "2048 32767" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range

The same PROM also has problem with MTU discovery. So go on and:

echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_no_pmtu_disc

Installation

Boot the Indy
Abort the boot into maintenance
Enter command monitor, and:

unsetenv netaddr
bootp(): root=/dev/ram0

Follow the instructions

If you: tail /var/log/daemon.log , you should see: tftpd: trying to get file: /tftboot/tftboot.img

Partition your harddisk

I assume that you intend to use the whole disk for Linux.

Make the disklabel

Use fdisk /dev/sda

Enter expert mode: x
Make disklabel: g
Leave expert mode: r

If entering expert mode doesn't work:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda count=1 bs=512

and try again.

Calculate boundaries

Still inside fdisk

Check the size of a cylinder: p

Then calculate/note:

cs: the size (in MB) of a cylinder
lc: the last cylinder

If we want 50MB for volume header (where the kernels are stored for booting), 128MB for swap and the rest for Linux, then we have:

Start of	volume header		= 0
End of	volume header:	ev	= 50 / cs
Start of	Linux swap:	ss	= lc - 128/cs
End of	Linux swap:	es	= lc
Start of	Linux native:	sn	= ev + 1
End of	Linux native:	en	= ss - 1

Make the partitions

Still inside fdisk.

For each dash, "-", hit instead the enter key.

First we delete, d (just to be sure), then we create, n. Let's go.

Make the Linux partition: d - 1 - n - 1 - sn - en
Make the volume header: d - 9 - n - 9 - 0 - ev
Make the swap partition: d - 2 - n - 2 - ss - es - t - 2 - 82
Write the table to disk: w

Example

Disk /dev/sda (SGI disk label): 67 heads, 62 sectors, 1010 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4154 * 512 bytes

----- partitions -----
Pt# Device Info Start End Sectors Id System
1: /dev/sda1 boot 75 950 3638904 83 Linux native
2: /dev/sda2 swap 951 1009 245086 82 Linux swap
9: /dev/sda3 0 74 311550 0 SGI volhdr
11: /dev/sda4 0 1009 4195540 6 SGI volume
----- Bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- Directory Entries -----
0: linux sector 4 size 1867984

Making it boot

In the PROM-monitor:

        setenv OSLoader linux
        setenv SystemPartition scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(8)
        setenv OSLoadPartition /dev/sda1

Notes

Snippets of text that may come in handy.

X

>3) by default devices for bus mice were not created which meant the X
>server would not start.

yes .. that's right .. you have to create /dev/psaux with MAKEDEV ...

(From Jan- Hendrik Palic)

New kernel

Try

dvhtool -d $BOOTDEVICE --unix-to-vh vmlinux $BOOTFILENAME

where
$BOOTDEVICE is the device, where you wants in copy vmlinux into volume-header, just in time it is /dev/sda

$BOOTFILENAME is the name of the OSLoader (the same Name in setenv OSLoader linux)