joda@pdc.kth.se (Johan Danielsson) writes:

> I try to stay away from IRIX as much as possible, but I think the
> installation mechanism is rather brain dead.  You can't boot directly
> from a cd-rom, you always use some kind of miniroot, and I doubt it if
> you can install on a disk without a swap-partition.  Typically you
> have to work the correct amount of magic to label a disk before
> installing.  (If your disk burns up, and you can't recall the magic,
> nor have an extra SGI around, your basically cooked.)

Last time I used IRIX (and installed the OS itself) I found that the
installation tools used the swap partition on your hard drive as the
miniroot.  That means that the swap size has to be at least as large
as the miniroot you are booting.

That also gives you a R/W partition automatically.  Not a persistant one,
but oh well.

--Michael