On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:09:32 -0500
"Stephen M. Rumble" <stephen.rumble@utoronto.ca> wrote:

> Quoting George Harvey <fr30@dial.pipex.com>:
> 
> >
> > Since I can't boot an install kernel, I took the disk out and
> > attached it to my O2. I then installed 4.0 beta, plus Ben's test
> > kernel, and put it back in the Challenge S. However, it now fails to
> > boot because it has an IP3x boot loader from the O2 install. I guess
> > that I need to put /usr/mdec/ip2xboot on the boot partition but I
> > don't know how to do it. I looked at the 'installboot' man page but
> > sgimips isn't listed as a supported machine type. Is the boot
> > partition mountable or is there some other way to copy the file
> > across?
> 
> You'll need to use the 'sgivol' utility, which I believe lives in  
> /usr/mdec, but memory may not serve correctly. With it you can do a  
> bunch of things like list the volume header contents,  
> read/write/delete files, create a new volume header, etc. It should  
> give you a bunch of options that are reasonably intuitive, though I  
> don't believe that a man page exists. Searching through the  
> port-sgimips archives for it will probably yield some good info if you
> experience any trouble.

Yep, sgivol was the answer. As you say, there's no man page but I did
find some clues with a bit of googling. Just to add to the archives:

Display volume header and SGI partitions:
    sgivol sd0
Delete the existing boot loader:
    sgivol -d boot sd0
Install new IP2x boot loader:
    sgivol -w boot /usr/mdec/ip2xboot sd0

That fixed my booting problem so the next step was to build a custom
kernel using the -current source. I found that the 4.0 'config' still
wasn't new enough to configure the kernel so I also downloaded
src.tgz and compiled a current 'config'. Some time later (1hr 36min to
be exact) I have a kernel with the SCSI fixes and G130 support.

I now have a 4.0 BETA userland and a -current kernel (9th Nov.
snapshot). Are there any known issues with either of these that I should
watch out for?

I'm currently compiling 'bash' from pkgsrc, mounted over NFS via the
G130, and it's all looking good so far.

Thanks,
George