[comp.sys.sgi] help booting 4D50

wadswort@babss.UUCP (John H. Wadsworth) (01/30/91)

We have a 4D50 SGI box but nobody here knows how to boot it.
After turning on the unit i get the init message. Trying "warm" fails
and trying "cold" reports : no device and $path not set.

If anyone knows how to bring these up from a cold start I'd appreciate
a call or a mail message.
Thanks in advance!
John H. Wadsworth 1-800-677-8549  uunet!babss!wadsworth

wadswort@babss.UUCP (John H. Wadsworth) (02/01/91)

In article <1328@b1.babss.UUCP> wadswort@babss.UUCP () writes:
>We have a 4D50 SGI box but nobody here knows how to boot it.
> .....  text deleted ....

Thanks to everyone who replied with help in booting this beast.
Most responces were try help, auto, warm, etc. The problem turned out
to be the enviromental variables were wrong. Once set, it booted right
up.

I thought that would be the end of the problem. Silly me! I thought it
would be simple enough to figure out how to boot single user and clear
the passwords. Silly me again! I'm a Sun/bsd guy so I'm lost if
something like boot -s doesn't work. ;-)

And so I ask for help again. I seem to remember a discussion a while
back about what to do when you've lost the root password. Did anyone
save it? Does's anyone have any ideas? I can boot sash and symmon but
I don't know where to go from there.

Please call 1-800-677-8549 or write me at {uunet or yale}!babss!wadsworth



>Thanks in advance!
>John H. Wadsworth 1-800-677-8549  uunet!babss!wadsworth
>

fsfacca@AVELON.LERC.NASA.GOV (Tony Facca) (02/01/91)

If you can boot sash from the eoe1 tape, then all you need to do is use the
"sh" shell escape from sash.  You will notice two root-type directories, 
/ and /root.   /root is YOUR root directory while / is the sash-created root
file system.  cd into /root/etc, clear the password file (I just remove the
password field of the root password) and "exit".

Then exit sash and reboot.  The only thing tricky is remembering not to fix
/etc/passwd since it's not the REAL password file.  Fix /root/etc/passwd.

If you don't have the menu-styled PROM monitor, and all you get when you start
the system is a ">>" prompt, you can boot sash from tape using:

	>> boot -f tpsc(,7,)sash.IP4

If you don't have a SCSI tape, the syntax is a bit different but I don't have
my "IRIS System Administrator's Guide" handy.  If I did, I could just look in
there!

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Facca   |   fsfacca@avelon.lerc.nasa.gov      |     phone: 216-433-8318
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      You are at Witt's end.  Passages lead off in *all* directions.