There are currently two versions here: One for when you know of a machine that's already up and running within the desired "class" (kernel/video pair), and one when you do not. They start out as #1 and #2 below, but both finish with #3, below. Both versions are CDROM based, and probably will remain so until the SGI diskless boot procedure gets a bit cleaner (or we get more time to explore the existing one).

  1. If you have a machine installed already, within the appropriate class:
    • boot from cdrom. possibly partition with fx - "auto" and "rootdisk" is reasonable, tho you may not want to wait around for it to format the disk. install miniroot off cdrom (at target 4)
    • boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS --m
    • within inst: admin
    • within inst: sh
    • Be sure to fill in the correct IP address and broadcast, in the line below
    • ifconfig ec0 128.200.34.240 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 128.200.34.255
    • route add default 128.200.34.1 1
    • this is IP22 specific - change the IP address for others. You can get a list of hostnames for various SGI classes, with ~nacsstats/bin/sgi-kernels on a fully configured NACS system.
    • rsh 128.200.34.20 'cat /unix' > /unix
    • continue below, at part 3

  2. If you do not have a machine already installed, within the appropriate class. This looks shorter, but should be expected to take longer to complete, and to take more of your time. do an install from cdrom (just load the OS, don't configure it), then:
    • boot -f dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS --m
    • within inst: admin
    • within inst: sh
    • cp /root/unix /unix
    • continue below, at part 3

  3. In either case, continue here:
    • /etc/dvhtool -b /unix 1 1
    • sync
    • sync
    • sync
    • press power button twice, pause, press again - to shut down hard.
    • Boot with that new kernel, inside the miniroot - use one of the following boot commands. The first uses what's on the hard disk already (may not be there!) but should already have the right version of sash. With the second, it's always there, but you may have to guess the right CPU extension.
      • boot -f dksc(0,1,8)/sash dksc(0,1,1)/unix root=dks0d1s1 initstate=2
      • boot -f dksc(0,6,8)/sashARCS dksc(0,1,1)/unix root=dks0d1s1 initstate=2
    • within inst: sh
    • umount /root/usr
    • umount /root
    • be sure to fill in the appropriate IP address and broadcast in the line below...
    • ifconfig ec0 128.200.34.240 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 128.200.34.255
    • be sure to fill in the appropriate IP router address in the line below...
    • route add default 128.200.34.1 1
    • mkdir /mnt
    • mount 128.200.34.23:/auto_install/Irix /mnt
    • /mnt/install

NOTES:

  • On an Indy with a 500mb os disk and 32mb of physical memory, you need 100mb of swap space on the os disk in order to install Irix 5.3. Anything less will give errors like:

      "dks0d1s1: Corrupt file system
      dks0d1s1: Process[inst] ran out of contiguous space..."

  • Sometimes #2 above won't produce a /root/unix. In those cases, you may find that rebooting once and allowing Irix to configure a kernel, may produce a usable /root/unix.
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/dcs/automation/irix5-install.html