Newbee needs help with error message...

[hansolo15]

Hi guys,

I'm a complete newbee and nitwit where SGi is concerned.
I bought an INDY to fool around with. Messed up some txt file
and now I get this error message and everything is very slow.



This is my configuration:



And at startup I get these errors.



The Indy has no floppy drive and no cd-rom drive.
I think I can attach a cd-rom drive and maybe a floppy drive.
I have some laying around.

Can someone help me with the error messages and maybe why the machine is so slow.

Thanks guys!

[duck]

Your disk is broken, you'll need to replace it. That the file alteration monitor (fam) isn't running is probably just a side effect.

[hansolo15]

Your disk is broken, you'll need to replace it. That the file alteration monitor (fam) isn't running is probably just a side effect.

Thanks Duck! I will replace it.
What would be the easiest way to do this?
I have no IRIX cd's, cause the system was already on the Indy when I bought it.
Can I plug in the extra HD and copy maybe?

[hansolo15]

Turns out I don't have ultra wide SCSI Drives. They are the newer wide SCSI.
Same goes for my floppy drives and cd-rom drives.

[duck]

Thanks Duck! I will replace it.
What would be the easiest way to do this?
I have no IRIX cd's, cause the system was already on the Indy when I bought it.
Can I plug in the extra HD and copy maybe?

Yes, this might be possible (the Indy has space for two 3.5" drives), but the question then becomes how much of your data is salvageable, and is the disk still deteriorating?
If I were you I'd look into getting my hands on some media (see forum rules above) and just reinstall, especially if you're not all that familiar with how these machines work. You can attempt to recover data or licenses from the broken disk later.

Turns out I don't have ultra wide SCSI Drives. They are the newer wide SCSI.
Same goes for my floppy drives and cd-rom drives.

What you want is a "narrow" (square 50-pin connector) drive or a converter from 68p or SCA (80 pins, hotswappable) to use "modern" drives. "Wide" SCSI was a strange beast and I've never seen it in the wild.

I've never had an Indy, but I'd guess a more recent drive will need to be able to use single-ended scsi (SE) to work. Once upon a time they all did, but ISTR jan-jaap mentioned that some drives might not do anything but low-voltage differential (LVD).

Ian (forum member) sells all kinds of useful stuff, so if you have the dosh check this out: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgidepot/scsiitems.html

Ebay is also a possibility for converters and disks and of course your friendly neighbourhood geeks.

[uunix]

Are you able to boot this machine at all?
If you are and out of interest, what does /etc/fstab say?

[hansolo15]

Thanks Duck and Uunix!

It boots fine now. But the FAM is still an issue. And evrthing is very slow. I might try to connect a parallel iomega zip drive and try and fix stuff that way.

[uunix]

You should print your hinv here, I suspect you have two drives, and /usr/etc/fam is a mounted device and it's drive in the middle tray that's died. Just a guess though. Also, check /etc/fastab to see what's being mounted?

I may be way off, but that's my guess.

[josehill]

For general slowness, you should rule out DNS configuration issues before spending a lot of time troubleshooting. Misconfigured DNS has an unusually large impact on IRIX operations, and the symptoms often are mistaken for other issues. Also, as uunix hinted, /etc/fstab can slow down the system, especially during boot, if there are entries for networked filesystems that don't exist in your present environment. This is pretty common on recently acquired systems that have settings left over from their previous environment. There are several threads here in the forums that discuss the DNS and fstab issues.

[hansolo15]

You should print your hinv here, I suspect you have two drives, and /usr/etc/fam is a mounted device and it's drive in the middle tray that's died. Just a guess though. Also, check /etc/fastab to see what's being mounted?

I may be way off, but that's my guess.

Thanks Uunix!
I have only one drive. I've taken it out and but it back in.
There are 2 spaces in a reck for internal drives.

Again, I'm very green : What is hinv? How do I get there?
And how do I check /etc/fastab?

[hansolo15]

A long time ago I altered a file. I don't recall the name of the file anymore.
I think it was some kind of init or conf file. That messed everyting up, I'm afraid...

[rooprob]

Can you cut/paste the following output from a terminal


chkconfig
cat /etc/resolv.conf
ifconfig -a
tail -n 50 /var/adm/SYSLOG

[hansolo15]

This is what I got after typing each line and hitting return:

[hansolo15]

I got this from the system log viewer:
Maybe there are some answers there..

[uunix]

I reckon duck was right, this disks is a bad un... slowly and painfully running half an IRIX.