networking bad

[ratfink]

My o2 has been in my closet for the last ~7 years. I pulled it out today, to play with and bring it back to life. It was previously set to a static IP, and now I'm trying to get DHCP working. I set it up through the GUI because I'm not sure how you set up DHCP through the files.

I'm experiencing two problems.

1) When it boots, I get an error that it cant start networking. If I run /etc/init.d/network start it outputs:

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Failed to configure ec0 as blue-meanie.
Cannot access primary interface, ec0.
Using standalone network mode.

However, if I then run ifconfig ec0 up, it comes up fine.

2) Now that that is up, I can successfully ping local boxes by ip, but if I ping by name, say alfie,co.dac.int, I get the error:

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ping: alfie.co.dac.int: Non-recoverable failure in name resolution

I've checked the obvious places resolv.conf:

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search co.dac.int
nameserver 10.250.250.88


and I can ping the nameserver. Next I checked nsswitch.conf (just the relevant line):

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hosts:                      files dns

Any thoughts on this?

Geof

[skywriter]

simple question: do you really need DHCP for a small number of machines like a single SGI?

i used to keep static IP's for my 30+ computers, but it was a pain in the ass after a while. i use a combination of DHCP and statically assigned IP's. static is usually reserved for fixed common resources with embedded web interfaces; switches, routers, NAS, printers, etc... of which i have a lot of now. but they're all modern stuff, not 15 years old. when i finish my basement rebuild, i'll still use static for a smaller number of SGI's that's manageable. most common DHCP servers allow you a lot of flexibility in IP assignment; DHCP ranges, mac based fixed addressing etc...

[ratfink]

Sadly, the network range I'm in requires DHCP (if I try static, I could possibly clash with a dynamic reservation.) I could plead with networking guys, but they already make too many concessions to me and my code.

Is this a common issue with DHCP on SGI? I forgot to mention that I'm running 6.5.20m at the moment.

Geof

[recondas]

The use of DHCP under IRIX requires that the "auto_ipaddress" configuration flag be correctly set. If you're not familiar with the process, open a root shell and execute "chkconfig". Look for the "auto_ipaddress" line, if the configuration flag is set as "off", enter "chkconfig auto_ipaddress on" at the command prompt.

You'll also have to (re)configure the network to use DHCP. The GUI networking set up tool can be found in the Toolchest - Desktop > ToolChest > Networking and Connectivity > Set Up and Start Networking. Panel #3 has the 'Use DHCP client' checkbox. Since you probably have stale entries from your previous network set up, I'd also suggest running the "Modify Network Settings" GUI to change what's appropriate there. Panel #3 sets the default route (a very common source of 'can't access the internet' complaints), and panel #5 adds your new DNS entries.

Some (very) basic background info is available from TechPubs: http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... 851-PARENT


DHCP is the default for a new IRIX installation. SGI provides a guide/user account called EZSetup for (among other things) setting up networking. If you think a guided setup could be helpul, you might check to see if the EZSetup user account is still available. Some background on EZSetup is here: http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /EZsetup.z

The O2 also shipped with a CD called the Out Of Box Experience that apparently (I haven't seen or used one in years) provided many for the same new configuration set up functions as EZSetup. If you have the CD and all else fails, it might be another avenue to explore.

[skywriter]

i see, i thought it was a home install. my DHCP server can be configured for ranges that will be avoided by DHCP reservation process.

IT is certainly less flexible.... :( i do not have any specific pointers concerning DHCP, i know it does mostly work, but never used it myself.

[ratfink]

Thanks. I was going to use the box as a glorified x-terminal since most of my life lately has been spent inside eclipse/java/jboss on one of our dozen or so RHEL servers. We'll see how well that works.

I'll double check your fixes. I did notice that my dns resolving starts working as soon as I switch to static.

I do wish SGI kept this thing up to date. I'd kill for Java 1.6.

thanks,

Geof

[guardian452]

FWIW 6.5.22 and 6.5.29 DHCP work just fine with my netgear router. They didn't work with the ISP-supplied router, nor did previous versions (.16) work with the netgear. I didn't have to do any monkey business with DHCP or routed or anything of the sort. It worked out of the box.

While IRIX is no longer up to date, SGI did keep it up to date until 2006. You might wish to try 6.5.30, although some say it is worse or more bloated. Also, look and see if the nekoware java will work for your needs...

[vishnu]

For what it's worth, I hesitated for years before upgrading my Octane2 from 6.5.22 to 6.5.30. Now that I've done it I find I'm really quite pleased with it. However this is a 600 MHz R14,000, it's entirely possible 6.5.30 might feel bloaty on a slower machine...

[ratfink]

For what it's worth, I hesitated for years before upgrading my Octane2 from 6.5.22 to 6.5.30. Now that I've done it I find I'm really quite pleased with it. However this is a 600 MHz R14,000, it's entirely possible 6.5.30 might feel bloaty on a slower machine...

I do have an octane, that I may pull out if the O2 doesn't seem up to the task. Admittedly, I think it is just a R10k with a 195mhz cpu and SI graphics, but looking on the bay, it looks like some upgrades would be pretty cheap these days.

Geof

[vishnu]

For reasons I don't pretend to understand the amount of SGI internals on ebay has at least quadrupled over the past year. Not much change in full systems really, just innards. The company I work for recently returned six maxed-out Onyx2's to the government. I'm kind of panicking because if I see them on a surplus website I might not be able to keep myself from buying them...

[foetz]

For what it's worth, I hesitated for years before upgrading my Octane2 from 6.5.22 to 6.5.30. Now that I've done it I find I'm really quite pleased with it. However this is a 600 MHz R14,000, it's entirely possible 6.5.30 might feel bloaty on a slower machine...

in my experience the fastest irix was 6.5.21.

after that the antialiased icons were introduced and that was a bit of a slowdown for the desktop. however that can be turned off and that aside i couldn't notice differences in terms of speed from 22 to 30.
on my o2 i had major nfs issues with 24 and 25. 6.5.26 seemed to have that fixed. i'm not sure what the last version was i had on the o2. i fired it up a while ago but sadly it was dead