Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Printable Version

+- IRIX Network Forums (//forums.irixnet.org)
+-- Forum: SGI/MIPS (//forums.irixnet.org/forum-3.html)
+--- Forum: Hardware/Triage/Repair (//forums.irixnet.org/forum-11.html)
+--- Thread: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? (/thread-1605.html)

---

Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Irinikus - 11-09-2019

I would like to carry out a fresh IRIX install on my Indigo2 Max Impact and the system refuses to see the CD-ROM as a CD-ROM.

This CD-ROM does work perfectly in my Indigo2 R4000!

Here's the system with the CD-ROM tray removed:



I disconnected the SCSI ribbon cable from the mother board and cleaned the connector:



I reseated the connector:



Here's a short of the terminator at the back of the CD-ROM carrier:



Here's the reassembled machine with the CD-ROM installed:



This is the hinv I get from the command monitor in the PROM:




Any help with this will be much appreciated!

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - weblacky - 11-09-2019

Hi,
Can you please provide pictures of the back of the CD-ROM drive (connectors and headers) and the top-back white label that describes the jumpers settings. I have a hunch why you’re getting this but I require those images to be sure.

I don’t want to propose anything until I see those jumper settings.

Thanks,
-Weblacky.

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Irinikus - 11-09-2019

Here you go.

I am currently installing IRIX 6.5.22 onto the machine over a network, sharing the CD-ROM in my Tezro. Using the method described in this thread: http://forums.irixnet.org/thread-1120.html

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - weblacky - 11-09-2019

OK,
Unless I’m reading this wrong, you have incorrect jumper settings.

You’ve got Parity On and termination ON. Remove both those!

No drive should be set with termination while in the internal sleds! Also Parity MIGHT have the affect of setting the drive to non-removable media. Either way, remove both of those jumpers.

Than try it again and see what happens. Ideally you should have just ID and 512 set.

Also you’re free to choose any non-conflicting ID for any drives. But normally the Indigo2 wants the lower right drive to be 1, upper right to be 2, and cdrom to be ID 3.

Let us know what happens,

-Weblacky

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Irinikus - 11-09-2019

I tried the suggested jumper settings and it didn't make a difference!

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - weblacky - 11-09-2019

The only other thing I can think of is try removing the 512 jumper. Later SGI machines (after R3000) used a SCSI command to ask the optical drive to go into 512 mode (older SGIs couldn’t and required it manually set).

So try a combination of settings with OFF 512 and On/Off parity.

See what that gets you, it’s possible that 512, in this case, means only appear as a 512 block media...which is a hard drive.

Let use know what happens,

-Weblacky

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Irinikus - 11-09-2019

The funny thing is that the CD-ROM works perfectly in my Indigo2 R4000 with the jumpers set as originally set. (I received it from Ian Mapleson set that way.)

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - weblacky - 11-09-2019

I know Ian and I’m sure he set it that way to ensure it worked with the machine he sold you with it installed. Did you ask him about using the DVD drive for this other machine?

The R4000 is a very different machine than an R10000. Different PROM and different kernel (and executables are incompatible). So while you might expect the settings to be the same. They might not.

I own 3 Indigo2 stations including a High IMPACT R4400 and a Solid IMPACT R10000. The last freeware binaries for the R4000 are harder to get because they are MIPS3. Just a couple years before Nekochan went down people started to focus entirely on compiling apps for MIPS4 vs MIPS3. Many apps only had older versions in the freeware area for MIPS3 because everybody doing the compilations were using later CPUs and didn’t really want to do bother.

If my suggestions for the DVD drive didn’t help you I’d suggest asking Ian about using that drive in an R10000, he should know.

---

RE: Indigo2 Max Impact sees CD-ROM as hard drive? - Irinikus - 11-10-2019

(11-09-2019, 10:05 PM)weblacky Wrote:  I know Ian and I’m sure he set it that way to ensure it worked with the machine he sold you with it installed. Did you ask him about using the DVD drive for this other machine?

The R4000 is a very different machine than an R10000. Different PROM and different kernel (and executables are incompatible). So while you might expect the settings to be the same. They might not.

I own 3 Indigo2 stations including a High IMPACT R4400 and a Solid IMPACT R10000. The last freeware binaries for the R4000 are harder to get because they are MIPS3. Just a couple years before Nekochan went down people started to focus entirely on compiling apps for MIPS4 vs MIPS3. Many apps only had older versions in the freeware area for MIPS3 because everybody doing the compilations were using later CPUs and didn’t really want to do bother.

If my suggestions for the DVD drive didn’t help you I’d suggest asking Ian about using that drive in an R10000, he should know.

Thanks very much for the help!

I will make contact with Ian and see if there's a solution to the problem.

---