big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - Printable Version

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big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jmjsgi - 01-13-2024

Hi all,

I have a big problem with the IRIX system on my TEZRO. Last night while on the ROOT user to change the Softimage display options, I dozed off and with my mouse, I accidentally moved an important system directory and I don't know which one. It was the sound emitted by the tezro when moving the directory that woke me up and since then, softimage no longer started while I was still on ROOT. I disconnected from Root to go to my assignment but the graphical interface where we choose the users had disappeared and left a blank page. I decided to restart the system but unfortunately after passing the first "stop for maintenance" part a window told me that the system could not find a directory that I do not remember. I thought that if I connected to the network I could compare the system with that of my O2 to find the displaced directory that I had put back in place. Unfortunately, the network that I used to use with Filzila on my PC, does not work.
I ran miniroot thinking I would find a solution but I didn't find anything that could help me repair my system while keeping the files already installed because I struggled for several months to get Fllame working.
Does anyone have a solution for me without having to completely reinstall the system?

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - robespierre - 01-14-2024

It sounds like you have learned a valuable lesson about why "logging in as root" is a bad idea.
Using a computer without making a full backup tape is also a bad idea.

Since you have provided no information as to which specific errors were reported or what you may have done, I don't expect anyone will be able to help you with your problem.

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jmjsgi - 01-19-2024

Hi all,

A big thank you to "robespierre" who responded even if the comments made are totally useless. Unfortunately, the error message no longer appears because when I started the miniroot to see what I could choose in the menus, I had to reboot my tezro and since then it returns to the miniroot without me being able to 'separate from it. I was also thinking of mounting my system disk as a slave on my onyx 4 to read the contents and find the directory that I moved but I don't dare to do it for fear of making an even more serious mistake. Has anyone ever tried to slave a system disk to another machine to read its contents?

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - chulofiasco - 01-19-2024

(01-19-2024, 09:05 PM)jmjsgi Wrote:  Hi all,

A big thank you to "robespierre" who responded even if the comments made are totally useless. Unfortunately, the error message no longer appears because when I started the miniroot to see what I could choose in the menus, I had to reboot my tezro and since then it returns to the miniroot without me being able to 'separate from it. I was also thinking of mounting my system disk as a slave on my onyx 4 to read the contents and find the directory that I moved but I don't dare to do it for fear of making an even more serious mistake. Has anyone ever tried to slave a system disk to another machine to read its contents?

if you can get into the miniroot, you should be able to drop to a shell and mount your hard disk to explore what options you've available.

but like robespierre said, more information would be helpful so that we can provide useful responses.

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jmjsgi - 01-21-2024

Here are some screen shots with the error when I try to start my tezro. In the maintenance menu, I launched single mode and you can see that the error message mentions that: cannot create directory "var/adm" no such fil or directory.

[attachment=3533]

Is it possible to reinstall part of the system without having to format the hard drive so as not to lose my data?

[attachment=3534]

[attachment=3535]

I mounted my system disk as a slave on my onyx in order to see the contents but it cannot open without it being initialized and I do not dare to do it. Do you think I can choose "mount a local filesystem" without risking losing my data?

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - chulofiasco - 01-21-2024

(01-21-2024, 06:46 PM)jmjsgi Wrote:  Here are some screen shots with the error when I try to start my tezro. In the maintenance menu, I launched single mode and you can see that the error message mentions that: cannot create directory "var/adm" no such fil or directory.



Is it possible to reinstall part of the system without having to format the hard drive so as not to lose my data?





I mounted my system disk as a slave on my onyx in order to see the contents but it cannot open without it being initialized and I do not dare to do it. Do you think I can choose "mount a local filesystem" without risking losing my data?

you can mount it from the command line, mount /dev/dsk/dks0d2s0 /disk2 (you'll have to make the /disk2 dir)

from there you can explore it through /disk2

looks like /var might have gotten lost?

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - robespierre - 01-21-2024

Well, is it possible that "var" is the name of the directory that you moved? If so, what must be done is find out where it moved to, and then move it back.

Going back to the miniroot, if you type
shroot find / -name var -type d -prune

the command should print the full path of every directory named "var". Let's suppose that there was only one result printed, and it was "/home/nero/var".
then still from the miniroot, you would type
shroot mv /home/nero/var /

If the result printed was, however, just "/var", then the theory of which directory got moved appears disproven. If multiple results were printed, you would need to investigate further to see which one looked like "the var directory that belongs at /var", which is a little difficult to explain. (it should have subdirectories adm, spool, log, tmp, ...)

"Initialize a disk" erases all of the data.

edit:
If you can mount the disk from your Onyx, you can of course do the changes from it, as well.
Just use "chroot /disk2" where you would say "shroot" from the miniroot inst> prompt.

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jwhat - 01-21-2024

Hi jmjsgi,

for future reference, if you boot an SGI/IRIX machine from CD into miniroot and/or start an install via PROM then it will clobber your boot disk image.

Looking at the file systems only (by putting disk in another machine) you will likely see that it all looks ok, but on restarting it does not find the boot disk.

The reason is that booting into miniroot changes the disk label headings.

To revert back to the original disk label headings you can:

Boot to FX (or run fx from another machine with disk in it) and go into disk "label".

You need to ensure the disk is labeled as boot: "bootfile = /unix"

Here is log example:



Also if you have issues with mount points then you need to look at: /etc/fstab and your disk layout.

Cheers from Oz,


jwhat/John

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jmjsgi - 01-25-2024

Thank you for answering me. 
I tried with the fx command on my onyx with my system HDD tezro at slave. I have the same information displayed except the xfs part, in fact I don't know what this can do for me. 
I would like test to mount the disk with the mount command but what will this cause?
Can I click on one of the commands offered by Disk Manager to make the contents of my system disk visible?

"mount a local filesystem"
or
"initialize a disk"

https://imgur.com/JYMrcdK

https://imgur.com/WXuaNRK

https://imgur.com/Q7k9plC

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RE: big problem on IRIX due to an error on my part - jwhat - 01-27-2024

HI jmjsgi,

Start by reading IRIX filesytem documentation: https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/library/manuals/2000/007-2825-013/sgi_html/index.html

This explains the XFS file system layout and naming conventions.

Your Boot Disk will have partition 0 (root) & 1 (swap) & optionally 6 (usr).

To find the disk do:
# ls /dev/rdsk
dks0d1s0 dks0d1vol dks2d0s7 dks2d1s7 dks2d3s0 dks2d3vol volume_header
dks0d1s1 dks1d2vh dks2d0vh dks2d1vh dks2d3s1 root
dks0d1vh dks1d2vol dks2d0vol dks2d1vol dks2d3vh swap

The disk will be one with:

dksXdYs0 & dksXdYs1 (ie with partition 0 & 1), where X == Controller & Y == disk

Once you identified the disk you can mount it read-only: https://help.graphica.com.au/irix-6.5.30/man/1M/mount

For example:
cd /tmp
mkdir BOOT
mount -t xfs -o ro /dev/dsk/dksXdYs0 /tmp/BOOT

If it fails to mount then it means there is not a valid xfs file-system on that partition and it is been clobbered.

Having the partition label saying it has XFS partition does not mean it has a valid file-system.

To make a valid file system you need to run the mkfs (make file system) command, this would need writable disk and really will clobber what ever you have on the disk.

Man Page for mkfs: https://help.graphica.com.au/irix-6.5.30/man/1M/mkfs

Here is example boot disk layout with fx:

# fx =x
fx version 6.5, Jul 20, 2006
fx: "device-name" = (dksc)
fx: ctlr# = (0) 2
fx: drive# = (1) 3
fx: lun# = (0) 0
...opening dksc(2,3,0)
...drive selftest...OK
Scsi drive type == ATA Samsung SSD 850 2B6Q

----- please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-----
[exi]t [d]ebug/ [l]abel/
[b]adblock/ [exe]rcise/ [r]epartition/
fx> l

----- please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-----
[s]how/
fx/label> show

----- please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-----
[para]meters [part]itions [b]ootinfo [a]ll
[g]eometry [s]giinfo [d]irectory
fx/label/show> part

----- partitions-----
part type blocks Megabytes (base+size)
0: xfs 134221824 + 1819303344 65538 + 888332
1: raw 4096 + 134217728 2 + 65536
8: volhdr 0 + 4096 0 + 2
10: volume 0 + 1953525168 0 + 953870

----- please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-----
[para]meters [part]itions [b]ootinfo [a]ll
[g]eometry [s]giinfo [d]irectory
fx/label/show>



Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John

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