[robespierre]

It does appear that something is amiss with the CD-ROM drive or the SCSI bus.

Try this, to see if the Indy can access the CD-ROM:

Code:

>> hinv -v

should appear:

Code:

SCSI CDROM: scsi(0)cdrom(4)

try:

Code:

>> ls dksc(0,4,8)
>> dksc(0,4,8)sashARCS
sash:  ls dksc(0,4,7)
sash:  ls dksc(0,4,7)stand
sash:  dksc(0,4,7)stand/fx.ARCS -x

If any communication with the CD-ROM drive produces errors, then there is something wrong with the SCSI cables, the SCSI termination, the drives, or the mainboard.
SCSI is a shared bus. One drive (for example, a SCSI2SD) can misbehave and cause problems with accessing another drive (for example, a CD-ROM).
For this reason, I would suggest that you remove any SCSI devices from the Indy, and try to boot from the CD-ROM as the only device connected to the Indy.
After you have verified the CD-ROM is working, you can connect another drive and test it.

Note that external SCSI devices must be powered on before starting the computer.

Please note that recently, a lot of mistaken information has been circulating. I don't know why.
For the Indy, you do not need to set jumpers on the CD-ROM drive.

From the Texas A&M University SGI Hardware FAQ:

Late R4K Indigos, Indys, Indigo2s, and Onyx/Challenges all know how to set the block size if the drive identifies itself as a CD-ROM, reports the block size as something other than 512 bytes in the block descriptor and accepts the new block size in the block descriptor.

Drives from Plextor, Toshiba, or Yamaha should accept block size commands, you do not need to set a jumper. If you do set a "512 bytes/sector" jumper to ON, it will also work, but it is not necessary.