[kaigan]

Again, I greatly appreciate it! Mine looks nearly identical. It's definitely odd that these machines don't have the eaddr variable or (seemingly) an easy way to get the MAC address short of using the diagnostics command.

It turns out that I don't have the correct cables to connect my old tape drive to the Onyx2, so that's out for now. I might have to see if I can find a cheap SCSI external HDD enclosure on eBay. For the moment, I'll put that issue on the back burner.

EDIT: I originally had a long post detailing my network findings, but it's no longer relevant. It looks like I may have an issue between the newest version of Booterizer and my network in some way, as my Octane isn't able to complete a network boot to the partitioner from Booterizer either. :/ With that as the case, it looks like the Onyx2's network connection is probably working exactly as it should and I just need to figure out what else is going on.

[Raion]

Well, learning how this crap works is part and parcel. Without troubleshooters like you; we'd be stagnant lol.

[miod]

It's definitely odd that these machines don't have the eaddr variable or (seemingly) an easy way to get the MAC address short of using the diagnostics command.

The MAC address only exists in the PROM environment on systems where the Ethernet interface is on the motherboard. On IP27 systems, the Ethernet interface is on the I/O board, which can be swapped, so there is no "fixed" system MAC address to report.

[kaigan]

The MAC address only exists in the PROM environment on systems where the Ethernet interface is on the motherboard. On IP27 systems, the Ethernet interface is on the I/O board, which can be swapped, so there is no "fixed" system MAC address to report.

Yeah, that makes sense. You wouldn't want to have the variable set to a certain value in PROM and then have the actual address the NIC is using switched. That would certainly lead to strange behavior and conflicts. I'm still a bit surprised that SGI (seemingly) didn't put in another way to query the value, or have the IP27 PROM pull a value for eaddr from the NIC during runtime. There was probably a good reason for it, though.

Booterizer is now working with the Onyx2! Fortunately, this means that there is nothing wrong with the NICs on my IO6Gs. Now, I just need to figure out what's going on with the SCSI controller/backplane. The initial diagnostics I've run on it don't show any errors, but I'll run it through all of the ones I can find in the Hardware Quick-Reference. Maybe something will show up. I'll also see about getting an external SCSI enclosure so I can try another controller in the system.

[kaigan]

I finally obtained a good-quality SCSI external HDD enclosure and the proper cable to attach it to the Onyx2. I'm very happy to report that the system does detect it! I'm not sure what's up with the internal SCSI adapter but I'm willing to call that a problem for another time. It looks like I'll finally be able to install IRIX and play around with a deskside.

[Irinikus]

That’s good to hear!