[tenox]

Is there an easy way that I can mount IRIX CDROM on Linux, FreeBSD, Windows or Mac so that I can export it over NFS to my Irix machine?

I know that Linux does have support for SGI Label and XFS but looks like the first one is not enabled on stock kernels mostly. Any easy options?

[dexter1]

The filesystem on IRIX CD-ROMs is EFS, not XFS or iso9660. Linux and netBSD have kernel drivers or userland programs that can mount these cd's.
In Linux you need to load module efs.o before mounting an IRIX cd or equivalent cd image.

[jan-jaap]

IRIX OS cds use a disklabel rather than a partition table, and the EFS filesystem. Most Linux distributions should support both out of the box.

Where it goes wrong is the block size, which must be 512bytes/block for EFS and is usually something else for non-SCSI drives. Linux can work around this if you use the 'loop' mount option, like this:

Code:

# mount -o loop,ro -t efs /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

If you have something in your fstab to automount certain filesystem types (udf?), you can add efs to that and it will work for IRIX cds too.

[kikems]

1- You need create a folder in you HD for virtual mount your iso . for example I create "mountiso" folder.
2- Copy you isos to your HD. I create a "cdisos" folder.
3- Enter terminal window.
for mount a iso : mount -t efs -o loop cdisos/my_cdiso_source.iso mountiso/
4- When you finish you can unmount your iso for liberate "mountiso" folder for mount the next iso.
for unmount actual iso : umount mountiso/

In different linux distributions this command line can be change a little. This comands work fine in my debian linux.

[callahan]

As an update, there is a handy utility available that will take an efs .iso and make it into a regular .tar file at https://github.com/sophaskins/efs2tar. I came across this while trying to find a solution to mount an Octane demo CD. 

The author details what led her to make this tool and her methodology at https://blog.pizzabox.computer/posts/sgi-efs-yakshave/, which is an interesting read. 

For me running ubuntu 18.04, steps to get the tool to work (and it worked great!):

Install go and git to pull from the github:

Code:

sudo apt install golang-go
sudo apt install git

Build efs2tar and modify execution path to include the default go folder:

Code:

go get 'github.com/sophaskins/efs2tar'
export PATH=$PATH:/home/$username/go/bin

Run efs2tar on my image (took about 15-20 seconds on a Virtualbox VM on a fairly quick PC)

Code:

efs2tar -in ~share/sgi/'Other Software'/OctaneDemos.iso -out ~/OctaneDemos.tar

[Kaimano]

As an update, there is a handy utility available that will take an efs .iso and make it into a regular .tar file at https://github.com/sophaskins/efs2tar. I came across this while trying to find a solution to mount an Octane demo CD. 

The author details what led her to make this tool and her methodology at https://blog.pizzabox.computer/posts/sgi-efs-yakshave/, which is an interesting read. 

For me running ubuntu 18.04, steps to get the tool to work (and it worked great!):

Install go and git to pull from the github:

Code:

sudo apt install golang-go
sudo apt install git

Build efs2tar and modify execution path to include the default go folder:

Code:

go get 'github.com/sophaskins/efs2tar'
export PATH=$PATH:/home/$username/go/bin

Run efs2tar on my image (took about 15-20 seconds on a Virtualbox VM on a fairly quick PC)

Code:

efs2tar -in ~share/sgi/'Other Software'/OctaneDemos.iso -out ~/OctaneDemos.tar

Hello everybody,
I encounter some troubles mounting iso or translating them to tar with efs2tar. Maybe someone can tell me where I'm wrong.
I installed efs2tar, and ran correctly transforming the Overlays CD2 irix 6.5.29 iso into tar. Moved the Tar on my Octane and untar.
But on my Octane the software manager doesn't recognize it as valid. I tried with different iso, no luck!
I took all the iso's at jrra.zone.

Mounting ISO EFS today is a challenge! I can't find a Linux distribution that still supports EFS.

Is anyone kind enough to help me?
Thanks

[jan-jaap]

I can't find a Linux distribution that still supports EFS.

Works like a charm in Debian. The .efs disk image is what you'd get from e.g. jrra.zone even if he calls them *.iso.I personally keep *.iso for ISO9660 images but that's irrelevant when it comes to mounting them.

Code:

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# cat /etc/debian_version
12.4

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# uname -a
Linux z600 6.1.0-17-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.69-1 (2023-12-30) x86_64 GNU/Linux

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# file 812-0119-006_IRIX_5.3.efs
812-0119-006_IRIX_5.3.efs: SGI disk label (volume header)

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# mount -o loop,ro -t efs 812-0119-006_IRIX_5.3.efs /cdimage

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# df -t efs
Filesystem     1K-blocks   Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop0        478080 467879     10201  98% /cdimage

root@z600:/mnt/sgi/irix/cdrom/irix5.3# ls -l /cdimage
total 15
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root root  418 Nov 15  1994 CDgrelnotes
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 3658 Nov 15  1994 CDrelnotes
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 4096 Nov 15  1994 dist
drwxrwxrwx  5 root root  512 Nov 15  1994 firmware
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 1536 Nov 15  1994 help
drwxrwxrwx  3 root root  512 Nov 15  1994 insight
-rw-rw-rw-  1 root root 2365 Nov 15  1994 RELEASE.info
drwxrwxrwx 45 root root 1024 Nov 15  1994 relnotes
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root  512 Nov 15  1994 stand

[jwhat]

Hi tenox,

adding to this, if you use Ubuntu (Debian Variant), then you need to first install xfsprogs to get EFS/XFS file systems support:

$ apt search xfsprogs
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
udisks2/jammy,now 2.9.4-1ubuntu2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
D-Bus service to access and manipulate storage devices

xfsprogs/jammy,now 5.13.0-1ubuntu2 amd64 [installed]
Utilities for managing the XFS filesystem


So:
- sudo apt install xfsprogs

Cheers from Oz,


jwhat/John

[Raion]

Dead thread guys.