[weblacky]

Except that when you're reading the manual and it tells you how to invoke a sash/miniroot install by booting a CD (or something) for each of the various CPUs, those instructions end with "--x" without explaining the implications of using that switch.  When you do it from the shell, you have access to the man pages and thus less reason to make mistakes.

Yes, however, again EXPERT MODE does not appear to play a role in the warnings I gave (partition blanking).  I'm curious what the real issue here is and why this is pain point?  The question was asked later in this thread (which is now the current topic), that the user has old drives with data on them, how can they view the partitions under Irix? (Paraphrasing, but that was the question).

I advised the user NOT TO view them under FX as I've seen FX overwrite non-SGI partitions without consent as part of normal startup of FX.  I stated that if the drives aren't from on old SGI system the data is likely to be altered/lost.

So now you've spend several hours trying to claim installation using FX is different from common Irix usage of FX and if you need to start it with --X.  Everyone of those issues is not relevant to my warning, which likely saved the user from data loss. Also I have no vested interest in those topics, nor do I intend to pursue them.

I cautioned a user against even running FX against a drive they care about with data NOT FROM an SGI system, as it can be destructive.  I gave example scenarios of this data destruction (which may be applicable to the user's question).

I don't understand why "when" you launch FX changes how FX operates nor how this affects my reply.  At this point, I'll simply say the question was correctly cautioned and answered until the next question arrives. FX doesn't behave any different whether I start it from Miniroot, single mode, or full multi-user shell.

[robespierre]

"expert mode" simply means it can make changes to disks. Without -x, it is effectively read-only. All of the format, write, sync, etc commands are disabled.

[weblacky]

"expert mode" simply means it can make changes to disks. Without -x, it is effectively read-only. All of the format, write, sync, etc commands are disabled.

Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't aware to the extent expert mode changed the program.  I thought it only enabled the features in the current FX "expert" menu system.  Apparently you are right in that the man page claims you cannot form a new disklabel without it (it will prompt for expert mode on startup due to this limitation).  So I guess you block the auto-init of the disklabel by not being in expert mode (then it simply errors that it cannot do it).

That's an odd lock-out.  But I guess then yes, the removal expert mode is the only way to test FX on a drive without letting it automatically create a blank disklabel should it not find one.  I've always use expert mode due to the need for low-level formatting, so I wasn't aware of the disklabel creation limitation without it.

[wroteafaq]

Glad you're straight on that now. My point was really just that you were making fx sound like a very ill-tempered utility, when I've never found it to be anything of the sort. As with all things Unix, you just have to be very clear about what it is that you're trying to do - and be very clear that it's the same thing you're telling it to do.

[jwhat]

Hi IRIX Users,

to add to what weblacky wrote the contents of XFS volume header can vary depending on your HW version.

To play it safe here are some tips before throwing script at the problem:

1. There are two options for IRIX boot disk format:
- A: Root Disk with Swap (2 partitions + volhdr
- A: Root Disk with Swap with seperate /usr partiition (3 partitions + volhdr)
So just usr fx to see the currrent partition layout

2. To see the volume header contents use dvhtool to list the current volume header contents and copy these out of old disk (get) so you can put back into new volume header (put). I keep an archive of the different volume head contents for the different machine types, so I have safe backup if needed.

3. To ensure the machine boots you should check the partition sgilabel contents, as this will have "bootinfo" which should be "/unix" which tells prom which kernel file to load
- I have found that if you have aborted an IRIX on a machine that already has IRIX installed then it will change this lable to "/stand" or nothing (I think) which results it it failing to boot even though all the original file system is still intact. So boot into fx and update the sgilabel to get it booting again.

4. As per others xfsdump/xfsrestore make process easy once you have partitions and volume headers done, as xfsdump does not backup across mount boundaries so can mount your new disk on a directory in the existing file system and pipe to xfsrestore without worrying about it going into the mounted directory and trying to restore over the copy.

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John