SGI Net Installation Server tool 'love' by TruHobbyist

To help preserve this amazing tool, I have decided to make my own mirror and any additional notes or documentation that may help me use this software in the future. Love is a tool written in C++ which acts as three servers (bootpd, tftpd, rshd) in a single program, allowing you to perform remote IRIX installations over your local network. Be sure to run the love server on the same LAN as your SGI machine.

Love uses a LABELS.<PLATFORM>.TXT file (found in each platform's folder) to define aliases for folders/files, making it simple to enter over on your SGI machine. Instead of entering 192.168.1.60:/Very/Long/Folder/Path on your SGI machine, love instead uses these aliases to make entry concise: 192.168.1.60:love.53

A guide is provided in the form of love_guide.txt originally written by the author, TruHobbyist. Some of these instructions may be unclear or grammatically incorrect, as TruHobbyist is a native German speaker. I will provide a basic outline of what I did to install IRIX on my SGI Indy. Note that the proceeding instructions are focused on creating a Linux Mint VM for this task, but feel free to follow the guide as well. You can also find a separate guide provided by TruHobbyist on their forum post at SGI User Group Forums. Their original post details additional steps/dependencies necessary for running this on Windows. Use Wayback Machine if the post disappears.

Creating an IRIX Rescue VM

Personally I ran this server (love) in a Linux Mint VM using the pre-built ubuntu binary found in /debian-11.6.0. I chose mint because it's light weight, debian based, and has a simple setup. This brief guide will focus on this setup, as it provides you with a completely isolated server that you can spin up/down as needed as an IRIX recovery/rescue server.

Virtual Box Steps

Using Virtual Box, create a new Virtual Machine (I just chose 'Ubuntu' in the menu) and select a mint ISO file. Make sure to provide ample disk space for your VM, as the IRIX distributions all take up roughly 10GB on disk. If you're prompted that media is missing when you boot it, just use the toolbar menu to reselect the ISO and proceed with installing mint.

Once installed, shut down the machine and edit your VM's settings. Go to 'Network' > 'Adapter 1' > and change Attached to to Bridged Mode, selecting your machine's Ethernet port/Wi-Fi card. Change Promiscuous Mode to Allow All (please educate yourself on what this mode does).

Next, you will need to install the VirtualBox guest additions CD for Ubuntu. I recommend following a guide provided by VirtualBox, but as a quick reminder you can use the toolbar of your VM's window and select 'Devices' > Insert Guest Additions CD or something along those lines. This step is technically optional if you expect to transfer the IRIX distribution files over the internet. I needed guest additions to create a shared folder between my Windows host and the Mint guest VM. Follow the appropriate guide for setting up a shared folder, it's very straightforward.

Retrieve Necessary Files

You'll need to retrieve this repository over on your VM and place the appropriate love binary somewhere familiar to you. Alternatively you can compile the love.cxx file using the flags provided in the ABOUT.txt file for your particular platform. Optionally if you'd like to execute love from any working directory in your terminal, then you'll of course need to add the location of your love binary to your PATH (please seek the appropriate resources to educate yourself on this). I'm making the assumption that you're likely educated using Linux/Unix given the nature of this project. If not, it's only ten minutes worth of reading and well worth your time.

In addition to the love binary, you will also need to retrieve the unpacked versions of the IRIX installer discs per your desired version. TruHobbyist provides a convenient tar file containing all versions mentioned in their originally written LABELS file. You can find that tar file here. Alternatively you may source your own copy of SGI CD's, but be aware that any ISO files you may find will need to be opened using an atypical procedure, as SGI was notorious for packing their images in an unconventional manner. Instructions for this will proceed this section if needed.

Once you've acquired your IRIX diststribution files, place them in /mnt/IRIX/<VERSION_NUM> respectively according to the LABELS.UNIX.TXT file. See that each line in the labels file is simply an alias defition in the convention of <LONG_ALIAS> <FILE_PATH> <SHORT_ALIAS>. Use tab characters between each part if you want to create your own aliases in this file. I recommend taking some time and just reviewing what the labels file looks like to give you a better understanding of what you'll be using or needing to set up, it's very easy to follow.

Unpacking an IRIX ISO

If you need to unpack an IRIX ISO file, you're probably already familiar with most (if not all) programs recognizing these files as corrupt. This simply is not the case. SGI merely imaged their discs in an unconventional way, with the beginning of the image starting at a different point within the disk. For this, you will need some tools only found on GNU/Linux machines. You may be able to find these for other platforms, I'm just taking the easy route here and using my Linux Mint VM as my toolbox. Windows does support WSL, so that's probably a fairly easy work around for Windows users.

Open a terminal window and use the following command to locate the start block of your ISO:

fdisk -l /path/to/file/irix_file.iso

In my case, I performed the command using an IRIX 5.3 iso file and received the following output:

Disk /mnt/shared/IRIX_5.3.iso: 511.59 MiB, 536444928 bytes, 1047744 sectors
Geometry: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 65 cylinders
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: sgi

Device                     Start     End Sectors   Size Id Type       Attrs
/mnt/shared/IRIX_5.3.iso8  60768 1047159  986392 481.6M  5 SGI sysv   
/mnt/shared/IRIX_5.3.iso9      0   60767   60768  29.7M  0 SGI volhdr 
/mnt/shared/IRIX_5.3.iso11     0 1047167 1047168 511.3M  6 SGI volume 

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Take note of your sector size. If I'm not mistaken you will find them all to be 512 bytes. This is indicated by:

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Next, the line we're looking for in the table is (the largest part):

/mnt/shared/IRIX_5.3.iso8  60768 1047159  986392 481.6M  5 SGI sysv   

Using the Start value found for this line (in my case, 60768) and our sector size, run the following:

sudo mount -t efs -o loop,offset=$((60768*512)) /mnt/IRIX/irix_file.iso /mnt/IRIX/5.3

You may have to use the mkdir command (make directory) if you receive an error about a directory not existing. Create the directory and try again. Once the mount command succeeds, you will have opened your IRIX ISO file at the /mnt/ directory specified at the end of the mount command I demonstrated.

Configure Ports

Make sure to allow network traffic across the following ports:

• UDP 67 - Incoming
• UDP 69 - Incoming
• TCP 514 - Incoming
• Any outgoing TCP connection from love.exe

On Ubuntu/Mint this can be acheived easily with:

sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw allow 67
sudo ufw allow 69
sudo ufw allow 514

Run love

Assuming you have the IRIX distribution you'd like to install at a directory aliased by LABELS.UNIX.TXT (in this case, /mnt/IRIX/5.3/dist for love.53) you should be ready to run:

cd /<YOUR_PATH_CONTAINING_LOVE>
sudo ./love <VM_IP_ADDRESS> LABELS.UNIX.TXT

In my case, those commands looked like this:

cd ~/Desktop/love
sudo ./love 192.168.1.100 LABELS.UNIX.TXT

You should see lots of output about the label file being parsed, and finally at the end you will see:

INFO: Listening for BOOTP packets

You are now ready to power on your SGI machine.

SGI Machine Setup

If you used the aforementioned download link of TruHobbyist's IRIX tar file, then your directory /mnt/IRIX/ will contain the following folders: 5.3, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.5.7, 6.5.22, 6.5.30.

Power on your SGI machine. You may continously press the ESC key to enter the stop for maintenance menu, or click the button when it appears. Some CRT monitors are sluggish, so ESC can help you stop the boot process and pause for you to take action before it shows up on the monitor.

Use the option to enter the Command Monitor, and enter the following command:

unsetenv srvaddr

Next, enter the following and replace <IP_ADDR> with your desired IP address for your SGI:

setenv netaddr <IP_ADDR>

Finally, we should be able to boot the fx.ARCS command disk formatting utility from the folder /mnt/IRIX/6.5.30/stand/fx.ARCS using the following command. You will only be able to run love.6530.fx below if you have the folder /mnt/IRIX/6.5.30 containing the folder /stand (standalone). If instead you would like to run it for instance with IRIX 5.3, you would enter love.53.fx instead. It is recommended to use the 6.5.30 version of fx, as it is the latest one. Keep in mind that the IP Address I am using is the IP Address of my Linux Mint VM which is running love. I am passing the --x flag to fx.ARCS to enter extended mode (recommended):

boot -f bootp()192.168.1.60:love.6530.fx --x

You will be asked a series of questions to select the SCSI disk you are going to format. Please be warned that the following instructions may take an incredibly long time, especially on disks above 8 Gigabytes. For better instructions on running this formatting tool, please see love_guide.txt and refer to the instructions on formatting. Also be aware that the following command is destructive! You will lose ALL data on the drive we are formatting.

Again, this will delete ALL of your data. You have been warned!

In the following screen, fx prompts us to enter an option. Among these options is the easiest, and least likely for you to mess up, which is the [a]uto option. I prefer using [a]uto, as I'm working with smaller drives (2GB to 4GB in size).

To run the command, simply enter either a or auto, and follow the instructions.

After formatting is complete (roughly 30 minutes to 2 hours), you may exit the command monitor by clicking Done in the bottom right, or type exit and press enter.

You are now ready to install IRIX. At the main screen of Stop for maintenance, you should see an option to install software. Click this option. Choose to install from a remote directory. You will be asked for an IP Address. Enter the IP Address of your Linux Mint VM. You will now be prompted to enter the directory containing your IRIX distribution. Enter one of the following depending on your desired version:\

For IRIX 6.5+, you must follow the instructions found in love_guide.txt to better understand the process of installing I will make some effort here to briefly go over this, but please read the guide's section on installing 6.5+ as well in order to better understand what's going on here.

IRIX Version	Directory to Enter
IRIX 5.3	love.53
IRIX 6.0	love.60
IRIX 6.1	love.61
IRIX 6.2	love.62
IRIX 6.3	love.63
IRIX 6.4	love.64
IRIX 6.5.7	love.657.1
IRIX 6.5.22	love.6522.1
IRIX 6.5.30	love.6530.1

Additionally: I attempted installation of IRIX 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4, only being able to install 6.2. I believe the files provided by TruHobbyist may not have included the installer utility in 6.0, 6.1, 6.3, and 6.4. After installing 6.2, I did not have a desktop environment. For this reason, I formatted my disk and moved to IRIX 6.5.22.

Enter the directory you would like to install, press enter, then Next.

You should now see your installation files being downloaded onto your SGI. There will also be output coming from your terminal window on your Linux VM, showing the commands that are being received and handled. Wait for this process to complete.

Once your installer has loaded, you will be provided with a step-by-step installer that is fairly easy to follow. Miniroot will run, asking you to create a filesystem. You will want to answer YES to this. If asked, use EFS for IRIX 5.3, XFS for 6.0+. You may use EFS for 6.0+, but XFS was new at the time. If you are knowledgeable enough to disagree with me, then you do not need these steps. Suffice it to say, I have heard that while XFS was new and offered improvements, it had some draw backs. This is likely only going to affect the most hardcore users who already know these circumstances.

When asked about 512 byte or 4096 byte block sizing, you may choose either. Smaller block sizes will offer better performance and reduced disk fragmentation for systems with many small files. For systems containing many large files, you may choose 4096. Again, if you are aware of these performance implications, you likely do not need my help here.

Lastly, you will be provided with a prompt that will list many commands:

• from
• open
• list
• go
• conflicts
• keep ..etc etc.

For IRIX 5.3, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4: Simply enter go and press enter.

For IRIX 6.5+: You must load all overlay CD's and applications. For IRIX 6.5.22, I performed the following:

If at any point you are asked to pick between Maintenance and Feature streams, pick Feature Stream. Likewise, if you are knowledgeable enough to know the difference, be my guest and pick Maintenance.

After each open command, I am pressing enter. Load all of the following CDs:

open 192.168.1.60:love.6522.1
open 192.168.1.60:love.6522.2
open 192.168.1.60:love.6522.3
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.found1
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.found2
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.devfound
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.devlib
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.appsjune1998
open 192.168.1.60:love.65.nfs3

You may receive some scrolling prompts during this process. Use the spacebar to continue through these prompts.

Lastly, execute the go command to begin installing. If you receive conflicts, please use the conflicts command to list the conflicts. You may enter your choices to conflicts with the following example:

conflicts 1b 2b 3a 4a

Please keep in mind that this is merely an example of entering your options to resolve conflicts, and does not pertain to the 6.5.22 installation. For 6.5.22, I received no conflicts when loading the disks in that order. For 6.5.30, love_guide.txt provides the necessary conflict resolutions you will need.

After resolving conflicts, you may proceed again with the go command. Please be somewhat attentitive to the long installation process, checking it every few minutes to ensure everything is working smoothly. The only hitch I ran into was while the installer was installing the software package appletalk.sw which I chose to Skip. After over 1 hour, the installation completed. When you choose to restart, ELF Requickstarting will be performed and will take an additional 5 to 15 minutes to optimize binaries for your system.

That's all! If you require any additional help, feel free to report a problem with this repo to contact me personally. Also please refer to love_guide.txt of course and the forums, as you'll likely find what you need.

I hope this guide provides you with the help you need to get your antique SGI computer back to life. Thanks for following along. ❤️

Thank you to TruHobbyist for this amazing tool. Without you, this would not have been possible.