IRIX diskless workstation: an alternative way

[Linux-RISC]

A few months ago I released version 1.0 of Reanimator with diskless workstation support. The documentation followed the official guide https://irix7.com/techpubs/007-0855-080.pdf, and the result doesn't work well as well as being complicated, cumbersome and prone to error.

As the result was not satisfactory, I decided to investigate if the process could be done in another way and finally I have achieved it, using a totally different procedure.

I have uploaded one image of an IRIX 6.5.30 running on an Octane2, I hope it can be useful for testing on other machines.

New diskless workstation documentation: https://github.com/Linux-RISC/IRIX-diskless-workstation
IRIX Diskless workstation videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7fOFTpu7rt2beS_RgPIGp53fYubGyLYC

 

[Linux-RISC]

I have uploaded an IRIX 6.5.0 version to Mega, without testing it because it is incompatible with Octane2 and on Indy it takes too long to start up and ends up showing timeouts.

 

[Linux-RISC]

Images uploaded for testing on Mega: https://mega.nz/folder/7jJGlSSS#d25XyA8RhKJyoU2uSrlasw

IDW_6.2.tgz
IDW_6.5.0.tgz
IDW_Indy_5.3.tgz
IDW_Octane2_6.5.30.tgz

 

[Linux-RISC]

Finally, Indy IRIX diskless workstation is working:

New image IDW_6.5.22.tgz uploaded for testing on Mega: https://mega.nz/folder/7jJGlSSS#d25XyA8RhKJyoU2uSrlasw

IRIX-diskless-workstation/README.md at main · Linux-RISC/IRIX-diskless-workstation

Tutorial: how to boot an IRIX diskless workstation using Reanimator - Linux-RISC/IRIX-diskless-workstation

github.com

 

[Elf]

Nice to see this going! How do you find the performance of the Indy, in general, when running diskless? From the video it does seem to take a while to boot, but doesn't look too bad once started up?

 

[Linux-RISC]

The Indy takes a while to boot, but once it boots it's fully functional . I am thinking of working with my sgi diskless, saving noise and heat generation.

It is a change of concept that is worth evaluating.