SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Introduction
• -1- DIAGNOSTICS
• -2- How can I determine which release of IRIX I'm running and which patches are applied?
• -3- How can I determine my SGI's Ethernet (and/or FDDI) address?
• -4- My SGI crashed and generated a file, /usr/adm/crash/vmcore.1. How can I examine this file to see what crashed my system?
• -5- DISKS
• -6- How big can files and filesystems be?
• + -7- Does IRIX support sparse files?
• -8- Why is /debug or /proc full of huge files?
• -9- How do I extend an existing filesystem onto a new disk?
• -10- How do I know if I need more memory and/or swap space?
• -11- How much swap space should I have per megabyte of memory?
• -12- How can I increase my swap space?
• -13- What are virtual and logical swap space? How do they work in IRIX 3.x, 4.0.x and 5.x?
• -14- Why is there no way to set up a RAM disk under IRIX?
• -15- BOOTING
• -16- How can I boot directly into single-user mode?
• -17- How can I boot from a non-default disk?
• -18- How can I boot my machine using a server on the other side of a router?
• -19- How do I make a bootable tape from an IRIX CD?
• -20- Why can't I boot one of the stand-alone programs on a tape or CD?
• -21- INSTALLING
• -22- Is it possible to remotely install IRIX over a network?
• -23- Which IRIX CD is the program 'foo' on?
• -24- How can I extract a single file from an 'inst' subsystem?
• -25- Why doesn't 'inst' work?
• -26- Why doesn't 'inst' work remotely?
• -27- I just installed a new version of IRIX and file X is missing. What should I do?
• -28- I reinstalled an IRIX subsystem to restore a missing file or get rid of a corrupted file, but it didn't help. Why not?
• -29- Why do 'inst' and 'showprods' say that a subsystem is an "Unknown product entry"?
• -30- How can I install IRIX onto a second disk which I can then move to another machine?
• -31- How can I copy my system disk onto a second disk which I can then move to another machine?
• -32- How can I share parts of IRIX among multiple machines?
• -33- Can I install a "tardist" archive without the "tardist" software?
• -34- NETWORKING
• -35- Why isn't my network working?
• -36- How can I measure my network's reliability?
• -37- How do I add a static route?
• -38- How can I make the 'slip' command advertise the Ethernet address of the SLIP client?
• -39- I've just edited inetd.conf, and nothing changed. Why?
• -40- Why can't I 'rdist' files between Suns and SGIs?
• -41- Why are there "satwrite failure: inetd" messages in my SYSLOG in IRIX 5.3?
• -42- What is causing the "get interface flags" error in my syslog?
• -43- Why are network connections between SGIs and Suns much slower than between SGIs and SGIs or Suns and Suns?
• ! -44- How can I set up IP aliases?
• + -45- Where is ipfilterd documented?
• -46- MAIL
• -47- How can I set up 'sendmail' to pass (or not pass) 8-bit characters?
• -48- Why are my mailbox files changing ownership?
• -49- Why isn't a valid user getting their mail?
• -50- How can SGIs and Suns share a mail spool?
• -51- What's an "unknown mailer error"?
• -52- What's "mailbox: Error 0"?
• -53- Why can't I receive mail on an NFS-mounted mail spool under IRIX 5.2?
• -54- Why do mail programs have trouble with NFS-mounted mailboxes in IRIX 5.3?
• -55- Why are incoming mail addresses case-sensitive in IRIX 5.3?
• -56- NFS
• -57- How can I tell what hostname to use in /etc/exports?
• -58- Why can't I export an NFS-mounted filesystem?
• -59- Why can't Ultrix automount SGI filesystems?
• -60- Why does 'tar' work strangely on a filesystem mounted from an SGI?
• -61- Why does 'df' report incorrect numbers for a filesystem mounted from a Sun?
• -62- Is 'pcnfsd' available for the SGI?
• -63- Can I export a CD-ROM from my SGI to a non-SGI?
• -64- Why can't I export an ISO 9660 CD-ROM using NFS?
• -65- How can I read an IRIX (EFS) CD-ROM on a machine which doesn't use EFS?
• -66- How can I get quotas to work on an NFS filesystem?
• -67- Why can't some NFS clients NFS-mount IRIX 5.2 filesystems?
• -68- What's NFS3?
• -69- PRINTING
• -70- Why can't 'lp' read my file?
• -71- Why would I want to use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'?
• -72- How can I use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'?
• -73- How can I use 'lp' to print to an 'lpr'-controlled printer?
• -74- How can I tell 'lp' to turn banner printing or page reversal off or on?
• -75- How can I print to a printer with a JetDirect card?
• -76- SGI DAEMONS
• -77- Why isn't the objectserver working?
• -78- What is sending packets to the sgi-dog.mcast.net multicast address?
• -79- Why are the objectserver and directoryserver taking up so much memory in IRIX 5.3?
• -80- Why don't the desktop admin tools recognize root as a privileged user?
• -81- Why doesn't my desktop deal properly with the CD or tape icons?
• -82- Why doesn't my mediad start up under IRIX 5.3?
• -83- Why is famd hammering my NFS server?
• -84- What is causing "/dev/imon: event queue overflow" in my syslog?
• -85- BUGS
• -86- Why is my network license daemon ('netlsd') exiting?
• -87- What's this 'iotim' error in my syslog in IRIX 4.0.x?
• -88- Why do some programs parse /etc/fstab incorrectly in IRIX 4.0.5?
• -89- Why is my Indigo's Ethernet performance dog-slow under IRIX 4.0.x?
• -90- Why is my Indigo getting SIGSEGVs and crashing under IRIX 4.0.5IOP?
• -91- Why is my Indigo2 panicking under IRIX 4.0.5?
• -92- Why do 'who', 'rusers', etc. show users who aren't really logged in?
• -93- What's wrong with ftpd in IRIX 5.2?
• -94- Why isn't /usr/adm/SYSLOG being updated?
• -95- I just edited /etc/inittab, and now I can't start up or shut down my SGI! What's wrong?
• -96- Why does timed say "bind: Cannot assign requested address"?
• -97- Why does "ALERT: i2cWaitForXferDone: Xfer Done timeout ERROR" appear in my SYSLOG?
• -98- MISCELLANEOUS
• -99- How do I set the number of processes allowed on my machine?
• -100- Where can I get a termcap file for 'iris-ansi-net' to install on my non-SGI system?
• -101- How can I make my SGI understand strange terminal types from other Unix systems?
• -102- Can I change my full name or login shell without being superuser?
• -104- How can I use the visual admin tools on a system with graphics to administer a system without graphics?
• -105- What's /etc/ioctl.syscon?
• -106- Can I log out users automatically?
• -107- How can I change kernel variables and/or rebuild my kernel?