In this example I shared IRIX 5.3 from my Origin 200 running IRIX 6.5.xx to my Indigo R3000. If you are struggling with SCSI bus reset errors from that old cdrom drive, this is a much simpler route to take.

on the server:

• /etc/hosts – not required initially, but lets you address the client by hostname from the server.

• /etc/ethers – specify the mac address of the client(s)

  08:00:69:c0:ff:ee       iris

• /etc/bootptab – this specifies the hostname, IP, (mac?) and the directory to boot.

  iris    1  08:00:69:c0:ff:ee  192.168.1.118  /cds/irix53/stand/sash.IP12

• /etc/inetd.conf – here you enable the bootp and tftpd services. It is advised that you use the -s switch to specify which directory(ies) the user can see, otherwise they will have access to all world readable ones (not so bad on a closed network, still better to specify though).

  bootp dgram   udp   wait  root    /usr/etc/bootp  bootptftp  dgram   udp   wait  guest   /usr/etc/tftpd  tftpd -s /cds/irix53

• finish with this command: /etc/killall -HUP inetd

on the client

enter the command monitor by selecting option 5, and a quick hinv -v to double check all the hardware is recognised may avoid confusion later on.

setenv netaddr 192.168.1.118
setenv notape 1
boot -f bootp()192.168.1.9:/path/to/diskimage/stand/fx.IP12 –x

now repartition / format the drive as necessary (I had to do this a couple of times, it appeared to keep the old installation the first time, and the second time, the amount of freespace was well below the 2GB capacity, which left me with 2 failed installations, but was successful on the third attempt – hint: during the inst phase, I selected the admin commands and looked for the mkfs option. Even though the miniroot was copied to the drive, I wiped it clean – it recovered from the shock by offering to restart the interrupted distribution.

Right, now you’ve hopefully got a clean drive – restart and

setenv netaddr 192.168.1.118
setenv notape 1
boot -f bootp()192.168.111.9:/path/to/diskimage/stand/sash.IP12
install -n

for some reasoon, this didnt work too well for me, it kept looking for /dev/tape and I couldnt trick it by setenv tapedevice /path/to/diskimage =(

in this case, just select option 2, install the os.
are you using remote tape [y/n] : n
enter the hostname:directory – 192.168.1.119:/path/to/diskimage/dist

once you have the miniroot, and inst running, you should be able to select additional distributions by setting the ‘from’ to /path/to/disk2image/dist, as appropriate.

HINTS:
This assumes the server is IP 192.168.1.119, and the client is 192.168.1.118
It also assumes you have copied the IRIX 5.3 disc from /CDROM to /cds/irix53/ on the server.
BOOTP wont work across a router, but if you can NFS mount the files across the router, you could establish a nearby BOOTP server on the local segment.
In order to edit the files, especially on a text console, a quick ‘man vi’ should help
serial port settings are often 9600-8n1 no flow control, see ‘man serial’

LINKS:

• Installing IRIX over a Network
• Installing IRIX via Network with a Linux Server

securing IRIX (more 6.5.xx specific, but still useful)
http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/resources/IRIX_65.html
http://sgistuff.g-lenerz.de/tips/security.php
http://www.siliconbunny.com/irix-security/

Note that I got it working by also installing a clean AMP – Apache, MySQL and PHP server, and using Ruby Gems to add RoR support. It is possible to run Ruby without the Apache, the built in WEBrick server runs on port :3000 but you can use both simultaneously.

The cheat sheet graphic comes from https://kaul.inf.fh-brs.de

Installing Ruby on Rails in Ubuntu

Create a blog using Ruby on Rails in 15 steps (+5 more if you want AJAX)
this tutorial is pretty reasonable, but there are a few filename typos, and you will need to checkout the comments to fix the odd errata or two…

Total time to get it all working: 2h40 mins

BlueOnyx ISO latest .torrent

hint: you may need to “Save As” the .torrent file to your machine (a 25KB size) and load it into your client manually from your local copy

The files are initially being seeded from the UK, and download speeds may be restrictive at first – hopefully before long, it is anticipated that more seeders will join in, and the response times will improve drastically!

PLEASE be responsible – if your bit torrent client is firewalled, meaning you can only leech and not reseed, please consider just downloading the ISO instead, direct from http://blueonyx.it or a mirror!

Im sick of losing machines, and having to reinstall from scratch, so if all goes well on this project, I will be able to run my blade server without even thinkiing about how to set each one up, beyond configuring each blade to boot from the Lan instead of the local hard drive, and instead concentrate on maintaining just the one central server.

Before you cry Single Point Of Failure – and it is, my comeback is that instead of having to make each server resilient, I only have to harden the one, saving time effort, and computer resources. Backups are essential, so I will have a remote machine rsync essential data on a CRON schedule. I will also improve the resilience of the server itself. This can be accomplished by having a couple of spare ethernet interfaces, a bit of software RAID (mirroring the partitions) and optionally a redundant hot/warm spare or even offline server knocking about will do for my purposes =)

To get an LTSP server running on an existing system running Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu (which has an LTSP install option) or even Edubuntu, which sets up LTSP by default, you will need to set up a static Ethernet interface where you will attach the thin clients, install two packages and run a single command.

On the server (it can be a desktop, but for this scenario lets call it the server) configure your static / spare interface for the thin clients to have
the IP 192.168.1.1, then follow the instructions below.

sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server

Create your Thin Client environment on the server with.

sudo ltsp-build-client

After that, you will be able to boot your first thin client. Note that
if you want to use another IP than the above, you need to edit the
/etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf

file to match the IP values and restart the dhcp server. If the IP changes (shame on you for not using IP aliases with IP/MAC address takeover tut tut) after you have done the initial setup, run
sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys

to make the ssh server aware of the change.

nb The ltsp-utils package from universe (for dapper) is for a different ltsp version, installing them together will break, so I gather. Maybe worth avoiding that, unless you have a test machine you can experiment on.

Its more than simply a horizontal touch screen desktop, as it can recognise & communicate with the (mobile / data) devices placed on it. Words don’t do it justice, so please watch the video.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

Yes, I know, a Microsoft oriented post here *gasp!*.

It only merits mention as an example of how interfaces are changing, that computers are evolving beyond the humble, uh… desktop.

With the motion sensors in the WiiMote, multi-touch and motion sensory devices from Apple, and new style desktops like KDE 4, im sure this is only the tip of a proverbial iceberg.

My prediction for the future is that if Asus ever launch the k-eee-yboard, that will be one gadget I can’t resist.

Sure enough, this link is more applicable to a business or office IT & IS staff who are looking at alternatives to the PSTN / PBX, analog phone system, who maybe considering software solutions such as glorified instant messenger applications.

Doesn’t seem project-ish enough for this blog, so maybe one day I wil get a SIP compatible phone set and set up an Asterix VoIP server! Until then thats all I have for tonight!

Of course, It probably wont be long until we are seeing Oracle branded servers…
(I, for one, welcome the new corporate overlords)