From: hunter@bacchus.esa.oz.au (James Gardiner [Hunter])
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: How to build a System-Disk ??
Date: 27 Aug 92 03:53:53 GMT
Organization: none

In <optf0ac@zuni.esd.sgi.com> olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:

>In <1992Aug19.030638.667@bacchus.esa.oz.au> hunter@bacchus.esa.oz.au (James Gardiner [Hunter]) writes:
>| Another comment to SGI here.
>| PLEASE put in the index
>| HOW TO INITALISE A NEW HARD DISK chapter
>| Make sure you put instructions on how to use the Disk initialise program.

>Unlikely, since it is so rare a requirement, and such a pain to
rare but it does happen.
>really handle all of the possibilities.  The theory is that if
>you are savvy enough to buy your own disks (and cheat us out of
>our profits ;) ) that you know how to do it or find it yourself...
I see your point.

>"apropos disk" yields a fairly short list, so there shouldn't
>be very many false starts.  Putting it into the installation
But. how do I do an apropos when my Indigo is still in bits....???

>guide isn't likely to be viewed with favor, as it is already
>too long and complicated (as many of you have posted).  It is
>hard to be both simple and thorough.
Well I understand how it could be long and complicated to write about
but my main beef is that I had to search the manual cover to cover
defore I stumbled over it.   A small little entry in the index would
have been great.  A one liner to the area of the manual in question.
Is that too much to ask.

>| Also, another problem I had is that I made 4 partitions when I init the disk.
>| /
>| /usr
>| /home
>| /tmp
>| plus a swap.
>| on a 1gig WREN VII
>| 
>| Then when I started to load the OS, the bloody inst program would ONLY
>| see and load the OS on to a set partitions.  THE WRONG PARTITIONS.

>No, it *defaults* to a known set of partitions.  If you want
>others, you need to tell it so.  In fact, with the setup you
>listed above, the default should work just fine, as nothing
>should be installed into /tmp or /home.  Of course, if you
>chose to use something other than partition 6 for /usr, you
>have to work at it a bit, but it is pretty simple nonetheless.

>| The only way around this was to make the partitons it wanted to
>| use as / and /usr (mainly where it chose /usr) was to run the disk
>| init program again and change the partition table to what it liked.
>| BLOODY ANNOYING.

>See above.  If you want to be different and choose other than
>default partitions for the system disk, you have to expect to
>do some work to compensate.
I'm sorry if I expected to be as easy as my old sun...   ;)

>| Also, the other /home and /tmp partitions.
>| I had to make the devices BY HAND.  I suppose thats no big deal but
>| it took me a long while to figure out how IRIX did its devices.
>| What about a MAKEDEV script or similar????

>See /dev/MAKEDEV.  We don't bother to make 'unused' partitions
>any longer, because we were wasting literally hundreds of inodes
>on the root partition, and customers were running out of inodes
>before they ran out of space.
I had a look for this but it was not there.  I must have over looked it
some how.  This was a while back now.  Once it all works you tend to
forget about it.

>| Thank god I have a little experience with this stuff.  Otherwise
>| I wouldn't have a hope...  All I can say is poor
>| average Joh Blow who has not a clue.

>And could care less, since he would have just used the defaults.
>It is tough to go half way, as you find out.  You either know a
>little and use the defaults, or know (or learn) a lot.
Sorry but defaults just dont cut it.  For every situation 
development/cad/dtp/vid work different swap etc are required.
Falling back on defaults does not sound very professional to me.
For example, I pumped up the swap 20-30 meg over default.  Today I wish
I pushed it up another 20-30 over that.

>I'm not being sarcastic above, but honest.  There are only so many
>people in the company to write code, scripts, and documentation, and
>none of us want to spend a lot of effort on something that benefits
>relatively few people, when there are so many other things to be done
>that benefit quite a few people.  It is all a matter of resources and
>priorities.
I understand your problem especially as your range is advancing and
changing so fast.  Its just that I thought small things like this would
have been worked out years ago in the early OS.
>--
>Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
>because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
>    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Gardiner [Hunter]  [hunter@bacchus.esa.oz.au] Expert Solutions Australia
Systems Administrator                                        ACN [003 130 434]