Copyright (c)  2005  Jiann-Ming Su.
      Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
      under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
      or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
      with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
      Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
      Free Documentation License".

Installing Debian on SGI O2

http://www.cyrius.com/debian/o2/

  1. Add an entry in /etc/dhcpd.master on the dhcp server for the O2. 
    host o2 {
        option tftp-server-name "10.1.9.26";
        next-server 10.1.9.26;
        filename "/var/boot/jms/o2-boot.img";
        hardware ethernet 08:00:69:0E:94:CF;
        fixed-address 192.168.122.147;
        }
  2. Download the o2-boot.img from the above link to the location on the tftp server listed in filename.
  3. Power on the O2. Click on the Stop for Maintenance button.
  4. Then click on Enter Command Monitor. At the prompt type: 
    unsetenv netaddr
bootp():
  5. The debian installer should boot... Most selections should be obvious.
  6. Choose a language. English only if you are using the serial console. Credit to Martin Michlmayr for pointing this out. 
                            |                             |                         
                        | Choose a language:          |                         
                        |                             |                         
                        |  Albanian               #   |                         
                        |  Arabic                 #   |                         
                        |  Basque                 #   |                         
                        |  Bosnian                #   |                         
                        |  Bulgarian              #   |                         
                        |  Catalan                #   |                         
                        |  Chinese (Simplified)   #   |                         
                        |  Chinese (Traditional)  #   |                         
                        |  Croatian               #   |                         
                        |  Czech                  #   |                         
                        |  Danish                 #   |                         
                        |  Dutch                  #   |                         
                        |  English                #   |                         
                        |                             |                         
                        |                             |                         
                        |                             |
  7. Choose a country 
      |                                                                         |   
  | Based on your language, you are probably located in one of these        |   
  | countries or regions.                                                   |   
  |                                                                         |   
  | Choose a country, territory or area:                                    |   
  |                                                                         |   
  |                            Denmark         #                            |   
  |                            Hong Kong       #                            |   
  |                            India           #                            |   
  |                            Ireland         #                            |   
  |                            New Zealand     #                            |   
  |                            Philippines     #                            |   
  |                            Singapore       #                            |   
  |                            South Africa    #                            |   
  |                            United Kingdom  #                            |   
  |                            United States   #                            |   
  |                                                                         |   
  |     <Go Back>                                                           |   
  |                                                                         |
  8. In graphical install, it may complain about the keyboard layout. Ignore the error and skip to Detect network hardware and select eth0.
  9. Configure the network... dhcp should work automagically based on the previous steps.
  10. Select a convenient mirror.
  11. All relevant modules are compiled in. Select Yes to continue without loading modules. 
       |                                                                       |    
   | No kernel modules were found. This probably is due to a mismatch      |    
   | between the kernel used by this version of the installer and the      |    
   | kernel version available in the archive.                              |    
   |                                                                       |    
   | If you're installing from a mirror, you can work around this problem  |    
   | by choosing to install a different version of Debian. The install     |    
   | will probably fail to work if you continue without kernel modules.    |    
   |                                                                       |    
   | Continue the install without loading kernel modules?                  |    
   |                                                                       |    
   |     <Go Back>                                       <Yes>    <No>     |    
   |                                                                       |
  12. Partition the disk. This step is very important. The GUI does not partition the disks properly, so the disk(s) need to be partitioned manually.
  13. After partitioning, the base system should install over the network.
  14. Finishing the installation.
  15. Install the bootloader manually. Select Excute a shell 
               |                                                       |            
           | This is the main menu for the Debian installer.       |            
           |                                                       |            
           | Choose the next step in the install process:          |            
           |                                                       |            
           |       Detect hardware                        #        |            
           |       Partition disks                        #        |            
           |       Partition a hard drive                 #        |            
           |       Configure and mount partitions         #        |            
           |       Install the base system                #        |            
           |       Continue without boot loader           #        |            
           |       Finish the installation                #        |            
           |       Change debconf priority                #        |            
           |       Save debug logs                        #        |            
           |       Execute a shell                        #        |            
           |       Abort the installation                 #        |            
           |                                                       |
  16. Making Linux boot automatically. In System Maintenance Menu, select Enter Command Monitor. The OSLoadFilename environment variable should match the label= from the previous step. If arcboot installed automatically for you, just cut and paste the lines from Setting PROM variables for Arcboot dialog. It is case sensitive. 
                             Running power-on diagnostics...                        
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                           Starting up the system...                            
                                                                                
               To perform system maintenance instead, press <Esc>               
                                                                                
                                                                                
System Maintenance Menu                                                         
                                                                                
1) Start System                                                                 
2) Install System Software                                                      
3) Run Diagnostics                                                              
4) Recover System                                                               
5) Enter Command Monitor                                                        
                                                                                
Option? 5
Command Monitor.  Type "exit" to return to the menu.                            
> setenv OSLoader arcboot
> setenv SystemPartition scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(8)                     
> setenv OSLoadPartition scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(0)
> setenv OSLoadFilename linux 
> exit
  17. Debian should be configured as you see fit. Here's a useful /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file. The important thing is using color depth of 15.