On Wed, Jan 14, 1998 at 03:50:22PM -0800, William Ellis wrote:

I'm working with a Challenge S, R5000 (Allegedly the same
hardware as an Indy without a graphics card)

Initially booting via tftp with various errors, I am
now trying to just get the sash boot -f to work.
I have tried several of the applicable precompiled kernels 
at ftp.linux.sgi.com/pub/test all with similar errors:

Standalone Shell SGI Version 6.2 ARCS   Mar  9, 1996 (32 Bit)
sash: boot -f /vmlinux root=/dev/sda1
1278928+236160 entry: 0x8800250c
newport_probe: read back wrong value ;-(

What is the newport_probe?  The only non-stock thing about
the machine is it has a fddi card in it, (which I do not
need to get going for linux).  Could this error be an effect
of the fddi card being present, or that there is no graphics
card present?  Or am I missing something else all together?

No, the FDDI card is just being ignored by Linux.  The problem is
indeed the fact that the newport GFX card isn't installed.  I'll
take a look at it when I have time for more than one breath
per minute ...

Thinking about it, the kernel should only try to touch the gfx hardware
at all, if the ARC environment variable ``console'' is unset.  If you
want to run from a serial console, then the variable's value should be
either ``d1'' or ``d2'' for the first rsp. second serial interface.
I suppose IRIX just defaults to serial console because it knows that
a Challenge S is headless or after a failed probe for gfx hardware.

William, what is the recommended way to recognice whethere a machine
is a Indy or Challenge S?  Probing for a GFX card or checking via
ARC firmware?

  Ralf