On Silicon Graphics Indy systems (and possibly Indigo 2 & Challenge S) there is an issue with the netboot image that causes the keyboard to not function. Symptoms: Inside the PROM, the keyboard works fine, allowing the system to boot. Once the netboot image is loaded, any keystrokes (including pressing Num Lock) are ignored -- as if no keyboard was present. The keyboard is known to function. The system is running -- as pressing the POWER button puts it into a shutdown, however it's impossible to interact with the system directly. How to reproduce: 1. Download the latest netboot from http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/netboot/ip22/ip22-r4k-20050128.img.bz2 (or r5k) into your tftpboot directory. 2. Set up everything as per the Gentoo/MIPS Guide 3. Boot the Indy using: bootp:() root=/dev/ram0 After a few seconds... the following is displayed... > init started: BusyBox v1.00 (2005.01.26-17:53+0000) multi-call binary > > Gentoo Linux; http://www.gentoo.org/ > Copyright 2001-2005 Gentoo Foundation; Distributed under the GPL > > Gentoo/MIPS Netboot for SGI Indy Machines > Build Date: January 26, 2005 > > * To configure networking, do the following: > > * For Static IP: > * /bin/net-setup <IP Address> <Gateway Address> [telnet] > > * For Dynamic IP: > * /bin/net-setup dhcp [telnet] > > * If you would like a telnetd daemon loaded as well, pass "telnet" > * As the final argument to /bin/net-setup > > > Please press ENTER to activate this console. 4. Attempt pressing ENTER as suggested, or any other keys. Expected Result -- I'm dropped to a shell where I can begin installing Gentoo. Actual Result -- All keystrokes are ignored, pressing ENTER does not yeild a prompt. Pressing the POWER button causes the POWER LED to flash green/red and the system to shut down. Workaround -- For the moment, please use the 2004-06-27 netboot, which can be downloaded from http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/netboot/ip22/old/ We are currently trying to find a work-around this problem, but in the meantime, please use the earlier netboot. I'm unable to confirm this behaviour on serial console -- those who can, please post your success here. If there are any questions, either ask on the gentoo-mips mailing list, or pop into #gentoo-mips on IRC.
An update on the situation... I've just managed to hack together a netboot image based on Linux 2.4.29-mipscvs-20050306. As far as I can tell, everything is working as it should, but it would be great if others could download and test this netboot image. About the only thing that doesn't appear to work is the telnet daemon, for reasons unknown at this stage -- but I'll work on that. You may find the image here: http://www.longlandclan.hopto.org/~stuartl/mips-linux/sgi/ip22/r4k/netboots/ I've provided MD5sums and GPG signatures for verification purposes.
As far as I know, this bug is fixed -- to the point that I can achieve. I'll look into making an R5k image to go with the R4k image I've made, however I'm unable to test such an image as I lack the appropriate hardware to test it on. Marking as RESOLVED/TEST-REQUEST until further notice.
