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SGI IRIS 1000 Troubleshooting Guide

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SGI IRIS system in a Silicon Graphics advertisement (Computer Design, April 1984)
An IRIS terminal or workstation of 1984 (Silicon Graphics advertisement, Computer Design, April 1984)

Fault-finding on the SGI IRIS 1000 series, from SGI's field-service technical aids of 1984 and 1985 for the 1000, 1200 and 1400, reproduced in its later 68020 training course, and from sgistuff.net.[1][2] No SGI diagnostic manual for these machines has been found.

Configuration switch

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The configuration switch on the I/O panel sets the serial line speed, the start-up tests and the boot device. The PM1 board has its own switch, ORed with the panel switch, which must be set all open except position 1 (see SGI IRIS 1000 General Maintenance#PM1 switch).[3] SGI's 1984 technical aid gives the panel positions as follows (1 = open, 0 = closed):[3]

IRIS 1000 and 1200 configuration switch (SGI GEN-009)
Panel position Function Settings
1 Reserved Leave open
2, 3 Serial line speed 00: 300 baud; 01: 19,200; 10: 1200; 11: 9600
5 Checkout 0: no additional testing; 1: additional (slow) memory testing
6, 7 Boot environment 00: floppy disk; 01: PROM monitor; 10: network; 11: IRIS terminal software over the serial line
8 Keyboard port 0: up/down encoded keyboard; 1: 9600-baud ASCII terminal
9 Progress codes 0: none; 1: the status digit changes at points in the start-up sequence

[3] A "silent" setting, available only on the PM1 board's switch, controls whether the start-up configuration (switch values, memory size and I/O addresses) is reported.[3] sgistuff.net gives a different layout for the terminal's switches, with checkout on switch 4 and the boot environment on switches 5 to 9, including network, serial line and IEEE-488 boot; it does not say which PROM version it describes.[2] Turning on the progress codes is a quick way to see how far a machine gets before it stops.[3]

Keyboard lock-up

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A keyboard that locks up, beeping, with every LED lit except "online", is receiving an ASCII error message meant for a terminal on port 1. SGI's method for reading the messages is a three-way cable, built from 25-pin connectors, that puts an ASCII terminal on port 1 alongside the colour monitor; technical aid GEN-012 gives its wiring. With the cable fitted, unplug the keyboard from the monitor, reboot and read the messages, including graphics errors, on the terminal.[4]

1400 disks

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  • SGI's quick test of a 1400 disk, in single-user mode after fsck: dd if=/dev/rmd0a of=/dev/null bs=119k conv=sync,noerror count=150 (about 2 minutes), then the same with /dev/rmd0c and count=670 (about 5 minutes). Any read, write or access error, even once, or unequal input and output record counts, mean trouble; check the DSD controller board and cables first.[5]
  • A drive that cannot be booted can be tested and recovered by connecting a spare drive with a bootable system as drive 1 and booting from it with d md(1,)unix1; SGI's technical aid gives the cabling and the steps.[5]
  • SGI advised field engineers in 1984 not to format disks in the field, because formatting needs many hours of testing afterwards and the fex utility can erase the disk.[5] Its later procedure for reformatting and restoring a disk with mdfex covers the 1400 and 1500 (GEN-030).[6]
  • A high-pitched noise from a Vertex drive, sometimes followed by data loss, comes from the spindle grounding strap vibrating; see SGI IRIS 1000 General Maintenance#Mouse and 1400 drives. SGI said not to replace the drive for this.[7]
  • A Vertex V100 that recalibrates continuously and will not boot may have its configuration DIP switch fitted backwards in socket J6.[8]

1400 tape

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  • Before updating a 1400 to software release 1.7, power it on and look at the LED on the tape drive. If it stays on all the time, the drive is at the wrong revision and must be replaced first.[9]
  • Cartridges sticking in the Wangtek drive: the drive was set up for 3M cartridges, at the other end of the ANSI specification from the DEI cartridges SGI was buying. Test with a newer cartridge (DEI part number suffix -03, three screws on the back instead of four) before replacing the drive.[10]
  • "Cannot open" errors from the tape drive: check its two power cables, the ribbon cable, the DSD board and that a tape is inserted, then check that /dev/mt1, /dev/rmt1 and /dev/qic0 exist and are linked to each other (three links each).[11]
  • On GL1 and GL2 release 2.1 and later, if the tape drive's access LED stays lit after an operation, eject the tape and type smt rew before using the drive again, or the system may hang.[12]

Other problems

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  • Some PM2 boards in the 1400 reboot by themselves at power-on, because they respond to unexpected interrupts from the mouse. SGI said this is acceptable and the board should not be replaced.[13]
  • With release 1.7, the Sky floating-point board diagnostic can report fload: board test failure when the board is working; SGI said to ignore that message.[14]
  • An RS-232 device that hangs the system at boot: connect and switch it on before booting, or use a three-wire null modem cable, which SGI preferred; for the 1000 series SGI points to Appendix H of the IRIS Workstation Guide.[15]
  • Host software that needs DTR on port 2 of an early 1000 or 1200: see SGI IRIS 1000 General Maintenance#Port 2 DTR.[16]
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References

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  1. ↑ Silicon Graphics, IRIS Workstation Course, 68020 Based, Student Workbook part 2, lesson 7 technical aids (File:SGI IRIS Workstation Course 68020 Based Student Workbook Part 2.pdf).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gerhard Lenerz, "IRIS 1000", sgistuff.net, section "DIP Switches", sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/iris1000.html (retrieved 22 October 2026).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-009, "PM1 Board Switch Settings", IRIS 1000 and 1200, 7 February 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  4. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-012, "Keyboard lockup", IRIS 1000 and 1200, 4 October 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-016 R1, "Testing hard disk drives", 1400, 18 January 1984, revised 1 October 1984, pages 1 to 4, in Student Workbook part 2.
  6. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-030 R1, "Disk Drive Restoration Procedure", models 1400, 1500, 2400 and 2500, 10 October 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  7. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-020, "High pitched noise from hard disk", 1400, 21 August 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  8. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid IO-006, "Vertex V100 Drive Configuration Dipswitch", 1400, 12 July 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  9. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-017, "Tape Drive and Release 1.7", 1400, 13 August 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  10. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-024 R1, "Tape Cartridges", 1400, 7 November 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  11. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid IO-010, "Unable to access tape drive", 1400, 27 August 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  12. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-029, "Tape drive errors", GL1-W2.1 and GL2-W2.1, 29 March 1985, in Student Workbook part 2.
  13. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid GEN-019, "Auto reboot in progress", 1400, 21 August 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  14. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid DIAG-001, "Sky Board Diagnostics", 1400, 27 August 1984, revised 4 October 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.
  15. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid IO-019, "RS-232 devices are hanging the system during boot", 14 May 1986, in Student Workbook part 2.
  16. ↑ SGI Field Engineering, Technical Aid I/O-002, "Serial Port (DTR)", IRIS 1000 and 1200, 18 January 1984, in Student Workbook part 2.


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