This guide explains how to use the system-level IRIX® utilities available with IRIS® workstations and servers to set up and maintain peripheral devices, such as terminals, modems, printers, and CD-ROM and tape drives.
If you have a graphics workstation, you may find it convenient to use the System Manager, which is described in the Personal System Administration Guide. That guide should be your first resource for administering graphics workstations. Regardless of whether you use the System Manager or the IRIX command-line interface, the results are the same. The System Manager does not create any new files on your system, unlike applications such as WorkSpace™.
If you have a server, this book and the other books in the IRIX Admin suite are your primary guides to system administration, since without graphics, you cannot use the System Manager. This guide does not describe the System Manager in great detail. Instead, it covers the traditional shell command approach to administering peripherals with the IRIX operating system.
IRIX Admin: Peripheral Devices contains the following chapters:
| Chapter 1 | “Terminals and Modems” describes how to set up and maintain serial terminals and modems. | |
| Chapter 2 | “Printers” provides instruction on the installation and maintenance of local and networked printers. | |
| Chapter 3 | “CD-ROM, Floptical, and Floppy Disk Drives” describes the setup and maintenance of CD-ROM and floppy drives. | |
| Chapter 4 | “Tape Drives” lists the steps to add, maintain, and use tape drives. | |
| Chapter 5 | “Troubleshooting” provides general problem-solving information and check-out procedures. Also, it describes specific problems that can occur with peripheral devices and suggests what you can do to correct them. | |
| Appendix A | “Error Messages” lists error messages, their meanings, and what you should do about them. | |
| Appendix B | “Peripheral Device Files” contains a list of peripheral device files and directories that reside in the /dev directory. |
These type conventions and symbols are used in this guide:
| Helvetica Bold | Hardware labels | |
| Italics | Executable names, filenames, IRIX commands, manual/book titles, new terms, program variables, tools, utilities, variable command-line arguments, and variables to be supplied by the user in examples, code, and syntax statements | |
| Fixed-width type |
| |
| Bold fixed-width type |
| |
| “” | (Double quotation marks) References in text to document section titles | |
| () | (Parentheses) Following IRIX commands—surround reference page (man page) section number | |
| [] | (Brackets) Surrounding optional syntax statement arguments | |
| <> | (Angle brackets) Surrounding nonprinting keyboard keys, for example, <Esc>, <Ctrl-D> | |
| # | IRIX shell prompt for the superuser (root) | |
| % | IRIX shell prompt for users other than superuser |
Following are additional resources that may be beneficial in providing information about the UNIX® operating system and its administration.
Bach, M., The Design of the UNIX Operating System (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986).
Fiedler, D., and B. Hunter, UNIX System V Release 4 Administration (Carmel, IN: Hayden Books, 1991).
Frisch, A., Essential System Administration. (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1991).
Gilly, D., UNIX in a Nutshell. (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1992).
Hunt, C., TCP/IP Network Administration. (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1992).
Leffler, S., The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System. (Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley, 1989).
Nemeth, E., G. Snyder, and S. Sebass, UNIX System Administration Handbook (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989).
Thomas, R., UNIX System Administration Guide for System V. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989).
Todino, G., and T. O'Reilly, Managing UUCP and Usenet (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1992)