The computer runs power-on diagnostics and displays some copyright messages and some system startup information. These messages appear on the console screen or on the screen of a diagnostics terminal (an ASCII terminal connected to the first serial port) of a server. A copy of these messages is also written to the /var/adm/SYSLOG file in case you miss them.
If you are restarting the system after a power loss or some other unexpected shutdown, you may see an error message regarding your SCSI bus or other hardware problem. This may be a temporary condition based on the disks' need to spin up to using speed or the SCSI bus may simply need a moment to reset itself. Wait 30 seconds and attempt to boot the operating system again.
If the operating system determines that the file systems need checking, it checks them with the fsck program. fsck fixes any problems it finds before the operating system mounts the file systems. fsck will run if the system is not shut down properly, such as in the event of a power failure. For information about using fsck, see the IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems guide and the fsck(1M) reference page. Note that it is not necessarily a problem if fsck runs, it is merely a precaution.
The system now comes up in multiuser mode and you can log in. You should leave your system running at all times. The IRIX operating system works best when it is allowed to run continuously, so that scheduled operations and ''housekeeping'' processes can be performed on schedule.