Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

kazaly wrote: @pympblesoftware

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll pickup a null modem cable and run hyperterminal for diagnostics.
On another tack, I've been looking thru the wiki monitor list and noticed the Samsung multisyncs.
Will [i]any [/i] SOG monitor work or are there other considerations?
I need a larger lcd for other applications but if I could use it to first set up the toaster that would be a bonus.
This one on e-bay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Samsung-Syncmaster-2243BWX-22-16-10-LCD-Monitor-5-ms-Excellent-Condition-/260918596150?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_Monitors&hash=item3cbff5d236#shId
Here's the manual link http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200905/20090526185745109/BN59-00950A-02Eng.pdf

I think most that can sync on green and in the range that SGIs put out, it will work. SGI branded monitors are a sure thing but I've had a few of the 20inch SGI rebranded Sony Trinatrons die on me (Dried out capacitors). Although a bit of hassle with MLAs, , FPAs, etc, your SGI 1600SW monitor is an excellent match for O2s, I think. If a monitor is sync on green and it doesn't work you would be pretty unlucky. I leave it up to the rest of the forum to discuss the merits of that particular model Samsung. I happen to be waiting on fx.64 to partition a 146Gb disk, on a quad 1GHz Tezro displaying on a Samsung SyncMaster 710T, but that is not a recommendation from me.

kazaly wrote: I must say R. you have been incredibly helpful and your equipment is just mindbending!

Cheers
Col

Aw shucks. Thanks. Someone said something like, want a punch then throw a punch. I try to be tolerant and as helpful as some here have been towards me... I hope I get the assistance I need with the "dead" o300 i have just been handed. I suspect from the fault report it will potentially make the serial mismatch issue seem like a cake walk.

R.

PymbleSoftware wrote: I happen to be waiting on fx.64 to partition a 146Gb disk, on a quad 1GHz Tezro displaying on a Samsung SyncMaster 710T, but that is not a recommendation from me.

You're such a tease, Regan. "Oh that old thing, that's just my five rack Reality Monster..."

smj wrote:

PymbleSoftware wrote: I happen to be waiting on fx.64 to partition a 146Gb disk, on a quad 1GHz Tezro displaying on a Samsung SyncMaster 710T, but that is not a recommendation from me.

You're such a tease, Regan. "Oh that old thing, that's just my five rack Reality Monster..."

No that would have been walnutwhen he was around on the forums.

R.

PymbleSoftware wrote:

smj wrote:

PymbleSoftware wrote: I happen to be waiting on fx.64 to partition a 146Gb disk, on a quad 1GHz Tezro displaying on a Samsung SyncMaster 710T, but that is not a recommendation from me.

You're such a tease, Regan. "Oh that old thing, that's just my five rack Reality Monster..."

No that would have been walnutwhen he was around on the forums.

R.

But weren't you the one with the "does anyone know what you can do with a 128-processor Origin3000?" Perhaps not a RealityMonster, but close.

SAQ wrote:

PymbleSoftware wrote:

smj wrote:

PymbleSoftware wrote: I happen to be waiting on fx.64 to partition a 146Gb disk, on a quad 1GHz Tezro displaying on a Samsung SyncMaster 710T, but that is not a recommendation from me.

You're such a tease, Regan. "Oh that old thing, that's just my five rack Reality Monster..."

No that would have been walnutwhen he was around on the forums.

R.

But weren't you the one with the "does anyone know what you can do with a 128-processor Origin3000?" Perhaps not a RealityMonster, but close.

That machine was about as far from me as New York is from Miami. I did consider it but I did not have the space or money to ship it and I would have had to upgrade the power again to run it or find somewhere to house it. I think it was scraped

R.

Hi all and a happy new year!
Well I finally got a Samsung SOG monitor and found a system screen:
welcome to o2 .... (and have a nice day??)
start, install, run diags, recover sys, command monitor and keybrd layout.
It's alive!
The cd drive still won't stay closed so I guess I'll be on the spanners soon.
Maybe my keyboard is non-functional too ... hmmm ... enter key works in command line enviro but no letter keys.
Start gives me:
"Boot file not found on device: scs1(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(8)/sash
autoboot failed"
Diagnostics gives:
"Checking for distrib cd-rom on pci(0)scsi(0)cdrom(4)
dks0d4s8: drive not ready: media not present
ditto: drive not ready
Distrib cdrom not found. Booting installed IDE. Diagnostic tools not found.
Unable to continue"
So, after I get the cd drive going, it seems I'll need to load a distribution.
This would be the foundation disks I'm guessing?
I've now got 6.5 disks 1 and 2.
On another note, and totally separate from the above, I understand that cd-rom headers need to be specific for SGI.
Are there any tutes on the site about this?
I'll hunt up a PS2 keyboard tomorrow and take a look at the cd drive.
Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated round about now lol.

You'll need either the "Installation Tools, June 1998" or (better) an "Installation Tools and Overlays, Disk 1" to boot the machine into the miniroot (think of it as a small, limited "Live CD"). The "Foundations 1&2" disks have your base IRIX 6.5 on them, and the Applications disk has various demos, applications that make your life easier, and a chunk of the desktop. The Overlays disks are similar to "service packs" in Windows, containing updated versions of files that have changed in the releases of IRIX since 6.5(.0). You can download the 6.5.22 overlays free from SGI (support.sgi.com).

Other disks you might want that shipped in the full IRIX 6.5.x sofware library are:

Irix Development Foundations/ IRIX development libraries - these are headers and tools (but not a compiler) for building programs on IRIX.
ONC3/NFS v3 for IRIX 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5. NFS - pretty self explanatory.

@ SAQ, Thanks very much for that, I have the 6.5.3 overlays n tools which came with the flat panel adapter.
As soon as I have a working cd drive they will be used as I need to do the pre-installation setup for 1600SW FPA.
I have also downloaded 6.5.22 overlays from SGI as well but have not as yet mastered the cd formatting techniques (still looking at the tute).
The development foundations and libraries would be a must have so I'll get to looking for those.
Do you have any specific recommendations about good compilers?
Thanks very much for your help, I really appreciate the support.
IRIX on SGI is a pretty steep learning curve for a newb!

If you have a machine that can run VMware Player, I'd recommend using DINA for installing overlays, clean IRIX installs, or nekoware over the network. Guide here: Using DINA for network installation of IRIX

Installing some overlays from CD probably isn't so bad. Installing all of IRIX from CD is a pain - so many disc swaps... But in this case, you could avoid having to put the .22 overlays on CD at all.

@ smj - thanks for that, I had been thinking along those lines and I can easily link a laptop to the o2.
I'll follow your link and see where it takes me ... hopefully to a functional machine

FWIW, DINA will work with VirtualBox also (but the initial setup is less .. automatic).

(I've updated the wiki to mention tingo's success with VirtualBox.)