Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

lmao..

when LINUX came out, well when I first got to use slackware, I have always called it LINE-UX, whereas most call it LIN-UX (they are probably right), but I think LOOOON-IX is possible the best one.

Do you know what version of Irix you've got on the box? Which brings to mind something I've always wondered about, who's the moron responsible for not making `uname` be able to run from the command monitor? Erm, I meant "from the PROM."

6.5 is my best guess. I think 6.5.22 (for some reason that's the number I am recalling.) I'll confirm when I get home.

I see an Xsgi there, it's just not in the right order.

I see an Xsgi there, it's just not in the right order.

Ah - so there is. All the way to the right.

Strange.

Just a quick question - and this is just so I can stop wondering. Anybody use the NEC 1770vx as their display? The 1770nx is confirmed working and the vx has SyncOnGreen functionality, just wondering if the blank screen I'm seeing after running startx could be a sync problem?

Granted, X should ideally start automatically, and it isn't.

Just wanted to throw that out there to rule it out before I go further.

All versions of 6.5.x will say 6.5 when you do 'uname -a'. On IRIX you need to do 'uname -aR' to see the version that is installed. (It does that because the history of IRIX was that releases were always just as major.minor, so scripts that parsed `uname -a` expected that same pattern. But 6.5 started quarterly releases and needed some way to number them.)

If you get a blank screen when X starts, the display mode may be incompatible with your system or monitor. You can use "setmon -x <mode>" from the single-user runlevel (which is reached by giving the "single" command to the PROM Monitor) to save a display mode for all future X starts.

That's a good point; Xsgi and 4Dwm/toolchest could be running but at a resolution/refresh rate that the monitor can't handle. Try setting it to something sedate like 1024x768 at 60Hz. I'm at work ATM but I'll check the proper syntax for setting that when I get to my Octane later tonight...

ClassicHasClass wrote: I see an Xsgi there, it's just not in the right order.

Sharp eyes So it appears that 'single user' mode is not case sensitive ?

vishnu wrote: That's a good point; Xsgi and 4Dwm/toolchest could be running but at a resolution/refresh rate that the monitor can't handle.

Will TOP run in single-user ?

If you have another box running X, you could try to log in remotely. That's a little more comfortable.

the syntax is: setmon [options] horizontal x vertical _ refreshrate
so a safe bet would be:

Hm. setmon doesn't seem to resolve the problem. The version I'm running is 6.5.29f

bushnrvn wrote: Hm. setmon doesn't seem to resolve the problem. The version I'm running is 6.5.29f

setmon -x only takes effect upon the next attempted start of Xsgi, so (for example) you'd have to log out and then back in again. setmon -n takes effect immediately, but is only temporary for that session. Once you log out the resolution will go back to what it was previously once you log in again. setmon -x changes the resolution permanently, or, at least until you deliberately change it to something else. If you use setmon -x and don't want to log out and in again, you can do /usr/gfx/stopgfx followed by /usr/gfx/startgfx to achieve the same effect. So give that a try, either setmon -n for immediate effect or setmon -x followed by a restart of the xserver.

Update - a friend was surprised to hear that I had picked one of these up. It should be sufficient to say, they might be able to help me fix this installation of IRIX the easy way.

I am heading out of town for the rest of the week, so I might not be able to test until next week. Thanks.

bushnrvn wrote: I've attached a screen cap of the boot messages. The services you've indicated are on. I am only able to check them in single user mode. Am I supposed to be able to interact with the machine at the System is ready message? It seems like the machine is lying in wait for some outside communication.

How long have you been willing to wait at that stage? Is there any sound of disk activity while you wait? If this machine had been set up as a headless system it may also be looking for network mounts and take a while to time-out. What can you see in /etc/fstab?

If it was running headless it might be worth poking around to see whether a desktop was being exported rather than set up for local display (maybe /var/X11/xdm/Xservers and other files in that directory for clues).

What does "hinv -v" tell you? (the fact that you get as far as single user shows the hardware is largely OK but the H/W config might jog someone's memory of a similar problem).

Welcome,

I also just won an Octane off fleabay, in good cosmetic condition and reasonable specs.

Krokodil wrote: I also just won an Octane off fleabay, in good cosmetic condition and reasonable specs.

Reasonable specs are a question of taste, some people consider a 195MHz Octane with 512 meg RAM to be reasonable, which I find to be in extremely poor taste...

vishnu wrote:

Krokodil wrote: I also just won an Octane off fleabay, in good cosmetic condition and reasonable specs.

Reasonable specs are a question of taste, some people consider a 195MHz Octane with 512 meg RAM to be reasonable, which I find to be in extremely poor taste...

Nope, it wasn't any of those ones lol. This one has dual 250mhz processors(R10000), 1024MB of RAM, dual video boards(SI and EMXI), came with a bunch of other stuff too and all for somewhat less than the inferior models rolling around.

bushnrvn wrote: Thanks everyone. A couple points.

I'm new to IRIX but not Unix. The idiosyncrasies have been greater than I anticipated. Is there any official literature available on IRIX?

Techpubs is everything official and is great, but I'd also recommend the "UNIX Rosetta Stone." Downloadable PDF, points you towards the command to do N in X dialect of Unix.

My first Unix bible, from 1985, which was the year I graduated uni and got hired at AT&T (I know, I'm one of those old dudes), I've still got it and it's still a great reference.

vishnu wrote:

Krokodil wrote: I also just won an Octane off fleabay, in good cosmetic condition and reasonable specs.

Reasonable specs are a question of taste, some people consider a 195MHz Octane with 512 meg RAM to be reasonable, which I find to be in extremely poor taste...

Reasonable is also relative to your goals with it. Although since bumping mine from 384MB RAM to 1280, quite a few things work better. Now if I could only come into a dual 600MHz CPU, I'd be fantastic.

armanox wrote:

vishnu wrote:

Krokodil wrote: I also just won an Octane off fleabay, in good cosmetic condition and reasonable specs.

Reasonable specs are a question of taste, some people consider a 195MHz Octane with 512 meg RAM to be reasonable, which I find to be in extremely poor taste...

Reasonable is also relative to your goals with it. Although since bumping mine from 384MB RAM to 1280, quite a few things work better. Now if I could only come into a dual 600MHz CPU, I'd be fantastic.

I just bumped my Octane up to a dual 360MHZ. I think finding anything above 400MHZ, probably requires some kind of miracle.