Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Another quick question... I have an Octane w/the upgraded power supply & the v1.4 ASIC for the backplane & SE graphics. I've gotten ahold of a V6 video board & have an "issue." When the SGI boots, the diags. pass fine, then the "Starting up the system" window pops up, and then the mouse & keyboard just hang... I can hear the hard drive still clicking away, but the screen never changes from the starting system window...

I can get into the prom, enter the command monitor, run diagnostics, etc. and that works fine, but the instant I click on "Start System", mose & keyboard hangs, and the screen stays like that & never changes...

The monitor is a 19" LCD running at 1280X1024.

I tried booting with a 6.5.17 OS & a 6.5.20 OS.

NOTE: I just found a patch - #5145 - that's an update for Vpro graphics & 6.5.20. Grabbed it as a tarinst file, loaded software manager, tried to do a custom install of the patch, & am told it has a confilct - no VPro graphics found. How the heck can I install the software with the SE board installed, or how can I install the software with the V6 installed if I can't see anything???

Any suggestions?

crash

well, how should IRIX know that you upgraded your system to Vpro?

Google is your friend here: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=gfx+install+sgi&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=acgaua%241991a%241%40bongo.munich.sgi.com&rnum=6

OK..thanks! Followed the instructions, and BAM! video, mouse, keyboard!!

Well... mostly... Now when I boot, everything shows up until the login screen, then blackness ("No Video" from LCD...) hmmm... so I try using the setmon command:

/usr/gfx/setmon -x 1280x1024_60
/usr/gfx/setmon -x 1280x1024_72
/usr/gfx/setmon -x 1024x768_60
etc.

command from a single-user prompt.

I get an error saying its presumed invalid. So I go to the /usr/gfx/ucode/ODSY/vof directory & there's one entry - 1280x1024_100s.vfo
So, how do I let the machine to use 60 instead of 100? Yes, I tried google & all the helpful references say to just use

/usr/gfx/setmon -x 1280x1024_60....

If someone helps me get this going, I promise I'll leave you guys alone for a week...

thanks!

hm, there should be a lot more .vfos, including one for 1280x1024@60. Maybe it's still not everything installed properly?

BTW, a friend told me that V6/V8 cards have a bug with the 60Hz resolution, something about beeing able only to use a 16 Bit buffer, so you might be better off with 1280x1024@59 Hz.

OK...it looks like the drivers/info for the V6 aren't on my system... I'm running 6.5.17m, with the maintenance update to 6.5.20. When I installed 6.5.20 update, it looks like it only installed the changed files from a previous update - but did not install all of the files between 6.5.17 & 6.5.20..like all of the vfo files for the V6...

Would I be better off going back to a cloned drive of 6.5.17m, then install 6.5.18m, 19m, then 20m?


oi...trying to learn too much at once...

crash

no, open your CDs (base + current m-stream) in inst or swmgr and be sure to check the complete gfx system for install, no matter if it tells you that it's already installed. So look for eoe.sw.gfx, x_eoe.sw, eoe.sw64.gfx and x_eoe.sw64

That should do the trick.

ok...I'm beat... I have a set of IRIX 6.5.22 disks coming next week & I'll try it again then. When I tried re-installing the eoe files, it just put the old files back & didn't install anything for the Odyssey board - nothing new in the /usr/gfx directory for it. I have a blank 18 gig drive I'll install fresh on.

Till then, thanks for the help!
crash

May want to look at these threads: viewtopic.php?t=1202 and http://www.sgi.com/workstations/octane2 ... tions.html

About a month ago I upgraded my old Octane from MXE to V6. I had to boot from installation tools, feed in my overlays plus base IRIX CDs and then:

keep *
install hardware
go

Upon reboot everything was fine.

OK... I finally managed to get everything up and running.

nekonoko: Do you have any issues with your V6, like running any 3d app at 1280x1024 (59, 60, 75 hz), 16bpp, causes video artifacts to flash on the screen?

thanks,
crash

Yep, this is the infamous timing bug. My V8 does this too at those refresh rates. V10/V12 are apparently immune.

Since I use a flat panel I've been using 8bpp @ 59Hz.

Yup... I'm on an lcd too... Is this bug just at the 1280by1024 resolution, or at all resoultions?

Hmmm just tried a different monitor & 1024x768 works fine...

Now...does 1280x1024@96hz work without the refresh bug? (My crt will not sync that high...)

crash

Yes as far as I know it's just 1280x1024 that has the problem. 1280x1024@96Hz should also work if you have a monitor that supports it.

nekonoko:

Just don't want to misunderstand you...

If I run at 1280 by 1024 at the 96Hz refresh rate, I WILL NOT have the screen drawing issues like at 59, 60 & 75 Hz...

thanks
crash

That is correct.