SGI: Hardware

3 Headed Octane

Mare
From Portsmouth, UK
Who joined March 27, 2003, 7:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 12:58 a.m...

Just thought I would leave a post in here detailing getting 3 heads running on an Octane, hopefully save someone a few hours of googleing

The config I have for this at the moment is :

Graphics board: SSI
Graphics board: ESI
Graphics board: ESI

I have 1 21" screen in the middle (SSI) and two 17" screens (SE) either side.

First off the PROM will only show that there are 2 of your graphics cards running, dont panic as Irix will happily see all 3 but not straight away.

When Irix first boots only the first two cards will be running, which combined with the only seeing 2 cards in the PROM makes it look like something is wrong but I remembed a post on the news groups by a German SGI Engineeer saying that only 2 cards show in the prom on his triple headed beast. A quick check of the HINV in Irix and all three are infact there.

Edit your Xservers file (/var/X11/xdm/Xservers) and add the following :

:0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X :0 -boards 0,1 ,2 -devdir /dev/input -bs -nobitscale -depth 24 -class TrueColor -c -solidroot sgilightblue -cursorFG red -cursorBG white

,2 - on the -boards part. This was easy to quess, then restart your xserver (vulcan death grip [ ctrl+shift+/+F12 ] and all three screens will come up eventually.

The next problem I came across was the second SE was on the right of the first SE but I wanted it to the left of the main screen.

Currently...

Code: Select all


|-------|


|       |----|----|


|  SSI  | SE | SE |


|_______|----|----|

but I want it as...

Code: Select all


|-------|


|----|       |----|


| SE |  SSI  | SE |


|----|_______|----|

Which required a good bit of googling and a look in man xdm. Turns out it is as simple as :

-hw board=0,right=1,left=2 -hw board=1,left=0 -hw board=2,right=0

In the Xservers file at the end of the main line. The way it works is you specify which board ID is left/right of the ID you are editing.
For example Board 0 (SSI) has Board 1 (SE) on the right and Board 2 (2nd SE) on the left.

-hw board=0,right=1,left=2

Do that for each board and you are laughing :)

Put all that in and restart the Xserver again and there you go, 3 screens on 1 Octane. Here is my full Xservers file.

Code: Select all


:0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X :0 -boards 0,1,2 -devdir /dev/input -bs -nobitscale -depth 24 -class TrueColor -c -solidroot sgilightblue -cursorFG red -cursorBG white -hw board=0,right=1,left=2 -hw board=1,left=0 -hw board=2,right=0

unixmuseum
From Los Angeles, CA
Who joined April 19, 2004, 4:25 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 1:19 a.m...

Darn! Nice job!
Very comprehensive set of explanation!
Sounds like a pretty cool 3x17" LCD type of situation could happen very soon on my desk...

Brombear
From Frankfurt (Rhein-Main Area) / Germany
Who joined Oct. 5, 2003, 8:42 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 3:38 a.m...

unixmuseum wrote: Sounds like a pretty cool 3x17" LCD type of situation could happen very soon on my desk...

Don't forget to invest into a pretty decent audio system to drown the sound of the octane's fans at high speed ;-)

Matthias

Life is what happens while we are making other plans

Hakimoto
Moderator
From Nijmegen, Netherlands, Europe
Who joined March 30, 2003, 4:29 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 5:23 a.m...

Ooooh! Sweet. Well, I only have one monitor on my big desk, a 21" which I switch by KVM, but if I ever get enough money to upgrade my Octane to the specs I dream about, hell, three gfx cards will be cool. Hehehe.

Nice work!

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software and operating system that will match the capabilities
of your current Amiga at about the price you paid for the
Amiga way back when. But you can smile to yourself, knowing
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Mare
From Portsmouth, UK
Who joined March 27, 2003, 7:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 6:28 a.m...

Brombear wrote: Don't forget to invest into a pretty decent audio system to drown the sound of the octane's fans at high speed

The noise level of the fastfan doesnt really bother me, I have always run in dual head with dual cpus. Besides I am used to being surrounded by servers but at our new office I have another Octane to my left, an Indigo 2 to the right and a Gigachannel O200 sat on a small cab with 4 x86 servers in it. The room is still quieter then our last place

I havent had much time to spend on the 3head beast yet but so far its pretty awesome, more desktop then I know what to do. I tried Xinerama for a few minutes but it wasnt too impressed, all the mouse events for the middle screen were translated to the left screen, very odd.

There will be pictures of the setup once we are settled in.

squeen
Moderator
From Maryland, USA
Who joined May 9, 2003, 6:10 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 23, 2004, 9:08 a.m...

An alternative to Xinerama is Opengl Multipipe (which has the older sgi-Xinerama bundle in it as well). Take a look at the documentation regarding the differences.

Mare
From Portsmouth, UK
Who joined March 27, 2003, 7:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 24, 2004, 3:25 p.m...

squeen wrote: An alternative to Xinerama is Opengl Multipipe (which has the older sgi-Xinerama bundle in it as well). Take a look at the documentation regarding the differences.

I didnt think OpenGL Multipipe worked on MGRAS cards, I thought it was for VPRO only?

0ctane
From Cincinnati, OH
Who joined July 10, 2003, 6:28 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 28, 2004, 9:49 a.m...

Fantastic job Mare. I once tried to get triplehead running without success. Of course, now that you have shown us all how to do it, I do not have access to the necessary extra graphics heads.

Oh, well. Congrats!