SGI: Discussion

Well as promised, here's a couple of pictures of my (rather modest) setup. The O2 (after being modded) is quiet enough to sit on my desk and only makes a faintly audible hum. Also out of sight are a Mac Mini (which via bridged connections and a switch is providing wireless Internet access to my PC and O2). There's also a 4 port KVM hidden away as well (can't work with the O2 apart from for video as it doesn't like my PC based keyboard/mouse).



And here's my O2 with IRIX 6.5.30 running on a 27" monitor at 1920x1200...

Nice! Who's your decorator, Benihana?

Seriously though, that is lovely, worlds better than my decrepit workstation setup...

@trippy: is that a 7inch vinyl and a turntable young man?

It's a turntable (I've got a nice collection of modern and old vinyls). The supposed 7" vinyl you see is actually from a set of about 4" coffee coasters designed to look like vinyls (not playable unfortunately).

O2 wise, I've been having a few problems getting Sharity 3 to work (might have to discuss it on their forums) before it can become a proper music/web/play machine. All that's now remaining from a nostalgic point of view (once I get some funds) is an Indigo 2 IMPACT machine

welcome aboard trippy

Trippynet wrote: It's a turntable (I've got a nice collection of modern and old vinyls).

quite a taste for a youngin', give us a groove sometime :)

Trippynet wrote: The supposed 7" vinyl you see is actually from a set of about 4" coffee coasters designed to look like vinyls (not playable unfortunately).

on second look it passed for one of those "skinned" cd blanks with an identity crisis

(btw speaking of photos, there's a nice set of BBcode dressed as the "Img" button (in the toolbar above the message body, every time you post here) that turns your posted images into a fixed-size thumbnail so that members with all kinds of displays can read the thread without scrolling left and right forever. the board's attachment feature does the same)

Trippynet wrote: O2 wise, I've been having a few problems getting Sharity 3 to work (might have to discuss it on their forums) before it can become a proper music/web/play machine.

worry not, this is the place. i must be the only person here who experienced all aspects of an o2's caprice and at the same time had no clue what it takes to manage/keep an sgi running (i used to work on them since their heyday but an army of others was responsible for keeping 'em in top shape)

I have a maxed out Indy (R5000/180, 256M) that I've been using pretty regularly. The main applications I use are LaTeX, Maple, MIPSpro C, and git. Thankfully, the TexLive crew still support Irix so I can use LaTeX and my treasured copy of Maple 7 to support all my work getting a bachelor's degree in mathematics. My only frustration these days is that recent versions of EMACS are getting pretty unusable on it. So, I work in NEdit, but I miss AucTeX.

Even though I have faster Irix machines, the Indy is small and quiet. The Indy has a further advantage; it is fast enough to be usable for my purposes, but slow enough that I can't run anything even approaching a modern browser. I simply can't waste time on the web

jodys wrote: The Indy has a further advantage; it is fast enough to be usable for my purposes, but slow enough that I can't run anything even approaching a modern browser. I simply can't waste time on the web

Ah, if only redbox were fast enough to warrant months of work getting Singularity ( http://www.singularityviewer.org ) to run on it

jodys wrote: The Indy has a further advantage; it is fast enough to be usable for my purposes, but slow enough that I can't run anything even approaching a modern browser. I simply can't waste time on the web

What's an Indy? An Indigo without the "go."

Why does that quote never get old?

vishnu wrote:

jodys wrote: The Indy has a further advantage; it is fast enough to be usable for my purposes, but slow enough that I can't run anything even approaching a modern browser. I simply can't waste time on the web

What's an Indy? An Indigo without the "go."

Then again, I can't put a R5K in an Indigo which means the Indigo doesn't run mips4, limiting the nekoware I can run. Thus, perhaps the Indigo should be a Indican't

jodys wrote: Then again, I can't put a R5K in an Indigo which means the Indigo doesn't run mips4, limiting the nekoware I can run. Thus, perhaps the Indigo should be a Indican't

That's hardly the fault of the poor Indigo.

Just install IRIX 5.3 or 6.2 and TGCware. Enjoy the increased speed and responsiveness of your Indigo-go-go

We still have an Indy that we use to run PV Wave but we got rid of our last Indigo at least a decade ago...

hi
i have an Octane2 and O2+, my friend has an Impact, i am a working student, so i have to travel a lot by car; for such a reason the O2+ is my best liked: because it heavy the less when i have to carry it into my car

also the O2+ R12K is not supported by linux because of the R12K module so i put on Irix and i am used to play linux only on octane2.

i feel the IP30 as an "heavy an noisy machine", so i have put "the heavy big iron" remotely somewhere in the room under my father's roof. There is a RTT latency of a few secnds but i am able to access the machine remotely by SSH + an uart connection on the console. I have set the environment to route the console to the uart instead of on the keyboard and monitor, also i have connected an arduino + enc-lan with a rele-shield in order to hard reset and power on/off the machine, remotely.

and, surprisingly it works!

i have the full remote control, i really do no need to sit in front the machine

on Octane2 i am used to play with

• linux kernel 2.6.17, hacking this, and that with success of pretty hell disaster
• gentoo MIPS3 stage4 (that is compatible with my MIPS32 router, but the IP30 has more CPU power about natively compile things, and it's 10 time faster)

i have an original copy of IRIX 6.5.27 but i haven't installed it yet, so my IP30 is used only to toy with linux

while on my O2+ i can't run linux, i do not like *BSD, so i have installed Irix 6.5.19, which i am used to play with

• Mathematica for Irix, a wonderful program
• WordPerfect for Unix
• Illustrator
• Photoshop
• a few freeware software like nano, nedit, abiword, etc
• gcc for Irix, which i used to code my C sources toys
• MIPS C Pro, is in my wish list
• i think i will be able to run Maya on O2+, too (sooner or later)

btw, on my curiosity is strong: which is your hardware ? and for which purpose do you use your MIPS-SGI-box ?

I use it for the llllllllladies.

ladies ?

No, you have to use the "long l" for the really hot llllllladies.

ivelegacy wrote: i feel the IP30 as an "heavy an noisy machine", so i have put "the heavy big iron" remotely somewhere in the room under my father's roof.

One of the best investments I ever made for working with SGI equipment was a pair of good quality, noise canceling headphones.

I run IRIX on all of my SGI-MIPS boxes. I do not like Linux, one bit, so I do not currently run it where another OS is supported. I use BSD for a daily driver because I heavily prefer to not further GPL encumbered OSes, I will and do use Linux on occasion, but its a relatively rare occurrence for me.

My Octane sees a lot of use, as does my O300.

TeamBlackFox wrote: My Octane sees a lot of use, as does my O300

and what about your Irix applications ? What do you run on your Irix box ?

josehill wrote: One of the best investments I ever made for working with SGI equipment was a pair of good quality, noise canceling headphones

still too noisy here