IRIX and Software

Hello

Since I don't have a way of connecting a CDROM to my Indigo2, I'm stuck with irix 6.5 with nothing extra that was installed when I bought it.

So I have tried different ways of getting myself out on the internet, and so I have downloaded the mips3 version of Firefox and Seamonkey. But none of them will work. Nothing happens when I try to launch them.

Same with the Gftp program, that will launch, but pretty much crash when trying to set up my ftp.

Is that because I need the full 6.5 installation with overlays and such? If that's the case, I'm pretty much stuck until I get my external CDROM cable.


/Jonas

Fireflop just ate my reply, crap. Three times, in fact Don't open too many tabs, it can't handle it.



Anyway. Nekoware requires 6.5.22. Since there is so much useful stuff in nekoware, you should go to 6.5.22 On the other hand, nekoware also runs on 6.5.21 with a patch. If you can find 6.5.21 (used to be on the website for download but they pulled it) then that version is the best one for an Indigo2. Still has Display PostScript, still has Impressario, still has all the good stuff from when SGI was a good company with excellent products instead of a bunch of losers.

No need for a CD to upgrade. Start up the Fuel. Copy the overlay CD's into a directory structure such as CD_1, CD_2 etc etc. Then open swmgr on the Indigo2 and just drag the folders into the drop box. You can update irix over the network easily.

Updating to 6.5.21/22 requires a patch. Do that first


Ja, just go 6.5.21/22. Unless you want to compile all your own software, it's worth it in the long run.

Oh. About gFTP ... you might try axyftp from nekoware /beta. As far as I can see it doesn't require any other neko libs


Crashed again, god I hate fireflop ... anyway, axyftp isn't perfect but works okay. It's graphical which is sometimes convenient. (Altho a good handle on command line ftp is very useful. That works almost everywhere, even on oddball systems like Windows

Hello Hamei.

Thanks for your long and nice explanation.

Yeah, my plan is to uppdate my indigo2 to 6.5.22 since that is what I got at home. But since I can't get a network going between my SGI´s and my PC the normal way, I have never thought about trying to network between my SGI's. Maybe that's easy to get up and running? Never tried that before.

If I do a complete new install and going to 6.5.22 directly, is there a need for a patch? I might have that patch somewhere, not sure though.

Anyway, I wasn't going to be running my Indigo2 with standard 6.5 from the outset, but since I saw no other options since I haven't so far managed to get my computers showing up on the network, I tried to do the most of it and play around until I got my SCSI cable for my CDROM. But hey, if it' easy peasy setting up network between the SGI's, that's even better.

I can ping every PC I have at home atleast, and go out on the internet, but anything more than that have been a complete failure.

Anyway, thanks again Hamei. Will try this and see how it goes.

Cheers!

/Jonas

Toolchest -> System -> System Manager -> Networking and Connectivity

You should be talking between your SGI's in but a moment

I use static ip's tho, it seems easier. I can't direct you on dhcp but as a quick hack, you can find what ip another computer is using on your network by

ping 255.255.255.255

Seems to me Windows doesn't respond to this but all real computers do

OH,sweet, nice, that's interesting. Going to test that tomorrow, but now I must go to bed. Damnit. Have an important meeting with a client tomorrow (ehrm, make that today) and now I wont be able to think about anything except that.

Yeah, Static IP for all my IRIX machines, going to set up my main workstation for a static IP too, but haven't come that far since it never changes anyway thanks to my apparently very conservative dhcp on the router. But better safe than sorry, right?

/Jonas

On my home network, all my computers have static IP's (but my firewall runs dhcpd to give IP addresses to any guests who happen to bring their laptops), but if you go through the pain of coordinating all of your computers hosts files with the names and the IP addresses you've assigned to everyone (yes, even Windows has a hosts file), then ftp-ing - telneting - ssh-ing - opening windows between your computers is automatic using their hostnames; super convenient...

Wouldn't you believe it, I'm actually networking between my Fuel and my Indgio2. Wow

Strange thing is that I had my PC to show up and actually mounted it too, with sharity. But no files I put there showed up on my SGI's. Anyway, gonna try and solve that later, main thing is, I got my SGI's to actually talk to each others, and it was super easy to do. Just put the IP and a name for every machine in the host file, and they showed up at once when I searched for them. I'm feeling so damn 1337 now.


But there seems to be some problems after all, even if it works. Copying files to my Indigo2 is really slow. I know that the Indigo2 only has 10Mbps interface (my Fuel has a Gigabit interface, thanks Ian ), but it is going way slower than that. Any idea what I have might done wrong, or any tips or places that I should look in?

Anyway, I'm so excited about this, learning some new stuff everyday.

/Jonas

Oh, yeah, and a big thanks to Hamei and Vishnu.

Cheers

/Jonas

iftop, ideal for answering the question "why is my network so slow?!" Link: http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/iftop/

I don't think I've ever compiled this for Irix, basically because I've never needed it my Octane is lightning fast on my home lan, but it would be a nice addition to nekoware...