Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

Hi guys, well after lurking around for a while, finally I get to introduce myself, and share something perhaps some of you that run Linux might be interested in.
I'm a big SGI fan, altho I haven't got the chance to get my hands on the real thing yet (I hope to get one, at some point before they are truly collectionist items and the prices go to the roof).

Anyway, for the past few months I've been gathering and modifying some software and themes to Irix-ify my desktop, and now I got it to a point, where it sorta feels like the real thing.. with a touch of modern, although I did use FVWM, and had a toolchest working, I finally settled on xfce (bunch of issues with session, bus, pokit and other crap).

Here's what I got so far, below are links to download the relevant pieces, and packages attached:
gr_osview - Modified version of xosview, to display the layout like more like the original, and implemented GFX meter for Nvidia cards.
I use also custom Xresources extracted from Maxx Desktop. (the bsd variant doesn't have all the changes since I keep fighting with
FreeBSD, and I didn't get to merge the last stuff, on Linux do "sudo make install PLATFORM=linux".

gmemusage - Version from Maxx

sgi red cursor - This one is heavily modified, from the version on Maxx, fixing lots of missing cursors, removing shadows, and adding a few things.
* To install it, extract, and copy sgi to /usr/share/icons/
* Edit /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme and change the default to "sgi"
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/SGI+Irix+cursor?content=174207

xfcewm theme - A 4Dwm look a like theme, a bit more modernized to match.

openstep gtk2 and 3 theme - Tweaked and modified version from the theme OneStepBack, I didn't have the patience to redo the whole Maxx gtk2
theme for gtk3 and this one is actively developed, and looks quite good, I added a few things like Italic font for menus,
motif like menu selected item effect, and gtk3 client decorations to match the Irixy window decorations I use on xfce.
* Extract and copy "OneStepBack" to /usr/share/themes/
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OneStepBack?content=170904

xfce - Configured to use box resize / move (I actually prefer that to seeing the window as I move), also using Italic font on the desktop, with tighter
grid size, and opaque icon labels.
Using DejaVu Sans fonts, as they look the closest to Helvetica without all the rendering issues that xft Helvetica has... don't get me started
and since the non anti-aliased helvetica from linux renders so ugly compared to Irix, not really an option.

winterm - Custom size, and colors on the xfce terminal to match the winterm.
* Modify launcher, and add "--title=winterm" to the command
* Remove menubar by default
* 79cols x 42 rows
* Scrollbar on the left
* Background color #00004D
* Text color #FEFFDD
* Cursor color #2BC62A

IconCatalog - I have a work in progress from scratch IconCatalog... built using Qt, works as a launcher, and also allows "run" functionality and creation
of launchers, it's still kinda rough on the cosmetics, but it works, and looks sorta like the original (I can provide the source if there's interest,
or make a github repo or something.

All this stuff has it's respective license, and all the stuff I made is BSD licensed... so you can do whatever, if you're one of the GPL haters.

Well, I hope this is useful to someone nostalgic like me, and let me know what you think!

behrz wrote: * 79cols x 42 rows

I don't know where that comes from... The correct size is 80x43. Your screenshot shows 82 columns.

* Background color #00004D

The correct color is blue-violet.

I'm sure Robespierre also at some point said welcome in that barrage

Anyway, welcome BTW, BUT.. have you seen the MAXX project?

@robespierre, that term size is my preference for startup size... and the one on the screenshot is resized after compiling some stuff. And the terminal color, well, that one looks good to me and was matched from screenshots of the real Irix term... however "blue-violet" doesn't seem to be a hex color, but if you have a better variant fee free to share.
--

I have seen Maxx, however is largely unmaintained even when the dev, keeps talking about new releases... the core is precompiled against old versions, and things like that, which doesn't really give me a good feeling for the future, so I'd rather, use a few modifications and opensource stuff over a common linux setup, no matter the distro of choice plus all this mostly works on the BSDs as well.

It would be so great if there was an IndigoMagic-themed OpenMotif available in source code...

+1 to cesss: it would be great to have an IMD-inspired fork of Motif Window Manager or Common Desktop Environment. Modern features like tray or tiling support could be added there, since both MWM and CDE are now open source.
As for today, I prefer MaXX as so far its the best IRIX desktop replica and still works correctly on modern linux. But needless to say that real IRIX desktop surpasses any clones, giving many nice tools and having tight integration with underneath OS.

I just want an option for my Linux set-up, either a hodge-podge of Motif/CDE/KVWM/whatever or Maxx working. I like KDE but it's not the same. It's not the same. I want that old-school Magic Fucking Desktop. Fully-functioning or just the visuals, but something!

I tried going the BSD Unix route and trying to force-feed PC-BSD to my version of Grub (from Ubuntu 12.04) but got nowhere. I would have accepted Motif/CDE in that scheme. But I guess I just have an old version of Grub that hates ZFS. I will try again with Ubuntu 16.04 when it's available, maybe then BSD Unix will be in Grub's sight.

ledzep wrote: I just want an option for my Linux set-up, either a hodge-podge of Motif/CDE/KVWM/whatever or Maxx working. I like KDE but it's not the same. It's not the same. I want that old-school Magic Fucking Desktop. Fully-functioning or just the visuals, but something!

I tried going the BSD Unix route and trying to force-feed PC-BSD to my version of Grub (from Ubuntu 12.04) but got nowhere. I would have accepted Motif/CDE in that scheme. But I guess I just have an old version of Grub that hates ZFS. I will try again with Ubuntu 16.04 when it's available, maybe then BSD Unix will be in Grub's sight.

how about solaris10? original cde, zfs, grub and real unix with a serious compiler. doesn't get any better on x86

foetz wrote: how about solaris10? original cde, zfs, grub and real unix with a serious compiler. doesn't get any better on x86

I think the issue is Grub's inability to recognize ZFS (or UFS), at least the version I have. I tried every combo of insmod additions to 40_custom (bsd, elf, zfs, ufs, boots, etc.), all kinds of set root= and search commands, nothing worked. At time it would admit that something was actually there on the 5th hard drive, but wouldn't boot into it. Of course if I went into the BIOS and changed the boot order, made the Unix drive the boot drive, then everything worked fine. Now I know one option is to leave it that way and use that option's Grub to choose Linux or Windows 7 but on principle I don't want to do that because, goddammit, this should be doable from Ubuntu's Grub. But I couldn't make it cooperate. For the now I've given up. I'll give it another whirl once Ubuntu 16.04 shows up. If that one doesn't see reason then I'll swap boot drives to the one with whatever Unix I decide on and admit defeat.