The collected works of LarBob - Page 1

I donated $5, not much but I hope it at least helps a little..

praetor242 wrote: First Java...and then...MINECRAFT on an Onyx

If you actually wanted to get later versions of MC running, LWJGL would have to compile for MIPS. I know never versions of MC won't work on PPC machines as there isn't a version of LWJGL compiled for the machines.

Hi, I'm looking for an Octane machine. I live in the US, shipping from places out of country might be too ridiculous, but still let me know.
Let me know whatever you've got, thanks.

still looking, pm me if you have a machine. thanks.

okay, I think I've got a machine now. Hopefully it works on arrival.

Apple machines at type of posting:

• Macintosh SE (800k, not SuperDrive)
• Macintosh Portable (Backlit)
• 2x iBook G3 Clamshells
• iMac G4 800 MHz
• Power Macintosh 6100/60
• iMac G3 350 MHz
• PowerBook G3 Pismo
• Power Mac G5 (2x2.0 GHz)
• Black early 2008 13 inch MacBook
• Mid-2012 13 inch MacBook Pro (cracked screen and other issues, got for free from a friend)
• 15 inch PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz
• 350 MHz Power Mac G4 (agp)
• Various iPods, iPhones, etc.
• It doesn't count but I use my ThinkPad T420 as my main Mac machine if I need OS X. It's running Sierra.

edit: Forgot AGP G4 Power Mac... whoops.

nekonoko wrote: Another thing I've found regarding the Color Classic is sometimes you can get them going without replacing the capacitors just by cleaning up the leaking electrolyte on the motherboard with some alcohol.

Sorry for resurrecting a dead thread, but for people looking at this thread now, this is usually more of a temporary solution. Eventually you'll still need new caps.

robespierre wrote:

LarBob wrote: Apple machines at type of posting:

• Macintosh SE (800k SuperDrive)

The SuperDrive was the 1.4MB floppy drive. 800KB was the model in the 512KE, the Plus, and the basic SE, as well as Mac IIs without the drive upgrade.

Oh. my bad. Was kind of distracted. Meant to put not SuperDrive, lol.

Dodoid wrote: For most people my age, their first computer ran Windows 7 or 10.

Same here. Their firsts were running either Vista or 7 probably. I remember when I was around 7 or 8 (I'm 16 now) I built an AMD Athlon 64 X2 computer for myself with my dad and I believe I had XP on it at first. It went through many different installs of early Ubuntu versions, Vista, etc. I remember thinking that the Windows 7 beta was really cool (and I loved the betta fish background, I actually had many betta fish as a child).

Dodoid wrote: Getting back to how I explain my hardware, my friends obviously aren't bothered by me owning things that don't affect them, but they probably think I'm strange for owning a ton of old computers (8 SGIs + parts, Sun Blade 2000, 7 ThinkPads, 5 old Apple machines, Atari 600xl, etc) and not just selling them to replace my X220 with a MacBook Pro (something I actually used to have, but replaced with an X220 ). My family is fine with the machines so long as I keep them in my bedroom or "lab" (more of an asssorted mix of working and nonworking systems of numerous ages with monitors on top of everything and random ethernet cables all over the floor, rather than your traditional idea of a "computer lab" like in a school).

Also same here. My friends aren't bothered by it, some think it's cool actually, but some have asked how much it's all worth and if I'd just sell it all to upgrade stuff. (obvious answer: no). Though I don't have any SGI machines yet (mostly old game consoles, old PCs, and old Apple machines), I have an Octane that's supposed to be arriving on Tuesday as far as UPS tells me (hopefully they don't mangle the package too much...), so hopefully it works. I also have a sort of "lab" situation going on. The room next to my bedroom used to be my parents' home office, but we reorganized a lot and they let me use the room for my computer stuff. You can see my beautiful cable management for my internet connection here:

(The random ThinkPad AC adapter is there as I have two of my ThinkPads sitting on top of a server that's on the shelf directly above. I love ThinkPads.)
The raspi is setup for a VPN so I could just use it on networks to bypass the firewall (such as at a place I regularly go Monday through Friday when it's not summer or other breaks.). I don't have that much room, but my parents also don't mind as long as I keep stuff in here and keep it somewhat neat. What does kinda suck though is that none of my friends are that technological, so I don't really have many to talk to about this kind of stuff.

To answer the question of OP, though, I've always been messing with computers and stuff like that (I also have some older game consoles), people don't really ask anymore. New people that I meet have always been pretty accepting of it (I don't know why someone wouldn't), but I'd imagine some people definitely find it funny or odd.

Dodoid wrote: Glad to hear you're getting an Octane, LarBob! What specs?

It's a dual-processor R10000SC 250 MHz machine w/ 2 GB of RAM and SI graphics. The machine has the older style front. It also came with the original mouse, owner's manual, original cpu module, 6.5.8 irix media, and some other goodies (other, much lower amounts of RAM and another HD). I ordered a 13w3->hd15 adapter which is probably coming tomorrow, though the machine probably won't arrive until Tuesday.

When I try to even change defaults in Settings, I'll click an alternative and it won't change. Have to use control panel on my end for it to even do anything at all.

Dodoid wrote: Windows 10 is an operating system trying to be Windows Phone and Windows 7 at the same time, and it's really bad at both. I dumped it for Qubes OS a few months ago. I can still run my Windows apps in Windows 7 HVMs, and Qubes handles interoperability extremely well. Installing an XP VM for IE8 testing right now. Qubes means it can run in a window, install from an ISO in my main Debian VM, and network only to my Server VM via the Firewall VM without an internet connection for security. If it does get compromised, the rest of my system is protected because it's only a VM. Unfortunately there's no Qubes Tools for XP, so file transfer will be FTP via ServerVM, but I don't have to worry about my FTP server being FTP because FirewallVM protects it from NetVM and the outside world.

I might switch, I've been thinking about just doing KVM gpu passthrough for my games but it seems like kind of a hassle... I've switched to Linux only before but haven't stuck with it. I kind of should... The only reason I haven't is that it just seems inefficient and annoying to have Linux as the host and have to boot up a Windows VM just to play games. Also, the newest graphics card I have besides my GTX 980 is a GT 710 so I'd have to use that for the Linux host... ew.

The way they're going about updating Windows 10 also seems flawed in terms of UI development. Instead of refining one menu to do a task, they have left the old menus in (Control Panel) and the new way to do it (Settings) is crap. They don't bother to refine what they're doing, they just go on to the next UI redesign or whatever without fixing what's already there.

commodorejohn wrote:

LarBob wrote: I've switched to Linux only before but haven't stuck with it. I kind of should... The only reason I haven't is that it just seems inefficient and annoying to have Linux as the host and have to boot up a Windows VM just to play games.

Win10 was what finally got me to make the switch. It became abundantly clear that once it was no longer possible to use XP as a daily driver, my options were going to be "clunky and suboptimal" versus "awful beyond all belief," so I just went ahead and made the jump. Of course, it helps for my use case that WINE seems to finally be reasonably stable on x64 and I don't do anything with modern gaming anyway.

Pretty much the only reason that I don't switch is modern gaming... I've considered the KVM route a lot though, it just seems kinda inefficient. Maybe I'll switch the next time my install inevitably goes to crap.

If I did switch, I'm not sure what distro I'd use. I've used many, but I guess I'd probably end up using Debian. What do you use?

commodorejohn wrote: I'm running Devuan (Debian with the systemd dependencies removed.) It's pretty solid and updates come through pretty regularly.

Yeah, I've heard about Devuan. I could use that as well...
I'm not really sure where I stand with systemd honestly. It could be considered fairly bloated I guess.

so, I just received an Octane, and upon boot it does nothing at all. There's no sounds or anything. I'm guessing the PSU is dead, but is there something else I should check/look for first?

uunix wrote: No sound.. do you have speakers plugged in?
Does the PSU 'CLICK' when you plug the kettle lead in? (Get your ear close).

If it's been transported by car or post, you may want to reseat everything. Your best bet.

Although yes.. it sounds like PSU gone to the great PSU pile along with a lot of my own. I doubt you will get anything from the serial, but it's worth a shot.

By no sound I meant there was no click from the psu, no fan whir, etc. sorry.
I also don't think the serial would do anything either as I don't hear anything at all from the machine.
Also, I reseated the cpu board and everything but there's no dice. I think the PSU is just borked. (how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?)

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?

There's a 747 watt Cherokee on Ebay right now for eighty five frogskins, seller refurbished with a 30 day warranty, I would say grab it because that's about the lowest price you'll ever see one for on the bay . Do you still need one of the 13W3 -> VGA converters? Sorry that sort of slipped off my to-do list but if you still need one I'll send it ASAP...

I got one, now it seems I just need a psu lol (but thank you very much!). I don't think I'll get that one though as I'm not sure I have 85 shekels (well, 109 because of shipping) to spare right now. Oh well..
Could I just replace the caps on this one?

vishnu wrote: Yes, if you're good with a soldering iron (and a solder sucker) you can probably fix it. Have you taken it apart yet? Usually the failed part will give up it's identity by having scorched the board around it which alleviates you the necessity of having to blanket-replace parts (caps etc.). So try taking the cover off and get out your magnifying glass...

I took it apart last night and everything looked fine really. Nothing I could see looked scorched and the caps looked fine.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: Yes, if you're good with a soldering iron (and a solder sucker) you can probably fix it. Have you taken it apart yet? Usually the failed part will give up it's identity by having scorched the board around it which alleviates you the necessity of having to blanket-replace parts (caps etc.). So try taking the cover off and get out your magnifying glass...

I took it apart last night and everything looked fine really. Nothing I could see looked scorched and the caps looked fine.

If you've got a voltmeter you could try tracking the input AC to wherever the point of failure might be...

Probably will do tonight, just have to have time lol.
edit: also, does someone have a link to the pinout of the Lucent psu because I did a quick google and couldn't find it. Thanks.

japes wrote: Try pulling the graphics and starting up without them. I have a SI board in my parts pile that when installed causes the same - well, almost...the PSU fan make about 1 turn before it shuts off with this bad card.

Okay, I tried that and it didn't really make a change (thanks for the suggestion though). I noticed that sometimes the PSU does make sort of a click when power is plugged in, but either way it doesn't work.

edit: Just for fun, I set up an old laptop and tried to see if anything was going over serial (though I knew there wouldn't be cuz the PSU literally does nothing, lol). Is there a schematic of the psu somewhere?

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

If nothing else it will get you to the next failure level...

True, let's hope there's not another failure level to get to though.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote: I don't think any of the Octane power supply circuit diagrams ever made it out into the wild, wasted quite a bit of time trying to find one on the gray market...

It's okay lol, thanks. I bought the Cherokee PSU off of eBay, supposed to come Wednesday. Stay tuned I guess...

If nothing else it will get you to the next failure level...

Okay, so the PSU arrived and I put it in. The PSU fan spins up, if I take the front casing of the Octane off there's a green light on the board, but there's no front light and no display.

Kotomo wrote:

LarBob wrote:

uunix wrote: No sound.. do you have speakers plugged in?
Does the PSU 'CLICK' when you plug the kettle lead in? (Get your ear close).

If it's been transported by car or post, you may want to reseat everything. Your best bet.

Although yes.. it sounds like PSU gone to the great PSU pile along with a lot of my own. I doubt you will get anything from the serial, but it's worth a shot.

By no sound I meant there was no click from the psu, no fan whir, etc. sorry.
I also don't think the serial would do anything either as I don't hear anything at all from the machine.
Also, I reseated the cpu board and everything but there's no dice. I think the PSU is just borked. (how much am I expecting to pay for a replacement anyway..?)

From my limited experience with Octanes and SGI's in general, I can offer three scenario's I have come across that could help.

I know this is an asinine question, but when you reseated "everything" did that include the memory modules?

I was gifted an Octane main board with a CPU module that supposedly did not work. When I went to try it out in one my systems, I noticed the backplane never seated quite flush and I felt the locking mechanisms were not moving correctly. I found the screws holding the locking mechanisms to be quite loose. Tightening things up got it to seat better and work, no prob.

The PROM password reset jumper, if set in the position to reset the password, will leave the screen blank for roughly 10 minutes before displaying anything when you first power it on. The same board I got for free also had a PROM password set on it, so I got to experience reseting it first hand.

I like learning through observing other people, so this guy's video points out right where the jumper is on the main board:

If any of these do the trick, the lightbar on the front should turn red shortly after powering on and stay red until it's done performing the hardware tests.

I have certainly come across the failed power supply problem with just the relay 'click' and nothing else with two of my Octanes. I also tore apart the PSU, but don't see any smoking gun in the components. This is definitely a common failure of the Lucent PSU's.

I have reseated pretty much everything as far as I know, I even tried a different CPU module to no avail. I can try reseating the memory again.. and also it's not set to reset the prom. I ordered a new PSU and the fans spin and a green light shows on the board, but nothing happens besides that. No output from serial or anything either.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: I have reseated pretty much everything as far as I know, I even tried a different CPU module to no avail. I can try reseating the memory again.. and also it's not set to reset the prom. I ordered a new PSU and the fans spin and a green light shows on the board, but nothing happens besides that. No output from serial or anything either.

And you're sure you're using a null modem cable on the serial port, right? Set to 9600 baud? A regular RS232 cable won't work. Very odd to have a bad PSU and then two bad CPUs. Now you have to take the whole thing completely apart, including the crossbow, look everything over closely and blow all the dust off. In particular, look the compression connectors over carefully, a couple of wrecked or missing pins could be the culprit...

It should be, yes, and I made sure it was set to 9600 baud. Maybe I can check the connectors again.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: It should be, yes, and I made sure it was set to 9600 baud. Maybe I can check the connectors again.

What com software are you using? I use minicom on Linux, works great...

I'm using Tera Term.

Okay, I honestly have no idea what to try. I tried reseating the RAM once again to no avail, I'm kind of lost on what else to try. I double checked the prom jumper but it's fine, not sure what to try next at all. The connections on the boards all look fine as well, nothing wrong there as far as I can tell.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: Okay, I honestly have no idea what to try. I tried reseating the RAM once again to no avail, I'm kind of lost on what else to try. I double checked the prom jumper but it's fine, not sure what to try next at all. The connections on the boards all look fine as well, nothing wrong there as far as I can tell.

If it was bad RAM you'd be getting something at the serial terminal, I fear your tera term isn't reading the Octane's serial output the way it should...

Okay, I'll set up Linux on the machine and try with minicom when I'm home.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: Okay, I honestly have no idea what to try. I tried reseating the RAM once again to no avail, I'm kind of lost on what else to try. I double checked the prom jumper but it's fine, not sure what to try next at all. The connections on the boards all look fine as well, nothing wrong there as far as I can tell.

If it was bad RAM you'd be getting something at the serial terminal, I fear your tera term isn't reading the Octane's serial output the way it should...

Okay, I set up minicom on a debian box and get nothing over serial still. I ordered another null modem cable just to be sure and it' s coming Saturday.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote:

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: Okay, I honestly have no idea what to try. I tried reseating the RAM once again to no avail, I'm kind of lost on what else to try. I double checked the prom jumper but it's fine, not sure what to try next at all. The connections on the boards all look fine as well, nothing wrong there as far as I can tell.

If it was bad RAM you'd be getting something at the serial terminal, I fear your tera term isn't reading the Octane's serial output the way it should...

Okay, I set up minicom on a debian box and get nothing over serial still. I ordered another null modem cable just to be sure and it' s coming Saturday.

The folks that sold you this stuff, it was "as is" not "known good" then eh? I think that's a smart move on the new null modem cable. Did you buy the extra CPU module from a different seller? Did that seller say it was known good?

Yeah, they said the machine was "working the last time that they tested it" and that they weren't "able to test it" (which I know is bs, I just thought it'd be cool to get an octane and try to get it working if it was messed up for the price I got it for). The CPU module was from the same seller, it should be working

vishnu wrote:

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: Presumably that's the disk that came with it? With some version of IRIX on it?

Yeah, it should have 6.5.30 on it.

What I've always done, when a disk won't spin up, is take a butter knife and gently tap the top of the drive at powerup, hopefully helping the platter(s) overcome the static coefficient of friction that's keeping them from moving. But the fact that the disc won't spin isn't the primary problem, even with no disk at all you should be getting something from the serial terminal...

Honestly I wonder if I've just gotten extremely unlucky and the cable I ordered still isn't a true null-modem cable. This is the 13w3 cable I ordered , shouldn't it be correct? I wonder if both the cables just don't work properly or something and I just got super unlucky. I kind of doubt it, but maybe? I don't know.. Maybe it is just the system board, but the health light is on like it's getting a link.

uunix wrote: Have we disconnected the dallas (or RTC) chip yet? Just a thought.

No, if the chip is dead and I disconnect it will it boot? I was under the impression that the system wouldn't boot if it was removed, so maybe it is dead and that's the issue? I don't know.

vishnu wrote:

LarBob wrote: Honestly I wonder if I've just gotten extremely unlucky and the cable I ordered still isn't a true null-modem cable. This is the 13w3 cable I ordered , shouldn't it be correct? I wonder if both the cables just don't work properly or something and I just got super unlucky. I kind of doubt it, but maybe? I don't know.. Maybe it is just the system board, but the health light is on like it's getting a link.

That's for sure the right 13W3->VGA adapter, what kind of monitor do you have it hooked up to? But you're right, so far you've had a lot of bad luck. However I do agree that your new null modem cable might be suspect. If you have an ohmmeter you can check if pin 2 on one end goes to pin 3 on the other, and vice versa. If not, for example if pin 2 goes to pin 2 and pin 3 goes to pin 3, you don't have a null modem cable and you're right back where you started. The next problem would be that either your CPU modules are bad or your graphics module is bad, or both. As I said, bad luck...

I have tried an old Dell CRT as well as an older Dell 1024x768 monitor.

uunix wrote:

LarBob wrote:

uunix wrote: Have we disconnected the dallas (or RTC) chip yet? Just a thought.

No, if the chip is dead and I disconnect it will it boot? I was under the impression that the system wouldn't boot if it was removed, so maybe it is dead and that's the issue? I don't know.

My thought on this was just to reset the darn thing in all honesty.
I have a Fuel that has a TOD like a TARDIS.. and it still boots even if it thinks it's in the dark ages.

Okay, this is really weird. I pulled the dallas chip out, put the board back in the machine, tried to power it on but it would just turn on for a second then off. Then I put it back in and tried to start the machine - first time it started a the red light on the front light came on and the bottom 2 leds as well as the right led on the row second from bottom lit up - but all the lights were kind of "flickery". I unplugged it and tried again then those are on again but no red front light.

edit: now it's doing this thing where it'll only have any sign of life while I'm holding the power button the first time and as soon as I let go it's dead. Once I press it again the lights are "flickery" again and stay that way until power is pulled.

edit2: I reseated it once again, making sure all the pins looked fine and everything and now it only lights up when I hold the power down, shutting off as soon as I let go. what is going on here? lol.
Maybe I need a new dallas chip? How would I even get one, would I need to reprogram one I got?
Could I use the DS1687-5+ ? Do I need to reprogram it somehow when I get it? I don't know much about this stuff. I think the dallas chip might have gotten messed up somehow.

uunix wrote:

LarBob wrote: Maybe I need a new dallas chip? How would I even get one, would I need to reprogram one I got?
Could I use the DS1687-5+ ? Do I need to reprogram it somehow when I get it? I don't know much about this stuff. I think the dallas chip might have gotten messed up somehow.

I doubt it, not for powering on.

Have you tried a different power lead? Plug socket, wall socket. Just in case it's not getting enough Davey Watts..

So if I just left the chip out it would power on normally?

Also, I recorded a video so you could see what I mean: https://youtu.be/NP26I_SufXw

uunix wrote: I am unsure if the power switch has to keep a permanent feed, but sounds to me like the power button or something that it feeds.
If you hold the button in long enough do you get any output serial or screeen?

No, but it also didn't do this until I took the dallas chip out and back in. It would stay on without me holding it in.
Should I try a new chip? Or should I just try to find a new board at this point..?

Now for some reason only the QB and QC lights come on if I hold the power down... what is even going on at this point? Lol.

Dalplex wrote: Would you please measure the output from power supply, no matter what kind or brand, they should supply the same voltage for 5, 12. Etc.

When I had trouble of Indigo, I suffered similar struggle until I found the power supply would move out from the 24 pins socket whenever I pluged the powercord in. Once I seated properly, everything is okay.

Everything seems to be seated properly and the problem with the machine staying on only when the power button is pressed started once the dallas chip was reseated for whatever reason, so I think it's more likely the board than anything else. I guess it's worth a try though, what do you mean by seated properly? Was the PSU just getting seated incorrectly or what do you mean?

JohnK wrote: You may have done this already so please excuse me if you have. When you re-seated the memory did you actually take out the modules and plug them back in again? If so, were they installed in the same order? If not, you may want to reorganize the modules in different slots. Work with a minimum memory configuration and only populate a set at a time to see if that resolves anything. I am not familiar with Octanes since I don't have one but you still may want to try that just in case.

I have tried reseating, I've even tried a completely different set of RAM. I don't have much else to try at this point. I think the board is just messed up honestly.
Thanks