The collected works of bushnrvn

I am very excited to be tinkering with my first SGI - an Octane. I've got the machine up and running, read a ton about the hardware\history\current status and I am ready to get my hands dirty. Only one problem - The IRIX install that came with the machine seems to be either broken or setup for very minimal functionality. I've got verbose mode turned on and from what I can tell, the machine checks ESP, sees that it is off, starts Appletalk and finishes up with a system ready message. That's it.

What am I missing here?

Single user mode works, I can see the file system on the drive designated as the boot volume.

I'll post the specific output tomorrow morning if needed. I've been working with this for some time tonight and I'm not going to turn the machine back on until I get some sleep

Thanks.

I've attached a screen cap of the boot messages. The services you've indicated are on. I am only able to check them in single user mode. Am I supposed to be able to interact with the machine at the System is ready message? It seems like the machine is lying in wait for some outside communication.

I had a similar problem, but it may not be exactly the same:

Thanks, looks like it might be similar. I have s suspicion this machine was set up as a headless unit at some point. There are some indications that IRIX was working for the previous owner since there are a number of nekoware installations.

I ran startx from my X11 folder and it went to a blank black screen. This makes me believe that more than just the desktop environment isn't working. It appears as if I can't login outside of single user mode.

Haha! Challenge accepted.

Fail. No such file or directory for enableall.

I did. I've got Appletalk off now. I pretty much turned off anything that didn't seem essential.

So weird.

Thanks everyone. A couple points.

I'm new to IRIX but not Unix. The idiosyncrasies have been greater than I anticipated. Is there any official literature available on IRIX?

I've entered these commands into the Command Monitor window after selecting option 5 from the maintenance menu.

I get no feedback after the system ready message aside from shutdown notifications when I power off the machine.

I've just gotten in for the night. I am giving it one more go before I call it a night.

One last thing, reading some threads here, I'm wondering if it would be possible to recreate the necessary X11 configuration on an existing Unix-like machine and export it? Even if I had to manually write out the files?

There's quite a bit in that folder.

I've done that before, but IRIX seems to be so...obtuse? Compared to other systems I've used.

Attached.

Just a guess but I'll bet bushnrvn doesn't have the necessary Irix installation media for that...

Correct. I'd like to say that'd I'll just run OpenBSD until that changes, but looks like X doesn't work on the Octane with OpenBSD?
That's another issue for another day.

If that is the most likely cause, I don't have the media to test. So here we are.

I appreciate all the help so far. I only learned of SGI about two weeks ago, and I was surprised to see that they had a thriving hobbyist community. Glad to be here.

6.5 is my best guess. I think 6.5.22 (for some reason that's the number I am recalling.) I'll confirm when I get home.

I see an Xsgi there, it's just not in the right order.

Ah - so there is. All the way to the right.

Strange.

Just a quick question - and this is just so I can stop wondering. Anybody use the NEC 1770vx as their display? The 1770nx is confirmed working and the vx has SyncOnGreen functionality, just wondering if the blank screen I'm seeing after running startx could be a sync problem?

Granted, X should ideally start automatically, and it isn't.

Just wanted to throw that out there to rule it out before I go further.

Hm. setmon doesn't seem to resolve the problem. The version I'm running is 6.5.29f

Update - a friend was surprised to hear that I had picked one of these up. It should be sufficient to say, they might be able to help me fix this installation of IRIX the easy way.

I am heading out of town for the rest of the week, so I might not be able to test until next week. Thanks.

Yeah - I bought a set of TRAM modules, but at least one of them isn't functional. Luckily, I'm not out that much money.

I was really hoping to upgrade this from an ESSI to an MXE. It isn't much of an issue yet since I haven't had time to sit down and try to install an OS yet.

What kinds of programs can I expect to be able to run with 1GB RAM, ESSI\MXE? I have what I have, and I'm not looking to throw hundreds of dollars at this side project. Mostly, I just want to get it up and running, maybe some conversation piece programs I can show off .

Back from the dead. I put the Octane on a shelf and let it sit unused for the last several months. Just before that, I got my hands on two new TRAM modules, but they fail the hardware test. Oh well. That's life.

Anyway, I have some discs that I think are what I need to get this thing working. I am going to try and set up a Linux network install this weekend.
It also occurred to me to try using a SCSI zip disk for storage - is this possible?

Just to clarify, when I am talking about a network boot with Linux, I am talking about doing a network install of Irix via a Linux host. It is outlined here:

http://techpubs.spinlocksolutions.com/irix/remote-irix-6.5-installation-from-linux.html

Another necro update

I eventually got IRIX working on this machine. I split my retrocomputing time between Apple\TI-99\Other - and since this is the only SGI machine I own it ends up sitting for long periods of time.

Curious exactly where I might be able to pick up some working TRAM modules. Are those very rare? Otherwise, it doesn't seem like I can do much with the machine (3D, demos, etc.)

Which is the proper serial number for the EMXI TRAM? I think I read somewhere that they have to be a faster revision of the hardware?