The collected works of crrn

@bvdwiel
Hi
take a look at Pouet.net here http://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?platf ... e=1&order=
8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane2: :Octane:
ShadeOfBlue wrote: These look interesting, thanks for sharing!
(Also, welcome to the forum :) )

Yeah.
Hi ShadeofBlue Hi All

I'll write another welcome post when my first Indigo2 (Solid Impact) R10k arrives this saturday.
I think I'll have lot's of questions :) As till now I was collecting mainly Amigas but finding this forum convinced me to go for SGIs...

As to the subject of this thread:
Pouet.net has lots of demoscene productions. I think that many of the Linux productions could be easelly ported to Irix as they use generic OpenGL in most cases. I'll try to do that wehn I finnaly have mine I2.
8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane2: :Octane:
Hi all
Finally my Octane arrived so I can start post on this forum and bother all you with regular newbie questions

So
I've got this Octane (together with SGI 21'' monitor for 100 Euro is it reasonable price?) It has few small scratches here and there but most important for me is that it starts... sort of. but after start some problems begins.
here's the first screenshot:
Image
all I get after this message is a PROM menu and autobooting doesn't work...

This Octane has 2 9BG Compaq Wide SCSi discs and I think one of them isn't working. All I hearr after booting is few clicks from the discs and then I can hear it tryes to spin...
After this I see the message I showed you above.
When only second disc is inserterd it can't boot (my guess is due to not having OS or boot sector or something - forgive me I'm new to SGI)
So any ideas how to start fixing this. I can see from hinv it only has SI gfx board so I won't be able to run all the cool textured demos but it will be nice to having this running.
Please find attached these picture below and please suggest anything. how to start fixing this? If it's the system disc which I assume is broken then how can I get IRIX 6.5. copy and install it on this machine.

more photos here:
Image
Image
Image
Image

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
OK Sounds liek I can do this, but how do I reset RAM and drives?
I can take the fornt panel off but is this what you mean? what then?

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
Thanks for the replies so far.
I cleaned the inside of this Octane with compressed air and tried tighten everything up just to make sure everything is connected.
As I expected not much changes after this so I sterted to setup bootp and tftp server on my linux bos and will try to install on the second disc which apears to be working.
will update you if succeeded or failed.
thanks.

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
WOW! It's working now!
ok let me explain myself first... my Indigo2 is not working anymore. I bought it one month ago (or so) but couldn't get it to work anyway.... that's why i registered month ago but didn't post since then. now I have this Octane and with some help from fellow Nekochan'ers I have it running with fresh Irix 6.5 install.
Here's the proof:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21703767/sgi/O ... G_0419.jpg

Now...
What I did was:
1. removed broken SCSI disc (It was seriously broken as it gave strange sounds while booting)
2. use these tutorials to create linux tftp and bootp server
- http://techpubs.spinlocksolutions.com/i ... linux.html
- http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/netboot.html
- http://software.majix.org/irix/install- ... inux.shtml
but actually the first one was the most helpfull as I was using debian gnu/linux (squeez) to serv as tftp/bootp/rsh (my note: dns part is not crucial. you can avoid it if you are going to use these modern wifi/ethernet hubs with build in dns servers)
anyways... following these tutorials was easy, and straightforward.

in the meantime some fellow Nekochan'ers sugested DINA, but I was in the middle of the process so I'll look at DINA next time, because it's not my last word for SGI hardware.
Thanks guys.
I wish I could get this kind of help on other retro-computer forums where I'm also involved.

Now here you can see how this Octane fits my "Mansion"

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21703767/sgi/O ... G_0416.JPG

Regards!

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
OK You were right. It's addictive...
3 weeks ago I asked you to help me with my new Octane (it works now so thanks again for all the help) and today I have SGI Fuel machine in my computer room.
So again few questions here:
1. IT has some memory problems I guess... After pressing start (power on) button it starts to blink with white led (screen is blank) and after additional 15 - 30 secs it starts to boot.
I new it will act this way as ebay seller informed about it... the problem is (guess) with one of the SIMMs, as after bootking the OS sees only 1,5 GB Ram instead of 2GB
I can remove 2 SIMMs as I don't need 2 GBs, but I have problem removing this blue shield which goes from cooler to RAM docs. Any hints? Do I have to remove HD first?
2. Can I use USB pen drives as it has USB ports? I tried to do it but with no luck. what FS type the pendrive schould be? how to mount it?
3. seams like my machine has PCI sound card of some sort. I'll make photos later and will ask you to help me setup it as it seams not to work IMO
4. and there's also some other PCI card with connectors loking like firewire or something... photos to come later.
5. last question is kind of general. are there any good-practices of which services from init level 2 (default init level) could be stoped as starting them at boot time makes booting process a bit longer.

so that's all for now.
my main goal to collect SGI (as well as my other 80's/90's machines) is just a hobby but I want to start some hobby project soon trying to create some images with gfx tools from 90's. just to see how different the tools were back then but also to see how much of progress we have with the gfx tools we use nowadays.

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
OK more problems accured...

I tried the PROM/POD procedure but it hangs after typing 'pod' in the PROM commandline.
So I tried to remove DIMMs and put them back with different configs (actully I tried all possigle configs but anything seams to work. machine doesnt even start and flashes with white (3 flashes) and then starts to flash red. When I reinstall 4 of the DIMMs it boot's but now it seams it sees only 512 MB. :(
I assume I broke something in the DIMMS or memory docks... which is difficult to understand as I was extra carefull and unpluged power everytime I touched DIMMs.

Do you think that there is anything else I can do before buying new DIMMs on eBay?

I remeber about photos. Will post them later, no worries.

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
OK, so here's the status:
1- connected via nullmodem cable to L1 on the motherboard.
2. seams that 3 banks were marked disabled but after POD procedure all banks are enabled and the Fuel can see 2GB RAM
so thanks for the help in this area so far.
but...

it can boot up to the OS and I can even login to my user account but when trying to start apps like blender, photoshop or anything bigger than xterm causes black screen and reboot.
all I can read (because the console output disapears too quickly) is some 'cache error'

so IMO it maigh mean that something's wrong with the RAM. but which DIMM? how can I disable it? any other options?
TIA

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
Here's part of SYSLOG
Code:
Jan 15 21:43:59 6D:Fuel sn0log: The following are messages stored in the flashlog from a previous system boot.
Jan 15 21:43:59 6D:Fuel sn0log: Flashlog for /hw/module/001c01/node/hub/mon
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Info: *** Local network link down
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Serial #: 080069104199
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: HARDWARE ERROR STATE:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +  Errors on node Nasid 0x0 (0)
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +    IP35 in /hw/module/001c01/node [serial number MET870]
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +      BEDROCK signalled following errors.
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +        BEDROCK PI 0 Error Interrupt Register: 0x15000000
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          24: Memory/Directory uncorrectable error, access bits uncorrectable error, or protocol error
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          26: CPU A SysAD Data quality bad during data cycle
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          28: CPU A received uncorrectable error during a cached load
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +        BEDROCK PI 0 Error spool A:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +            *** 34 Access Errors to unpopulated memory skipped
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +        BEDROCK PI 1 Error Interrupt Register: 0x1000000
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          24: Memory/Directory uncorrectable error, access bits uncorrectable error, or protocol error
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +        BEDROCK MD Mem Error Register: 0x1300ff008de62700
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          32<->03: bad entry pointer 0x11bcc4e0 << 3 = (0x8de62700)
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          47<->40: bad memory syndrome 0xff
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          57<->56: uncorrectable memory write ecc (valid, overrun)
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          61<->60: uncorrectable memory read ecc (valid)
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +      CPU cache on cpu 0
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +        Cache error register: 0xffffffff88062700
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          Secondary cache error: sidx 0x62700  Way 1 addr 0x62700
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: +          27:  D, Uncorrectable data array error, way 1
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: End Hardware Error State
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: ++FRU ANALYSIS BEGIN
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: No rules triggered:  Insufficient data
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: Timeout Histogram is empty.
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: ++FRU ANALYSIS END
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: PANIC: Cache Error (unrecoverable secondary cache error) Eframe = 0x838
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: Dumping to /hw/module/001c01/Ibrick/xtalk/15/pci/1/scsi_ctlr/0/target/1/lun/0/disk/partition/1/block at block 0, space: 0x2000 pages
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Info: System dump startedA Fatal: Dumping low memory...A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Dumping static kernel pages...A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Dumping pfdat pages...A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Dumping backtrace pages...A Fatal:
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Dumping dynamic kernel pages...A Fatal: WARNING: A Fatal: Cached read: Poison Access Violation, node 0x0 paddr 0xe20900A Info: *** Local network link down
Jan 15 21:43:59 5D:Fuel sn0log: A Fatal: Restarting the machine...
Jan 15 21:43:59 6D:Fuel sn0log: End of flashlog for /hw/module/001c01/node/hub/mon
Jan 15 21:43:59 6D:Fuel sn0log: End of flashlog messages.


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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
@recondas, @ShadeOfBlue, all
Thanks for help so far.

Do you really think that it could be a PM? I cant read anythin interesting from SYSLOG so I'm not sure.
For me the problem looks like brokem memory DIMM. I had several examples of this kind of behaviour when computer crashed but it was in PC world.

The thing is I can't reproduce the error again. Meaning that I run my Fuel almost all day today and start trial/demo version of Photoshop, Soofice, blender, even demos and I cant get computer to crash (which normally could be a good sign ;) )
anyway I'll try to stress test it (any ideas of how to do it with memory intensive apps?) and raport back later.

One more question that comes to mind. why it reported broken memory DIMM previously and now we think it could be PM?
I assumed IT IS MEMORY but now I'm confused...

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
OK I had some time yesterday to play with my Fuel again.
In general I think it works with 1GB of Ram.
When I insrted 2GB and tried to stress test it with blender (createda huge scene with lots of poligons) it crashed in different moments/situations.
With 1GB it works OK!

Before testing 2GB I tightened the PM and everything that could possibly couse some connection problems, with no luck.
As it's my hobby machine and 1GB seams to be enough for this moment, I'll stay with it.

Now it's time to see what are the PCI cards that I have. Will post photos when I'm back at home today.

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8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane:
Here's mine chamber of the SGI
Image
sold out my Amiga 3000 and Amiga 4000 (parts) to buy Octane 2 with monitor :lol:
8bit guy with: :Fuel: :Octane2: :Octane: