The collected works of jade_angel

If it's a Radeon 7000, and you can turn it into an XVR-100, then you can just yoink out the GFX8P (PGX32), and drop the MacGyvered XVR-100 in there instead. If it lacks Sun firmware then it can't be the primary. (Of course, under Linux/BSD you could trivially make Xorg use it instead, if it can be initialized).

The GFX8p/PGX32 is actually a Permedia2, IIRC, so it should work OK under Linux, though.

Sure, but the project is still worth it for pure hack value. Then you dual-boot back to IRIX to do real work. That said, if anyone gets HW-accelerated OpenGL working on any SGI, combined with 5DWM/MaXXDesktop, you might get something useful and IRIXy out of it. (Not that it helps for IRIX apps, of course, but hey...) No harm in trying, right?

I'd say that probably a Blade 1000/2000 could play H.264 720p video, but I haven't tested it.

BTW, FC disks aren't horribly expensive, about the same prices as SCSI overall, especially on eBay. They're a little harder to find, though. Also, it's possible to boot a Blade 1000/2000 (practically the same machine) from external SCSI. Most of them on the second-hand market have at least one FC disk in them already - you could boot from that and use a SCSI or Firewire one for storage.

I do seem to remember reading somewhere that it's possible to jimmy-rig the environmental monitor, but I don't remember exactly how. I saw an article on it somewhere, though. If I can dredge it up again, I'll post a link.

Long story short, though, it's a pain in the butt, and might be easier to just get the PSU fixed.

porter wrote:

Oko wrote: Risk architecture

do you mean RISC?

Oko wrote: ... are less prone to buffer overflows

Do they not use return addresses on the stack?

Mostly, it's that most buffer-overflow-based shellcode exploits use x86 opcodes in their trickery, this will just explosively segfault on a MIPS or other non-x86. I once built a webserver using a SPARC machine in part because of this. (The customer in question wanted Apache+Solaris+Postgresql+Python regardless of arch, though.)

You can, of course, get a 13W3-HD15 adapter or cable and use it that way, though.

I have a pair of 15k 146GB Seagates in my main workstation that are only slightly louder than the nearly silent 750GB 7200RPM disk that's being used as a storage tank. The only catch is, they're sorta expensive - I got lucky and got a steal on eBay, which doesn't pop up all that often.

Based on the keying on that card, it's universal, so as long as it doesn't load its own BIOS, or require anything specific to PC BIOS (that isn't emulated in the 320, I'm not completely clear on what is and isn't), it should work fine.

Some of the newer Fujitsu and Seagate 10k and 15k units really aren't very loud. Their seeks are a little louder than the 7200RPM SATA units I've got, but not bad at all.

Well, I can give it a whirl when I get back to the States in mid-November - but with the timing, that's at best mildly useful...

Of those two, the Fuel is doubtless a bit quieter, and probably more performant than the Octane(2).

I have all three systems, and I'd say that modulo disk noise, the Octane is the loudest, though none of them are horribly loud. Do watch out for noisy disks, though. The newer 15K RPM Seagate or Fujitsu drives aren't very loud, while some of the older 7200RPM units that are common in an Indigo2 can produce quite the din. If you've got a 73GB in yours, though, that's probably a more modern disk, so I'd expect disk noise to be similar.

My gut feeling is that the Fuel is quieter than the Indigo2, but that's just comparing mine side-by-side, which doesn't account for different frequencies (I have some mid-frequency hearing loss) and disk noise.

For what they're asking, I'd be inclined to take it, but then, I'm weird.

As others have suggested, see if they'll let you power it up and do a PROM hinv. From there, take it if it's a V12 for sure. V10 is hard to find (in an Octane. It's trivial in a Fuel), and V8 is almost as good as V12 for a lot of things, so I'd take it if it's a V8/10. V6, your call. If the machine's a dualie, or has more than 2GB of RAM, that's more points in the 'take it' column.

A dual R12k/400 with 2GB of RAM and a V6 is worth $100, IMHO, maybe more to the right person. The same spec with a V12 is worth considerably more than the asking price.

Gonna give this a whirl when I get back, see how it compares to SXCE/OpenSolaris.

There is apparently a driver for the XVR-2500 in the works for Xorg. Alas, since it's a PCI-E card and bloody awful expensive, that doesn't help us Ultra and Blade users. (Or, well, anyone except those few with Ultra 25/45 machines...)

You might try Blender, or Maya if you can get it, for 3D art. Something like BZFlag is cool too. Indeed, pretty much anything 3D, since the V12 was SGI's best workstation graphics option. (I'd be hard-pressed to call an Onyx-anything a workstation)

The plural of "anecdote" isn't "data", but I'll add another anecdote to the pile anyway.

At home I have a 16-disk array consisting of 8x 750GB, 4x 1TB and 4x 1.5TB SATA drives configured in mostly-RAID10 using ZFS. I can't say I've had any more issues with the larger drives than the smaller ones - all 16 seem to be fully functional. However, once I exceeded the PSU's maximum 12V current output, the 1.5TB units dropped offline first. I'm not sure why - maybe they need more juice, or are just more sensitive to power fluctuations. That said, after installing a beefier PSU, they came back without any permanent damage. By the same token, this server only gets used by 5-7 people, and doesn't get hit all that hard.

As for how to set it up, I'd also advise against RAID5 unless the data is read-mostly, and even if it is, I'd prefer RAID6 over RAID5+hotspare. (RAID5 without a hotspare is, IMHO, too risky unless there are /very/ frequent backups). Space-wise, RAID6 will get you 10.5TB - which you'd need 14 disks to match with RAID10. As much as I prefer RAID10 for both performance and reliability reasons, RAID6 might make more sense in your case if you can't afford/use 14 disks.

It may be too late now, but I've heard it suggested that your drives should come from a mix of manufacturers, to reduce the odds of multiple drives puking simultaneously due to the same manufacturing fault/firmware bug/etc. Honestly I don't know how much this helps, but intuitively it makes sense.

As for filesystems, that's always a question. Recently I've been partial to ZFS, but if you're using Linux, and can't use FreeBSD or Solaris, XFS is a very good choice. ext4 or jfs might work well, too, but I'd have to look at some benchmarks and such to be sure. (Also, ext4 is the least well tested of the lot. It does seem to deserve the 'stable' label, but that's still something to consider)

bri3d wrote: Just FYI, ZFS RAID does not perform quite as well as Linux software RAID or a RAID controller, despite its oft-hyped variable stripe width. While ZFS shines in many areas (replication, snapshotting, quotas, and so on), its RAID is not one of its strong points. The recovery and hot-spare support in RAID-Z is also relatively new and unproven, and for quite a while was just flat-out broken. I wouldn't trust RAID-Z with mission-critical data, especially as it's prone to loss if the ZFS metadata gets damaged.
Of course, there's nothing that keeps you from running ZFS on a controller-backed volume besides cost.

Actually, I thought about doing that - my array is using an Adaptec 31605 SAS RAID controller right now, but I'm running it in JBOD mode. I'm using software mirrored pairs of disks right now, since that gives me the ability to swap out disks for more capacity (I did that in this array's predecessor, swapping 4x250 for 4x750 on the fly), but I was thinking about using the controller since I'm rebuilding the system soon anyway, once I get back from deployment. I thought of maybe setting the drives up as 4x1000 RAID5 + 4x1500 RAID5 + 4x(2x750) ZFS mirrors, but maybe that makes no sense. I'm still thinking and doing the math. (The array is read-mostly, and I can easily add an OCZ Vertex SSD as a separate ZFS intent log device, which will massively speed up writes)

Dual-link DVI can do better than that. I'm not sure quite how high, I'd have to ask El Goog. Though, it looks to me like the point of the beast is to stitch together multiple 3D images, not so much for high res.

Sure looks like it to me. It could conceivably be dual V6/8/10+DCD, but any of those would be extremely weird, so it's most likely you have the good stuff. Enjoy!

If you're still looking, I have an Indigo2 R10k/195+MaxIMPACT, with 192MB RAM. I also have 768MB of RAM that's ready to install but not tested. (It was sold as working last time anyone checked, and it's been sealed in anti-static bags since then, in cool, dry conditions).

I don't remember how big the disk is in it - 73GB I think, but I'm not completely sure. I can look tonight. The disk is installed in a 5.25" sled, since I don't have any 3.5" ones, so there's no CD-ROM installed, though I can provide one, along with a sled.

I'm looking to sell a Sun Blade 2000, dual US-IIICu/900, 2GB of RAM, XVR-600 graphics, 73GB FC-AL disk, Sun Type 7 keyboard and mouse, Intel gigabit ethernet card, smart card reader, DVD-ROM. The latest firmware is installed. I can also install a PCI USB2.0 controller which works in Solaris 10, OpenBSD and Linux.

Other graphics options available, I currently have: XVR-1000 (untested), XVR-500, Expert3D, Expert3D-Lite, Elite3D, Creator3D, PGX32. I also have an XVR-1200 that I'd be willing to part with for the right price, but it would have to sit in a 64-bit/33MHz slot due to the motherboard layout of the Blade 2k.

The machine currently has Linux on it, but I can install OpenBSD or Solaris (9 or 10) instead.

All reasonable offers considered. Shipping will be from Richmond, VA (local pickup is an option), by UPS or USPS, buyers' preference.

I have several Octanes available in the Richmond area, PM me for details/price.

I also have a dual R10k/250 or a dual R12k/300 available. Can spare one or the other, but not both.

I've got two Octane2s for sale in the Richmond, VA area, specced as follows:


Asking $800 on this one, but willing to entertain most any reasonable offer.


Asking $400 for this one, but as above, any reasonable offer will be considered.

It's worth noting that the disk has to support hot-swapping, in addition to the controller.