The collected works of jan-jaap - Page 8

Started life as a 2x400MHz system, but the frontplate and the system board gave up. Now back from the dead, and with a faster CPU as well

This used to be a Discreet Flame system, maybe it will be back as such. I added the DIVO, wonder if Flame picks it up.
I removed the FC XIO card in slot 'D' because I don't like 'fast fan' all that much. I'll probably replace the SCSI card in the PCI cage with something faster and/or add a PCI FC card instead. The IOC3 can be replaced with a gigabit board. Also has a Digi ClassicBoard PCI 4port serial board which shows up as "PCI card, bus 0, slot 2, Vendor 0x114f, Device 0x4"

hinv


gfxinfo


divohinv

jpstewart wrote: I've heard older versions of IRIX run better with 64MB, so I may downgrade the OS instead.

Seems like you need to talk to SAQ .

ramq wrote: Two of the modules went to Holland

And in case you were wondering, here they are


It's been a pleasure! I'll follow up my adventures with this new toy in a separate thread. My immediate plans include adding some more RAM which I still have. The second module doesn't have an IO9 or SCSI drive backplane, but I want to install a SAS3041 board and a couple of large SATA drives instead.

And no, I have no immediate plans to turn this into an Onyx350. This baby will live in a rack somewhere, where it can run 24/7 and be useful

Thanks Björn!

ramq wrote: (Qty 1) Origin 350 - MPX Module ( Had two, one of them sold )

FWIW, I think the correct term is Expansion compute module : The only difference between the base compute module and the expansion compute module is that the expansion compute module may or may not contain an IO9 PCI card and the devices and connector ports the IO9 card supports.


An MPX module has RAM and PCI-X slots, but no CPUs: To increase the amount of memory in the system, the compute modules can connect to a memory and PCI expansion (MPX) module as shown in Figure 2-4.The MPX module is a 2U AC-powered device that can have from 1 GB to 8 GB of memory. This module also has four PCI/PCI-X slots. .

mapesdhs wrote:

Code: Select all

no turbo

bummer

mapesdhs wrote: It runs buttonfly surprisingly well.

Buttonfly doesn't use textures, and GR graphics doesn't rely on the CPU for geometry so I'm not surprised.

I am somewhat surprised you managed to install IRIX 5.3 on it, when the release notes of IRIX 5.3 w/XFS mention:

2.7 Hardware Restrictions

IRIX 5.3 with XFS is not supported on products containing IP4 or IP6 processors.

IRIX 5.3 with XFS is not supported on systems with less than 32MB of RAM.

If "not supported" != "explodes in your face", then maybe I should try this on my 8MHz IP4 w. 16MB RAM

As promised before , let me introduce my new workhorse:

hinv -mv


L2 controller


environmental data


serial data


pci settings

There are 4 cards spread out over the 4 buses:

• module1, bus1, slot1: IO9
• module1, bus2, slot1: LSI 22320 (dual U320 scsi)
• module1, bus2, slot2: Gigabit ethernet (modded HP NC7770)
• module2, bus1, slot1: LSI SAS3041X-R
• module2, bus2, slot1: Qlogic SANblade QL2342 (dual 2Gbit fibre channel)

Unlike most people I'm not planning to turn it into a wannabee-Onyx350 or Tezro. This one will live in the natural habitat of Origins: in a rack somewhere, running 24/7 and quietly performing it's duties (compile & compute server).


The second module is an expansion compute module, so it lacks IO9 and scsi drive backplane. It is still possible to install disk sleds, they just don't slot into anything. There is enough space for a SATA cable, though. You know where this is going

I briefly attached a 2TB Samsung to the SAS3041X-R and verified that IRIX can fx and mount it. I'm currently awaiting two extra disk sleds and two Samsung EcoGreen F4EG 2TB disks. Will make a nice backup server

Update 4-nov-2010 : added DVD-ROM and XVM stripe of two 2TB SATA disks.
Update 3-dec-2010 : increased RAM to 16GB, added QLA2342 dual 2Gb SANblade
Update 6-dec-2010 : added L1 data
Update 19-sep-2011 : IO9 firmware upgrade, added ethernet card
Update 15-nov-2011 : added L2 controller

First things first. If you, as father and provider, are about to loose your job, then some old computers, never mind a web browser on an old operating system, are *not* your priorities.

I'd offer you storage for your hardware, but we've got a second baby underway so I'm about to loose my current computer room and will likely need to look for temp storage myself until a new extension to the house is built.

I wish you lots of strength and hope you find a new job soon!

Very interesting!

Unfortunately it seems the output is not a dual link DVI:

Techpubs wrote: Four DVI single-link digital video inputs with up to 165–MHz pixel clock per input can combine into one digital video output that allows up to 165 MHz of output

So hamei's fantasy of using this to connect to some 3840x2400 display isn't going to happen. It will be interesting to seel how well this device works, and how transparent it is from a software perspective. SGI has a long history of graphics pipe multiplexers (all the way back to the Skywriter cyclops mode), but it always required explicit support from the applications.

Added 4TB of local storage: two 2TB SATA disks attached to an LSI SAS3041X-R, striped using XVM. These are "eco" (5400RPM) models. The SAS3041 is in the lowest PCI slot of the second Origin 350, where you would normally find the IO9. It has the PCI bus to itself so it runs at 100 or 133MHz PCI-X speed. I had to order some special 70cm SATA cables with an angled connector at the drive end: there's insufficient between the drives and the nearest fan for anything else. I expect some more RAM sometime soon, maybe I'll take some pictures then.

Disks installed:

Some results:

Compare this to the system disk, a Seagate 15K.3:

As was to be expected, the 5400 RPM disks loose to the 15K disk for small random I/O, but for everything else the SCSI disk takes a severe beating. Both tests use direct I/O, all disks have the (disk) write cache enabled. The system is in use, which probably explains the dip at block size 4194304 for the SCSI disk.

This system has genuine MIPSpro C/C++/F77/F90/Workshop and XVM licenses. Everything is 100% legit

Otherwise, the SGI FLEXlm licensing scheme hasn't changed since IRIX 6.2 / FLEXlm v4.x. I won't get into the details because it probably violates your awful DMCA law and I don't want to cause any trouble, but it isn't hard to break.

Nice!

Since you have both, maybe you can tell me: how loud is a Tezro compared to an Origin/Onyx 350 module?

skywriter wrote: we just put a fix in for XFS in linux fragmenting large IO's up into smaller ones. what a hack it's become

You're not kidding, you are living in a living in a linux-blunderland

Thanks for the insights.

mila wrote: 3) It will keep him from having a disk crash ever again

This is an illusion. Anything can fail, including SSDs. The Indy itself can fail in subtle ways, corrupting your data for a long time before you realize that something is wrong (bad memory, bad scsi controller, bad cabling, ...). If you value your data, you make backups.

The tricky bit with harddisks is that you cannot buy a new SCSI disk for an Indy anymore because new disks are all SAS. You don't want to buy something second hand that may fail any moment. SMART data should tell you how many hours a disk has been used, but you will not know before you buy the disk. Some of the newer models have FD bearings so they are very quiet and should last longer.

I've had good results with Seagate 15K.3 and 15K.4 disks. You can buy many of those for the price of one SSD plus SATA-SCSI adapter.

Some pictures of the SATA mod:




Needed:
* Two O350 drive sleds or the Intel / SUN equivalent
* Two 70cm SATA cables with a straight connector on one end and an angled connector on the other end
* Two SATA disks. I used 2TB Samsung disks
* A SATA power cable with two vertically attached SATA power plugs and a Molex
* Another misc power cable with at least a Molex plug
* One TYCO ELECTRONICS / AMP - 3-640426-4 - HOUSING, 18AWG, 4WAY

Of course you cannot boot from this, and the drive bay must not have the SCSI drive backplane either. So this works only in a system with at least two modules.

Space between the disks and the blower is limited. I looked around for a suitable SATA backplane but found nothing. Actually, I suspect that the Altix 350 has it. If someone is going to gut one, feel free to donate it to me But that's why the cables have to be just right. I had the right SATA power cable in my junk bin, but not the extra long, angled SATA cables. They have to be the 'left' / 'straight' model :
There are some clips on the outside of the O350 chassis, and the space to route the cable around the fan, which is why I chose the left hand cable. The more common cables with vertical attachment won't work on the lower drive (not enough space).

I bought a big box of 2GB memory kits so this system now has 16GB installed. Unfortunately 1 DIMM is bad or dirty so the machine currently runs with 2GB disabled and I don't have the time to pull it from the rack and rectify that. As soon as that's fixed I'll update the 'hinv' one (last ?) time. That's also the reason I put the SANblade in: if the need to attach some SAN storage pops up I don't want to have to pull the system from the rack ...

After a bit of cleaning all 16GB RAM is now enabled

Updated with L1 data.

035: 030-0232-001
This is a GM3B board from a VGX(T) graphics boardset. Looks like you've got the guts of a Crimson VGXT there. There slots these cards belong in are described here: http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/crimson.html

#023 is an ATM board.

From Gerhard's site:

Challenge GR
The Challenge GR is a system that has slots configured to support RealityEngine or InfiniteReality graphics boards, but because of that has has fewer slots for CPU, I/O, and memory. GR is an abbrevatation for Graphics Ready".

Looks like a Challenge GR is an Onyx stripped of it's graphics boards. Since you have the graphics boards and Onyx front panels, I'd turn it into a real Onyx You're going to need several OLSes (power supplies), power boards and a system controller that plug into the back side of the backplane.

Another invaluable source of information about Challenge/Onyx and Crimson systems is Simon Pigot's old site. It's no longer live, but mirrored here: http://www.sgistuff.net/mirrors/sgi/

Good luck!

Nice!

Voralyan wrote: - Eizo FlexScan L567 (I'm an Eizo fan...)

Me too. It's very sad that most of the current EIZO displays do not support sync-on-green anymore

I replaced the fans in my O300 so it can be done: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16718040
I still have the original fans, but I'm in Europe.

Gigabit ethernet: but a cheap 3c996bT or equivalent Compaq/HP card and hack it, instructions found here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12702

The model I used is not for sale anymore. They sell something similar, but with slower RPM (closer to the lower limit, but still good), and unfortunately also a lower MBTF.

IIRC, the connector was the right size but the pinout wasn't. I'd have to check my original fans, see if they still have connectors A dentist hook can be used to pry the pins from the connector, you can reinsert them any way you like.

Updated L1 to rev. 1.48.1 (IRIX 6.5.30 + patchSG0007149) using the procedure described by tjsgifan (thanks!)

This changed a few things in the '* env' output: both warning RPM and current RPM of the PSU fan have mysteriously doubled on both modules. Also, the '* serial all' now probes a SNOWBALL (nor found) and serial numbers of the PSUs. Speaking of those, I get this now too:


Right

The whole procedure is rather involved, if it wasn't for the fact that I was rebuilding an O300 anyway I wouldn't have bothered.

Thanks a lot! My O350 had IRIX 6.5.30 and L1 firmware rev. 1.22.2, so 'flashsc' didn't work for me.

I first tried to take it to 1.32.6 simply by booting it from a fresh IRIX 6.5.26 disk prepared on an O300. 'flashsc' (v1.3.x) refused still. So, I tried again, this time with a 6.5.21 disk + L1 firmware from 6.5.26 (rev 1.32.6) exactly like you said. That (flashsc 1.0.7) worked to upgrade both L1s to 1.32.6

I then put my IRIX 6.5.30 disk back. 'flashsc' worked exactly *once*, to upgrade the L1 of module 001c01 to 1.48.1 (IRIX 6.5.30 + patch 7149). No amount of IRIX reboots, reboot_l1's could convince it to work after that (hung again).

Not someone to give up easily, I returned with a fresh IRIX 6.5.28 disk which succeeded in flashing the secondary flash bank of 001c01 and the primary flash of 001c02 to rev 1.38.4.

Only *then* did the flashsc 1.4.1 of my normal (6.5.30) disk flash the second module to 1.48.1

Lesson learned: don't do this unless you have to.

Just install a second node board, fill everything up with 512MB RAM kits (the 'sandwich model') add, a second RM and some misc options and watch that power consumption rise to ~ 950W

Do I get that right, you run an Onyx2 in a bedroom while your 2year old is sleeping there? Wow, I have to tell that to my wife

recondas wrote: it would only be fair to give credit to Toby in the article, since it looks like quite a bit of work went into compiling that list of revisions/compatibilities.

That, or provide a reference to this thread so that the original context, or further findings reported here, are not lost. My addition to Toby's notes was just my observations while applying his recipe: anecdotal, with some unexplained things happening. Hardly a well written article, not really meant to be simply copy-pasted after Toby's text.

Make no mistake: I appreciate your efforts to distill things written on the board in a wiki. At the same time, upgrading an L1 is delicate business, and taking shortcuts makes this even riskier. Just read 'whiter's message about lost serial numbers when upgrading his O300 ; I think he needed help from SGI to get his system back online.

Toby's post (and mine) are all about taking shortcuts while upgrading the L1. But a collection of shortcuts does not make an "L1 upgrade HOWTO". For one thing, I'm pretty sure the recommended upgrade path is simply to install every IRIX overlay and flash the L1 every time.

Well, I'm glad my final conclusion made it to the wiki because that pretty much sums it up

Nice system. Loud though, not? Hopefully the plastic skins are in decent condition?

BetXen wrote: I would like to reinstall or update IRIX. Do I have something to know before (like patch5086, last version of IRIX that supports O200, additional CD required,...) ?

You need to install patch5086 before you install 6.5.22, unless you boot from the 6.5.22 installation media and perform a miniroot installation. The Origin 200 is supported all the way up to IRIX 6.5.30 (and runs it pretty well too).

You don't need any special CD's, just the usual IRIX 6.5.xx overlays and the 6.5 base OS CDs. You might even be able to get away with only the overlay discs.

Have fun!

PS: my parents in law live in Neuchâtel

BetXen wrote: Thanks for your answers.

I have hoever some more questions:
- So, if I boot from CD, the patch is installed automatically ?

No, the issue is that with 6.5.21 or 6.5.22 (?) they changed the format of the software distribution files. If you perform an installation from within IRIX, you need patch 5086 which will upgrade your old installation program ('inst') so it understands this new format. If you boot from CDROM and install from the miniroot, you use the 'inst' program from the miniroot and that one already knows how to handle the new format.

BetXen wrote: - The CD drive can be connected on any of the two towers, even if I install from the miniroot ?

I expect no problems there. The PROM will simply detect a CD-ROM drive on SCSI controller 3 instead of 1 and offer you to boot (and install) from that when you select the 'install software' option from the PROM menu.

BetXen wrote: - If I decided to reinstall completely the system, could I do it when the two towers are connected or should I do it separetely and connect them afterwards ?

I would leave the towers connected. The installation will flash the firmware of the system, otherwise one tower will still have the old firmware which will cause problems.

BetXen wrote: - Last question, for now: how can I keep the licenses if I reinstall irix ? Which file(s) to copy on my backup server ?

Make a backup of /var/flexlm/license.dat. If you have an XLV license, check for /etc/flexlm/license.dat also. As long as you don't put a new filesystem on the disk(s) an IRIX upgrade shouldn't touch third party applications or licenses, but a complete backup before an update is never a bad idea.

The shade of gray of the DVD-ROM drive says it's a SUN OEM part though. I know, I've got one just like that Works just fine of course.

PymbleSoftware wrote: Submit the package to incoming

Better not: Redistribution of kermit binaries is not allowed .

Otherwise probably a good exercise.