The collected works of jwhat

schleusel and others,

Has anyone tested this with the 4958 patch mentioned?
There are a number of cheap Broadcom Gigabit ethernet cards on EBay, but how do you know if they have "tigon" chipset?
Is the used for all Broadcom cards?
At $25.00 a pop I would be happy to test one out, as long as I know that it is one with the correct chipset.
Also would the 4958 patch still be required for IRIX version later then 6.5.19?
Thanks for info.

_________________
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Slight tangent here, but if you look at UnixM time results:

- PIV 2.7GHz: 76min to complete the task
- Octane2 single 400: 80min
- Octane2 dual 400: 65min
- Tezro dual 700: 44min

You will notice that the Tezro Dual 700 timing is pretty much exactly what you would expect if you just had single CPU ie 80 * 400 / 700 = 45 min

The difference between single 400 and dual 400 likely represents moving of OS processing (IRIX) to second CPU making other one available just for model processing.
If UnixM model process application was multitreaded then I would expect that time would go way down: 80 * 400 / (2 * 700) = 23 minutes.
So to get real performance improvements you need to look at the application software not the hardware.
Also just want to say that when it comes to interactive response multiprocessor IRIX machines are much much better than Windows machines. In fact I think it is safe to say that Windows NT based OSes are so inefficient that most of the processer performance improvements make by Intel get consumed by the OS.
I think that it is in the weight of the OS (ie how much cpu power is consumed by OS rather than available to application) that Unix (IRIX, FreeBSD) still has huge performance advantage over Windows.

_________________
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
UnixM,

Here is the answer to your original question on SGI jumpers.
The only non SCSI ID that is set to on is the "Parity" jumper.
There is no jumper on the 512/2K switch so I presume that means that 512 is the default.
Cheers,
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Acronym,

Here are firmware details:

#scsicontrol -I /dev/scsi/sc1d2l0
/dev/scsi/sc1d2l0: CD-ROM TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M14011F09
ANSI vers 2, ISO ver: 0, ECMA ver: 0; supports: synch linkedcmds
vendor specific data:
30 32 2F 32 38 2F 30 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02/28/01.......
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
reserved (for SCSI 3) data:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Device is not ready

I pulled the drive from original SGI Black External case and now have it in SUN dual device box with SGI DAT (SDT-9000), so asides from being in different housing this device should be standard.
Cheers.
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
UnixM,

Well my "standard" setting has 512/2K jumer "off".
And I just did a OS install (6.5.27) update via DVD-ROM boot (as "Software Manager" crashed) and it booted from DVD-ROM no problem.
This means either that 512MB is standard block size and jumper changes this to 2K or that there is no longer the requirement for 512MB blocksize (ie PROM update has made this obselete).
Cheers.
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
UnixM,

I just did a check on blocksize via scsicontrol -b and it reports the blocksize as being 512 even though there is no jumper on the 512/2K settting.
Maybe the firmware is different and has got 512 blocksize as the default...
just guessing...
Cheers.
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Nekochaners,

I previously posted about using MCE Blu-ray kit on Mac Pro (Early 2008) and problems this had with iTunes ripping, so I removed the ATA/SATA bridge and connected the Blu-ray disk via SATA to one of the two spare SATA ports on the systems board. However this introduced issues of not being able to access the device from Windows XP as the extra two ports require AHCI disk mode to be active to be able to access any device connected to the two extra ports.

In addition to this I also had the extra issues of having Apple Mac Pro RAID card installed in my machine which is incompatible with boot camp....

Here the things that you need to do to get around all this.

1) I installed a 2.5" HD using SATA line from now disconnected systems board multilane SATA connector on system board (via SFF-8087 to SATA breakout cable) and molex/SATA power splitter cable. The 2.5" drives just slots into gap sideway in the optical drive carrier (make sure to put non conductive backing in to avoid potential short circuiting.

2) I downloaded 64 bit Ubuntu ISO Image to use as bootable live linux image, this is used to install GRUB boot loader

3) I downloaded Intel AHCI drivers from Intel website (the set that work came from the file f6flp3289.zip)

4) I downloaded nLite to create "streamlined" XP SP2 installation CD with Intel drivers from (3).

5) I downloaded special GRUB Stage 1 & 2 files which are needed to put Mac Boot Camp back into AHCI mode to allow the correct detection of AHCI controller as part of Windows XP install from (4)
see here: http://www.infinitemac.com/f74/how-to-b ... ode-t3159/

6) I downloaded Linux memdisk and smart boot manager utilities to allow GRUB to boot streamlined Boot XP cd from (4) . This is required as it ensures that GRUB boots from HD with special Stage 1 & 2 from (5), prior to "booting" from the Windows XP install disk. This will then allow Windows XP to detect AHCI controller at installation time and then automatically use the Intel AHCI drivers that have been streamlined into the release.
see here: http://cutecomputer.wordpress.com/2006/ ... ough-grub/

Now you have all the parts required you are ready to go... Note that as I have Mac Pro RAID card, I had to first do a clone of my bootable HD to create a new bootable disk.. If you only have single bootable HD then this may not be required.

1) If you have single bootable OS X HD then use Boot Camp assistant to split this into OS X and DOS halves
Otherwise use OX X Disk Utility to partition new HD into 3 parts: 1 OS X, 1 ext 3 and 1 DOS partition, then use carbon copy cloner to clone bootable HD to new HD.

2) Put your 64 Bit Ubuntu Linux boot CD into CD drive and reboot holding down the "option" key, the Linux CD will appear as "Windows" boot option disk.

3) Once Linux has booted do not choose to install rather choose to run the disk "live" and then from Iinux Administration menu start up the Ubuntu Live Disk Partitioning tool. If you split your live OS X disk using Boot Camp Assistant then you use the Linux live partition tool to add a small ext 3 partition on your target disk, in front of the bootcamp DOS one, by moving DOS partition back (this ext 3 partition is used to hold GRUB files). If you used OS X Disk Utility then your disk should be ok already.

4) Copy the Stage 1 and Stage 2 into the GRUB partition (I used /boot/grub as the directory where I put these), also copy the memdisk and smart boot manager files images there as well (just use terminal window and mkdir and cp commands), you can either by put your downloaded files into a USB key or CD to get access to them from Linux or simply download them onto in memory disk from Linux.

5) While still in Linux install the GRUB Boot Loader and edit the grub boot menu (as per the "infinitemac" instructions link in preparation list item (5) above).
here is the simple one I have...
Code:
# foreground/background text_color highlighted_color
color green/black white/black

# Set a timeout, in seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
timeout 20

# Default entry; Count from 0
default 1

#Entry 0
title Windows XP AHCI Mode
root (hd0,3)
makeactive
chainloader +1

#Entry
title SBM-Boot a CD
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/grub/memdisk.bin
initrd /boot/grub/sbootmgr.dsk


6) Shutdown machine and now reboot again holding "option" key... you should now see a "Windows" HD boot option... this is really the GRUB bootloader... but Mac sees everything that is not Mac OS boot as Windows boot...

7) Using the eject button pop out the Ubuntu CD and put in the streamlined XP install CD. Do not boot to the install CD directly!! Boot to "Windows" HD, as this will start GRUB and then select the Boot CD option, which will load memdisk/smartboot loader .

8) Once in smart boot loader it will appear that there are no bootable devices... simply request to do a BIOS boot from options available, this will actually start up the Windows XP install CD.

9) Follow the standard Windows XP install process.... be patient this take quite a while and will also automatically detect the right AHCI controller drivers you have added to your installation CD.

10) When it come time to reboot after the windows XP install has finished, again boot holding the "option" key. Now eject the Windows Install CD and put the Ubuntu Live CD back in and boot to this... as Windows install has wiped out your GRUB loader record and replaced it with Windows Loader which will not load the special GRUB Stage 1/Stage 2 files required to re-enable AHCI mode...

11) Back in Ubuntu Live disk reinstall the GRUB Bootloader....

12) Reboot again holding option key, making sure to eject Ubuntu CD and put back XP install CD but this time select to boot from "Windows" HD (ie GRUB Bootloader) and this time select the Windows XP AHCI Mode option. This will the boot back into Windows and complete the installation process...

13) Now we are getting towards the end...

14) Once Windows install has finished shut down machine and reboot Window via "option" key. Now install you "Mac OS" Install CD, but do not let it it automatically install the boot camp drivers!!! If you do this then your Windows XP installation will be ruined as Boot Camp "Intel Chipset" drives install fails and corrupts the Windows XP installation.

15) Instead copy the Boot Camp directory to your Windows HD and after removing the directories for the devices you do not have (I removed the ATI directory as I have NVIDIA graphics), also make sure you remove all the Intel Chipset directories (Boot Camp\Drivers\Instel\Chipset) and Intel945* and Instal965* files in "\Boot Camp\Drivers\Intel".

16) Then run Boot Camp install from the hard disk files not the CD.

17) You should now have a working Windows XP installation with Blu-ray support via AHCI . You can play blu-rays by using third party software.

Notes: this installation cannot be used from VMWare Fusion as fusion will lock up when it tries to boot from the GRUB installer.
this installation cannot be selected from "System Preferences" Boot Disk option, you can only boot via the "option" key method, but that is fine by me.

I will update with more details on specific items, as i had to do this many many times to get the various parts working, as most the the instructions I have referred you to are not complete or do not make certain things clear.. so you end up having a corrupted installation and having to restart all over again...

Cheers from Oz,

_________________
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
I presume if you are using "esata" that you have taken one of the extra unused SATA lines from Mac Pro and linked it to e-SATA backet to allow e-SATA drives to be plugged in.

There should be no difference between e-SATA case and what I describe here... e-SATA is still exactly the same as SATA with exception that power is via external case rather than internal power lines.

You would still need special GRUB boot loaders for Windows 7 to get into AHCI mode prior to install, but you should not need to create special streamline installation disk and I believe that Windows 7 already has AHCI drivers built in.

Cheers,

_________________
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Nekochaners,

time to dust of the Octane2 and try out DM2 and VBOBs.

Can people please advise whether there are specific compatibility issues across various version of DM2, DM3 and VBOBs with and without DM5 board installed.

People probably noticed that a bunch of VBOB have gone on ebay recently for very very low prices. So low in fact that I purchased 3 of them on the basis that maybe one of them might work...

All the VBOBs I got appear to have DM5 boards installed, as evidenced by having 3 DVI ports installed (ie looks like this):

Image

However on powering them up connected to Octane2 with DM2 board installed, I cannot seem to communicate to any of them. Using "vbob_flash" utility ("vbob_flash -nvp" I think), it comes back saying it cannot establish communications with VBOB.

Are people aware of compatibility issue with different versions of VBOB and DM2/DM3 boards?

Thanks,
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Nekochaners,

thanks for all the tips, very useful, especially about diagnostic port. I will do some testing over the weekend.

Neko I got LVDS cables from Nekochaner "Richtom1" for $45 each, so if you need cables I believe he still has some for VBOB or are you talking about coax for video?

I have already done hinv - and can see DM2, no problems.

I have not plugged into DM5 yet as I thought I just wanted to get basic VBOB comms going first, before playing around with more cables. I have seen sgi specific cables advertised for DCD to DM5 connection, but was assuming I could just go to local computer shop and purchase standard DVI-I cables.

Is this a safe assumption?

Pilot345 - this is strictly technical challenge/toy at the moment, I do all my nessasary work on Mac Pro nowadays and have just converted my mail server, DNS and DHCP over to mini Mac Snow Leopard Server (which had its challenges), having had these running on Windows for quite sometime and now also moving FreeBSD external DNS/HTTP Cache to virtualised FreeBSD also running on mini Mac.

Thanks again, I hope I have some success on the weekend.
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Nekochaners,

ok here is diagnostic port report:

Code: Select all

VBOB bootloader version 1.1
Running power on diagnostics...

512KB external SRAM detected.

Press ESC to enter the RAM diagnostic mode OR load alternative image.
Loading active image vbob_a.bin version 1.3.22.

VBOB firmware revision 1.3.22 built 20031107165902
Initializing....
Press <esc> to skip xilinx load
Initializing xilinx......               DONE
DM5 daughter card detected, rev 1
loading denali fpgas...
programming fpga out
programming fpga scxp3
programming fpga fmta
programming fpga dctl
programming fpga scxp2
programming fpga csc
programming fpga scxp4
programming fpga ecc
programming fpga scxp1
programming fpga fmtb
------------------
Initializing DENALI...
Done.
DONE
=========================================
vbob> videomanager starting up.
video: no ENV found in flash. Using factory defaults


All three vbobs report same firmware and DM5, but one of them fails to complete initial boot, nor do any of its green diagnostic lights flash.

Given that 2 of the VBOBs appear to be reporting ok, it might be either my DM2 board or cables that is causing the problem.

I noticed that none of the DM2 lights appear to do anything even though the board reports ok via hinv.

All three vbob are sgi part #: 013-2746-007 Rev. A .

Anyhow, enough playing with this for the time being....

Cheers,
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
recondas & others,

Thanks for tip on VBOB version, I come across that one... but it was not possible to tell exactly what I had until I got info on diagnostic port.

That has confirmed that I have vbob firmware: 1.3.22 & dm5.

As next step I uninstalled and reinstalled the "DMediaPro DM2/DM3 ML Execution Environment" & "DMediaPro DM2/DM3 dmSDK Execution Environment" and reran "vbob_flash -vnl" and I now get:

Code: Select all

./vbob_flash -vnl
Trial run. No images will be upgraded...
vbob_flash: Doing a killall on any dmdaemon or mldaemon.
process <dmdaemon> not found
process <mldaemon> not found
[libvboblvds] I/O ERROR: VBOB possibly disconnected!
vbob_flash: Internal Error! vbobReadData failed.
vbob_flash: Checking for vbob on pipe 0 (:0.0)
vbob_flash: Vbob found on :0.0
vbob_flash: Vbob found on pipe 0
No dcard installed
vbob_flash: Updating operating code
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  1 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  2 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  3 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  4 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  5 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  6 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  7 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  8 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx  9 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 10 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 11 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 12 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 13 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 14 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob xilinx 15 config 1 is up to date
vbob_flash: Vbob bootloader is up to date


Ahh - recondas, I think the line "No dcard installed" refers to the HD-GVO "daughter board" being referred to in the other instructions. I have no idea what such a board looks like or how you would identify it. I am going to open up the vbob that is not working to see if there is any obvious physical damage or such that resulted from shipping to Australia, so will check if there is area for additional daughter board to be installed.

So I now seem to be communicating with vbob, still no lights showing on DM2 and only the far right hand diagnostic light is flashing periodically on vbob, when before vbob lvds leds were blinking.

This is consistent with SGI doco @ http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /ch03.html

Rear Chassis LEDs

There are eight LEDs on the rear of the VBOB chassis, as shown in Figure 3-2 (see digram below)

The SD, HD, Genlock, and LVDS LEDs indicate the following:

SOLID - Signal present and valid

FLASHING - Signal present but unrecognizable (invalid, such as wrong video format)

OFF - No signal present

The last LED on the right indicates the processor activity. This LED should flash at a rate of about 1 Hz.


From this I would expect that lights will only go solid when there is valid video signal on LVDS lines.

This manual refers to older vbob, without 3 DVI DM5 ports:

Image

I have also been to shop to get 2 extra DVI cables but when I try to get output to monitor via vbob, I get no signal... so I have moved cable back over to monitor directly.

The gfxinfo report with single line into vbob and other to LCD is now:

Code: Select all

Graphics board 0 is "ODYSSEY" graphics.
Managed (":0.0") 1600x1200
BUZZ version B.1
PB&J version 1
128MB memory
Banks: 4, CAS latency: 3
DM5 attached to Dual Channel 1
Monitor 0 type: Unknown
Dual Channel Display option
Monitor 1 type: IBM 16736    Monitor 2 type: Unknown
Channel 0:
Origin = (0,0)
Video Output: 1600 pixels, 1200 lines, 59.83Hz (1600x1200_60)


So at least DM5 connection is being seen via DCD DVI connector.

So it appears that at least one of the vbobs is working at the moment.

On LVDS cable front, I am using 2 black cables, which I have tagged to help make sure they are plugged into the correct ports. I think the white/black colouring was just to help ensure correct ports were being connected.

Cheers,
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers
Neko,

A way around this maybe is to plug vbob dvi out into HDTV ...

My tv is a long way from computer, but I also have Apple cinema display, so will try with that.

Did you try this?

/usr/gfx/dmconf -destination active \
-vpro format=1920x1154_30f \
-dm5 format=1080I_5994


As per: http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /ch03.html

Rather hard to do when you have no display and cannot log in. The other possibility is need for "special" cables... The same manual says:

Always use the 2-meter DVI cables shipped with your DM5. The DVI cables shipped with the Dual Channel Display option are not suitable for use with DM5.


Cheers
jwhat - ask questions, provide answers