The collected works of ratfink

chicago-joe wrote:

So this means that live installing 6.5.21 from pre 6.5.21 IRIX is not possible without this patch. Hmmm, makes you wonder about what happens next....

While on the telephone with SGI tech support a couple of weeks ago, the rep told me that after 6.5.21, the -m and -f streams of IRIX are going to be combined into a single release. I don't know if this relates to this change but...

Joe

This may be their answer to hobby users. Take the "merge f and m" thought in concert with the decision to only offer free downloads of IRIX 6.5.(n-4) without a support contract.

The pain has always been that if, like me, you have 6.5.13f, and you want all the new fixes in 6.5.20m, you have to lose 13 releases worth of features. Now if there is only one release stream, and users with no support contract can only download n-4, it means we will get the features, just a year late--better than the 5 year difference between 6.5.20m and 6.5.20f. (I don't know if new features _never_ creep over to the m stream, but this is a literal interpretation of the difference between m and f streams.)

This is all pure conjecture of course, and I reputiate it all.

Geof

There is one on eBay at the moment for BIN $299. My friend was looking at it, but decided to pass due to the uncertainty. I'd snag it in a moment if I know I could either a) find drivers that I could use with a current SLES, RHEL, fedora, openSUSE or similar, b) get a full working install disks for the SGI linux that was supported on the box, or c) less ideal, but if the FireGL could be yanked and replaced with a more supported card.

Running this as an IA64 linux workstation would be cool, running it as a headless server because there are no display drivers beyond text mode, less so.

Geof

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't SGI Linux abandoned already when they started to move away from MIPS? Didn't they simply port the software and later named it ProPack? I believe the ProPack is distribution independent, though it'd probably be best to use one of the SGI-endorsed ones (like the ones you named).

If I could install RHEL IA64, then throw a "ProPack" on it to it, that would be good, but from my limited supportfolio account, I don't see any downloadable propacks. I also don't know which ones would be required for this box. There seems to be very little information on it.

You could do that yourself, or not? Though, what are your needs? Do you want OpenGL, with full DRM/DRI capability? That'd be a challenge, under Linux for sure. The open source AMD/ATi graphics card drivers are good enough for good quality framebuffer output under Linux. (With a FireGL X1 under Debian, for example, I can tell from experience.)

I don't have a lot of information on the system, and with 2 agp slots, I don't know what weird expectations the hardware might have, so I don't know wether it will even work with different cards installed. If I can get a decent performing framebuffer on the FireGL using the open source drivers, that is a start, or if I know the hardware will support yanking the FireGL and throwing a supported card.

The one on ebay is closing real soon with no bidders at the moment. Maybe if it doesn't sell the seller will relist at a lower price to allow more of an impulse purchase.

Geof

My trick is to start with a phrase I'll easily remember, like:

Oh no you don't!

Then start mangling by replacing letters with numbers or symbols that look similar as well. The trick is to use the conversion inconsistantly;

0h_nO-Y0u_d0N'T!

The other trick is to try several variations until you find a combination that rolls off your fingers well.

Geof

The main reason I don't use generated password is they are too hard to remember. If they are phrase based, I can make them relatively easy to remember. I used to play the middle row of the keyboard (asdfghjkl) into the white keys of a piano (cdefgabcd) with the upper row (we-tyu-op) into black keys (c#d#-f#g#a#-c#d#) and the make my passwords into musical motifs. For instance, in C-major, the password 'adgfdsasaaasssdddfasdfdfghghjk' is the main theme of Beethovens 5th symphony, 4th movement. The musical approach was basically to build long passwords that where easily remembered. Unfortunately, many system now require mixed upper/lower/number/symbols which makes the musical approach harder. If I can't remember a password, and have to lookitup, it's not very useful to me.

Geof

Start here:

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/manuals ... 43-001.pdf

Depending on the version, each of those drive enclosures takes SATA drives and the back end connects to fibrechannel, and can be used independently as a JBOD array (I was looking at buying one on the bay.) Connected into the controller, you have a full SAN. I don't know much about the controller, but the doc above should get you started.

(And when you decide you don't need that many racks, you can sell me one of the drive enclosures.

Geof

What he said, but, I have a cheap Sun cable that works perfectly, so don't rule it out until you've tried it. Also, I've read that if the monitor supports sync on green, all you need is the the three big coax pins on the 13w3, so if the existence of the smaller pins is screwing up the connection, you should be able to clip them to make a working cable.

As for the network thing, I wouldn't worry too much until you can see what is going on. Too many variables at this moment.

Geof

iffy50 wrote: One final thought before I admit defeat for the night, does anyone know if using a null modem cable with a USB to serial type of connection (on a Mac) will work? This may simplify things a bit for me for connecting to the existing hardware that I've got, but I can't quite get my head around how the pin mappings would work for that.

Cheers,
Ian

I don't see why not. I've used serial/USB adapters to program and flash Dolby CP-650 cinema processors at the theater I used to work at. It would be a matter of finding a terminal program that works with serial ports on the Mac. If worse comes to worse, cu or screen from the command line would work (if the Mac has those...)

Also SOG monitors aren't uncommon on new LCD monitors. I recently bought a new Acer $100 20" that works fine with the octane and cheap sun adapter cable (except trying to coax 1600x900 out of a v6.)

Geof

It may not suit your needs quite right, but I use omnigraffle for just about everything. I've used it to design the reconstruction of my house as well as the redesign of our websites.

Http://omnigroup.com

Geof

I read clause (B) differently. "in or with any product" As a Nekoware package it won't be distributed in or with any product, but by itself. I read clause (B) to prevent it being bundled with commercial operating systems (by said commercial OS vendor) without a license from Columbia University.

Geof

In their early day, the cool thing was the hardware. With the Amiga custom chipset, they had impressive graphics. They had the ability to genlock to an external video source from day one (even the Amiga 1000 had an available genlock device that would over lay computer graphics on live video. Newtek used that and the new "video" slot on the a2000 to create the toaster, and bring video editing and 3d to budget users.

Unfortunately the performance of the hardware was eclipsed pretty quickly, and what was left was an OS that had preemptive multitasking from day one, and was very extensible, and very light weight (no memory protection.). Once you got to OS3.1 it was pretty nice, and the user/developer community was very self sufficient, which was pretty cool--Commodore went belly-up in the early 90's (I'm remembering 1992, but I could be off) but you can still get new Amiga stuff--someone recently implemented the entire amiga chipsets in FPGA, and built a 2" square a500 compatible device.

Mostly, these days, the only people that will find the new Amiga stuff interesting is ex-amiga cultists like me.

Geof

If you have a way to measure power consumption, I'd be curious to see the consumption with the power supply on, but the key off. I know some SGIs are pretty high (something like 30w for a powered off Octane.)

Geof

It might be overkill, but you could always install a copy of media wiki locally. The main thing you would need is postgresql or mysql, as apache and php already exist in osx.

Geof

The new iPad would be awesome if I didn't already have an original iPad. The main upgrade I see is the speed (I never even use my cell camera--preferring my Nikon p6000) which is nice, but not enough app writers have built big complex apps that need more horses. Apple and Omnigroup seem to be the few companies doing that, and when more jump into the game a dual core CPU will be more compelling. (actually, I want apple to do 'Logic' litethen I would be there in a heart beat.)

Geof

Real world, moderate use of mine drops it to about 50% battery at the end of the day. Even with the heaviest use I have never had to recharge in the middle of the day. To manage that, I run the screen at 50% brightness, which is plenty bright for me everywhere but outdoors on a bright day.

Geof

I've never used one, but just search "capacitive stylus". Here is an example:

http://boxwave-corporation.amazonwebsto ... ce=froogle

If you want to do diagramming, take a look at OmniGraffle. It's pricey, but is essentially like Visio for the iPad. If that's not the sort of diagramming you want to do, then I'm not sure what else is out there.

Geof