The collected works of recondas - Page 11

Thanks fu!


~ Added a couple of exterior shots to the photos in the hinv post.

zizban wrote: I've been out of the loop for while. What's the status of efforts to bring usb mass storage device to Irix (if any?).

You haven't missed a thing.

There have been reports of reasonable success with external hard drives and compact flash cards via firewire - but it requires specific hardware.

EDIT: In an effort to stem the tide of PMs sent my way asking who-what-where-when in regards to external hard drives and/or CF cards via firewire, all the hardware involved is listed in The Fuel (IP35) Hardware Aggregator. As far as "reports of reasonable success", the first hit I got on a search was this one by hamei <and as I recall, the CF card even appeared in the hinv hamei posted for his Fuel>: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=16719650&p=7290012&#p7290012

....and here's couple more <I'd suggest reading the entire thread for more details>:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3207&p=67700&#p67700
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3207&p=68273&#p68273

Tabalabs wrote: This is the problem. With USB/Firewire everything gets easier. But where to connect it on old hardware?
- SCSI is out of question, too much work for too little. Or not?
- Network, no way.

Why no way? One of the cheap external drives with an Ethernet port or a linux box running as an nfs server could provide mass storage for your Octane.

zizban wrote: ......everyone else in my world uses USB.

Fair enough - but how many of 'em use an IRIX box? Think of it as nonconformity by obsolescence.

While we're on the subject of USB drivers - hamei just mentioned to me that he could probably hire someone <with the skills necessary to do USB driver dev work and other programming issues> in China for a small fraction of what it would cost on this side of the great wall. If anyone is interested in getting involved PM me your contact info and I'll pass it along.

Definitely more long the lines of a small community shareware project - primarily among those who know hamei well enough to be comfortable with the arrangement. I think he wanted to see what <if any> interest there was before proceeding.

PymbleSoftware wrote: No where near there yet but play nice.

PymbleSoftware makes a good point. Being involved in a conversation here is not much different than doing so in real life. If you can't abide opinions other than your own, or all of your responses are sarcastic or condescending, you soon find you have no one to talk to.

While cleaning and setting up my Tezro I noticed I could lower the ambient operating temperatures of the processor nodes, bedrock ASIC and V12 5C to 7C simply by leaving the front skin off of the Tezro. As a result I decided to take a look at what could be easily done to lower the overall long-term operating temperatures with the full set of skins installed. My initial concern was the V12. There have a been a few posts on nekochan by Tezro owners that suggest their V12 died <I say suggest because none included a follow up>, and I wondered if those failures might be heat related <especially since the Fuel and O350/V12 report significantly lower operating temps for their V12s>. Might be only a coincidence, but I also noticed SGI included an <unused> three-pin fan header on the Tezro version of the V12 that isn't present on the Fuel version of the V12.

As a test I installed a low-rpm/low decibel 80mm fan on top of the metal shroud that encloses the V12, using the perforations in the shroud as attachment points for the rubber anti-vibration fan mounts.The fan is positioned directly above and blows air onto the V12 heatsink. The result was a 10C/18F reduction in the temperature the L1 reports for the V12. I don't have a DM3 installed - a Tezro with a DM3 would have a limited amount space to install a fan using this method, though there looks to be sufficient room to attach a radial fan to the underside of the V12 shroud <laterally positioned between the heatsink and bulkhead>, with the fan exhaust directed at the bulkhead.

Emboldened by the success, I took a look at the bedrock and node temps reported by the L1. The 1GHz versions of the Tezro include three 60mm fans positioned just to the front side of the node board cooling shroud. There's more than enough room to install fans in that same location. I didn't have any 60mm fans <nor did any of the sources local to me>, but I did have two 38mm fans pre-wired in a two-fan array with a molex-splitter power attachment. For initial testing I zip-tied the 38mm fans to the perforated metal shielding, directly in front and blowing onto the perforations in the node board cooling shroud, and made an air duct so that air was directed into the openings in the node board shroud <rather than the dead air space above the shroud. The molex splitter was connected at the <molex> power feed for the hard drive backplane <located directly above the node board>. The 38mm fans are only rated at 4.5CFM each <I plan to order three 12CFM-each low-DBA 60mm fans as replacements>, but made a noticeable 6C/11F drop in the operating temperature of the bedrock a ASIC. Here's the output of an L1 env run after 24 hours of continuous runtime and several hours of heavy use:
and for comparison, the same L1 environmental data taken before adding the fans:
The "HD" temp reported in the table appears to actually the node temp , scsimon actually reports the hard drive temp as 29C. SGI probably intended for the HD fan to assist in cooling the node board <the HD fan pulls air across the hard drives and blows air onto the RAM end of the node board>.

Tabalabs wrote: Quick tip:
Hot ar is less dense than cold air, that's why baloons go up So, if you put a fan on TOP of anything, make it PULLING air and not BLOWING. It will have a higher CFM if you keep the normal flux of air.

I considered that, but in this case pulling air up from the heatsink would disrupt the front to rear air flow of the V12's existing fans - as well as dump hot air into the PCI card cage rather than out the exhaust vents in the chassis for the V12.

Not to mention that blowing air across the cooling fins on the heatsink isn't uncommon behavior for CPU and GPU cooling fans.

PymbleSoftware wrote:

Tabalabs wrote: Which should be better organized...

How so..?

Tabalabs didn't originally post this here. It was so far off-topic in the hinv it was originally posted in I could only assume it ended up there by accident.

Since it dealt directly with the wiki I moved it here.

Tabalabs wrote: Of course I don't want to create trouble. But a question: How the forum can be damaged by the acts of a member?

Because the forum is the also a physical entity with an owner and an address on public record. If the owner of a trademark wants to purse the issue, the forum owner <who the copyright holder will alledge allowed the infringement> is a much easier target than some anonymous user.

Got around to installing the DM10 drivers , and connected a firewire memory card reader. Just in case someone else might find a walk through of the process helpful, here's a summary.

The pseudo-DM10 is a generic firewire 3-port PCI board (two external, one internal FW ports with a TI chipset), the firewire memory card reader is a Microtech CameraMate. The compact flash memory card used is a 1GB SanDisk and the IRIX version is 6.5.30.

Installing the DM10 drivers requires a reboot (the kernel is rebuilt). As the system rebooted the following appeared in the boot messages (and was written to the syslog):
When the system booted the following was included in an hinv -vm:
fwprobe (supplied with the DM10 driver package) returned the following info: Addendum - I later installed the DMediaPro D10 version 1.1 *beta* , which despite being a beta, seems to offer some improvements. fwprobe now fully identifies the generic FW board as a DM10. With DM10 version 1.0.1 the 'Model' and 'Proto' fields were both listed as unknown, after installing the DM10 1.1 beta version, fwprobe now identifies the pseudo-DM10 Model as 'DMediaPro DM10' and Proto as 'HBA', and it eliminated boot-time error messages that occurred as the 1.0.1 release scanned the FW bus:
and the 'versions' command reported:

There was an entry for the compact flash card under /hw/rdisk/1394 (the specific identification string, "30e00100001419", will be different on every system). I was able to manually mount the compact flash card that was in the card reader using:
and access the contents of the compact flash card: and was able to open, edit and save one of the jpg files (back onto the CF card).

Was also able to hot-swap the compact flash card by unmounting the CF card with (use caution with my version of this command if you have more than one dos file system mounted), then inserted a different CF card and successfully mounted and accessed the second CF card (using a repeat of the mount command from above).

The Microtech CameraMate has a single compact flash slot, I was able to mount a 2GB SD card using a CF-to-SD adapter.

I've also done some preliminary testing with a an external firewire hard drive. fx is able to 'see' the 250GB hard drive installed in the enclosure (the enclosure uses an Initio chipset rather than the Oxford chipset that has worked for others), but I haven't attempted to put a xfs file system on the drive (it currently holds the TimeMachine backup for one of my Macs). As soon as I pick up another PATA hard drive to install in the enclosure I'll try fx and report back.

This SGI document gives the official version of what's required: http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /pr01.html

Congratulations - that's a very nice Fuel.


Interesting about the serial all induced lockup - anything interesting appear in the system or L1 logs?

$300 would easily classify as an early Christmas gift.

smj wrote: After I can image the disk this will probably become my primary IRIX desktop. I'll be looking around for one of the supported PCI audio cards. I've already maxed out the RAM and added the DVD-ROM drive.

Be interesting to see if any of the apps you mentioned in your DM6 thread include video control or capture tools. The DM6 <and the DM3, for that matter>, used OpenML rather than the traditional IRIX Video Control Panel <VCP> and IRIX video daemon <videod>.

smj wrote: I haven't tried talking to the L1 via the dedicated USB port yet. Due to disk space limitations, the laptop that's hosting the DINA VM can't also have the L3 VM at the same time.

There should be a DB9 serial port on the motherboard <right next to the planar SCSI connector> that provides a slightly more convenient connection to the L1 controller. You might try those commands with only the L1 running.

smj wrote: I took the cable I'd been using to speak to the external serial port and plugged it into the motherboard DB9, Guess I'd better check the docs.

That same cable ought to work - what serial port settings did you use - 38400 / 8 / N / 1 / ?

smj wrote: Note: I'll go paste the usual L1 output into the top post.

OK - I'm curious to see the various hardware revisions in serial all.

smj wrote: That's interesting, because the recommendations I'd read specified the Audigy2 ZS. Does the "ZS" avoid the sample-rate issues you mention?

I'm fortunate enough to have an Audigy, DM8/mAudio7.1, and a PCI RADical Audio, and for general everyday use the DM8 would be my first choice - excellent sound quality and it provides analog and digital sound options.

Since you have a DM6, it's probably worth mentioning that while SGI's PCI RADical Audio isn't as practical for general audio I/O <unless you have speakers with digital capabilities>, but its the only one that can be used to sync an audio track to any video captured with the <OpenML based> DM6.

smj wrote: Before they get here I'll see if I can narrow down what's causing that lockup when l1cmd is run, and undo all the captive login crud that takes over the gfx console.

If you don't see L1 issues when only the L1 <but not Fuel> is powered up, there's at least a small chance a clean install might resolve the L1 issue. BTW, you haven't mentioned trying it, but if you do there have been issues in the past with L1 firmware updates. There are more that are worth looking at but here's a couple of background threads:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16721376&
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16721896&
Since you mentioned getting an 6.5.30 install set with the Fuel, I'll mention that the L2 firmware that shipped with IRIX 6.5.30 was broken - so until proven differently I'd suggest giving the L1 firmware from 6.5.30 a wide berth.

smj wrote: Not clear what software might be available to use it, but with docs like OpenML Media Library Software Development Kit Beginner's Guide available from Supportfolio I hope it'd be possible to build something, at least for kicks.

While it looks like OpenML was intended to ease third-party development of video control/capture applications, it appeared late enough in the IRIX life cycle that not many IRIX-based OpenML apps appeared. Discreet covered OpenML on the DM3 pretty well, but so far I haven't run across a similar DM6-based app.

smj wrote: Longer term I'm not sure what I'll do with the DM6. It might be fun to play with, and the repackaged DVS Gmbh installation guide does identify the appropriate IRIX packages. A search on Supportfolio turns up the DMediaPro™ DM6 (SD-DIGVID) Video Subsystem v1.1.2 , which says it requires IRIX 6.5.21+ and OpenML 1.1 or later...

DVS released an SDK for the DM6 that has some code widgets <as well as several more tools>. I've been able to use one of the SDK widgets to get a test pattern display on an analog broadcast monitor, but until I run across something to provide an SD video feed to the DM6, that's as far as I got.

smj wrote: Ah, I'll add "flash status" to the hinv guidelines! This might explain the issues with the L1 commands from IRIX, as described here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16721896
Interesting that the machine's running 6.5.18m, yet they updated the PROM to something post-FCS of 6.5.30 - guess it was under maintenance, or some sysadmin took these things seriously. I'll have to see about downgrading, but that might be tricky...

The 6.5.18 installation is indeed interesting. IRIX support for the Fuel only began at 6.5.17 <undoubtedly with 500 and maybe 600MHz processors>. Makes you wonder when 700MHz Fuel support got added. Other IP35 systems with 700MHz processors - like the O350 - didn't get added until 6.5.21 <as was the DM6>. Your call, but I think I'd leave the L1 firmware alone and do a clean install on a different drive <then you can mount and mine the original drive at your leisure>.

smj wrote: All my fast/big drives are SCA, but I do have a 4.5GB Atlas drive with HD68...

There's always SCA to 68-pin adapters <if you have to buy one, if possible look for something that supports U160/LVD>.

ratfink wrote: 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.

You might want to read through this thread before deciding - all three of your questions are discussed: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16724118&

Indeed - Happy Holidays to all of nekcohan.

foetz wrote: i know it's been a while and i hope i'll have more time for irix again prepared some xmas apps, will post them soon

You contributions have aways been greatly appreciated. Look forward to seeing around more often!

smj wrote: I've got an Audigy (SB090) and an Adaptec DuoConnect (USB+FW) on order for now.

When that DuoConnect arrives I'd suggest skipping over the 1.0.1 DM10 software release and instead install the DM10 1.1 beta release <some notes on my experience with both are in this thread >. The 1.1 beta seems a little harder to locate, but it's worth the effort.

BTW - did the new IRIX install change the status of the LSI 22320-R UltraSCSI 320 controller <it appeared as "unknown" in your original hinv>?

87Porsche wrote: Yeah that seemed kinda odd. It's the first time I've ever paid attention as to what brand it was.

Yeah - its almost enough to revive speculation that an EPS power supply from a PC could be rewired to work <maybe even a Sparkle >.

If you have the chance a few close up photos of the label, interior and any makings on the PCB would be very interesting.

foetz wrote: very nice machine and pics! and as i can see you've put the usual work into it Thanks!

foetz wrote: only the card reader makes me feel odd somehow

When you like to play with Tezros and DSLRs, an IRIX supported memory card reader is a nice way to combine interests.

svizi wrote: Can i somehow figure out that the pci card cage is working without any compatible pci card laying around?

You might take a look at the syslog and core dump <if one was created>. If you're not already familiar with the diagnostic info a core dump might contain, "man icrash", "man savecore" and/or "man cvdump" will give you some basic background info how to access it <and enable it if needed>.

ianj wrote: Another one of the 80mm fans in my Origin 300 went up this week. They're standard size, but use an unusual connector, and last time this happened, splicing it onto another fan didn't work.

Haven't tried an O300 yet, but SGI used non-standard connection pin-outs for the fans used in the very similar Fuel and O350. BTW - because of environmental monitoring, correct fan speed will be as important as size - too slow and your O300 might refuse to power up.

The SGI versions of the three and four pin fans connectors in the O350 described in this article <four-pin first, then three-pin at the bottom>: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16719768&p=7301078&#p7301078

There's also a photo of the wiring from an SGI 3-pin fan connector spliced into the wires of a non-SGI 3-pin fan <that shows the wire color mismatch> at the bottom of the Fuel (IP35) Hardware Aggregator: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9046

Since we don't have direct info for the O300, if either works for you please post a follow-up in the Hardware Forum so the next O300 owner needing to replace fans can benefit from your experience.

Very nice looking Deskside - congratulations.

On the odd chance you don't already know <and just ok sound quality meets your needs>, there's a DC power jack on the back of the IO6G to power a set of Octane speakers <a Tezro has the same set up too>.

I don't know if any of these will meet your needs or budget, but here's a few Japanese companies who offer short term cell phones rentals for visitors:

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=382&pID=828
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/
http://www.gomobile.co.jp/index_in.html
http://www.jcrcorp.com/
http://www.japanphone.com/

and at least one included a mention of SIM card rentals. If none of those look like what you want, there are others that might interest you: http://www.google.com/search?&q=rent+ce ... =&gs_rfai=

PymbleSoftware wrote: http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/L1_Controller_Updates

Thanks - though 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.

canavan wrote: Looks like I should have tried something smaller than 4GB cards. 2GB cards actually do work

If I could ask, with which of the card readers you mentioned? It would be an excellent opportunity to expand the list of "known working" firewire card readers beyond the current list of one.

mapesdhs wrote: Question: is your system two dual-1GHz boards? Or a single quad-1GHz?

There is an hinv -vm on the first page of this thread........

mapesdhs wrote: From which I can't really tell for certain one way or another. So is it 1x4 or 2x2? If the former then he won't be able to answer my question.

Ok - sorry about that. The fine print in the hinv show CPUs 0 and 1 are located in "Module 001c0 1 ", and CPUs 2 and 3 are located in "Module 001c0 2 - and the "serial all" includes the node board part number <030_2059_002 > and node board part name <"IP59_ 2 CPU">.

So two modules <or bricks, if you prefer>, with two CPUs each <2x2>.

mapesdhs wrote: I also need the fan link cable (015-0417-002) but I may be able to make something by hand.

You can probably find something similar in the UK, but if all else fails, this looks very similar to the primary connector on your fan link cable: http://www.black-sheep.us/product_info. ... e558c7b38f

The original AutoSketch was an extremely simple, intuitive 2D Drawing program with a work flow much the same as one might use if working with a pencil and paper. Great for converting coordinate or triangulated measurements into a 2D scale diagram. AutoSketch was around quite a while, the early versions were DOS, and the later versions were an acquired <and significantly less intuitive> competitors product that was assimilated and renamed AutoSketch <around V5 or so>. AutoSketch 3.1 is/was the version I liked. The release of 3.1 was contemporary to Windows 3.1, but I used it without problem at least as far as XP.