When SGIs come to play

[rubber_jonnie]

Lovely Indy, what specs?

I rescued it (like 20 years ago) from our CAD training center at work where it was finally used to teach new hires CATIA V4 (and patience), so it (unfortunately) isn't the top notch machine but pretty decent (R4600 133MHz 512KB SC, 24-Bit XL graphics).

Picked up the machine and plugged everything I was able to grab from the others that were about to be disposed (full memory upgrade, additional SCSI GIO card). It also has a second NIC on the other GIO slot as the motherboard ports only supported half duplex. I also have the original keyboard and mouse as well as the IndyCam and a full set of IRIX 6.5 CDs.

My Indy came from eBay and I managed to give it a decent spec over the years, but I got the Octanes, and it was like "I don't need this wimpy Indy" and I got rid of it, so wish I hadn't. What is interesting is that the Octanes cost about £25 each and they seem to be going for at least £250 these days, so not a bad investment :) I have an external SGI CD ROM drive too, plus all the OS install disks, so I need to dig all that out for Octane no 2 when I find it a disk.

[Steve]

@rubber_jonnie Yeah the funny thing with Octanes is that you can get a base spec model for next to nothing, they go bigger money when you have: Graphics with texture memory, good amount of RAM, PCI card cage etc. There's not much point having a base Octane because it's just a bloody large electricity eating machine, might as well have an Indy if there's no texture memory.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie Yeah the funny thing with Octanes is that you can get a base spec model for next to nothing, they go bigger money when you have: Graphics with texture memory, good amount of RAM, PCI card cage etc. There's not much point having a base Octane because it's just a bloody large electricity eating machine, might as well have an Indy if there's no texture memory.

What I found odd with my main Octane is that it has the dual R12000 CPUs and 2GB and RAM, but just SE Graphics, like the 2nd machine. I guess it could have been used for non graphically intense stuff or admin, but upgrading, that's an expensive proposition these days.

I saw an MXI card for about £250, but I just won't spend that for a machine I don't use a lot, and as for texture RAM for an ESI/SE card, it seems like it's a nope.

Whatever the config. they make excellent space heaters!!!

[Steve]

I'd like an Indy because it's so small and quiet. It's the kind of SGI I wouldn't mind keeping on and using for tweaking / tinkering with IRIX etc.

If anyone is getting SGI envy and wants a *very good* spec machine I'm selling an Octane: https://exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =63&t=5944

[rubber_jonnie]

I'd like an Indy because it's so small and quiet. It's the kind of SGI I wouldn't mind keeping on and using for tweaking / tinkering with IRIX etc.

Compared to Octanes most anything else is quiet :)

Stealing an unused disk from Octane no1 for use in number 2, 17GB should be enough for the OS to install and run OK.

[rubber_jonnie]

Found my external SGI CD drive and all of my install media, even what I had for the Indy:

PXL_20221215_132210766.jpg

Luckily all the instructions are still there, so lets see if I can get number 2 running :)

[Steve]

@rubber_jonnie you know it's a lot easier to use Booterizer?

http://booterizer.com/
https://github.com/unxmaal/booterizer

Can either run it from a PC or burn an image to a raspberry pi, it's a network OS installer.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie you know it's a lot easier to use Booterizer?

http://booterizer.com/
https://github.com/unxmaal/booterizer

Can either run it from a PC or burn an image to a raspberry pi, it's a network OS installer.

If I can't find my cable for the CD-ROM I might have to go that way, thanks.

[mfro]

Due to lack of a SCSI CDROM device, I've always done network installation like this: http://wiki.irixnet.org/Network-Install-IRIX using one of my Linux boxes as installation server. This worked well but I think with a pitfall: the Linux bootp server sometimes offered services on a high port that IRIX couldn't deal with. I think I have an extra patched bootp server somewhere that avoids that.

[rubber_jonnie]

Due to lack of a SCSI CDROM device, I've always done network installation like this: http://wiki.irixnet.org/Network-Install-IRIX using one of my Linux boxes as installation server. This worked well but I think with a pitfall: the Linux bootp server sometimes offered services on a high port that IRIX couldn't deal with. I think I have an extra patched bootp server somewhere that avoids that.

I have now found my cables, so we'll see what happens.

I don't have a Linux server but wouldn't be surprised if I could use my other Octane.