Mailing List Archive: SGI Octane problems

SGI Octane problems

Apr 13, 2005, 12:48 PM

Post #1 of 6 (3493 views)

Well guys I know that this list is really for Gentoo-mips issues but it
seems to be the most informed group I have access top or want to access,
How's that for some stroking :).

Anyway here's my sad tale.

Bought an SGI Octane off of Ebay for $53.00 USD (VERY COOL) It arrived
via UPS could have been cool but they treated it like a football. The
grab handle on the PSU had one sheared bolt and the other was bent
beyond fixing. All the ram was in the bottom of the processor tray and
was jamming the tray from coming out. got all that taken care of and
then I noticed that several of the ram slots were damaged from the abuse
the case took at the hands of UPS. the small brown tangs that help guide
the ram into the slots were broken off. This really pissed me off,
anyway longer story short. I've filed a damage claim on it, have since
received the Lacie External CD-RW I also got off Ebay and the proper
cable and also received the never installed nor registered copy of Irix
6.5.xx also from Ebay, as well as the Kb and mouse.

Now here's my question... I have it hooked up to my BenQ 23W LCD screen
on the VGA input and when I try to boot the thing I get nothing just a
black screen. Is there a key sequence similar to a PC for accessing the
BIOS or setup routine? or should I grab one of my CRTs and use that? I
really hope someone can help me or let me know how to determine just how
dead this poor little fella is.

Regards
Richard

Hope someone can help :'(

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Re: SGI Octane problems [ In reply to ]

real.psyence at gmail

Apr 13, 2005, 1:02 PM

Post #2 of 6 (3370 views)

Permalink

Richard,
First question for you: is the BenQ capable of sync-on-green?
AFAIK, SOG is required by the graphics boards SGI used. (pause here,
'cuz I may be wrong).
As for the BIOS, the SGI has a PROM(basically the same thing)
which can be accessed at boot by pressing ESC. Check it out:
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=bks&srch=&fname=/SGI_Admin/IA_ConfigOps/sgi_html/ch09.html

You might want to try hooking up a serial console to make sure
something's coming up at all. your graphics card may be
fried(considering the abuse it seems to have taken).

Good luck!!!!
-Dave

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The way that can be named is not the Way.

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Re: SGI Octane problems [ In reply to ]

master_raven at rogers

Apr 13, 2005, 1:12 PM

Post #3 of 6 (3378 views)

Permalink

Thanks Dave I'll look into that as to the serial console, I'll have to
see what I can dig up.

Regards
Richard

David Cummings wrote:

>Richard,
> First question for you: is the BenQ capable of sync-on-green?
>AFAIK, SOG is required by the graphics boards SGI used. (pause here,
>'cuz I may be wrong).
> As for the BIOS, the SGI has a PROM(basically the same thing)
>which can be accessed at boot by pressing ESC. Check it out:
>http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=bks&srch=&fname=/SGI_Admin/IA_ConfigOps/sgi_html/ch09.html
>
>You might want to try hooking up a serial console to make sure
>something's coming up at all. your graphics card may be
>fried(considering the abuse it seems to have taken).
>
>Good luck!!!!
>-Dave
>
>
>

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Re: SGI Octane problems [ In reply to ]

master_raven at rogers

Apr 27, 2005, 9:59 PM

Post #4 of 6 (3368 views)

Permalink

Ok to who ever cares, an update.
My great horrid Ebay Octane buy :) I think most on this mail list have
read my tale but here's a recap. Won an Octane on ebay for $53.00 and
$70.+ in shipping. UPS tried to destroy it and almost did. some damage
to the system but I dug up an old Hitachi SuperSync Monitor how's that
for proof to the wife that all is not junk LOL. anyways the system boots
I have an external Lacie CDR/W attached and an unregistered complete
copy of IRIX 6.5.4 but I can not install from the cdrom?? I get an error
code but If I just allow the system to boot with it attached to my lan
it succeeds in going to the log on page Yea..... now the sad part I
can't log on because I have no user account. is there a default log on
name or password? I've tried all sorts of combos like admin/root or
root/admin etc...and nothing works I thought I read somewhere that there
is a failsafe log on but I can't seem to find it.
Can anyone help me and before we go there ya, when it comes to SGI's and
Unix I'm a total newbie or worse.

Regards
Richard Morton

David Cummings wrote:

>Richard,
> First question for you: is the BenQ capable of sync-on-green?
>AFAIK, SOG is required by the graphics boards SGI used. (pause here,
>'cuz I may be wrong).
> As for the BIOS, the SGI has a PROM(basically the same thing)
>which can be accessed at boot by pressing ESC. Check it out:
>http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=bks&srch=&fname=/SGI_Admin/IA_ConfigOps/sgi_html/ch09.html
>
>You might want to try hooking up a serial console to make sure
>something's coming up at all. your graphics card may be
>fried(considering the abuse it seems to have taken).
>
>Good luck!!!!
>-Dave
>
>
>

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Re: SGI Octane problems [ In reply to ]

stuartl at longlandclan

Apr 28, 2005, 1:16 AM

Post #5 of 6 (3369 views)

Permalink

Richard Morton wrote:
> Ok to who ever cares, an update.
> My great horrid Ebay Octane buy :) I think most on this mail list have
> read my tale but here's a recap. Won an Octane on ebay for $53.00 and
> $70.+ in shipping. UPS tried to destroy it and almost did. some damage
> to the system but I dug up an old Hitachi SuperSync Monitor how's that
> for proof to the wife that all is not junk LOL. anyways the system boots
> I have an external Lacie CDR/W attached and an unregistered complete
> copy of IRIX 6.5.4 but I can not install from the cdrom?? I get an error
> code but If I just allow the system to boot with it attached to my lan
> it succeeds in going to the log on page Yea..... now the sad part I
> can't log on because I have no user account. is there a default log on
> name or password? I've tried all sorts of combos like admin/root or
> root/admin etc...and nothing works I thought I read somewhere that there
> is a failsafe log on but I can't seem to find it.
> Can anyone help me and before we go there ya, when it comes to SGI's and
> Unix I'm a total newbie or worse.
>
> Regards
> Richard Morton
>
> David Cummings wrote:

If you're following the Gentoo/MIPS Handbook... you would have set the
password in
<http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-mips.xml?part=1&chap=8#doc_chap3>.

If you're trying to install IRIX however.... no idea... This mailing
list is for Gentoo Linux/MIPS... not Gentoo IRIX (if such a port ever
comes into existance).

Might I suggest perhaps asking the people of the Nekochan community?
<http://www.nekochan.net/>

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Stuart Longland -oOo- http://stuartl.longlandclan.hopto.org |
| Atomic Linux Project -oOo- http://atomicl.berlios.de |
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| I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

Re: SGI Octane problems [ In reply to ]

hardave at gentoo

Apr 28, 2005, 3:00 PM

Post #6 of 6 (3389 views)

Permalink

Richard Morton wrote:
> I have an external Lacie CDR/W attached and an unregistered complete
> copy of IRIX 6.5.4 but I can not install from the cdrom??

Sgi machines can only boot off of cdrom drives that support 512byte block sizes,
Sun and Sgi cdroms support this. Most off the shelf drives that are meant for
x86 or macs use 2048 byte block size and won't work. There are however some
models of drives that have jumpers that allow you to switch between the two,
I've run into this with some toshiba drives.

Also as Stuart has said already, this mailing list is for support of gentoo on
mips hardware only. We do not provide irix support. Please stay on topic.

Hardave
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