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ddew
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 6:26 pm    Post subject: SGI Indigo2 Extreme framebuffer Reply with quote

Ok, I run gentoo on this laptop, my ws PC, my Digital Alpha PWS500a server and I honestly must say that it's the best distro so far. But one thing has been bothering me, I haven't been able to run it my SGI machine due to the lack of framebuffer support for it.

It's nothing fancy, it's just that really like the box.

The point (after my rant) :) Is that I mailed a representative today requesting the release of the docs or even a closed source driver so we can start using the machines as workstations, Irix 5.3 is getting on my nerves.

So I encourage all with the same chipset to mail SGI and plead your hearts out, cause I really feel that the Linux community would benefit from it.
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As far as I know, there have been various attempts to get documentation released from SGI regarding old drivers and hardware. But the most you'll probably get out of them is a denial, they'll probably go as far to say they don't even know if Linux can run on their hardware. (One guy got this response).

I've pondered mailing them myself, but eh, never really gotten around to it. Who knows, maybe since Indigo2, Indy, and other machines of that age are no longer supported in IRIX (they got deprecated as of IRIX 6.5.23), SGI might be a bit more open to releasing driver details. That's a really big hypothetical, though.

If you do get any positive from them, however, do post more information.


--Kumba
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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ddew
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I'll do that.

I've gotten _some_ form of reply so far, a message asking for the precise specs of my box. Since they've already given me a few irix 5.3 overlays on cd I'm crossing my fingers.

Wish me luck :)
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kalisphoenix
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I mailed them too. Oh, I am praying for driver information :-)

Maybe there's an online petition, even though "petition" sounds kind of pissy, demanding, et cetera. If there isn't, perhaps we could start one. I'm sure there's thousands of GNU/Linux-users that would sign the petition. There's probably even people who would sign even though they have no interest in SGI hardware.

Hmm.
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You guys might find this interesting:

Code:
<Bacchus> Dudes, we got a console driver for the Octane.
<ths> Which graphics is this?
*** alexn (~ehe@c-412571d5.12806-1-64736c12.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se) has joined #mipslinux
<Bacchus> ths: One of the impact family.
<Bacchus> ths: That is we should likely be able to drive the R8000 family.
<Bacchus> gfx.
<ths> Bacchus: This means spring cleaning for my I2 R10k-Impact, I guess. :-)
<Bacchus> ths: That Polish guy is really crazy.
<Bacchus> ths: His hobby is building graphics pipelines from a pile of FPGAs.
<ths> I can't even imagine how this will work in a performant way. :-)
<ladis> what?!
<ladis> Bacchus: so he is driving gfx chips directly? no ARC calls? (these doesn't work on Octane anyway, right>)
<p13> good news for me
<p13> hehe
<p13> <-- owns an I2 r10k SI
*** demise (demise@c-b04272d5.01-94-7673741.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se) has joined #mipslinux
*** minipanda (~zhanght@210.76.124.126) Quit (Remote closed the connection)
<Bacchus> ladis: Yes :)
<Bacchus> ladis: The PIO interface of the card is surprisingly simple!
<ladis> That man rocks! I'm considering to bring him Indigo2 :)


It's a quip from #mipslinux, home of the linux-mips developers. A guy in Poland has apparently started, and made very good progress, on booting linux on an Octane (IP30). In the process, he also got the Octane's graphics system to work, which is based on the Impact chipset. This means there is the possibility of the I2 Impact graphics card getting supported in the future, but details are sketchy right now. Oh, and the possibility of Linux on Octane too ;) I'll follow along and keep everyone informed.


--Kumba
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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kalisphoenix
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, that's gorgeous!
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ddew
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:24 pm    Post subject: Impact Reply with quote

Saw that one too, Impacts has been 'better' supported in linux than the chip I have.

I got a response from SGI saying basically what everyone's been telling me. 'We don't support linux on that platform' etc. and finally said that the documentation for it is classified/won't be given to the public until the return of christ.

It kind of sucks because I have a 20" screen for it so running through serial console is out of the question.

So if anyone has a suitable linux supported box to trade, preferrably in sweden/gothenburg, feel free to drop me a mail at david(dot)weizades(at)bredband(dot)net.

Cheers
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evil_twin_of_Machiavelli
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PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2004 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kumba wrote:
A guy in Poland has apparently started, and made very good progress, on booting linux on an Octane (IP30). In the process, he also got the Octane's graphics system to work, which is based on the Impact chipset.


So does this guy a website / location where he got his code etc? I'm not an actual gentoo person (i run IRIX) but i tend to be interested in projects involving sgi boxen. (got a dual R10k Octane with a V6 gfx -- Odyssey)
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Kumba
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PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

He does in fact, and since my last post, he's got s kernel that will boot more, and if you have an NFS Root lying around, you can get a semi-usable userland. Things like the keyboard driver are still not implemented yet, same goes for the scsi subsystem (meaning if you try to do anything, even installing linux, it will be over NFS Root). All can be found here:

http://helios.et.put.poznan.pl/~sskowron/ip30/


--Kumba
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
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evil_twin_of_Machiavelli
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PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2004 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting, i posted a topic on the Nekochan forums about it. (Including his two screen shots).

I know you lot prefer running Linux on your sgi boxen, but if ye want stuff like kde3, gimp2, abiword2, firefox (the last 3 with XFT/fontconfig enabled) for Irix you can get them off Nekochan. (Irix community site)

http://www.nekochan.net/
http://www.nekochan.net/downloads/index.php?path=Nekoware/
http://forums.nekochan.net/index.php
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