Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Current status of Gentoo on SGI Octane?
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on Alternative Architectures
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
freke
l33t
l33t


Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 963
Location: Somewhere in Denmark

PostPosted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:23 pm    Post subject: Current status of Gentoo on SGI Octane? Reply with quote

I'm looking to acquire an SGI Octane workstation, I've got several different configuration options and was wondering if any would work better than others for Gentoo (or work at all that is)...

R10k 195MHz CPU
R10k 250MHz CPU (Either single or dual)
R12k 300MHz CPU

Standard (SE?) Graphics
SSE Graphics
MXE Graphics

I was hoping to get a dual 250MHz system - as for graphics I'd obviously like the MXE, it's quite a jump in price compared to a SSE configuration though.

The system will come with a fresh IRIX-installation, could I in some way preserve that (ghost, full backup or...)? So I could return to IRIX should I want that?
Or maybe even better - dual boot?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jballou
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 128
Location: Baghdad, Iraq

PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:11 am    Post subject: Re: Current status of Gentoo on SGI Octane? Reply with quote

freke wrote:
I'm looking to acquire an SGI Octane workstation, I've got several different configuration options and was wondering if any would work better than others for Gentoo (or work at all that is)...

R10k 195MHz CPU
R10k 250MHz CPU (Either single or dual)
R12k 300MHz CPU

Standard (SE?) Graphics
SSE Graphics
MXE Graphics

I was hoping to get a dual 250MHz system - as for graphics I'd obviously like the MXE, it's quite a jump in price compared to a SSE configuration though.

The system will come with a fresh IRIX-installation, could I in some way preserve that (ghost, full backup or...)? So I could return to IRIX should I want that?
Or maybe even better - dual boot?

Last I checked SMP was not a happening event on MIPS, just runs one proc. I have a 195MHz R10K/2Gb RAM that I run fluxbox, dillo, and a few other apps on as a station that I let people come check their email on since they can't do a damn thing but what I want them to. It's a load of fun to work with, and for $100 shipped I love my 54 pound minifridge. I don't have Irix on mine but dual boot should be pretty straightforward from what I've seen of ARCS. As for the graphics, it's only an issue if you run Irix, in Linux it's pretty much just a VESA like minimum video implementation with the framebuffer. X runs, but don't expect to do anything heavy. Some argue that's the whole reason for having an SGI, but honestly it's a hobby.
_________________
-Shuttle SN25P, Opteron 185, 74Gb WD Raptor, 2x 300Gb Barracuda 7200.9, 2x 1Gb Corsair dual channel, BFG GeForce 7800GT
-Asus Z7100 laptop, P-M 2.13, 2Gb DDR, 100Gb 7200RPM HDD, 128Mb GeForce 6600 Go.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
freshy98
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 11 Jul 2002
Posts: 274
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Fri May 19, 2006 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since when is SMP not working on Octane? Afaik it used to work at least.
Skylark has made the kernel working for Octane, as well as several other things, and SMP was one of them.

Try googling for Skylark Octane or something.

Also, there is no real X driver. Only a software driver hackup of somesort.
_________________
Mac Pro single quad 2.8GHz, 6GB RAM, 8800GT. MacBook. Plus way too many SUN/Cobatl/SGI and a lonely Alpha.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Redhatter
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Posts: 548
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

freshyapepper: Really? That's news to me. And it'll be news to iluxa who's been using his 16-CPU Origin 2000 to push out the big endian MIPS stages. :-P

SMP has worked fine for quite a while... just that only a handful of SGI machines that run Linux are SMP capable.
_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Frapazoid
n00b
n00b


Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm running Linux on my Octane at the moment. Here's what to expect:

It ~should~ support SMP. It's considered supported but I don't use it myself.

Get an Impact video card, not VPro. VPro has no X support. Impact does work in X just fine. The most notable limitations are that it can't change video mode and has no 3D acceleration. So make sure to get a 1280x1024x75hz monitor.

FireFox, Mozilla and Java do not work. You'll be using Konqueror sans Java if you intend to browse the web. That part I didn't know ahead of time :oops:

Gimp, Gnome and most other things seem to be working perfectly. I was told Gnome doesn't work but I'm using it just fine and dandy.

Expect to have a system to product a TFTP and BootP server. There are very common difficulties getting it to boot Linux off a volume header.

The advantage of Linux over IRIX is that Linux has USB support and isn't about to be end-of-lifed. It's more like a beta stage. If it's constantly developing than it has potential to become a lot more useful.

So if you're still sure you wanna use Linux, consider that Linux means you can get a PCI bracket and use some standard PCI cards, including USB support and other addons. I haven't messed with adding video cards but I suddenly want to take a crack at it when I get home.
_________________
My systems:

MIPS R12000 400mhz - 1536 Megs RAM - Impact SSE Video Board - 10k RPM 73gig SCSI - Gentoo Linux

Athlon K7-Thunderbird 1000mhz - 512 Megs RAM - GeForce 5.2 128meg Video - 5k RPM 40gig IDE - Fedora Core
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on Alternative Architectures All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum