cctalk Digest, Vol 53, Issue 10

[John Ball]

Message: 8
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 11:25:29 -0600
From: "Jason T" <silent700 at gmail.com>
Subject: SGI Crimson (was:13W3-3BNC cable)
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
	<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Message-ID:
	<51ea77730801050925n2a68cd01wcbfb2a0bd2af23c5 at mail.gmail.com>
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On Jan 5, 2008 10:46 AM, Scott Quinn <compoobah at valleyimplants.com> wrote:


>So since mine says "Server" yet has a 13W3 gfx board (haven't opened
>it up to ID it yet, and can't get into the OS to do a gfxinfo) it was
>probably a field-upgrade?  I do have the "Elan" badge as well, and the
>owner only had one Crimson, so I'm assuming that's where it came from.

The only way to be positive is if you open the case. the 13W3 connection was the standard monitor connector for SGI's for almost a decade.


>"Pimp my SGI," I guess, and just make use of the nicer gfx board
>before the dead Iris gets scrapped.

Just part it out and sell it on nekochan.net if you are going to scrap it.

>I got an internal cdrom recogzined last night.  The only Irix distro I
>have now is 6.5.  Will the Crimson at least load fx from that?  It was
>acting like it couldn't even find the file, though, giving some scsi
>errors if I booted into the hdd's fx and tried 'ls dksc(....)" on the
>CD.  I tried an Apple CD600i and a Toshiba model which was listed in
>the SGI cdrom survey.  Of course, they could be bad drives, who knows.
>  Too many variables!
>
>Next method will be to attach the boot drive to another SGI and edit
>/etc/passwd from there.
>
>Thanks for all the helps

Most of the older PROM style systems had an issue booting from a cd drive. You can't just use any with them. Many people report that Plextor drives are some of the best and Toshiba drive are right behind. Don't forget also that the cd drive must be ID 4 and be set for 512 byte sectors (not 1024 or 2048). I personally have never tried booting my crimson with my 6.5 cd's but if you just use FX from an Irix 5.3 cd you should be fine.