Effect & Spark in a SGI O2 R5K

I was able to run effect* 7.1 in my O2 without problem, even using a file framestore and the entire second hard drive. But effect* 6.1.3 was a different story: always complaining 'Can't initialise framestore'.

Checking the forums there are some guys that can run spark and effect* 6.1.3 with a file system framestore so i did some more tests.

The final configuration is to install Stone&Wire 2.6.5 (included with old releases of Flame and Smoke) and configure a second hard disk as stone. Seems to work even with a internal secondary disk of external one.

So, with this config I can run effect* 6.1.3, effect* 7.1 and spark 7.6 with the same stone disk!

Well, now time to play a little more !

One year without updates and my new 'All things blog'

Hi guys,
after one year of my last post, this Christmas I started to play with my old systems again. This time is not an Unix system but an Amiga 500. At the same time of this Unixverse blog I created Titox's place but never used it. As the Amiga is not an Unix system I decided to start my other blog with it. Check this here:
http://titoxsplace.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/writing-amiga-floppies-with-catweasel.html

See you!!!!!
Alberto.

Solaris 10 1/13 is here!!!!

I  was already thinking the same thing would happen with Oracle Solaris than IRIX 6.5.31 but here you are the latest release (and may be there will be no more updates):

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris10/downloads/index.html


You can read the 'What's new' document from this link.
 

Samsung Blu-Ray C5500 and internet@tv problems

Hello, this entry is no related to computers or Unix, considering that a DVD or Bluray player is not, but today I'm very happy and I want to share this small but very impirant trick. Since some weeks the function internet@tv of my Samsung Bluray playe C5500 was not working. When I started the app the system downloaded the last firmware but failed reinstalled the default apps. I tried reverting to default the player but without success... until today: a new web search returned this post with a different trick to reset the player to the building default options. Just turn on the player and pressing&holding the stop button. Two minutes lTer i got the internet@tv function running again!

Restoring DAT tapes with IRIX tar

Today I started to recover a lot of old DAT tapes of an old video software. At first time I tried with IRIX Backup/Restore Manager but gave me a lot of errors due this tapes were stored with an old release of IRIX.

As you can see in this post in the Nekochan forums, the IRIX GUI system changed its own format with the different IRIX versions:

For 6.5, the format is cpio.
For 6.3 and 6.4, the format is tar.
For 5.3-6.2, the format is bru.

As my tapes were burn in 1996/1997 I tried with tar. And success:

# mkdir /datrest
# cd /datrest
# tar xvR

With the above commands all the files in a DAT drive will be restored on the /datrest folder. Just What I needed!

Still kicking!! O2 & Octane & DAT

Still alive!!!
A lot of time without post anything but I am a very busy guy.

First of all here you are my last toy:

A SGI O2 with RM5200 at 300 MHz and 256 MB of RAM. Not bad. I was searching one of this for some years. Running good except for temporary ethernet problems.

Hinv:
O2 2# hinv -mv
CPU: MIPS R5000 Processor Chip Revision: 10.1
FPU: MIPS R5000 Floating Point Coprocessor Revision: 10.0
1 300 MHZ IP32 Processor
Main memory size: 256 Mbytes
Secondary unified instruction/data cache size: 1 Mbyte on Processor 0
Instruction cache size: 32 Kbytes
Data cache size: 32 Kbytes
FLASH PROM version 4.18
Integral SCSI controller 0: Version ADAPTEC 7880
Disk drive: unit 1 on SCSI controller 0 (unit 1)
CDROM: unit 4 on SCSI controller 0
Integral SCSI controller 1: Version ADAPTEC 7880
On-board serial ports: tty1
On-board serial ports: tty2
On-board EPP/ECP parallel port
CRM graphics installed
Integral Ethernet: ec0, version 1
Iris Audio Processor: version A3 revision 0
PCI Adapter ID (vendor 0x9004, device 0x8078) PCI slot 1
PCI Adapter ID (vendor 0x9004, device 0x8078) PCI slot 2
Video: MVP unit 0 version 1.4
AV: AV1 Card version 1, Camera not connected.
Vice: TRE

In the other side, I upgraded the Octane 2 with new harddisk and a Sony DAT unit. Now I'm recovering some ols tapes of Video Software.

And related to my projects, I compiled a new ROM for my Cobalt servers but I still having problems loading large bz2 kernels. This new ROM uses one of the latest 2.4 kernels with SATA_VIA driver and detects a cheap SATA VIA PCI card in my RaQ 4. Unfortunately I don't have enough time and the development is going very slow. I expect to power on one RaQ next month to compile an smaller kernel for this ROM and try to load big kernels again.

Oracle/Sun Solaris 10 u10 8/11 published

This week arrived my latest toy, a Sun Blade 1500 Sparc workstation, but when I went to install Solaris on it (came with Debian Sparc linux) I wasn't able to find th DVD. I went to the Oracle web and found a new release from August.

You can download the DVD iso for Sparc and x86 systems from this page: Solaris 10 downloads.

And here you are the 'What's new' document as pdf.

More info about this workstation later.

P.D.: I bought this machine without power supply. This can be a big problem because the Sun Blade 1500/2500 workstation series need three plugs/connectors from the power supply: an standard ATX 20 & 4 pin plugs and an special 12 pin plug for supplemental power supply. I just installed an standard ATX power supply and the machine is booting and working correctly. I have to make extensive more checks to the hardware but nothing rare is happening without this connection.