[rescue] Need some tips to start up my SGI indigo2.

[Jochen Kunz]

On 2003.09.27 10:54 Arjen Ronhaar wrote:

> I just bought my first unis/irix machine, a SGI Indogo2, R4400 at 
> 200MHz, with a 2.1Mb systemdisk, and 96Mb of memory, runni8ng on IRIX 
> 6.2.
> I bought it from old stock at work (Pemstar) complete system for 10 
> Euro ($11.20).
Good price. You shoud get some additional bits of RAM. (128 MB is OK, 
192 MB would be much better.)

> - Would it be better to wipe all and to install the OS from scratch
Yes. I sugest to get IRIX 6.5 and reinstall. You can get IRIX media 
from SGI, epay or a kind list member, that is in your contry and 
willing to copy the CDs. 
> - Is de cd format the same for SGI and PC?
Depends. IRIX can read the usual ISO9660 CDs. Some CDs have an IRIX 
special file system, EFS, on them. They are typicly IRIX software / 
installation CDs. 
> - Is the floppy format the same for SGI and PC?
Depends on the tools you use to access the floppies. The mtools can 
read the usual DOS FAT floppies. 
> - What programs do I need to make this connection work?
Toolchest -> System -> System Manager -> Network stuff... / Network 
Interface Manager.

> - My mouse is near extinction, can i replace it wit just any mouse, 
> or must it be a special SGI mouse? Could i use a PS/2 trackball?
You can use any PS/2 keyboard / mouse. (BTW: IRIX 6.5.16 and up 
supports the mouse wheel.)

> - The CD is not the youngest neither, is it a standard one?
You mean the CD drive? You can use any SCSI CD drive. Maybe you need 
one that can do 512 byte per block to be able to boot from it. Toshiba 
and Plextor should work well. I used a NEC that worked with minor 
hickups and a newish Pioner slot in that worked well also on my Octane. 
> or even what kind of Burner could i use?
I use an old Yamaha CDR400c on my SGIs. 
> - What is the best place to look for parts,
ebay.

> I need a floppy drive and they are hard to find on eBay
You would need a SCSI floppy. Hard to find. Given the poor reliability 
of floppy (at least 3.5 floppy) I would not to try to get one.
-- 



tsch|_,
           Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz