Got two Origins 200 - how tu use them "properly"

[Bubba]

Greetings to all,

recently, I acquired two Origins 200 in working condition. One is dual
R10k 180MHz while the other has only one R10k 180MHz. I have several
questions:

- can I acquire IRIX legally for free, since machines were used for
academic purposes on Faculty of Science at University of Zagreb
(Physics) (got no answer from them, naturally :))? If not, what are the
"other possibilities" (my mail is in header, if it would not be
appropriate to discuss that here). What version would be most suitable
for those machines? How about other (scientific) software for IRIX
(compilers, etc.), how can that be acquired?

- does any other OS (Linux, presumably) supports all features that
Origin 200 offers? I am particularly interested in Craylink support?

- regarding Craylink, I found some older posts that claimed it is
possible to use Craylink on machines that are not similarly equipped
regarding CPU's? Is that true? How about memory, I suppose there
shouldn't be any problems as well?

- it seems that memory for Origin 200 is somewhat easily obtainable
(since it is compatible with Origin 2000 and Onix2). However, how about
PIMM's - had no particular luck on Ebay, especially for R12k or dual CPU
PIMM's of higher frequency than 180MHz I currently have. Are there any
other interesting expansion cards for Origins that could have use in
scientific calculations? However, I am really not keen on giving several
hundred $ for PIMM's...

- PROM versions on machines seem to be discrepant. I had no luck in
finding official procedure for PROM/firmware update method from SGI; is
there any (I suppose there is, perhaps the correct question would be -
where can I find one)?

I am sorry for so many questions, but since group has dozed a bit
lately, perhaps some SGI enthusiast will commit some time for my bunch
of questions. :)

TIA!

[corn]

Your best bet would be to use IRIX 6.5.30. This was released in August 2006;
see the links below after "...you can check out" for possible options. Not
including compiler fixes, patches for generic 6.5.30 systems are:

Patch SG0005401: Modules MIPSpro driver update 2
Patch SG0007111: ESP eventmond core fix
Patch SG0007144: xfsdump rollup for 6.5.30
Patch SG0007146: XFS Project Quota Userspace Fixes
Patch SG0007162: Xsgi: xterm program hanging when it receives ^E
Patch SG0007174: IRIX system command fixes
Patch SG0007185: Parallel XFS Repair for 6.5.29 and 6.5.30
Patch SG0007187: tpisocket fixes for 6.5.30
Patch SG0007192: NFS fixes for 6.5.30
Patch SG0007202: pthread library fixes for 6.5.30
Patch SG0007207: TimeZone processing change and 2007 zonefiles update
Patch SG0007217: OpenSSL security patch
Patch SG0007221: Updates for autofsd
Patch SG0007227: Rollup - kernel rollup for IRIX 6.5.30
Patch SG0007229: 6.5.30 XFS Rollup #4
Patch SG0007232: OpenSSH security patch
Patch SG0007233: networking updates for 6.5.30
Patch SG0007234: named fix for IRIX 6.5.[28..30]

I think there is one other patch out there, but don't quote me on that. This
list is not Origin 200-specific, so there may be additional patches for you
that deal with the Origin 200 hardware you have.

Forget about using any other OS on this machine. There's software at
http://www.nekochan.net/downloads/index.php
http://reality.sgiweb.org/nekochan/index.php?sort=date&order=desc&path=current/
http://www.g95.org/
http://www.sane-project.org/

Scientific software:
http://www.msg.chem.iastate.edu/gamess/ (vaguely like Gaussian 98)
http://www.tddft.org/programs/octopus/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (TDDFT)

I think eventually we were able to Craylink machines with differing CPUs,
though there was some issue with it only working with certain multiples of
MHz... With R10k 180 MHz on both machines, I don't think you'll have any
trouble.

There used to be a PCI card that would add graphics, though it was pretty
rare even back then. For RAM and other items, you can check out
http://www.reputable.com/sgilist.html
http://www.xsnet.com/
http://www.sgisun.com/hardware.html
http://www.ppsparts.com/silicon.htm
http://www.sgi.com/products/remarketed/

As for PROMs, if you're not having any troubles, leave it alone.
Publications about the Origin 200 are at
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/listdocs.cgi?coll=hdwr&prods=Origin
and the flash man page and where to find the PROM files is at
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=man&fname=/usr/share/catman/a_man/cat1/flash.z

--
The Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI) will perform leaching tests on the
same materials. -- http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~evzard/cost4-%201.html

[Bubba]

corn's log on stardate 03 lip 2010

Greetings,

first of all, thank you for your copious reply.

Post by corn
Your best bet would be to use IRIX 6.5.30. This was released in
August 2006; see the links below after "...you can check out" for
possible options.

Thx.

/snip

Post by corn
Forget about using any other OS on this machine.

Generally, I have no particular problems with IRIX (or any OS per se), but
my question was rather aimed at ease of getting the OS itself...

/snip

Post by corn
I think eventually we were able to Craylink machines with differing
CPUs, though there was some issue with it only working with certain
multiples of MHz... With R10k 180 MHz on both machines, I don't
think you'll have any trouble.

Hopefully, I will obtain another dual R10k CPU board, but will certainly
try this procedure first, since I plan to set everything up by the end of
the month.

I presume there are no problem if I decide to change the Craylinked
hardware, in sense of changing CPU number on one machine, or even RAM
amount? Will any new configuration/OS reinstallation be necessary?

/snip

Once again, thank you very much for the links and info. I hope I won't run
into any particular problems while setting up the system.

Best regards!

[corn]

Craylinks don't care about much, if the CPU speeds match or are some
crazy paring I don't currently remember the details of. When one CPU
of the 4 dies, you can go into PROM and disable it, then reboot and the
Craylink doesn't care. The presence or absence of a cable should be
totally transparent to you, aside from doubling your electricity bill
because you're now playing with two O200s instead of just one. Not
that there's anything wrong with that.

I liked to administer these machines by typing in

setenv DISPLAY (some IP#):0.0
toolchest &

at a prompt and running a terminal window, the system manager, and
other items from the toolchest which I redirected to display on
whatever computer I was logged into. An X11 display works fine, or
use a Cygwin window to ssh into the box after using the xhost
command, or some other SSH methodology. Also, see
http://users.rcn.com/cmciv/securing.html
if you plan on connecting this machine to the internet.

--
sgi - Silicon Graphics Inc., as opposed to Swine Genetics International of
Cambridge, Iowa
-- http://web.mit.edu/course/10/10.610/gamess/readme.unix

[Gary Heston]

Post by Bubba
Greetings to all,
recently, I acquired two Origins 200 in working condition. One is dual
R10k 180MHz while the other has only one R10k 180MHz. I have several

[ ... ]

Congratulations on your acquisition. You should be able to configure
one to boot from the other via the network, which will save a bit of
power and noise (no hard drive in needed in the second system).

Concerning power, be aware that the O200s pull quite a bit, and have
a very high power-on surge. It's mentioned in one of the manuals,
but I don't recall which one, that this has to be allowed for when
selecting a UPS.


Gary