SGI Indigo2 Extreme framebuffer

ddew · n00b Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Ok, I run gentoo on this laptop, my ws PC, my Digital Alpha PWS500a server and I honestly must say that it's the best distro so far. But one thing has been bothering me, I haven't been able to run it my SGI machine due to the lack of framebuffer support for it.

It's nothing fancy, it's just that really like the box.

The point (after my rant)

Is that I mailed a representative today requesting the release of the docs or even a closed source driver so we can start using the machines as workstations, Irix 5.3 is getting on my nerves.

So I encourage all with the same chipset to mail SGI and plead your hearts out, cause I really feel that the Linux community would benefit from it.

Kumba · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:19 am Post subject:

As far as I know, there have been various attempts to get documentation released from SGI regarding old drivers and hardware. But the most you'll probably get out of them is a denial, they'll probably go as far to say they don't even know if Linux can run on their hardware. (One guy got this response).

I've pondered mailing them myself, but eh, never really gotten around to it. Who knows, maybe since Indigo2, Indy, and other machines of that age are no longer supported in IRIX (they got deprecated as of IRIX 6.5.23), SGI might be a bit more open to releasing driver details. That's a really big hypothetical, though.

If you do get any positive from them, however, do post more information.

--Kumba
_________________
"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic

ddew · n00b Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Yeah, I'll do that.

I've gotten _some_ form of reply so far, a message asking for the precise specs of my box. Since they've already given me a few irix 5.3 overlays on cd I'm crossing my fingers.

Wish me luck

kalisphoenix · Apprentice Joined: 28 Sep 2003 Posts: 211 Location: Ohio

I mailed them too. Oh, I am praying for driver information :-)

Maybe there's an online petition, even though "petition" sounds kind of pissy, demanding, et cetera. If there isn't, perhaps we could start one. I'm sure there's thousands of GNU/Linux-users that would sign the petition. There's probably even people who would sign even though they have no interest in SGI hardware.

Hmm.

Kumba · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 4:38 pm Post subject:

You guys might find this interesting:

kalisphoenix · Apprentice Joined: 28 Sep 2003 Posts: 211 Location: Ohio

Oh, that's gorgeous!

ddew · n00b Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Saw that one too, Impacts has been 'better' supported in linux than the chip I have.

I got a response from SGI saying basically what everyone's been telling me. 'We don't support linux on that platform' etc. and finally said that the documentation for it is classified/won't be given to the public until the return of christ.

It kind of sucks because I have a 20" screen for it so running through serial console is out of the question.

So if anyone has a suitable linux supported box to trade, preferrably in sweden/gothenburg, feel free to drop me a mail at david(dot)weizades(at)bredband(dot)net.

Cheers

evil_twin_of_Machiavelli · n00b Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 3

Kumba · Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:20 pm Post subject:

He does in fact, and since my last post, he's got s kernel that will boot more, and if you have an NFS Root lying around, you can get a semi-usable userland. Things like the keyboard driver are still not implemented yet, same goes for the scsi subsystem (meaning if you try to do anything, even installing linux, it will be over NFS Root). All can be found here:

http://helios.et.put.poznan.pl/~sskowron/ip30/

--Kumba
_________________
"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic

evil_twin_of_Machiavelli · n00b Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 3

Interesting, i posted a topic on the Nekochan forums about it. (Including his two screen shots).

I know you lot prefer running Linux on your sgi boxen, but if ye want stuff like kde3, gimp2, abiword2, firefox (the last 3 with XFT/fontconfig enabled) for Irix you can get them off Nekochan. (Irix community site)

http://www.nekochan.net/
http://www.nekochan.net/downloads/index.php?path=Nekoware/
http://forums.nekochan.net/index.php