On Nov 20, 12:47, Mark Green wrote:
The keyboard and mouse is much harder. There were
several models
of keyboards used on these machines. What type of keyboard
connector to you have? The popular ones were DB9 and PS/2 (note
I don't think a PS/2 keyboard will work, but I haven't tried).
I can look up the part number tonight when I get home. The keyboards
are not that common, but I have seen them on eBay. The mouse attaches
to the keyboard.
I haven't checked thoroughly, but I'm fairly sure all the keyboards use the
same protocol (a serial protocol, 600 baud IIRC), just different plugs.
The 4DFAQ (aka "This Old SGI" -- try a web search) is helpful about this
sort of stuff.
The easiest way to get these machines running is
through the
console. There is a way to set a terminal to be the console,
but I'm not sure how its done on the PI. On some SGIs there is
a hardware mechanism, but on others the console must be use (this
won't help you much).
I thought all the PIs use the first serial line automatically if the
keyboard isn't connected?
> 1 of them still has a working OS, and the other
doesn't. I do not have
any
> OS media for them at all, and the one that IS
working has (Of Course) a
root
> password which I do not have. What I really need
here is a copy of the
> installation media here. Pleeeaaaasssee Contact me if you can assist
in
> getting these systems running. I believe the 1
with the OS problem has
the
> OS, but has no scsi disk label. Perhaps if
someone were to have a
root/boot
> disk they could copy off for me, I could get them
working. I believe
they
run Iris
4.0.somthingorother.
Its difficult to do much without a console, since all the installation
and maintenance procedures assume that you are working through the
console by default. What devices do you have? There are two forms
of the OS media. The older systems were on tape, and the newer ones
were on CD. A may have IRIX 4 tapes at home, which could get you
started. The 4D/35 will run up to IRIX 5.3 (something I recommend),
and the CDs can be found regularly on eBay. Note that these machines
are a bit picky about the CDROM drives they use, older ones are
better.
I agree; definitely get 5.3 if you can. It does take more disk space,
though.
If you have a console the easiest way to change the
root password
is to boot a mini-root (this may be on partition 8 of your disk).
>From there you can modify the /etc/passwd file.
If you can't get to that, because there's a password set in the NVRAM, so
you can't get to the PROM monitor, the FAQ describes one way to defeat the
NVRAM password.
SGI tended to use there own file system structures, so
you may
not be able to read the disks on other UNIX systems.
Did 4.0.5 etc use EFS? 5.3 does, and Linux can mount/read that.
PS: Are there other SGI collectors on the list?
Yes, but most of mine are later than these -- three Indigos, two Indys, and
an Indigo^2.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York