Subject: SGI-Linux VisualWorkstations

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:08:52 +0100

Has anyone managed to get Linux (any distribution) onto the Visual
Workstation? Personally, had a no. of problems
with the Visual Workstation and my last gasp effort to use the machine
(apart from as a dust magnet) is to run Linux on
them .... any info. pls. let me know. (linux.sgi.com ... used to have a
couple of pages as I recall, but dont think they are there now....)

rgds & thnks,

Michael L

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From: Andy Isaacson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 11:15:35 -0500

> couple of pages as I recall, but dont think they are there now....)

I have the instructions I used up at
http://www.lcse.umn.edu/~adi/visws/
The detailed (but only correct for the LCSE setup) instructions are at
http://www.lcse.umn.edu/~adi/visws/lcse-setup.html

It's not terribly useful, though... we had a lot of problems with our
setup and the systems are back to running NT full time.

Off the top of my head
 - XFree86 4.0 fbdev driver had color problems
 - only the first bank of memory was usable (256 of our 1024 MB)
 - accessing the floppy or CD-ROM was likely to hang the machine
 - 2.2.10 was the only kernel I could get running

-andy
-- 
Andy Isaacson <[email-masked]> http://web.mr-happy.com/~adi/

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From: Ehab Fares <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 20:31:56 +0200

-- 
We've been runnung Linux on a Visual Workstation 540 for some time now.. We
used a SuSE 6.3 Distribution and there was a lot to do to get the mahine
booting for first installation. The Information we used was on the
www.linux.sgi.com... For some reasons (perhaps the new Visual workastation
from SGI) only the mips architecture is now present there! Unfortunatley I
don't have these Information anymore...  

I also have only been able to boot the 2.2.10 Kernel. The system is integrated
into a Linux cluster. We are not using the CD-ROM or the floppy much, so I
don't know of any  problems there. The machine hangs every now and then
(sometimes once per 2 weeks and sometimes one per day). The hanging seem to
stop if the X server is not activated. Our biggest problem is the Memory, we
are only using 960MB of the 2GB. I believe this is only a problem of the arc
loader. It is even mentioned in the sources of that loader. I haven't figured
out a way to get around that yet...  

I personally find it discouraging that there is no further development for
these machines. They would make a great linux visualization machines (as SGI
apparently noticed already and giving a linux option for the newer Visual
Workstation)... What is needed is a better support for the hardware including
the graphics... 

regards,
Ehab.

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From: Mark Pearson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:43:28 +1000

The howto page on the sgi site has moved to
http://oss.sgi.com/www.linux.sgi.com/intel/visws
I use a debian distribution with kernel 2.2.10 on a 320 with 256Mb ram and
the flat panel display.
Xfree 3.3.6 seems to work best and will provide 8 or 16 bit depth. The
main problem I have found (at least under kde and xfree 3.x and 4.x) is
that the mouse focus will not always pass to the window under the cursor,
and some processes have to be killed to release the focus.
The other problem is that every few days the ethernet controller stops
transmitting and must be restarted.

--
Mark Pearson BSc (Computing) -- Technical and Computer Support
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Concord Hospital
Hospital Road, Concord, NSW  2137, Australia
PH: 61-2-9767 7450 or 61-2-9767 6339  FAX: 61-2-9767 7451