Nekochan Net

(Ex Subject: "My Octane Is Back To The Life! Whooa!")

After some good conversations with Hamei, I decided to put some efforts to recover my good and old Octane. Several months ago died one of the two Compaq P1220 that made a rather nice dual display for this box. To put it short, since I've started to use Linux more and more every year, I decided to leave the Octane without any real use because it was configured as a dual head box and seemed to not work well with the two graphic boards inserted and only one monitor in working order.

So... after many many months without a use, and considering the amount of Nekoware available in /Beta, seemed to me a good idea if following the Hamei's suggestions I invest some time to put this system workable again so I can start to try packages!

Then a couple hours ago purchased a brand-new set of modern keyboard and mouse to work more comfortably... and after a few hours troubleshooting the failures, it is everything working along.

Which brings me to some question: -Is it possible to re-configure an IRIX install made for dual head to a single head configuration without remove the unused graphic board? Or to put it shortly, just reconfigure it either via PROM or OS without removing the graphic board and leaving everything hardware-side as is?

Thanks in advance!
Diego
(Posted from the IRIX box!)

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Oh!, let me write that!


Octane / Dual Head

http://twitter.com/GeekTronixShop

I need to reckon I'm still a bit stuck with that problem.

Summarizing it:

as soon you run this double head system running as single head system (without any re-configuration) there is some rather nasty and buggy behavior: -As far you reach with your mouse pointer the extreme-right side of the display in use, you'll end being logged out!

Pretty surely, I guess it still effectively expects a double sized screen area, and then still tries to write into the memory of the unused graphic board... I've tried everything, but no matter what, it is still giving me the same results. I've swapped graphic board positions, and tried de-attaching the dead monitor cable (bad idea!, most part of the time IRIX refuses to boot if I do that! ...so the dead monitor is just unpowered and plugged-in as a sort of "dummy load" or something!)

I refuse to just unplug the unused board, because I do not own a dummy plate to cover the slot and dust would be a problem... and add to this, it seems that either IRIX or the PROM still need to be informed that will be running on a single head.

Oh well, I'm a bit lost for now.

Of course the real solution would be to fix this dead Compaq P1220 monitor, or just buy a couple brand-new LCD/LED displays with suppport for Sync-On-Green, but I could not justify such a expense right now.

Anyway I'm trying to fix the dead Compaq P1220, but it will take some time before to find the required parts or even a suitable lab willing to fix it.

EDIT: I'm go to double check if it is configured with 'chkconfig xinerama on'!

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Oh!, let me write that!


Octane / Dual Head

http://twitter.com/GeekTronixShop

yaaaaayyy good to see you back! So you've had enough of tux for now?

I would recommend removing the second board. Not only is it the easiest option, it also saves power. Store it in an anti-static bag in a safe place, and cover the slot with a piece of tape if you don't have a blank.

There is probably a way to disable the second graphics board. All of my systems have just one board, to use dual-screen it is still one framebuffer so I just load another VFO to use two screens. So sorry but I'm not familiar with multi-pipe systems (and I don't have a working monitor at all right now otherwise I would be happy to fire it up and play with the options to see if there is anything you missed)

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(Maradona) (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"

Do you thinks so? Could it end damaged if I leave it inside?

I hold some hopes for the Compaq P1220. With a friend here we managed to fix my old SGI GDM-20E21 more than a year ago... but the P1220 could be a bit more hard because the greater use of microcontrollers... oh well... but looks more like a flyback problem, or horizontal transistor burnt.



Right now I'm posting from a Linux box, I need to power on the Octane and check if it is still configured as 'chkconfig xinerama on' ...maybe it is just that, and after so many system crashes I could not tell the actual state of such flag (which should be 'chkconfig xinerama off' for the case, I would guess!)

It seems that tip was hidden inside some post referenced by my own signature below!
I'll boot IRIX right now...

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Oh!, let me write that!


Octane / Dual Head

http://twitter.com/GeekTronixShop

...mmmhhh, given the circumstances, I don't know if this is bad or good... because I'm still getting the same behavior no matter what!





I'm getting quickly discouraged because it seems I'll need to go thru a whole fresh IRIX install and it will take lots of time to put everything as I want...

I guess the good news are that the hardware is fine, if I'm not missing something else.

_________________
Oh!, let me write that!


Octane / Dual Head

http://twitter.com/GeekTronixShop

It is done. Problem fixed.

Now I should fix my broken Compaq P1220 so I can work with a dual head environment again, and maybe later I should manage to get some faster dual processor module. But everything (excepting the monitor, of course) is in working order again.

Thanks!
Diego

_________________
Oh!, let me write that!


Octane / Dual Head

http://twitter.com/GeekTronixShop