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From: [email protected] (The SGI FAQ group)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: SGI misc Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Archive-name: sgi/faq/misc
Last-modified: Fri Apr 6 1:00:03 CDT 2001
Posting-Frequency: Twice monthly
URL: http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

SGI misc Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is one of the Silicon Graphics FAQ series, which consists of:

SGI admin FAQ - IRIX system administration
SGI apps FAQ - Applications and miscellaneous programming
SGI audio FAQ - Audio applications and programming
SGI diffs FAQ - Changes to the other FAQs since the last posting
SGI graphics FAQ - Graphics and user environment customization
SGI hardware FAQ - Hardware
SGI impressario FAQ - IRIS Impressario
SGI inventor FAQ - IRIS Inventor
SGI misc FAQ - Introduction & miscellaneous information
SGI movie FAQ - Movies
SGI performer FAQ - IRIS Performer
SGI pointer FAQ - Pointer to the other FAQs
SGI security FAQ - IRIX security

Read the misc FAQ for information about the FAQs themselves. Each FAQ is
posted to comp.sys.sgi.misc and to the news.answers and comp.answers
newsgroups (whose purpose is to store FAQs) twice per month. If you
can't find one of the FAQs with your news program, you can get it from

ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/faq/
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/

(rtfm.mit.edu is home to many other FAQs and informational documents,
and is a good place to look if you can't find an answer here.) The FAQs
are on the World Wide Web at

http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

If you can't use FTP or WWW, send mail to [email protected] with
the word 'help' on a line by itself in the text, and it will send you a
document describing how to get files from rtfm.mit.edu by mail. Send the
command 'send usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/misc' to get the SGI misc FAQ,
and similarly for the other FAQs. Send the command 'send
usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email' to get the
"Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ".

You may distribute the SGI FAQs freely and we encourage you to do so.
However, you must keep them intact, including headers and this notice,
and you must not charge for or profit from them. Contact us for other
arrangements. We can't be responsible for copies of the SGI FAQs at
sites which we do not control, and copies published on paper or CD-ROM
are certain to be out of date. The contents are accurate as far as we
know, but the usual disclaimers apply. Send additions and changes to
[email protected].

Topics covered in this FAQ:
---------------------------
-1- How can I quickly find the information I want in the SGI FAQs?
-2- What about the SGI FAQs and the World Wide Web?
-3- With what version(s) of IRIX do the SGI FAQs deal?
-4- What about material which doesn't fit in the FAQs?
-5- What are the comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups?
-6- What about comp.sys.sgi.marketplace?
-7- Are the SGI newsgroups archived?
-8- What are some related newsgroups?
-9- What are the info-iris-* mailing lists?
-10- What are some related mailing lists?
-11- What are some related WWW pages?
-12- What are some related network-accessible documents?
-13- What number do I call for information about SGI products?
-14- What number do I call for technical support from SGI?
-15- What about SGI-related publications?
-16- What is the current release of ...
-17- What is the current release of IRIX for my machine?
-18- When will the next release(s) of IRIX be out?
-19- How can I get lists of known bugs, lists of patches, and/or the
patches themselves?
-20- What's the best newsgroup in which to complain to SGI?
-21- Wouldn't Nextstep be great on SGIs?
-22- Can I run Windows NT on my Indigo or Indy?
-23- Credits

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: -1- How can I quickly find the information I want in the SGI
FAQs?
Date: 11 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST

- The FAQs follow the RFC1153 recommendations for message digests and
thus can be viewed easily with newsreaders that understand message
digests.

- Each question has a Subject: line, so you can easily step through
the answers with rn's ^G command.

- Each question is marked with a "dash number dash" so that you can
find any answer with a simple search pattern.

- Questions marked with a '+' in the subject line are new this
posting; those marked with a '!' have significant new content since
the last posting. Similarly, '+' and '!' in the left margin mark
added or changed text. Questions marked with a '-' in the subject
line will be removed in the next edition or so unless someone
convinces us otherwise.

- Don't forget about text searching! There's an excellent chance the
information you want is in the FAQs, but not obvious from the table
of contents. Every file viewer, editor and WWW browser has a way of
finding arbitrary text in a file.

------------------------------

Subject: -2- What about the SGI FAQs and the World Wide Web?
Date: 04 May 1996 00:00:01 EST

The SGI FAQs are on the World Wide Web in hypertext form at
http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/. The hypertext version (as well as
the plain text) may be FTPed from ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/faq/ for
offline reading. You can also get the FAQ source from the same place
and build the hypertext yourself.

There are several archives of FAQs from news.answers converted to
hypertext, including the SGI FAQs, listed at
http://www.jazzie.com/ii/internet/faqs.html, and some mirrors of
just the SGI FAQs:

http://reality.sgi.com/employees/jm/sgi-faq.html/
http://www.sgi.com/Archive/FAQs/ (and at www.sgi.com's mirrors)

Anyone is welcome to set up their own mirror, public or not. Please
note that the SGI FAQ group does not administer any of these sites, so
we can't guarantee that any of them are complete or up-to-date.

You can read the hypertext SGI FAQs with any WWW browser, e.g. Mosaic
(which you can get from ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/Mosaic/), Netscape
(ftp://ftp.netscape.com/netscape/unix/ for the generic version or
http://www.sgi.com/Products/Evaluation/netscape/page1.html for the
custom SGI version) or, for text terminals, Lynx
(ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/lynx/). A Mosaic binary for IRIX
4.0.x, including WAIS support, is in IBD's SGI collection; see below
under "WWW pages".

Some types of references in the SGI FAQs are formatted so that our
hypertext conversion software (and perhaps others') recognizes them
and turns them into links:

- References to Internet services are written as URLs.
('protocol://site/path/file'). If you're reading the SGI FAQs as
plain text, you can paste URLs into your browser. If you're not
using a WWW browser and you want to access an FTP URL
('ftp://site/path/file'), just do 'ftp site', 'cd /path' and 'get
file' as usual to get a file. References to directories end with
slashes so you know what you're getting into. Some FTP servers are
incompatible with some WWW browsers; use 'ftp' or another browser.
At this writing viz.tamu.edu does not accept FTP connections from
Netscape; use 'ftp', Mosaic or lynx.

- Manpages are written 'foo(1)' in the traditional Unix manner and
linked to the "uman" database of IRIX manpages at
http://reality.sgi.com/cgi-bin/uman.

- Internet RFCs ("Requests for Comment") are written 'RFC####' and
linked to the collection of RFCs at http://ds.internic.net/rfc/.

------------------------------

Subject: -3- With what version(s) of IRIX do the SGI FAQs deal?
Date: 13 Jul 1996 00:00:01 EST

Unless otherwise specified, the FAQs discuss IRIX 5.2 or later. A few
entries deal with IRIX 3.x and 4.x, and they should all say so.
Versions of IRIX 5 before 5.2 are rarely discussed because everyone
should have upgraded by now. IRIX 6.x is not covered as well as it
should be, but since 6.0.1 is based on 5.2 and 6.1 is based on 5.3,
discussions of problems with 5.2 and 5.3 are often relevant to 6.0.1
and 6.1 respectively.

------------------------------

Subject: -4- What about material which doesn't fit in the FAQs?
Date: 13 Feb 1995 00:00:01 EST

Entries in the FAQs should be relatively short and genuinely
"frequently asked". Some material which is of less general interest
or which is too long is archived at ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/. If
information you're looking for isn't in the FAQs, look there. The
FAQs may direct you there as well. You can submit material to that
archive just as you can an FAQ: mail it to [email protected], or
put it in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/incoming/ and let us know by mail. If
you have a lot, perhaps it should be its own FAQ. If you like we can
post your SGI-related FAQ for you.

------------------------------

Subject: -5- What are the comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups?
Date: 04 May 1996 00:00:01 EST

The active SGI newsgroups are

comp.sys.sgi.announce Announcements for the SGI community.
(Moderated)
comp.sys.sgi.admin System administration on Silicon
Graphics' Irises.
comp.sys.sgi.apps Applications which run on the Iris.
comp.sys.sgi.audio Audio on SGI systems.
comp.sys.sgi.bugs Bugs found in the IRIX operating system.
comp.sys.sgi.graphics Graphics packages and issues on SGI
machines.
comp.sys.sgi.hardware Base systems and peripherals for Iris
computers.
comp.sys.sgi.marketplace SGI-specific for sale, wanted and jobs.
comp.sys.sgi.misc General discussion about SGI's machines.

The original comp.sys.sgi newsgroup is obsolete. Please don't post to
it, so the rest of us won't miss anything.

To submit an article for posting in comp.sys.sgi.announce, post it as
you would to any newsgroup. If you absolutely can't post, send mail to
[email protected]. Related business (anything other than an actual
post) goes to [email protected]. The addresses
[email protected] and
[email protected] may also work. A
not-guaranteed-to-be-up-to-date copy of the moderation policy is at
ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/misc/announce-policy.

Each of these newsgroups is also a mailing list; see below.

Historians may find the newsgroup charters, which are archived in
ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/comp/, of interest.

------------------------------

Subject: -6- What about comp.sys.sgi.marketplace?
Date: 06 Apr 1996 00:00:01 EST

comp.sys.sgi.marketplace is an unmoderated group for "for sale",
"wanted to buy" and jobs offered/sought postings specific to Silicon
Graphics computers. Commercial and/or continuing advertising, and
postings about non-SGI-specific equipment, services and jobs, are not
welcome.

The Usenet Marketplace FAQ (at
ftp://ftp.phoenix.net/pub/USERS/lildan/FAQ/ and
http://www.phoenix.net/~lildan/FAQ/) discusses the misc.forsale.* and
biz.marketplace.* newsgroups, and has plenty of good advice which
applies equally well to comp.sys.sgi.marketplace. Here's some of the
most important:

- Like misc.forsale.*, comp.sys.sgi.marketplace is restricted to
individual (one-time) transactions.

- Use key words in your subject lines to clearly mark for sale ("FS",
"FORSALE" or "FORSALE"), wanted ("WTB" or "WANTED") and jobs
offered ("JOB") postings.

- Limit your post's distribution to areas in which it will be of
interest by putting a distribution keyword (e.g. "usa" for the
United States) in your Distribution: header.

- Cancel your post when it has accomplished its purpose to save
yourself many wasted replies.

- You're welcome to crosspost to both comp.sys.sgi.marketplace and the
appropriate misc.forsale.* or misc.jobs.* group. However, be sure
that you crosspost (specify the groups to which you're posting on
the Newsgroups: line of a single post) rather than posting
separately to each group.

- Do NOT post or crosspost marketplace posts to comp.sys.sgi.hardware!

There is not yet an info-iris-marketplace mailing list.

------------------------------

Subject: -7- Are the SGI newsgroups archived?
Date: Wed Sep 22 16:31:25 CDT 1999

Archives of the info-iris mailing list (see below) from 1986 to 1990
are at ftp://ftp.brl.mil/info-iris/.

Archives of the SGI newsgroups from 1988 (when there was only
comp.sys.sgi) to the present are at ftp://ftp.sgi.com/comp.sys.sgi/.
Archives of comp.sys.mips from 1993 to the present are nearby in
ftp://ftp.sgi.com/comp.sys.mips/.

Archives of the SGI newsgroups, from 1988 to the present,
comp.sys.mips and several other groups are at
http://hornet.mmg.uci.edu/~hjm/projects/sgi.wais.html. They may be
SEARCHED with any WWW client (no built-in WAIS support or WAIS proxy
needed) or native WAIS client.

Archives of the SGI newsgroups from 1988 to the present are at
http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=comp.sys.sgi&DBS=2&maxhits=25
They may be SEARCHED with any WWW client.

Thanks to these services, just posting something goes a long way
toward making it available to everyone, even after it expires. Always
post a summary of the answers to a question you ask!

------------------------------

Subject: -8- What are some related newsgroups?
Date: 02 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

comp.graphics.*, particularly

comp.graphics.api.inventor
Object-oriented 3D graphics in Inventor.
comp.graphics.api.opengl
The OpenGL 3D application programming interface.
comp.graphics.apps.*

comp.mail.zmail
The various Z-Mail products and their configurability.
comp.sys.mips
Systems based on MIPS chips.
comp.windows.x.*
comp.unix.*

------------------------------

Subject: -9- What are the info-iris-* mailing lists?
Date: 18 Mar 1996 00:00:01 EST

The info-iris mailing list began in 1986. It was originally hosted at
Stanford and moved to the Ballistic Research Laboratory (now the Army
Research Laboratory) in 1987. It was gated to the Usenet newsgroup
comp.sys.sgi in 1988. It split in parallel with comp.sys.sgi in 1992.

The info-iris-* mailing lists are still available for those who can't
get news (or who just prefer mail). To subscribe or unsubscribe, send
mail to [email protected] (Chuck Kennedy, aka
<[email protected]>). Chuck is a human, not an automated mail server, so
be patient. To post an article, mail it to one or more of the
following addresses:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

There is not yet an info-iris-marketplace mailing list.

------------------------------

Subject: -10- What are some related mailing lists?
Date: 24 Aug 1996 00:00:01 EST

"Contact" addresses are humans. If a list has instructions on how "To
subscribe", please use them instead of bothering the human.

IRIS On-Line
SGI's monthly news magazine
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only
the line 'subscribe iris-on-line' in the body
See also below under "SGI-related publications"

SGI large users discussion list
For discussion of SGI systems with 1000 or more users
Contact Philip Smith <[email protected]>; please state the
type of system you are using and the approximate number of users.

Indigo home users mailing list
For people who use Indigos, Indys, etc. at home
Contact [email protected] or Tim Hall
<[email protected]>

Performer mailing list
Contact [email protected]

Iris 2000 & 3000 systems list (for old SGI models, not MIPS chips)
Contact Jonathan Levine <[email protected]>.
See also below under "network-accessible documents".

Biosym/Insight mailing list
For users of Biosym Technologies software [many of whom use SGIs].
Contact [email protected] (Reinhard Doelz)

HylaFAX (formerly FlexFAX) mailing lists
For users of the free HylaFAX fax software
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] or
[email protected] containing only the line
'subscribe' in the body
Contact Sam Leffler <[email protected]>
FTP back issues from ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/fax/archives/
See also below under "What are some related WWW pages?".

ImageVision Library users' group mailing list
To subscribe, send mail to mail [email protected] containing only
the line 'subscribe' in the body
Contact SGI's TAC by phone, 1-800-800-4744

Alias software users' group mailing list
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only
the line 'subscribe alias-l' in the body.
Contact Steve Follin <[email protected]>

ElectroGIG users' mailing list
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only the
line 'subscribe gig-l [[email protected]]' in the body.
Contact Jay Vaughan <[email protected]>

ViewKit mailing list
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing
only the word 'subscribe' in the body.
Contact Aub Harden <[email protected]>

sgi-all mailing list
For UK SGI users
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only
the line 'Join sgi-all firstname(s) lastname' in the body.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists-p-t/sgi-all/

sgi-systems mailing list
For UK SGI administrators
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only
the line 'Join sgi-systems firstname(s) lastname' in the body.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists-p-t/sgi-systems/

Interactive Effects (Amazon) software users' mailing list
To subscribe, send mail to [email protected] containing only
the line 'subscribe amazon' in the body.

------------------------------

Subject: -11- What are some related WWW pages?
Date: Fri May 26 14:56:48 CDT 2000

SGI and subsidiaries:

Silicon Surf (SGI's WWW servers)
http://www.sgi.com/
http://www.sgi.com/Misc/world-sites.html lists Silicon Surf's
international mirrors and support sites
http://www.sgi.de/
http://techpubs.sgi.com/
Alias/Wavefront
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/
InterActive Digital Solutions
http://www.ids.sgi.com/
MIPS Technologies, Inc. Home Page
http://www.mips.com/
Reality (SGI's employee home page server)
http://reality.sgi.com/
Silicon Studio Inc.
http://www.studio.sgi.com/
Cray Research
http://www.cray.com/

Companies and organizations:

Center for Landscape Research (including image editing and
processing software for SGIs)
http://www.clr.toronto.edu:1080/
Center for Visual Creation (an SGI International Training Center)
http://www.msstate.edu/Dept/CAS/cvcinfo.html
Easy Software Products ("2D & 3D software" for SGIs)
http://www.easysw.com/
ELECTROGIG
http://www.gig.nl/
Engineering Animation, Inc.
http://www.eai.com/
Globalprint (a graphics arts information clearinghouse)
http://www.globalprint.nl/
GLOBEtrotter (developers of FLEXlm)
http://www.globetrotter.com/
Impediment (third-party memory and peripherals vendor)
http://www.impediment.com/
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. (ViewKit)
http://www.ics.com/
Interactive Effects Inc.
http://www.webcom.com/~ie/
IRIS Explorer Center
http://www.nag.co.uk/Welcome_IEC.html
Kaleidoscope Animations Inc.
http://www.kascope.com/
NATPIX software demos
http://www.rahul.net/natpix/
Paradigm Simulations Inc.
http://www.paradigmsim.com/
Template Graphics Software, Inc.
http://www.sd.tgs.com/~template
Vision Images
http://www.visionimages.com/
NetManage (makers of Z-Mail/MediaMail)
http://www.netmanage.com/

Miscellany:

Anonymous FTP site list
http://reality.sgi.com/employees/billh_hampton/anonftp/
See also below under "network-accessible documents"
Audio Applications for SGIs
http://reality.sgi.com/employees/cook/audio.apps/
Blip (a script for dynamic SLIP addressing)
http://www.ifokr.org/bri/blip/
Buying Old SGI Systems FAQ
http://cgi.amazing.com/internet/old-sgi-faq.html
CAP for SGIs
http://www.proximity.com.au/~tom/cap.html
Configuring and Debugging SLIP and PPP
http://reality.sgi.com/employees/scotth/dialup_support.html
Enhance image enhancement software
http://enhance.sgi.com/cgi-bin/enhance.cgi
FaceIt video face recognition system
http://venezia.rockefeller.edu/faceit/
Grafica Obscura (Paul Haeberli's graphics notebook)
http://www.sgi.com/grafica/
HylaFAX (formerly FlexFAX) Home Page
http://www.vix.com/hylafax/
i3D three-dimensional scene viewer
http://www.crs4.it/~3diadm/
IBD's SGI Collection (including IRIX 5.2, 5.3 and 6.x patch lists)
http://www.ibd.nrc.ca/~sgi/
See also below under "network-accessible documents"
Indy Technical Hardware Page (Greg Douglas)
http://www.reputable.com/indytech.html
IRIX share trees
http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/archive/share_trees/
Ivy (a Scheme binding for Open Inventor)
http://www-white.media.mit.edu/~kbrussel/Ivy/
JAVA resources for SGI users
http://reality.sgi.com/grafica/javahack.html
Scientific Visualization Software Packages
http://www.msi.umn.edu/user_support/scivis/scivis-list.html
SGI Advice and Technical Data (Ian Mapleson's detailed info)
http://www.futuretech.vuurwerk.nl/sgi.html
SGI Alternatif (une meta-page SGI en Francais)
http://www.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr/~boubaker/Francais/SGI.html
SGI Alternative (an SGI meta-page in English)
http://www.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr/~boubaker/English/SGI.html
SGI DOOM FAQ
http://www.cmpharm.ucsf.edu/~troyer/sgidoomfaq.html
SGI Meta-Page (collected SGI Internet resources)
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Randy.Carpenter/sgimeta.html
SGI Periodic Table (system performance comparison table)
http://www.sgi.com/Technology/dev-resources2.html#periodic
SGI Web Install Site (precompiled, instable software)
http://mat075207.student.utwente.nl/pub/SGI/
http://www.pk.edu.pl/pub/sgi/
SGI-Usergroup Deutschland (auf Deutsch)
http://sgiug.uni-paderborn.de/
Silicon Graphics Info at BNL
http://www.ccd.bnl.gov/sgi/
Silicon Graphics Information (collected SGI Internet resources)
http://www.star.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sgi-info.html
Silicon Graphics User Groups
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/services/sgiusers.html
See also below under "network-accessible documents".
Strange Software (Tom Benoist's free software)
http://www.webcom.com/ie/benoist/
Swirly screen saver
http://os.sri.com/~nat/swirly.html
Third-party supplier of hardware for SGIs
http://www.vigyan.com/~blbates/hardware/
This Old SGI (A. J. Corda's 4D series information)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/2258/4dfaq.html
TURN (Tiny UI Read News) newsreader
http://reality.sgi.com/turn/
uman IRIX manpage database
http://reality.sgi.com/cgi-bin/uman
US Army Research Laboratory (ARL, formerly BRL) FTP site
http://ftp.arl.mil/
Vince Liggio's SGI software collection
http://www.madness.net/sgi.html
WAIS archives of the comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups
http://hornet.mmg.uci.edu/~hjm/projects/sgi.wais.html
XFS filesystem demonstration
http://everest.ee.umn.edu/~cattelan/XFS/

Bill Henderson's FTP site list also lists some WWW pages.

------------------------------

Subject: -12- What are some related network-accessible documents?
Date: 06 Feb 1997 00:00:01 EST

Silicon Graphics-specific documents:

SGI Anonymous FTP and WWW archives
Posted monthly to comp.sys.sgi, news.answers
FTP from ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/anonftp/
Contact Bill Henderson <[email protected]>
See also above under "WWW pages".

Known SGI User Groups (SUMMARY)
Posted monthly to comp.sys.sgi.misc
FTP from ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/people/randy/sgiusers.txt
Contact Randy Carpenter <[email protected]>
See also above under "WWW pages".

Iris 2000 & 3000 systems FAQ (for old SGI models, not MIPS chips)
Contact Jonathan Levine <[email protected]>.
See also above under "mailing lists".

Explorer FAQ
Posted ??? to comp.graphics.apps.iris-explorer
FTP from ftp://swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov/explorer/FAQ
Contact [email protected]

Third-party hardware vendor lists
Contacts are given in the lists
See also above under "WWW pages".

SGI's Periodic Table of the Irises
For the latest version, see above under "WWW pages."
FTP old versions from ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/hardware/periodic-tables/

IRIX 5.2, 5.3 and 6.x patch lists
Posted ??? to comp.sys.sgi.admin
Contact Walter Roberson <[email protected]>
See also above under "WWW pages".

Other documents of particular interest to SGI users:

OpenGL FAQ
Posted semiweekly to comp.graphics.api.opengl, comp.answers,
news.answers
Contact Paul Ho <[email protected]>

comp.graphics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Posted monthly to comp.graphics, news.answers
Contact [email protected] (John T. Grieggs)

comp.windows.x Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Posted monthly to comp.windows.x,news.answers,alt.answers,
comp.answers
Contact faq%[email protected] (X FAQ maintenance address)

comp.windows.x: Getting more performance out of X FAQ
Posted monthly to comp.windows.x, news.answers
Contact [email protected] (Art Mulder)

Motif FAQ
Posted monthly to comp.windows.x.motif,news.answers
Contact [email protected] (Jan Newmarch)

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions
Posted monthly to comp.unix.questions, comp.unix.shell,
news.answers
Contact [email protected] (Ted M A Timar)

SCSI FAQ
Posted ??? to comp.periphs.scsi
Contact Gary Field <[email protected]>

Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) FAQ
Posted monthly to comp.sys.sgi.hardware, among others
FTP from ftp://navigator.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/doc/faq/
Contact Nick Christenson <[email protected]>

Dave's List of Free Audio Goodies
FTP from ftp://ftp.york.ac.uk/pub/users/elec10/voice/audio_goodies.txt
Contact Dave Rossiter <[email protected]>

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists can be FTPed from
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/, and HTML versions of some are under
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/.

------------------------------

Subject: -13- What number do I call for information about SGI
products?
Date: 22 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

For product information, call SGI Direct at

US & Canada: 1-800-800-SGI1 (1-800-800-7441)
France: 05 244 244
Germany: 0130 811 011
U.K.: 0800 440 440

or your local SGI sales office.

------------------------------

Subject: -14- What number do I call for technical support from SGI?
Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 EST

To reach SGI's Technical Assistance Center (TAC) in North America,
call 1-800-800-4SGI (1-800-800-4744). Customers with a Varsity support
contract should call 1-800-915-8277. Elsewhere, call your local sales
office (see the previous question).

------------------------------

Subject: -15- What about SGI-related publications?
Date: Mon May 22 17:03:46 CDT 2000

SGI publishes several periodicals:

- i on Visual Computing (http://www.ion.sgi.com/), an online magazine
about visualization technology and personalities
- IRIS On-line, a subscription-only electronic newsletter which
primarily reprints press releases and 'net announcements
- IRIS Universe, a glossy, general-interest magazine
- Pipeline, a very useful technical newsletter
(http://support.sgi.com/search/?cmd=topic&node=pipeline&coll=0650)

See http://techpubs.sgi.com/ for subscription information, back issues,
etc. Registered developers get another set of publications; see
http://www.sgi.com/developers/ or ask [email protected] for info.

There is one independent SGI-related publication, Silicon Graphics
World. Contact

PCI Publishing
12416 Hymeadow Drive
Austin, TX 78750-1896 USA
512-250-9023 (voice)
512-331-3900 (fax)
[email protected]

Subscription rates are $45/year in the US and $75 elsewhere. SG
World is a monthly tabloid. It has articles, product reviews and lots
of SGI-specific advertising. It isn't a technical publication.

------------------------------

Subject: -16- What is the current release of ...
Date: 07 May 1993 00:00:01 EST

This changes quite often. The best way to get up-to-date information
about SGI products is to call SGI Direct; see above.

------------------------------

Subject: -17- What is the current release of IRIX for my machine?
Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 EST

Ping Huang <[email protected]> writes:

If you don't know what release of IRIX you are currently running,
the SGI admin FAQ explains how to find out.

IRIX 5.3 is the current release on systems with the R2000 and R3000
CPU's and the Crimson with GTX graphics; it is the last release
which will support these systems. IRIX 5.3 was first released in
early 1995.

IRIX 6.2 is the current release on Crimson with non-GTX graphics,
Indigo R4000, Indy, {Indigo2,Onyx,CHALLENGE}, POWER
{Indigo2,Onyx,CHALLENGE}, and {Indigo2,Onyx,CHALLENGE} R10000
systems; note that this list includes most of the installed base.
IRIX 6.2 was first released in March 1996.

IRIX 6.3 is the current release on O2 systems. IRIX 6.3 was first
released in September 1996.

IRIX 6.4 is the current release on the Origin 200 and 2000 and the
Onyx2 systems. IRIX 6.4 was first released in late 1996.

(The reason the phrase "was first released" is used is that SGI
often re-releases a version of IRIX without renumbering, to make
changes to add support for new hardware models. For example, the
latest re-release of IRIX 6.2 as of December 1996 is "IRIX 6.2 with
Indigo2 IMPACT 10000", released June 1996.)

------------------------------

Subject: -18- When will the next release(s) of IRIX be out?
Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 EST

Ping Huang <[email protected]> writes:

Another all-platforms release is being planned. (An all-platforms
release, on the date it is released, can be installed on all
available SGI systems which are not considered obsoleted. Previous
all-platforms releases include IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.2.) At the
current time (late 1996), we cannot provide a firm date for when
such a release would be available; *perhaps* sometime in 1997.

------------------------------

Subject: -19- How can I get lists of known bugs, lists of patches,
and/or the patches themselves?
Date: 4 Nov 1998 00:00:01 EST

Bugs: Known bugs are documented in Product Release Notes. The Support
Advantage package (sent regularly to all customers on support)
includes a Software Change Requests binder. SupportFolio Online
(previously Advantage Online) (http://support.sgi.com/)
also lists SCRs.

Patches: a) Customers on support can get patches from the TAC. The TAC
will tell you about a patch only if you report a bug which the patch
fixes, but will give you a patch if you ask for it by number. b)
Support Advantage periodically includes a patch CD. c) SupportFolio
Online (http://support.sgi.com/) has lists of
patches and the patches themselves. SupportFolio Online is not as
complete or current as the TAC, but is updated regularly. d) Some
patches (primarily for severe security problems) are in
ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/Patches/. This is the only way in which you can
legally get patches without being on support. Patches sometimes appear
on sgigate before Advantage Online. e) Walter Roberson
<[email protected]> maintains his own lists of patches for
several versions of IRIX, which he posts regularly to
comp.sys.sgi.admin (see above under "network-accessible documents")
and makes available via WWW (see above under "WWW pages").

See also the article on patches in the Jul/Aug 1995 Pipeline, but
note that it doesn't mention Advantage Online.

Finally, the SGI FAQs mention many patches. Be aware that patches are
superceded regularly. If you ask the TAC for a superceded patch,
you'll be told about the patch which superceded it. SupportFolio Online
has lists of superceded patches and the patches which superceded them.

------------------------------

Subject: -20- What's the best newsgroup in which to complain to SGI?
Date: Wed Sep 22 13:36:05 CDT 1999

It depends on what you're complaining about. Most of the SGI
employees who read the SGI newsgroups are engineers and similar
useful people, not evil marketing policy-setters. If you feel, for
example, that NFS or Documenter's Workbench should be a standard part
of IRIX, don't post; call your sales rep and yell at them.

However, software bugs are better newsgroup material: an SGI person
may well see your message and fix the bug then and there.
Nonetheless, don't depend on it. Call the TAC and tell them too.

There's also a website that provides an interface for people to
publicly address complaints about various companies. It currently
doesn't have any complaints about SGI...
http://www.complainusa.com/servlets/CompanyListing?companyId=61

------------------------------

Subject: -21- Wouldn't Nextstep be great on SGIs?
Date: 20 Dec 1996 00:00:01 EST

Possibly. If Next ported Nextstep to IRIX (and several SGI employees
have made it clear that it is up to Next, not SGI, to do so) the
question might be worth discussing. That nonwithstanding, Next
zealots have flogged Nextstep around the SGI newsgroups many times.
They haven't convinced the command-line diehards that the Next way is
better or vice versa. Please don't try it yourself.

However, if you are primarily interested in the "look and feel" of
the Nextstep user interface, you may be interested in the AfterStep
window manager, available from
http://mango.sfasu.edu/~frank/afterstep/.

------------------------------

Subject: -22- Can I run Windows NT on my Indigo or Indy?
Date: 18 Jan 1994 00:00:01 EST

No. SGI can, but only on Indigos with special hardware and software
modifications and only for demos and porting. There are no known
plans to provide NT on SGI workstations. Also, note that most
comp.sys.sgi.* readers will answer this question "Why would you want
to?".

MTI, aka MIPS, an SGI subsidiary, does make NT-compatible machines.
Try comp.sys.mips.

------------------------------

Subject: -23- Credits
Date: Mon Mar 19 16:08:47 CST 2001

The comp.sys.sgi FAQs are the joint effort of the SGI FAQ group

Kevin Glueck [email protected]
James Hayasaka [email protected]

and its alumni

Gavin Bell [email protected] SGI inventor FAQ
Kevin Brokaw [email protected] SGI impressario FAQ
Dale Chayes [email protected]
Bryan James [email protected] SGI audio FAQ
Larry McDonough [email protected] SGI inventor FAQ
Michael Portuesi [email protected] SGI movie FAQ
Steve Rikli [email protected]
Allan Schaffer [email protected]
Dave Schweisguth [email protected]
Dave Story [email protected] SGI impressario FAQ
Paul Walmsley [email protected]

Special thanks are due to

Tom Davis Author of the 'zip' editor (now 'jot')
Craig Hammack Viz Lab webmaster emeritus
Mark Kirk Viz Lab sysadmin emeritus
Harry Mangalam Maintainer of the comp.sys.sgi.* WAIS database
Dave Olson comp.sys.sgi.*'s one-man TAC
Steve Rikli Viz Lab sysadmin emeritus
Dave Sills Moderator of comp.sys.sgi.announce
Dave Walvoord Viz Lab sysadmin emeritus
Matt Wicks Moderator of comp.sys.sgi.announce emeritus

Finally, much thanks to all of the SGI employees on Usenet, who have
provided gigabytes of helpful information.

Credits for individual contributions are given in the answers.

------------------------------

End of sgi/faq/misc Digest
******************************
--
The SGI FAQ group <[email protected]> http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/
Finger us for info on the SGI FAQs, or look in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/.