IRIS Indigo adventures
=====================
I was initially unplanned but I have started to use this old
workstation relatively frequently. Of course, it is somewhat limited:
48 MB of RAM and the CPU at 33 MHz are not bad at all (my PSION MC600
laptop has 640 kB and its CPU is slightly under 8 MHz, for example)
but modern software needs GHzs and GBs...
Also, you know that there is a POSIX standard so all unixes are
compatible. At least in theory. In the reality it is non-trivial to
port many Linux-originated programs here. The latest IRIX 6.5 is much
more compatible but my old Indigo can run IRIX 5.3 at max. So
possibilities to get software here are limited.
Anyway, it is even possible to run the Blender (1.x).
There are two good sources of open-source software:
1) TGCWARE for IRIX
2) ports by user Foetz at nekochan.net
(
ftp://nekochan.net/pub/downloads/contrib/foetz/5.3)
The third one is SGI Freeware 1.0: but it is no longer available from
the SGI. One must go to the
ftp://nekochan.net in order to find it.
The first source offers more but the foetz keeps things more
up-to-date. Having little free space on my drive I decided to use its
software ports.
At the moment, I use:
* Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 (ftp.adobe.com) - it's not ideal (many
newer PDF cannot be opened or they have problems with fonts) but it
is fast for older/simpler files (LaTeX-generated files are OK, if
they not use something super-complicated)
* Vim/gVim 8.0 (foetz did it!) - it's a bit slow (it needs some time
to start and so), but any modern text editor isn't fast here (NEdit
5.x is not better); also with some hacks (originally found on RedHat
6.0 Czech CD) one can write Czech characters in the gVim (it is the
only place in the IRIX, where it is actually possible).
* sc spreadsheet (people tend to hate it but for simple tables it is
ideal)
* Gnuplot (3.5)
* GNU Octave 2.0: it's from MegaRats WWW (www.megarat.com) and it's
quite incompatible with the Matlab (it's easy to find statementas
which are correct in the Matlab but not here)
* cc (ANSI89) and some own programs compiled by it
* XV image viewer - its ugly as a hell but also as fast as hell
I also noticed one problem: the shutdown fails. The only way to turn the
machine off is login as a root (the "su" command is enough) and use
"/etc/halt". I triend to find solution but the recommended approach is "install
IRIX 6.5.2" which is not possible for my R3k Indigo, of course.
The problem is probably realted to the died PROM battery (the replacement is
already ordered...). But the battery died las week which is about after 23
year. Not a bad life for as tiny battery (a life of such batteries is expected
to be about 10 years)..
This text was written on a Sharp Zaurus when the Indigo was turned off ;-)
