SGI: Hardware

The discussions regarding graphics and Prism usually comes to the conclusion that SLES9 is the latest Linux if you
want graphics, but I found some interesting stuff. I haven't found any discussions about this here, but maybe it
has been tested already.

According to this, https://www.suse.com/yes/90275.htm ,it seems like the Altix 450 (and Altix 4700) does have
support for graphics using an ATI FireMV2200 PCI and SLES10SP1. So that SLES version must have IA64 drivers
for it. Other docs includes ATI FireGL V7350 PCI-E, if you have PCI-E. Prism or Altix 3XXX doesn't have PCI-E.

So, why not replace the FireGL X2 with FireMV 2200 in a Prism and get a newer Linux?
So, why not put graphics in an Altix 3XXX if you have a brick with PCI slots?
FireMV 2200 is not a 3D card. It is a dual monitor card, but has only 64MB of memory.

I think I'm going to try this, unless someone here have good reason not to do it . I don't want to damage anything.

If I had a FireMV 2200 sitting here, I might pop it in the Altix 350 just to see what it does with it. But aside from the not-inconsiderable "Cool it works!" factor, I'm not sure what the benefits would be over remote display - assuming non-3D display over PCI. Maybe different for a 3D card on PCIe, in a 4xx/4xxx...

I've ordered one of these very cards. I don't have an Altix to test with though.

I'll give this a shot in both a Prism and one of my Altix 350s - there are a bunch for $9.99 shipped on eBay right now.

The problem arent the graphics - The whole machine does not work properly. Kernel errors (unaligned access), boot failures because of some strange error in a compression lib, black screens even on console mode... The list goes on and on.

The ia64 kernel project is orphaned - The project site consists of dead links. No one maintains this.

I have to try if the prism even boots without graphics card installed. Because to get the current usage down i tried to run it with some cheap agp card that is efficient, but it does not boot.

If I can get a video card to boot in an Altix 350, I may just start working with the NetBSD guys to see if I can get a port going in time for 7.

I'll defer to Adrenaline on the experimental part - the A350 is stowed, and I need to focus on the new job. But SLES 11 SP1 has been rock solid on the A350 and A450 examples I've got here.

I also ordered two of the cards, maybe i get it working then.

I'll be very much interested in knowing if it works... and may then give mine an upgrade

Have fun... and good luck for your trials !

Because im trying hard to get the prism running in any way, i tried to replace the agp graphics cards with some old pci one i got laying around.

However, if i do so, it drops me to that POD shell or whatever it is, refusing to boot.

I wonder if that also happens if i try with that ati cards? I dont have them yet.

Hi,

has anybody tested the ATI FireMV 2200 PCI on either Altix350 or Prism ?

Btw, there is actually a great offer to upgrade the Itanium2-cpu available on either Ebay or directly on their web-shop (2,49€ + shipping).
I do recommend the webshop (english/german) as it calculates the shipping cost correctly, Ebay does not.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Intel-ITANIUM-2- ... 231486ebaa

https://www.servershop24.de/komponenten ... /a-103229/

If I remember correctly, the 1.6ghz 9mb L3-Madison was the fastest cpu for the Altix350 as the following release Montecito, which brought virtualization support to the IA-64, was not supported anymore.

xiri wrote: Hi,

has anybody tested the ATI FireMV 2200 PCI on either Altix350 or Prism ?

Btw, there is actually a great offer to upgrade the Itanium2-cpu available on either Ebay or directly on their web-shop (2,49€ + shipping).
I do recommend the webshop (english/german) as it calculates the shipping cost correctly, Ebay does not.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Intel-ITANIUM-2- ... 231486ebaa

https://www.servershop24.de/komponenten ... /a-103229/

If I remember correctly, the 1.6ghz 9mb L3-Madison was the fastest cpu for the Altix350 as the following release Montecito, which brought virtualization support to the IA-64, was not supported anymore.

My 2200 came in the mail yesterday, but I've been slammed at work. Should have time the following weekend to try it.

I swapped out my Prism's cpus for the 1.6ghz 9mb Itaniums. Not a whole lot of performance boost over the 1.6ghz 3mb versions.

Ok, got my cards since some days now, but somehow this thing wont run anything.

No matter which linux i try, either i have a non bootable installation (gzip.c(line 602, 604 or 605):gzip_ia64 : elilo: Read failed, or it doesnt boot correctly (RH 5.5 (freeze at "freeing kernel memory", current gentoo (boots crappy slow, commands hang for 30 secs before getting executed).
This happened in RHEL 5.0, Debian 6.0.3 and at some point with sles11(sp1 and/or sp3)

One of the sles versions (i think it was 11sp1) did boot with the FireMV2200, but as it switched screen for the installation to begin, the screen is fucked up (90% question marks)
sles11sp3 wont install either, theres a message at the start of install that says "An installation error occured, installation can not contiune".
I couldnt figure out yet whats the problem

As you can see here, the A450 was even delivered with the ATI FireMV 2200, but there might be stepping-stones in either A350 EFI and/or firmware of the ATI-card.

https://www.suse.com/yes/90275.htm

LOL i found my problem (no LOL, just stupid).

I tried all my installations on this machine on disks i pulled from my netapp...
They are 520 Bytes formatted, and i think this was the problem with the gzip.c errors.

Today i put in a normal disk, that is default to 512Bytes/Sektor, and it runs the new installation of SLES9 now.