SGI Gifts April 2009, Part 1 of 2
For IRIX 6.5 or Later
Compiled by Ian Mapleson (mapesdhs@yahoo.com)
Last Change: 18/Apr/2009
Key:
In this document, the expression '
' (an abbreviation
for 'directory path') refers to your CDROM mount point. Usually,
will simply be 'CDROM', ie. '//dist' would
mean '/CDROM/dist', but sometimes one might have more than one
CDROM present (/CDROM2, /CDROM3, etc.) or one may have copied
the CD data to disk (eg. /var/tmp/cdrom/dist).
For complete information on this CD and detailed installation
instructions, read Section 1 (Introduction) and Section 2 (The
INSTALL Script).
To just get started with the installation straight away, simply
follow the instructions below in Section 0 (Quick Install).
0. Quick Install
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Part A
------
Install all other normal IRIX software first, ie. the IRIX base OS
CDs (all extra N32 libs, etc.), development libraries, development
foundation, MIPS Pro All-Compiler CD (for the compiler front ends,
which will work even without a license), Cosmo, NFS, Inventor, freeware,
etc., followed by a suitable 6.5.x update (I recommend 6.5.22m, 6.5.26m
or 6.5.30m if you're using any video option boards). You can use the
product selections files from this CD to greatly ease the process of
installing extra software after an initial default IRIX installation,
though note that the selections files are designed for the maintenance
stream only (most will work ok with the Feature stream, but I can't
guarantee it).
To begin: login as root. Activate swmgr (Software Manager): either
enter swmgr in a shell or select Software Manager from the system
Toolchest. Type the following as a distribution path in swmgr and
press Enter:
//dist
ie. if you're installing from /CDROM, then use '/CDROM/dist'. Note that
when typing /CDROM/dist, swmgr will often let you get as far as typing
/CDROM and then will suddenly fill in the rest automatically.
Dismiss the README which appears. Click on 'Customize Installation'.
When the list of items appears, select the ones you want and click
on Start.
The above actions will install all items that can be installed
using the SGI swmgr program, except for the Java2 and Java3D
products and other items such as video drivers, FastEthernet
drivers, etc. - see the specific sections below for details on
these products if you want to install them (eg. there are important
caveats about using Java2 and Java3D).
Part B
------
The rest of the items on the Gifts CD cannot be installed using
swmgr (I shall refer to these as non-swmgr items). This Gifts CD
includes an INSTALL script which you can use to install many of the
non-swmgr items automatically.
Login as root.
If the Gifts data is being installed via CD from /CDROM, then
just run the INSTALL script as it is (enter this at the prompt):
/CDROM/INSTALL
If the gifts data is not in /CDROM, eg. if it is in /CDROM2, or
if the data has been copied from CD to disk somewhere, then do
the following:
- copy the INSTALL script to somewhere temporary, eg. /tmp
or /var/tmp
- edit the script so that the GIFTSROOT variable points to the
location of the Gifts data (this is the same directory where
you copied the INSTALL script from)
- save and run the edited script
The INSTALL script automatically checks to make sure that
GIFTSROOT has been set correctly (it looks for a .Gifts
file), so don't worry about making a mistake. If GIFTSROOT is not
yet correct, the script will stop, giving a helpful explanatory
error message.
The script will ask about your CPU type, ie. whether your CPU is an
older MIPS3 type (R4000, R4400 or R4600) or MIPS4 (R5000, R7000, R8000,
R10000, R12000, etc.) This question is necessary in order to install the
appropriate version of BMRT. Note that the script does not check for
errors in the answers to these questions, so please answer correctly;
if you make a mistake, just stop the script with CTRL+C and run it again.
The script asks which items you would like to install. Here is a
summary of the items that can be installed by the script at present:
Item Space Used (MB)
^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Base documents, web pages, installed software 10.0
reference information, extra executables in
/usr/local/bin, PPP setup help files, etc.
Extra online reference books in PDF format, 20.5
consisting of owners guides and upgrade guides
for Indy, Indigo2 and ChallengeS.
Blender Animation/Rendering Program 13.6
BMRT - Blue Moon Rendering Tools 14.2
Ayam3D Animation/Rendering Program 10.0
Doom, Doom II and Ultimate Doom for SGI systems 54.3
SGI Space Demo 15.6
irixdivx 4.5
-----
Total: 142.7
At the very least, you should install the base files. If you do
not install an item, you can always run the script at a later
time to install further items. Note that minor items such as
irixdivx are always installed.
If you have followed these instructions for a quick installation,
I recommend that you do read the rest of this document at a later
date for more detailed information just so that you know what the
INSTALL script has done, and how to uninstall items if you need
to by using the UNINSTALL script.
NOTE: Certain information links on the custom home page will not
work until further extras have been installed, eg. RealPlayer8.
These are items which must be instaled manually, eg. for RealPlayer
you should execute the installation script in the RP8 subdirectory
called 'rp8_irix_mips_65_cs1.bin' (easy way, if your shell is tcsh:
change directory into the RP8 subdir, type './' followed by TAB
and then Enter).
------ End of Quick Installation Instructions ------
1. Introduction
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This CD contains miscellaneous products that are not part of the
SGI Freeware distribution. I have collected them together for
convenience, saving a great deal of time and effort that would
otherwise be spent accessing web/ftp sites, downloading large
files, following installation instructions, resolving conflicts,
deciding where to store reference documents, example code, etc.
The second SGI Gifts CD contains Quake and Quake2 for SGI IRIX.
They untar ready-to-use into /usr/local/games. Other items on
the CD are Adobe Acrobat V4.0, FlightGear and Eclipse V3.1.3.
Some of the items on this 1st CD are installed in the normal manner
using Software Manager. See Section 0, Part A above on how to
quickly install these items; for full details though, see the
section below entitled, "4. Detailed Index".
All other items (non-swmgr items as I call them) would normally
be installed manually using tar, shell commands, etc. However,
this CD includes an installation script (called INSTALL) to
allow you to install most of these items automatically. If you use
the script, please read the instructions carefully, though the script
offers plenty of chances to quit if a mistake is made.
If you wish to install an individual non-swmgr item from this CD
without using the INSTALL script, please see Appendix A for useful
tips on using the tar command.
2. The INSTALL Script
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The script, called 'INSTALL'. should be run as root. It can be
executed from any directory location, ie. the current working
directory does not have to be /CDROM (or whatever) for the script
to work, though if the Gifts CD data has been copied somewhere
else, or if the location of the Gifts CDROM is not /CDROM (eg.
more than one CDROM present, giving rise to /CDROM2, etc.) then
the GIFTSROOT variable in the script must be changed to match
the new location (copy it somewhere else, edit, run again). The
script begins by checking if GIFTSROOT has been set correctly;
if it isn't correct, a description of how to edit the INSTALL
file is given and then the script stops.
The script is designed to work on a system that has an _unmodified_
/usr/local and /var/www/htdocs subtrees, and a /.cshrc file that
hasn't yet been altered. If you have already created custom web
pages, modified the /.cshrc file, installed items under /usr/local,
etc. then you may wish to examine the script first to see what it
does, though note that any existing index.html file is renamed to
index.html.orig and /.cshrc is copied to /.cshrc.orig, so don't
worry about losing these originals.
The script asks which items you would like to install. I recommend
that you at least install the 'base' files so that the online web
pages I've written are accessible.
See Section 0, Part B for a summary of the items that can be
installed by the script.
The script asks about CPU type, ie. whether your CPU is an older
MIPS3 type (R4000, R4400 or R4600) or a newer MIPS4 (R5K, R7K, R8K,
R10K, etc.) This question is necessary in order to install the
appropriate version of BMRT.
NOTE:
Virtually all the extra items to be installed are stored under
/usr/local, the exception being some web pages installed in
/var/www/htdocs, and a new version of .cshrc for the root user,
plus some other definition files (/.jotrc, /.jotmacs, etc.) and
an example desktop archive for root (/desktop.tar).
IMPORTANT: some of the extra items rely on certain Freeware
components such as tcl, tk, etc. in order to install correctly.
Thus, I _strongly recommend_ that the August 2003 (or later) version
of SGI Freeware is installed before running the script. If you're not
sure which items to install to be certain of the script running
correctly, then simply download all the freeware (or use my custom
CD freeware split if you've obtained it from me) and use my
product selections file within swmgr to install the appropriate
components; use the Load Selections option from the File menu in
swmgr to select the file part1of4selections.txt in the Selections/6.5
directory (a 64bit version of the file is included for users of
systems running 64bit kernels) - the same selections files are
included on the 1st freeware CD of my custom split.
3. The UNINSTALL Script
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
An UNINSTALL script is copied into /usr/local so that you can
remove one, some or all Gift items at a later date if required.
The script is copied and renamed with an added date stamp suffix
matching this version of my Gifts CD, thus in theory allowing multiple
versions of this CD to be used at the same time, though please note
I have not yet tested this.
After using the UNINSTALL script, if there are no Gift items left,
then the script also removes itself and the remaining related files.
However, the general top-level directories in /usr/local created by
the INSTALL script are not removed; this is just in case you have
installed further items separately. Also, the UNINSTALL script does
not use wildcards, insuring that any extra files that have been
manually installed into the general subdirectories are not removed.
Note that the best way to update to a newer version of my Gifts CD is by
running the UNINSTALL script in /usr/local or from the earlier Gifts CD,
and then running the INSTALL script from the newer Gifts CD release. I
do not recommend installing different items from multiple versions of my
Gifts CD - I have not had the opportunity to test out how such mixing
would work, and although I may modify the INSTALL script in a future
release to support such mixing, this current release does not include
anything to handle such a situation. It will probably work to a large
extent, but I can't guarantee it.
I welcome any feedback on this compilation, especially the use
of the scripts.
Cheers! :)
Ian.
SGI Depot: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgidepot/
Email: mapesdhs@yahoo.com Tel: +44 (0)131 476 0796
Mobile: 07743 495403 (usually off; leave a message and I'll call back)
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*******************************************************************
Please see the file 'changelog.txt' for a list of changes since
the previous version of this CD.
4. Detailed Index
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
dist/
This is a products index for SoftwareManager (swmgr) which
contains links to almost all of the installable products on
this CD, ie. items in 'inst' format. Thus, the Java2_Java3D,
bin, blender, bmrt, Ayam3D, misc, mplayer, video, ppp and other
directories (described below and listed above in reference to
the INSTALL script) are not referenced by this index since
these other items are either .tar.gz files or important
caveats mean that including them in the main index is unwise.
If you wish to install several of the items from this CD at
the same time (eg. Cosmo3D, Java Dev Kit and GLUT), then the
'dist' directory is the one to use in swmgr, ie. use a source
directory of:
//dist
Simply double-clicking on the CDROM icon should be sufficient
for swmgr to read from the dist directory automatically. Note
that the default selections made by swmgr will usually result
in conflicts; it is best to use the 'Selected -> Unmark All'
option to delesect all items before deciding what to install.
To install individual products, just use an appropriate source
directory as specified below, or deselect unwanted products
from the overall list. Note that the Java2/Java3D items are
not included in the dist software list because they're
incompatible with CosmoCode - see the relevant notes below for
details. If you install the Java2 items, you won't be able to
use CosmoCode.
If you want to install items not covered by the dist directory,
either examine the contents of the directory of interest, or
use the INSTALL script which will install most of the other items.
See Section 0, Part B, for quick installation instructions.
Ayam3D/
Ayam is a free 3D modeling environment for the RenderMan interface,
with features including: RIB import/export, NURBS, Boxes, Quadrics,
CSG, MetaBalls, Patch Meshes, Polygonal Meshes, Subdivision Surfaces,
dynamically-loaded GUI-based parameter modifiers, tcl scripting,
instancing, arbitrary number of modeling views, object clipboard,
independent property clipboard, console, n-level undo.
Use the INSTALL script to install Ayam3D.
BaseChange/
When I first install IRIX onto a system, it is very convenient to
be able to make a number changes immediately, such as turning off
certain chkconfig flags, setting up a nice desktop, creating a
better .cshrc file for root, etc. The BaseChange directory includes
a script called RUN which performs these actions. I use an almost
identical script for installing my own systems and it's incredibly
useful, the only difference being the IP addresses given in the
example hosts file.
How to use: after a fresh 6.5 installation has been completed, login
as root, insert this Gifts CD and then, once the icon shows the CD is
ready, enter:
cd /CDROM
./RUN
After a pause, you will be logged out. Wait for at least ten seconds
and then log back in again as root. A good desktop will be shown
and Netscape will run up. If required, the 'setname' script can then
be used to change the system host name - I use this for system testing,
eg. to change the host name to 'o2':
cd /CDROM
./setname o2
Using the setname script isn't essential though. All it does is change
/etc/sys_id and then reboots. These scripts are merely very handy time
savers.
ChangeSysId/
This package allows one to temporarily change the system ID on an Indy,
Indigo2, O2 or Octane. This can be very useful for transfering software
licenses, testing, evaluation, etc. Full instructions are in the
README file in the ChangeSysId directory. This package is not installed
by the main INSTALL script.
Cosmo3D/
Contains the products required to use (and develop)
applications involving Cosmo3D software, eg. VRML-based
authoring, OpenGL Optimizer, etc. If you want to work with
VRML, then install and use these products after installing the
Cosmo Suite software (that CD contains CosmoWorlds,
CosmoPlayer, etc.) Here is a list of the products in this
directory and the space used by each product in KBytes:
Cosmo3D Debug Support 1.3 20292
Cosmo3D Development Environment 1.3 7104
Cosmo3D Execution Environment 1.3 9672
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//Cosmo3D.
SGI has complete details about Cosmo3D on its web site.
NB #!: the following are free permanent licenses for CosmoCode
and CosmoWorlds. Add them to /var/flexlm/license.dat (copy
and paste with the mouse).
FEATURE cosmoworlds sgifd 1.000 01-jan-0 0 \
3C16D11DF6120D788495 HOSTID=ANY \
vendor_info="COSMO WORLDS" \
ISSUER="Silicon Graphics, Inc."
FEATURE CosmoCode sgifd 2.000 01-jan-0 0 \
2C96712D8A7EE214AAF3 HOSTID=ANY \
vendor_info="COSMO CODE" \
ISSUER="Silicon Graphics, Inc."
NB #2: after freshly installing a system, CosmoCode can give
an error when run - this is probably because the latest Java
JDK has not been installed. Make sure you install the latest
SGI Java Development Kit from this CD too - see below for
details. However, do not install any Java2 products if you
want to use CosmoCode - Java2 is incompatible with CosmoCode.
DualBoot/
This directory contains example script files one can use to setup
a dual-boot SGI with IRIX 6.5 on one disk (0,1) and IRIX 5.3
on another (0,2). Edit the files to change their behaviour with
respect to selected SCSI controllers, IDs, etc.
Elite/
This is a newer version of Elite for UNIX systems by Christopher
Pinder, called "Elite: The New Kind". It runs very well indeed!
Careful, you could become addicted. :D Unfortunately, David Braben
stopped Christopher from distributing this game after it was first
made available for download, but thankfully a few sites still have
it for download. Here is a list of the products in this directory
and the space used by each product in KBytes:
Elite-TNK 2408
allegro 4.1.9 4660
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//Elite.
Games/
This directory includes various games for IRIX, none of which I've
had a chance to experiment with yet, so feel free to try them out
yourself!
FastEthernet/
This directory contains driver files for the various 10/100 FastEthernet
option cards available for earlier SGI systems, including the Phobos
E100, G100, G130, G160 and the standard 3Com EISA 3c597. Drivers are
included for IRIX 5.3, 6.2 and 6.5. For those who wish to use a standard
3Com 3c597, follow the instructions given in the README in the fehack
directory.
Jahshaka/
Jahshaka is a OpenGL accelerated video effects system. Extract the
archive into /usr/local and then follow the instructions in the
INSTALL file contained in the archive.
JavaDevKit3.2/
SGI Java Development Kit 3.2
This directory contains the products which constitute the Java
Development Kit for SGIs, ie. the Java Execution Environment
3.2 (SUN JRE 1.1.8) and the Java Development Environment 3.2
(SUN JDK 1.1.8). The Java RunTime plugin for IRIX is also included.
Here is a list of the products in this directory and the space
used by each product in KBytes:
Java Development Environment 3.2 (Sun JDK 1.1.8) 41296
Java Execution Environment 3.2 (Sun JRE 1.1.8) 16492
Runtime Plug-in for Irix, Java(tm) Edition 1.1.1b 6180
To install items from this product, use a source directory
of //JavaDevKit3.2
The directory also contains a compressed tar archive of the
Java Foundation Classes (Swing components, etc.) If you want
to install this, copy the file to disk, gunzip it, and
uncompress into /usr/java, eg.:
cp //JavaDevKit3.2/swing-1.1.1fcs.tar.gz /tmp
cd /tmp
gunzip swing-1.1.1fcs.tar.gz
cd /usr/java
tar -xvf /tmp/swing-1.1.1fcs.tar
You will then need to set some environment variables to point to
the class files. See the online Java docs for details.
Java2_Java3D/
Java2 V1.4.0 based on Sun Java2 SDK V1.4 (including the
appropriate runtime plugin for IRIX V1.2.2b) and Java3D based on
Sun V1.1.3.
This directory contains the products which constitute the Java2
and Java3D development environments for SGIs. If installed, then
your system will have a Java2 environment, not ordinary Java.
WARNING: CosmoCode will not work if these products are
installed, though this side effect is not shown by swmgr, ie.
Java2 is incompatible with any version of CosmoCode. Do not
install Java2 if you want to continue using CosmoCode. For
this reason, this directory has no convenience links from the
dist directory.
If you want more information on the CosmoCode issue, you'll
need to read the release notes, or see SGI's web site.
Unfortunately, the release notes are in the form of online web
pages which can't be read until they're installed. Thus, to
access the release notes without installing the Java2
execution environment (or other Java2/Java3D products), open
up the "Java2 Execution Environment" from within swmgr and
make sure the only item selected for installation is, "Java
Documentation (HTML)"; also deselect all Java2 development
items, Java3D items and the runtime V1.2.2 IRIX plugin. After
installation the web page release notes, you can view the
release notes for Java2 by entering this command:
netscape /usr/java/webdocs/release.html
If you decide not to install the Java2 products, then remove the
"Java2 Documentation (HTML)" subsystem, ie. don't leave it installed,
otherwise you'll have the wrong online release notes for ordinary Java!
Here is a list of the products in this directory and the space used by
each product in KBytes:
Java2 v1.4.0 Development Environment (Sun Java2 SDK v1.4.0) 181144
Java2 v1.4.0 Execution Environment (Sun Java2 Runtime v1.4.0) 64088
Java3D (Sun 1.1.3) 7452
Runtime Plug-in for Irix, Java(tm) Edition 1.2.2b 1560
To install items from this product, use a source directory of:
//Java2_Java3D
LW/
This is version 5.5 of the Lightwave modeling and rendering package.
It comes from the HotMix19 CD; someone wrote a crack so that the
package would run unhindered. Install the software from the normal
dist subdirectory on the Gifts CD. Once done, enter the following with
the Gifts CD installed to run the crack on a MIPS4 system (any R5000,
R10000 or later system):
cd //LW
./RUN
If you're using a MIPS3 system (any R4xxx systems) then enter this instead:
cd //LW/mips3
./RUN
Now uncomment the two relevant lines in your .cshrc file, assuming your
.cshrc file has been setup using the INSTALL script - if not, then these
are the two lines to add to your .cshrc:
# Lightwave 3D Settings
setenv LIGHTWAVE /usr/lightwave/Bin
set path=($path $LIGHTWAVE)
Logout and log back in again for the changes to take effect.
Although this is a rather old version of Lightwave, it can still be
useful. The Gifts CD INSTALL script installs some online documentation
for this package.
LegoToolkit/
This is a 3D implementation of the popular lego building block system,
written by Mark Hellegers. Installation instructions are in:
cd //LegoToolkit/README
MolecularInventor/
The release notes say (edited extract):
"Molecular Inventor 1.1 Execution Environment is an extension of
the Open Inventor Execution Environment which runs on IRIX 5.3 and
IRIX 6.2 [or later]. It provides capabilities for viewing molecular
structures within applications developed using the Molecular
Inventor Development Kit and also within any Open Inventor-based
application. This release of Molecular Inventor supports the Open
Inventor 2.1.2 environment running on IRIX6.2. Most users do not
have to concern themselves with the details of this subsystem; simply
install the defaults to enable Molecular Inventor programs to run.
The Molecular Inventor 1.1 Development Kit extends the
capabilities of Open Inventor to more efficiently render objects
encountered in molecular graphics. It greatly simplifies the
programming required to build such applications. Included among
its features are basic molecular rendering styles, selection
mechanisms with automatic highlighting of the selected items, and
the generation of isosurfaces and 3D contours. Currently it is
geared towards the rendering of small molecules and allows for
great control over various parameters of the rendering styles. In
addition, much work has been focused on various selection
mechanisms such as lassos, drag-rectangles and selection spheres.
This release of Molecular Inventor requires IRIX 6.2 and OpenGL in
addition to the Open Inventor Development Kit, version 2.1.2."
Actually, Molecular Inventor also works with IRIX 6.5 and
OpenInventor 2.1.5, installing just fine on my Indigo2 Extreme
running 6.5.9m, and most of the examples compiled ok using
MIPS Pro 7.3 (I've not tried using GCC). I've included some of
the example binary files along with any required data files in
the MolecularInventor/bin subdirectory.
Note: in order to use GCC to compile the examples, the IRIX
6.5 Development Foundation compiler components must not be
installed (more accurately, don't install anything that's
specific to SGI's MIPS Pro compilers). Alternatively, locate
SGI's base default headers definitions file and change the
default C++ compiler from CC to gcc, or change the Makefiles so
that they use GCC components only.
The one example I had problems compiling was the babelViewer demo:
there were a couple of unresolved text symbols. I was logged in as
root and my root account doesn't have include/lib environment
variables properly defined, so I'm sure the missing text symbols
can be resolved if one wished to investigate further. However, the
miApp program gives a good demonstration of what is possible with
Molecular Inventor. Enter the following commands after installation:
cd /usr/share/src/MolInventor/examples/miApp
make
After the compilation has finished, enter '/.miApp' (minus the
quotes), load in the data file called azt.pdb, and explore the
various menu options and Preferences panel. Remember: the key
point about this product is that it provides libraries which
enable one to create new molecular modeling applications, as
opposed to actually being an application. Here is a list of
the products in the MolecularInventor/dist subdirectory and
the space used by each product in KBytes:
Molecular Inventor Dev Kit, 1.1 18736
Molecular Inventor Execution Only Environment, 1.1 11232
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//MolecularInventor/dist. Note that if you observe
installation conflicts after reading the dist subdirectory within
swmgr, this is because the Dev Kit contains updates to parts of the
Execution Environment (namely the Run-time products, though the Dev
Kit doesn't call them that) - simply resolve any conflicts so that
installed products are biased towards the Dev Kit, ie. select all
of the Execution Only environment (open up the subsystem to see its
contents), then select all of the Dev Kit (ignore the conflicts,
just click on all items in the Dev Kit - as you do so, some items
in the Execution Environment will be unselected and the conflicts
will vanish).
If you want to obtain Molecular Inventor more officially from SGI,
contact the address given on the Downloads area of SGI's web site
(software section). SGI will supply the source code for
MolecularInventor with an official free license.
Netscape4.8/
Contains V4.8 of the Netscape web browser. Not as reliable as Mozilla
or Firefox, but useful nonetheless if one is doing something simple
that can benefit from the better speed, eg. consulting locally stored
web pages such as the InfoSearch system. Most of the time though, I
would recommend Firefox since Netscape is very flakey on complicated
or modern web pages.
Pegamento/
Pegamento is a hardware accelerated image compositing application. It's
also a Spanish word, which means "glue", and that is indeed the purpose
of the application: To glue things in a canvas.
The application is highly focused in hardware acceleration, not only for
the interactive work, but also for (high-quality) final rendering. If you
want a 100% software-based solution, this is not what you're looking for.
The directory contains both MIPS3 and MIPS4 versions of the application.
You can only install one of these versions, for obvious reasons. If your
system is an R4000, R4400 or R4600 system, then install the MIPS3 version.
If your system is an R5000, R8000, R10000, R12000 (etc.) system, then
install the MIPS4 version.
A copy of the Pegamento web site is included in the html subdirectory,
complete with screen shots. Pegamento uses about 4.2MB of space once
installed. See the web docs in the html subdir for full details of
hardware/software prerequisities, product features, limitations and
an example demonstration contained in the file desktop_demo.tar.gz
RapidApp/
This is SGI's Rapid Application development GUI toolkit, allowing to
quickly create a user interface for an application, after which the
appropriate code modules can be linked in.
RP8/
This is the IRIX version of RealPlayer8 for SGI systems. Install
it by executing the binary install file in the RP8 directory:
cd //RP8
./rp8_irix_mips_65_cs1.bin
And to set it up as a plugin for Netscape:
cd /usr/local/RealPlayer8
cp rpnp.so raclass.zip /var/netscape/communicator/plugins32
I normally use Mozilla or Firefox though since they're much more
reliable than Netscape now.
NB: I use a dummy email address for the installation, eg.
someone@somewhere.org, and I always uncheck the option to receive
updates. Note that the installer is a bit slow at times when
changing from one information panel to another, so be patient.
You may wish to setup the plugins for Mozilla and FireFox too,
if you're using those browsers.
Lastly, remove the mime and plugin installation results files from
the root directory (they're easy to spot since the file names are
very long).
Selections/
This directory contains a number of product selections files for
use with Software Manager (swmgr) which allow one to install extra
software (ie. items not installed by default) after a clean default
installation of 6.2 or 6.5.x in a manner that is considerably easier
than going through each CD one by one, choosing products manually.
Assuming a clean installation of 6.2 or 6.5.x has been completed,
copy the files from the appropriate subdirectory into /var/tmp
and then load the files into swmgr from there. For example,
for IRIX 6.2, insert the first base 6.2 OS CD (part 1 of 2)
and then load the file 6.2base1of2.txt - the CD will be read
automatically and then various extra items will be selected for
installation.
For IRIX 6.5, full instructions are in this README file:
//Selections/6.5/README
If you are using a system which has newer components, such as
an R5200 O2, R12K Octane, or any system with VPro graphics, then
it isn't possible to do a clean installation using the original
June 1998 installations CDs, ie. the June 1998 CDs do not have any
drivers for the later hardware components. Thus, an extra directory
containing selections files for 6.5.26m is included to enable one
to do a full installation of IRIX 6.5.26m onto such a system. Read
the following file for complete instructions on how to carry out
the installation and use the selections files:
//Selections/6.5.26/README
I use these selections files myself all the time; they save a huge
amount of time and effort compared to installing extra software
manually. The only other thing I do which cannot be replicated on
a CD is copy the CDs to disk and change the selections files to
install multiple items from disk, which is of course very fast.
Other files are included for 6.5.22 (last release for Indigo, Indy,
Indigo2, Onyx/Challenge, etc.) and 6.5.15 (included for legacy
reasons).
ShotMaker/
This is SGI's rewritten version of MovieMaker which has been optimised
for uncompressed video. ShotMaker used to require a license, but SGI
finally released a free license which is included on this CD in the
Gifts subdirectory, but here it is for reference:
FEATURE SHOTMAKER sgifd 1.000 01-jan-0 0 8D523EC13F12C3B65C47 \
HOSTID=ANY vendor_info="ShotMaker" SN=133659 \
ISSUER="Silicon Graphics, Inc." NOTICE="Courtesy" ck=77
Here is a list of the products in this directory and the space used by
each product in KBytes:
ShotMaker Version 1.1.1 5032
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//ShotMaker.
Sudo/
From the README file in the archive, "Sudo is a program designed to
allow a sysadmin to give limited root privileges to users and log
root activity. The basic philosophy is to give as few privileges as
possible but still allow people to get their work done."
I used Sudo during my time at Salford University to allow non-root
users to execute commands controlling the display properties of
a CAVE system and RealityCentre. The commands had to be executed
as root, but I obviously didn't want ordinary users to have root
access. Sudo is the ideal solution to such problems.
To use Sudo, extract the archive under /usr/local and then read the
README and INSTALL files for product and installation information.
Unsorted/
I inevitably obtain a vast number of items to add to this CD, but
never have the time to check them all. Anything I have not yet had
time to sort out is included in this directory. Included are some
very useful tools such as a 3D modeling system called Wings which
is very useful when used in conjunction with Blender, a 1600x1200
video format file for O2 systems, and many other things.
Feel free to browse and explore at your leisure. Probably the main
things of note at present are newer versions of Blender and Ayam3D
which I've not yet had time to absorb into the general INSTALL
script setup.
VideoDrivers/
This directory contains base driver files for the various SGI video
option boards, including IndyVideo, Indigo2Video, CosmoCompress (both
Cosmo1 and Cosmo2), Galileo, IMPACT Video, Sirius Video, DIVO,
Octane Compression, Octane Personal Video, etc.
Most of these files were obtained from the German web site called,
"Video Treiber Matrix". This has sadly gone now, but a copy of the
home page is included as index.html - point Netscape to this local
URL to read the file (it's an easy way to check which file is
appropriate for which option board):
file://VideoDrivers/index.html
As a special extra, a ready-to-use distribution source of 6.5.15m
drivers for Indigo2 systems with IMPACT Compression is included in
the ic6.5.15 directory. This is for IMPACT Indigo2s running IRIX 6.5.15m
only. If you are using such an Indigo2 and have just fitted an IMPACT
Compression board, then enter the following to point swmgr to the
appropriate drivers:
swmgr -f //VideoDrivers/ic6.5.15/dist
Once done, exit swmgr and then add the entries contained in
ic6.5.15/cshrc_extra to your .cshrc file, then reboot the system.
These alias commands allow one to use the IMPACT Compression board
more easily using command line shortcuts for dmrecord and dmplay.
NOTE: in the next major release of this CD, the ic6.5.15 directory
will be replaced by equivalents files for 6.5.22 and 6.5.26.
XV/
I discovered this inst-format release of XV on the Freeware 1.0
CD for IRIX 5.3. For some reason, XV is no longer a part of SGI's
freeware distribution, perhaps because XV is actually shareware,
not freeware. Either way, now you can properly install XV so that
it shows up in swmgr's installed-software list.
XV V3.10a has a different user interface to V3.00. V3.10a has
more functions and new features, but I'm not quite so keen on the
interface, eg. selecting which image format to save-as is a
little awkward (it would be nice to be able to set a default
format for multiple save operations). For doing some of things I
like to use XV for (eg. browsing pixel RGB values, cropping
images), I find V3.00 easier to use. However, V3.10a does support
more image formats, and - most importantly for simply displaying
images - V3.10a correctly shows 24bit images (V3.00 always
dithers 24bit images to 8bit by default). Both versions are
especially good at dealing with converting images to Postcript
for printing though - the GUI interface in the Postcript panel
is excellent.
Here is a list of the products in this directory and the space
used by each product in KBytes:
XV 3.10a 12108
The software includes release notes (as a web page), but if
you want to read them before installation then enter this
command:
netscape //XV/xv.html
Note: Be careful when loading large images. XV defaults to
shrinking such images so that they fit on the screen. If you
then do a save operation, you'll save the shrunken version.
Tick the 'Normal Size' box in the Save panel if you want to
retain the original image size. An obvious way of telling if
you've saved a shrunken version by mistake is if you've loaded
a large image, but saving the image seemed very fast. :)
To install items from this product, use a source directory of:
//XV
bin/
Some useful shell scripts and other commands/applications.
Copy all these to /usr/local/bin and make sure that directory
is in your path definition (or use the INSTALL script). Enter the
following for full details:
netscape //webdocs/sw2.html
blender/
Blender is a sophisticated tool for rendering and animation,
akin to more familiar programs such as Maya, SoftImage,
LightWave and 3D StudioMax. However, Blender is completely
free! The Blender manuals, tutorials and examples are
included. Further information and updates can be obtained from
the Blender Home Page (www.blender.com). Blender is certainly
nowhere near as sophisticated as something like Maya (which
was used to do Phantom Menace), but the fact that Blender is
free makes it a useful tool. There are, however, certain
advanced features which require a license code to unlock, but
one can still do a lot of work without these features. NaN, the
company responsible for Blender, makes its money by selling a
full-colour 350-page high-quality printed manual for the
package for about $50 - if you want to get the best out of
Blender, you need to get the manual.
NOTE: since Blender is not some simple quick and dirty hacking
package, don't expect to be creating studio-quality work in 5
minutes. Like any high-quality animation tool set, it will
take a while to get used to the main features, menus, key
shortcuts, etc. and longer to learn the advanced features,
especially when used in combination.
Packages like Blender are best used with systems which have
at least 24bit colour and either hardware-accelerated graphics
or a fast main CPU.
Blender can output in Inventor format, which can then be used
as an input to BMRT.
Lastly, this CD continues to install V2.44 because it still has
the best performance for rendering. V2.48 is included in the
Unsorted directory, which supports up to 64 threads, but it is
11% slower than V2.44 in terms of efficiency of CPU usage for
rendering.
bmrt/
BMRT (Blue Moon Rendering Tools) is a suite of programs for
performing extremely high-quality rendering of scenes, based
on the RenderMan interface. BMRT was created by Larry I. Gritz
who used to work at Pixar (makers ofToy Story); Larry now works
for Exluna, a graphics software company which he co-founded.
BMRT uses advanced effects such as diffuse/ambient/specular/etc.
lighting, shadows, fog, mist, smoke, ray tracing, radiosity,
motion blur, environment mapping, bump mapping, texturing, and
many other features. Also included are tools for creating
inbetween image frames that can be used to create a movie
animation, or used in other projects.
BMRT has been used in the production of a number of major
films, eg. The Hollow Man. Unfortunately, NVIDIA and another
company brought legal action to prevent the continued development
of BMRT so it is now no longer available. However, the hobbyist
community continues to use it with gusto.
books/
This directory contains a number of online books in PDF
format. You will need Adobe Acrobat in order to view the
documents (on IRIX systems the relevant command is
'acroread'). Included are various system owners guides and
upgrade/installation guides. These have been downloaded from
techpubs.sgi.com and should be useful for learning more
about a system, planning upgrades, etc. I shall add more
guides later.
To install these guides, just copy them to somewhere like
/usr/local/doc, or use the INSTALL script. I would normally
then add links to them from my customised system home page,
/var/www/htdocs/index.html. Or one could do nothing and just
read them from the CDROM as and when required, or perhaps
print out just the required items. Note that the Indigo2
IMPACT Owners Guide would, if printed on one-sided A4, need
a large binder to hold the 380 pages of the guide. If you
print any of these books, use double-sided printing if
possible.
ccwrap/
A handy script to filter out the error message given when
running the MIPS Pro Compiler. The compiler always runs even
without a license (it just spits out an error message) so
this is a convenient way to silence the errors. Full details
in the cc-wrap.txt file (copy the archive to disk, gunzip
and enter 'tar -xvf cc-wrap.tar' to extract the shell script
and instructions file).
divx/
A DivX player for IRIX. It hasn't been developed as much as
mplayer has though, so you'll probably have much more success
using mplayer. However, I've included it anyway. If you want
to install it, copy the archive to disk, gunzip and tar
extract with -xvf, then remove the tar file; alternatively,
use the INSTALL script.
The .cshrc file installed by the INSTALL script does already
include an entry for /usr/local/divx in the path definition
though, so if you do install it then the software will be ready
to use. Note that you may need to change the shortcut 'divx' link
in the directory depending on whether or not your system has
hardware acceleration available. Any system with hardware
texture mapping can use the .gl version. By default, divx points
to the accelerated version. If you have an older system such as an
Indy or XL/XZ/Elan/Extreme Indigo2, then enter these commands to
change the link to point to the software version:
cd /usr/local/divx
rm divx
ln -s irixdivx.soft divx
If you also install the base files from the INSTALL script, the custom
home page has a link to full details on this divx player.
doom/
This directory contains files for Doom, Doom II and Ultimate
Doom on SGI systems (full versions), plus some add-on levels.
Use tar or cp commands to install these files, or use my
INSTALL script which will give useful links to the various Doom
information files on the system home page. The files take up a
total of 55MB of space.
glut/
OpenGL development libraries for advanced OpenGL development.
For example, SGI's OpenGL Volumizer product (see the 3rd Gifts CD)
requires the GLUT libraries to be installed if one wants to
compile the demos provided in source code form. The OpenGL
Development Environment provides enough material for basic
OpenGL development, but some may wish to use the higher-level
GLUT libraries to make life easier, just as SGI has done with
Volumizer.
Here is a list of the products in the dist subdirectory and the
space used by each product in KBytes:
OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) 3.6 7324
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//glut/dist.
Note that the dist subdirectory contains the GLUT V3.6
distribution. If you want V3.7, then you'll need to unpack and
compile the glut-3.7.tar.gz archive. The GLX libraries have
been included to aid such a task, as well as V3.7 of the GLUT
data files. The file glut-3.spec.ps.gz is a Postcript document
describing the GLUT specification (uncompress using gunzip and
then use something like xpsview or ghostview to view the
document).
imglab/
ImgLab is an image processing tool built on top of SGI's
ImageVision Library (IL). It provides a graphical user
interface to much of the functionality and performance built
into the IL.
This distribution contains ImgLab 2.12, which is an update to
ImgLab 2.0 that is distributed with SGI's IL3.0.
ImgLab was designed as an inhouse tool for image processing at
MeVis - Center for Medical Diagnostic Systems and
Visualization. Its intuitive graphical user interface has
turned the IL programming environment into an easy-to-use
image processing system.
One must have the ImageVision library installed in order to
run ImgLab. Version 2.12 requires ImageVision 3.0, no earlier
release of the ImageVision will suffice, and the IL3.1.1 that
comes with IRIX 6.3 (or later) is also not compatible with
ImgLab 2.12. I have later versions of ImgLab given to me by
MeVis, but they are not public domain and so cannot be
included here.
Here is a list of the products in the dist subdirectory and the
space used by each product in KBytes:
ImgLab 17452
To install items from this product, use a source directory of
//imglab
misc/
cshrc - my custom cshrc resource file for the root user. It's
awesome!! I have included many very useful alias commands,
plus definitions for many freeware/share applications are already
included, ie. library paths, bin directory sources, environment
variables, etc. My own cshrc is very similar to this; my file
just has many more alias commands that are specific to my own
Octane's file system. This file is installed in place of the
existing /.cshrc file by the INSTALL script; the original .cshrc
is preserved by being renamed to .cshrc.orig.
space.tar.gz - the SGI Space Simulator demo from IRIX 6.2. It
also works fine under IRIX 6.5, but for reasons unknown the
demo was removed for the 6.5 release, so here it is once
again. Copy the file somewhere else such as /tmp, gunzip the
file and run 'tar -xvf' on the resulting space.tar archive.
The files will be extracted into /usr/demos/data/space. Note
that I've slightly changed the contents of the space directory
so that it's easier to run the demo: in the original, the
space executable was in /usr/demos/bin, but I've moved it into
the /usr/demos/data/space directory. Also included is a 'RUN'
file which uses the -f option to set the directory containing
the data files. Thus, to run the demo, just execute the 'RUN'
script.
lynx-2.7.1.tar.gz - Lynx text-only web browser. I use this as
a compilation speed test. Included just in case you happen to
have a CPU/system combination I've not tested yet. If you do,
please send in your compilation speed test results; see:
http://www.futuretech.vuurwerk.nl/perfcomp.html#INT8
S59delnslock - if you're tired of Netscape moaning about a lock
file after logging on following a fresh bootup, then copy this
into the /etc/rc2.d directory. The script simply removes any
existing lock file from root's Netscape directory. You could always
customise it to act on a normal user's netscape directory too, eg.
add a script to remove any lock from any user's Netscape directory
listed in /etc/passwd.
desktops - a directory containing a couple of example nice desktop
archives for use with systems that have a full installation plus
Maya, SoftImage, etc.
index.html.mayasi - a version of the custom home page which includes
links to online information for those systems which also have Maya
and/or SoftImage installed. Links to SoftWindows95 online info are
also included.
system.4Dwmrc-sw95 - if you install SoftWindows95, after initial
execution the SW95 setup alters the 4Dwmrc file in a way which
breaks the Alt+TAB window switching functionality (only available
when click focus is in use). If you wish to retain this functionality,
then copy this modified version of the file into /usr/lib/X11 to
undo what SW95 does, ie. enter as root:
cp system.4Dwmrc-sw95 /usr/lib/X11/system.4Dwmrc
del*.txt - Information and product selections files for freeing up
disk space on a system which has a _full_ installation as typically
done by me. The delinfo.txt file contains instructions for use. These
files are copied to /usr/local/doc/swmgr by the INSTALL script, and a
link is available from the custom home page.
Various other files are included. These are used by the INSTALL
script.
mplayer/
A version of the mplayer movie playback tool which has been optimised
for MIPS4 systems, but also includes files for MIPS3 systems. This
version of mplayer runs very well indeed on a decent SGI, eg. an
R12K/400 Octane VPro system can easily play back full-size/rate PAL
DivX movie files, though note that many of the optimisations are
specific to VPro graphics boards, ie. it's nothing like as fast if
run on an MGRAS system (eg. MXI). The Nekoware now has a newer version
of mplayer, but I'll keep this old version as it should be useful for
those who are unable to download the huge Nekoware distribution.
patch5086/
For full details, see the file README.patch.5086 in the directory,
but here's an extract:
This patch contains the IRIX 6.5.21 versions of the
installation tools inst, swmgr, showfiles and showprods.
Therefore, IRIX 6.5.21 itself will replace this patch.
If you are using the "live installation" method to upgrade
from any 6.5-based release prior to 6.5.21 to another from
6.5.21 onwards, you must first install this patch to enable
inst to handle certain additions to the format of the
distribution images. If you have 6.5.21 installed on your
system, the required changes are already contained in inst.
ppp/
This is a copy of the SLIP/PPP documentation from Scott Henry
of SGI, and also the excellent page written by my friend
Jonathan Mortimer, which explains how to configure PPP for
IRIX 6.2 and 6.5 (Jonathan's pages include descriptions and
pictures on how to make the right modem cable, example
settings for a popular model of modem, etc.) IRIX 6.5 has a GUI
manager for configuring PPP, but Jonathan's information should
still be useful, especially the details on how to make an
appropriate modem cable. To access the pages, enter:
netscape //ppp/dialup-support.html
or use the INSTALL script to install them under /var/www/htdocs,
in which case a link from the local system home page is made
available; enter this as a URL in Netscape:
http://localhost/
src/
Source code for the miscellaneous C programs described in the
'bin' section above. Might be useful for beginner programmers.
I use a clear style for C programming, and the programs do
include some good examples of error checking and string
manipulation.
video/
A collection of extra freeware tools for video processing, including:
MJPEG Tools 1.6.1.90 (timo) 4.5MB
ffmpeg 20040222 4.7MB
libdvbpsi3 0.1.4000 292K
libdvdcss-1.2.8 libdvdplay-1.0.1 libdvdread-20030812 776K
libmad 0.15.0b 284K
mpeg2dec 0.4.0 448K
vlc 0.7.1 8.2MB
Note that the Nekoware collection has newer versions of some
of these items. Included here to help those who are unable to
download the large Nekoware archive.
webdocs/
These files are installed into /var/www/htdocs and
/usr/local/doc by the INSTALL script.
5. Known Problems and Workarounds
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Problem:
Installing the same item from different versions of the GIfts CD
is not detected by the INSTALL script (yet), so doing such a thing
could cause problems. It might work ok, but I've never tested it.
In general, it's better to update completely from one version of
my Gifts CD to the next, by removing the old Gifts data using the
earlier UNINSTALL. script and then installing the new CD.
However, installing different items from different versions of my
Gifts CD will probably work ok, especially since now the UNINSTALL
script is named based on the CD date stamp.
6. Appendix A: Tips on manually installing items using tar
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Obviously, the man page for tar is the main source of information,
but here are a few useful tips for using tar:
The 'tar -tvf' command can be used to view a tar file's contents
without extracting the archive. This is useful for seeing where files
are going to be placed.
The -R option can be used to remove leading / signs from directory
paths. Thus, for example, one could install the SGI Space Demo
somewhere other than /usr/demos/data/space.
A convenient method for copying a file or directory is:
tar cvBpf - item | (cd /target_directory; tar xBpf -)
where 'item' is the source file or directory (or just '.' for
current directory contents), and target_directory is the
destination, whether that is /tmp or somewhere deeper in the
file tree such as /usr/people/guest. 'item' can of course
include wildcards, or more than one item can be listed. This
command sequence is very useful since the double-use of tar
ensures all file ownerships, date stamps and file permissions
are retained (the 'cp -r' command does not do this). Note that
the tc and tt script commands included with this Gifts CD can
be used to abbreviate the above command sequence, but be careful
how you use them - remember which is which!
END