Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/faqs/faq/sgi/faq.misc

Text File | 1995-07-25 | 23.0 KB | 637 lines

Subject: SGI misc Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
From: [e-mail] (The SGI FAQ group)
Date: 20 Nov 1994 07:02:32 GMT

Archive-name: sgi/faq/misc
Last-modified: Tue Nov 15 14:55:35 CST 1994

    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 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

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 by
anonymous FTP from one of these sites:

    rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/comp.sys.sgi.misc/
    rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/
    rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/comp.answers/sgi/faq/
    viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/faq/

Note that 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. If you can't use FTP, send mail to [e-mail] with
the command 'send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq' on a line by itself
in the text, and it will send you a document describing how to FTP by
mail. You can also read a hypertext version of the FAQs at

    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/sgi/top.html

The SGI FAQs are freely distributable and we encourage wide circulation.
The contents are accurate as far as we know, but the usual disclaimers
apply. Please send additions and changes to [e-mail].

Topics covered in this FAQ:
---------------------------
!  -1- How can I quickly find the information I want in the SGI FAQs?
   -2- How do the FAQs support 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- Are the SGI newsgroups archived?
!  -7- What are some related newsgroups?
   -8- What are the comp.sys.sgi.* mailing lists?
   -9- What are some related mailing lists?
! -10- What are some related WWW pages?
  -11- What are some related network-accessible documents?
  -12- What number do I call for information about SGI products?
  -13- What number do I call for technical support from SGI?
  -14- What about SGI-related publications?
  -15- What is the latest release of ...
  -16- What is the current release of IRIX for my machine?
  -17- Can I get a list of known bugs?
  -18- What's the best newsgroup in which to complain to SGI?
  -19- Wouldn't Nextstep be great on SGIs?
  -20- Can I run Windows NT on my Indigo or Indy?
  -21- Credits

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

Subject: !  -1- How can I quickly find the information I want in the SGI
                FAQs?
Date: 14 Nov 94 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.

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

Subject:    -2- How do the FAQs support the World Wide Web?
Date: 05 May 94 00:00:01 EST

  Tom Fine <[e-mail]> runs a service which converts FAQs
  to hypertext (HTML). A list of the converted FAQs is at

    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html

  and the SGI FAQs are at

    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/sgi/top.html

  You can view them with any World Wide Web browser, probably Mosaic
  (which you can get from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:/Web/), or, for text
  terminals, Lynx (at ftp2.cc.ukans.edu:/pub/WWW/lynx/).

  Some types of references in the SGI FAQs are in particular formats so
  they will be recognized and turned into links to other documents:

  - References to FTP sites are in rcp(1)-like format
!   ('site:/path/file'). If you're not using a WWW browser, 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.  References to root directories (e.g. 'ftp.uu.net:/') do not
!   work; this is a known bug.  Some FTP servers are not
    Mosaic-compatible; just use 'ftp'.

  - Other Internet services are in URL format
    ('protocol://site/path/file'). If you're reading the SGI FAQs as
    plain text, you can still paste URLs into your browser.

  - Manpages look like 'foo(1)' and Internet RFCs look like 'RFC####'.
    Beware: Tom Fine is a Sun person, so the manpages are for SunOS.

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

Subject: !  -3- With what version(s) of IRIX do the SGI FAQs deal?
Date: 13 Nov 94 00:00:01 EST

  Unless otherwise specified, the FAQs discuss IRIX 5.2. A few entries
  deal with IRIX 3.x and many deal with IRIX 4.0.5, and they should all
  say so. Versions of IRIX 4 before 4.0.5 and IRIX 5 before 5.2 are
  rarely discussed because everyone should have upgraded by now. The
  FAQs do not discuss IRIX 6.0 yet at all.

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

Subject:    -4- What about material which doesn't fit in the FAQs?
Date: 10 Dec 93 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 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 [e-mail], or
  put it in viz.tamu.edu:/incoming/ and let us know by mail.

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

Subject:    -5- What are the comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups?
Date: 18 Aug 94 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.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, send mail
  to Matthew Wicks at [e-mail].

  Each of these newsgroups has a corresponding mailing-list; see
  below.

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

Subject:    -6- Are the SGI newsgroups archived?
Date: 04 Jun 94 00:00:01 EST

  The SGI newsgroups are archived in their entirety, albeit in a
  difficult-to-handle form, in ftp.sgi.com:/comp.sys.sgi/.
  comp.sys.mips is likewise archived in ftp.sgi.com:/comp.sys.mips/.

  Harry Mangalam <[e-mail]> makes the same newsgroups
  available, and easily searchable, via WAIS.  There is a separate WAIS
  source for each of the current SGI newsgroups and comp.sys.mips as
  well as the defunct newsgroup comp.sys.sgi. If you're familiar with
  WAIS, just search the directory-of-servers for "sgi" or "mips" to get
  all the source descriptions. If you use Mosaic, open the URL
  'wais://hornet.mmg.uci.edu/comp.sys.sgi.misc' to search
  comp.sys.sgi.misc, and similarly for the other archived newsgroups.

  Thanks to these services, just posting something goes a long way
  toward making it available to everyone, even after it expires.
  Another good reason to summarize the answers to your question for the
  group!

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

Subject: !  -7- What are some related newsgroups?
Date: 10 Nov 94 00:00:01 EST

  comp.graphics.*, particularly
  comp.graphics.explorer
    The Explorer Modular Visualisation Environment (MVE).
  comp.graphics.opengl
    The OpenGL 3D application programming interface.
  comp.graphics.packages.alias
    3-D graphics software from Alias Research.
  comp.soft-sys.wavefront
    Wavefront software products, problems, etc.
  comp.sys.mips
    Systems based on MIPS chips.
  comp.windows.x.*
  comp.unix.*

  comp.graphics.inventor has been proposed, but has not yet been
  created.

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

Subject:    -8- What are the comp.sys.sgi.* mailing lists?
Date: 18 Aug 94 00:00:01 EST

  The SGI newsgroups are gatewayed to mailing lists for those who can't
  get news (or who just prefer mail). To subscribe or unsubscribe, send
  mail to [e-mail] (Chuck Kennedy, aka
  <[e-mail]>). Chuck is a human, not an automated mail server, so
  allow at least a week for your request to go through. To post an
  article, mail it to one or more of the following addresses:

      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]

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

Subject:    -9- What are some related mailing lists?
Date: 21 Oct 94 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 Online
  SGI's monthly news magazine
  To subscribe, send mail to [e-mail] containing only
    the line 'subscribe iris-on-line' in the body
  FTP back issues from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/IRIS-On-Line/

  SGI large users discussion list
  For discussion of SGI systems with 1000 or more users
  Contact Philip Smith <[e-mail]>; 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 [e-mail] or Tim Hall
    <[e-mail]>

  Performer mailing list
  Contact [e-mail]

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

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

  FlexFAX mailing list
  For users of the free FlexFAX fax software
  To subscribe, send mail to [e-mail] containing
    only the line 'subscribe flexfax' in the body
  Contact Sam Leffler <[e-mail]>
  FTP back issues from 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 [e-mail] 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 [e-mail] containing only
    the line 'subscribe alias-l' in the body.
  Contact Steve Follin <[e-mail]>

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

Subject: ! -10- What are some related WWW pages?
Date: 14 Nov 94 00:00:01 EST

  Companies and organizations:

      Silicon Surf (SGI's official WWW server)
      http://www.sgi.com/

      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.erc.msstate.edu/CVC/

      Easy Software Products ("2D & 3D software" for SGIs)
      http://esp.atc.imssys.com/

      Impediment (third-party memory and peripherals vendor)
      http://www.impediment.com/

      IRIS Explorer Center
      http://www.nag.co.uk:70/1h/Welcome_IEC

      MIPS Technologies, Inc. Home Page
      http://www.mips.com/

      NATPIX software demos
      ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/natpix/html/natpix.html

      OpenGL WWW Center
      http://www.sgi.com/tech/openGL/opengl.html

+     Silicon Studio Inc.
+     http://www.studio.sgi.com/

      Wavefront Technologies
      http://wavefront.wti.com/

  Miscellany:

      Blix (an IndiZone game contest winner)
      http://rugmd4.chem.rug.nl/hoesel/blix.html

      FlexFAX Home Page
      http://www.vix.com/pub/flexfax/

      Grafica Obscura (Paul Haeberli's graphics commonplace book)
      http://www.sgi.com/grafica/

      HTML version of Bill Henderson's SGI FTP site list
      http://mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/sgiftp.html

      Scientific Visualization Software Packages
      http://www.msi.umn.edu/SciVis/Packages/packages.html

      securscan README (documentation for an IRIX security checker)
      ftp://ftp.vis.colostate.edu/pub/irix/security/securscan.html

      SGI DOOM FAQ
      http://cornelius.ucsf.edu/~troyer/sgidoomfaq.html

      Silicon Graphics User Groups
      http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Randy.Carpenter/sgiusers.html

      US Army Research Laboratory (ARL, formerly BRL) FTP site
      http://ftp.arl.mil/

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

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

Subject:   -11- What are some related network-accessible documents?
Date: 22 Oct 94 00:00:01 EST

  Silicon Graphics-specific documents:

    SGI Anonymous FTP and WWW archives
    Posted monthly to comp.sys.sgi, news.answers
    FTP from rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/anonftp/
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/anonftp.gz
    Contact Bill Henderson <[e-mail]>
    See also above under "WWW pages".

    Known SGI User Groups (SUMMARY)
    Posted monthly to comp.sys.sgi.misc
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/usersgroups
    Contact Randy Carpenter <[e-mail]>
    See also above under "WWW pages".

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

    Explorer FAQ
    Posted ??? to comp.graphics.explorer
    FTP from swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov:/explorer/FAQ
    Contact [e-mail]

    Insight FAQ
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/insight-problems
    Contact Greg Ferguson <[e-mail]>

    Third-party hardware vendor list (general SGI-hip vendors)
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/3rd-party/general

    Third-party hardware vendor lists (disks, memory, and magneto-
      optical drives)
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/3rd-party/
    Contact Brent L. Bates <[e-mail]>

    SGI's Periodic Table of the Irises
    FTP from sgi.com:/sgi/Periodic_Table.ps.Z
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/Periodic_Table.ps.gz

    SGI DOOM FAQ
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/software/doom/sgidoomfaq.txt
    See also above under "WWW pages".

    Audio Applications for Silicon Graphics Systems
    Posted ??? to comp.sys.sgi.audio
    FTP from viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi/lists/audio-apps
    Contact Doug Cook <[e-mail]>

  Other documents of particular interest to SGI users:

    OpenGL FAQ
    Posted semiweekly to comp.graphics.opengl, comp.answers,
      news.answers
    Contact Mason Woo <[e-mail]>
    See also above under "WWW pages".

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

    comp.windows.x Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    Posted monthly to comp.windows.x,news.answers,alt.answers,
      comp.answers
    Contact [e-mail] (X FAQ maintenance address)

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

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

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

    SCSI FAQ
    Posted ??? to comp.periphs.scsi
    Contact Gary Field <[e-mail]>

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

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

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

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

Subject:   -12- What number do I call for information about SGI
                products?
Date: 22 Jan 94 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:   -13- What number do I call for technical support from SGI?
Date: 29 Aug 94 00:00:01 EST

  To reach SGI's Technical Assistance Center (TAC) in North America,
  call 1-800-800-4SGI (1-800-800-4744). Elsewhere, call your local
  sales office (see the previous question).

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

Subject:   -14- What about SGI-related publications?
Date: 02 May 94 00:00:01 EST

  SGI publishes several periodicals. Every SGI owner should get Iris
  Universe (glossy and general) for free; if you don't, call SGI
  Direct.  Everyone on a support contract should get Pipeline (very
  useful technical notes); Pipeline's address is [e-mail].
  Registered developers get another set of publications; ask
  [e-mail] about getting registered.

  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)
      [e-mail]

  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:   -15- What is the latest release of ...
Date: 07 May 93 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:   -16- What is the current release of IRIX for my machine?
Date: 04 Jun 94 00:00:01 EST

  IRIX 5.2.

  The September/October 1993 Pipeline has an exhaustive table of IRIXes
  from 3.3 to 5.0.1, and the January/February 1994 issue has a
  supplement covering IRIXes up to 5.1.1.2.

  If you don't know what release of IRIX you're running, see the SGI
  admin FAQ.

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

Subject:   -17- Can I get a list of known bugs?
Date: 15 Jun 93 00:00:01 EST

  Yes.  In addition to known bugs that are documented in Product
  Release Notes, the IRIS InSight Support Library includes a collection
  of customer reported software, document problems, and requests for
  enhancements in the Software Status Update (SSU) binder.  The IRIS
  InSight Subscription Service (SC4-INS-2.0) is an annually renewed
  service which can be purchased from SGI.

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

Subject:   -18- What's the best newsgroup in which to complain to SGI?
Date: 04 Jun 94 00:00:01 EST

  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.

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

Subject:   -19- Wouldn't Nextstep be great on SGIs?
Date: 05 Jan 94 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.

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

Subject:   -20- Can I run Windows NT on my Indigo or Indy?
Date: 18 Jan 94 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:   -21- Credits
Date: 08 Oct 94 00:00:01 EST

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

      Dale Chayes    [e-mail]
      Steve Rikli    [e-mail]
      Allan Schaffer    [e-mail]
      Dave Schweisguth    [e-mail]
      Gavin Bell    [e-mail]           SGI Inventor FAQ
      Michael Portuesi    [e-mail]       SGI movie FAQ
      Dave Story    [e-mail]           SGI Impressario FAQ
      Bryan James    [e-mail]   SGI audio FAQ

  Special thanks are due to

      Tom Davis        Author of the 'zip' editor
      Mark Kirk        Sysadmin of viz.tamu.edu
      Harry Mangalam    Maintainer of the comp.sys.sgi.* WAIS database
      Dave Olson    comp.sys.sgi.*'s one-man TAC

  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                                [e-mail]
Finger us for info on the SGI FAQs, or look in viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi.