[qzu]

Hello everybody!
I'm so glad that I've found this network...
Ten years ago I bought an Octane2 [512 megs ram, 1 x R12000, ODSY].
Played a lot with it (Bzflag, compiled Gentoo, etc.) then forgot it...
Now I struggled 15 days to get Gentoo working again but no avail... all is broken... got exhausted...
So I gave up with installing Gentoo and tried to get an usable machine by reinstalling Irix from scratch.
DINA was the game changer! I must admit I've used the "prepacked" one with 6.5 already crammed inside!!!
Shame on me...
I'm really happy with my beefy Octane2....can you hear the noise? [mmmmmmm.m...m.mm.m.m.m.m......]
Downloaded Bash, BzFlag, TightVNC and all dependencies. Used the software manager which is quite user friendly!
All green lights!! Cool!
But.... where is the software?
How can I launch it? From the shell?
Found vncserver digging around, tried and launch it but complained not founding vnc in PATH.
Help really appreciated!
Cheers everyone!

[EDIT: got VNC working by adding it's "bin" path to $PATH. Still, I don't get DISPLAY :0:0 (the Irix desktop) but :0:1, plain X windows with just an Xterm...]

[gijoe77]

wait - so when you log in your not getting the 4dwm window manager but just plain X?

[qzu]

Hi Gijoe77!
Nope, I get plain X when I connect from a remote machine via VNC!
I'd like to see the real desktop! Would be hugely practical because Octane can't be moved around!
Thank you

[qzu]

Hi everyone!
I really don't understand how to use the Nekoware tardist's correctly!
I wished they just worked... but it's not the case!
Even neko_OpenSSH is complaining about sshd user... ok
then he can't find the host keys....
Am I missing something with Nekoware in general??
Any help is appreciated!
Cheers,
qzu

[dexter1]

Qzu, irix.cc developers are working to create the irisware platform which should be capable of installing software on IRIX systems for end-users.

Until then, we still have to compile stuff ourselves or work with nekoware and freeware tardists. And yes, this can be a hassle if the tardists are several years old.
Can you tell us what software exactly you want to run on your octane?

ssh has many implementations: There is the openssh/openssl package on the IRIX applications CD, or use the one from IRIX freeware distribution.
Nekoware has several working ssh tardists like the beta folder from Rainer Canavan. I also have some more recent nekoware tardist on my website which you can find in my signature.

Also, if you have issues with a specific tardist, please state its version and what IRIX version you are running.

[qzu]

Hello Dexter1 and thank you for your kind reply.
OS is 6.5.22 and the tardists are from this repo:
http://fr.irisware.net/nekoware/current/
The native Irix shell is a nightmare! No tab completion, no history!
So Bash would help a lot.
Also, any ssh server would do! Currenty I can login remotely only with telnet (ugh!)
Vnc server would be a nice-to-have...
As a final note, I've got a lot of troubles with my usb keyboard with a PS2 adapter (ctrl and caps lock are inverted, esc doesn't work, etc.!!!)
Thanks a lot for your patience!
Cheers,
qzu

[Raion]

Tcsh has tab completion. You can switch to it by setting the passwd file to use /bin/tcsh

You can of course install GNU Bash, but I think learning the native shells is worthwhile.

[dexter1]

Hello Dexter1 and thank you for your kind reply.
OS is 6.5.22 and the tardists are from this repo:
http://fr.irisware.net/nekoware/current/
The native Irix shell is a nightmare! No tab completion, no history!
So Bash would help a lot.
Also, any ssh server would do! Currenty I can login remotely only with telnet (ugh!)
Vnc server would be a nice-to-have...
As a final note, I've got a lot of troubles with my usb keyboard with a PS2 adapter (ctrl and caps lock are inverted, esc doesn't work, etc.!!!)
Thanks a lot for your patience!
Cheers,
qzu

If you want to run nekoware per se, use http://fr.irisware.net/nekoware/beta/canavan/ as a base.
Rainer Canavan has good openssh and openssl tardist in that beta directory. As an alternative for vnc, try rdesktop.

As Raion explained, tcsh is a good choice since it is native to IRIX and a lot of shell scripts for IRIX use either csh or ksh. Bash is also possible as a replacement for ksh.


Does your keyboard have a us international layout? There are tools to customize your keyboard layout in IRIX if it has an non-standard layout.

[qzu]

Thank you Dexter1 and Raion for your invaluable insights.
I really want to preserve this machine as long as I can!
I'll report you back what I achieve.
Good night,
qzu

[gijoe77]

Hi Gijoe77!
Nope, I get plain X when I connect from a remote machine via VNC!
I'd like to see the real desktop! Would be hugely practical because Octane can't be moved around!
Thank you

I hear good things about mobaXterm https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ give it a shot