Installing Linux on Indy

[Tom Woelfel <eedthwo@eede.ericsson.se>]

Trevor Jennings writes:
 > Hi,

Hi Trevor,

 >  Well, I am new to this mailing list and am thinking of installing Linux on
 > my trusty old Indy and was wondering if there was in fact any other way of
 > installing the hardhat release instead of having another linux box to boot
 > from?  I was thinking of downloading the release onto jaz disk and
 > installing it from there, is that possible? I believe it is great that there
 > is a linux port happening for the SGI, especially since I use the computer
 > for home use and spending $600 for a newer Irix (I'm using 5.3) just isnt
 > worth it. Plux the fact the it seems the Indy is getting more popular as a
 > second hand machine and its good to have an alternative OS running on it.
 > Not that there is nothing wrong with Irix, in fact its great!! Just that its
 > so expensive to upgrade! Another reason for installing Linux too is that
 > from using Linux for several years now, I'd like to contribute software to
 > the linux community.

Same problem here: 

I don't want to buy the very expensive IRIX (I would be glad to get
IRIX5.3 without spending a trillion bucks). And so the important
question again: Is it possible (will it be possible) to install Linux
on an Indy without Irix?

Obviously - NO. And the SGI Hype for their new NT-Boxes is floating
this mailing list too much. SGI has lost my respect - their treatment
of second-hand-machine-buyers is #$%^@#.

For an old SGI disk I've searched 1 week in the web to get the
jumper-settings to reset the spin-up-delay-at-boot - nothing (The
disk was purposed to be built into my PS/2). So I called SGI

A call to SGI-Munich a few weeks ago:

T: "Hi, i'm desperately seeking for the specs of the disk
blabla. Could you please tell me which jumper I have to set to blabla"

SGI: "No."

T: "You mean, you don't know."

SGI: "I mean, you have to pay 380 DM/hour to let us look, if we _have_ 
the information."

T: "I have to pay only for the information that the specs are
    available or not?"

SGI: "Right."

T:   <speechless>

(On the contrary Hyundai, where I called for the freq-range of an old
14" and get a handmade copy of the complete reference-manual and the
Wiring Diagrams - 2 days later)

Sorry - this is another off-topic posting - but in the meanwhile I'm a
little sick of those SGI-folks only writing about their new VW 320 and
540 and the gigantic milestones of those .....

No major breakthroughs in Linux/SGI  - on the mailing list there is a
huge traffic ? Something _is_ wrong.

//Tom

P.S.: I've re-read this mail. And I think it sounds a little bit too
angry. But SGI to me as a customer is a disappointment; and the only
reason that I haven't sold the Indy yet is that Linux exist for it.