Hi everyone,

I would like to ask if anyone could please help me with the following
problem.

I want to use a free program that seems to be compiled for an SGI IRIS
OS. The source files are available here...

http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/ftp/rmsl/usycams/

Is there a free OS that I can install on Microsoft Virtual PC so that
I can use this program on a XP host machine? Alternatively, is there
any type of software emulator I can install that would allow me to use
this program on a windows XP machine ? Is it difficult or even
possible to compile the source to run on windows XP or a UNIX based OS
that I can install on Microsoft virtual PC ? I have the Solaris 10 OS
that I could install on virtual PC if this would work, otherwise I
guess I will need something else.

I would appreciate any suggestions or advice.

Thanks
John

John2005 wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I would like to ask if anyone could please help me with the following
> problem.
> 
> I want to use a free program that seems to be compiled for an SGI IRIS
> OS. The source files are available here...
> 
> http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/ftp/rmsl/usycams/

What makes you think it's compiled for IRIX? Nothing but source from
what I can see.

> Is there a free OS that I can install on Microsoft Virtual PC so that
> I can use this program on a XP host machine? Alternatively, is there
> any type of software emulator I can install that would allow me to use
> this program on a windows XP machine ? Is it difficult or even
> possible to compile the source to run on windows XP or a UNIX based OS
> that I can install on Microsoft virtual PC ? I have the Solaris 10 OS
> that I could install on virtual PC if this would work, otherwise I
> guess I will need something else.


I don't know what a "Microsoft Virtual PC" is, but you can install
virtual software like VMware or Xen on your machine and run Windows
together with free stuff like Solaris and/or GNU/Linux. Or you can
partition your machine to do dual/triple/quad boots and choose what you
want to run when you boot.

I would suggest you go the VMware track and install OpenSolaris and then
you have the most modern c/c++/Fortran compiler as well. It's all free 
(except VMware)

Then I think you will have a ruff time getting anything as old as this
to compile. Give us some feedback.

> I would appreciate any suggestions or advice.

HTH

On Jun 9, 8:07 am, "Thommy M." <thommy.m.malmst...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I would suggest you go the VMware track and install OpenSolaris and then
> you have the most modern c/c++/Fortran compiler as well. It's all free
> (except VMware)

Including VMware.

Tim Bradshaw <tfb+google@tfeb.org> writes:

> On Jun 9, 8:07 am, "Thommy M." <thommy.m.malmst...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I would suggest you go the VMware track and install OpenSolaris and then
>> you have the most modern c/c++/Fortran compiler as well. It's all free
>> (except VMware)
>
> Including VMware.

That's not specific enough. You _can_ get vmware software to run
virtual OS's but you can't set them up with it, I remember. The main
vmware thing is not free, is it?

-- 
Dick Hoogendijk -- PGP/GnuPG key: F86289CE
++ http://nagual.nl/ + Solaris 11 02/07 ++

Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> On Jun 9, 8:07 am, "Thommy M." <thommy.m.malmst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I would suggest you go the VMware track and install OpenSolaris and then
>> you have the most modern c/c++/Fortran compiler as well. It's all free
>> (except VMware)
> 
> Including VMware.

Yeh well, the Player version. Haven't tried that with OpenSolaris yet. 
But I'm actually just now trying to set something up according to 
http://www.ffnn.nl/pages/articles/linux/vmware-player-image-creation.php

"John2005" <johnjmechanical@yahoo.com> wrote

> I want to use a free program that seems to be compiled for an SGI IRIS
> OS. The source files are available here...
> http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/ftp/rmsl/usycams/

SGI IRIX machines have a MIPS CPU. This is very different hardware to the 
SPARC or x86 CPUs which Solaris runs on. You cannot run a IRIX program on 
anything except a MIPS machine, such as an SGI Indy or Octane.

You could compile the source code on another version of Unix, to create a 
runnable program. Be aware that this source code contains at least a few 
IRIX-specific references, eg includes fmclient.h, the IRIX Font Manager. You 
will need to do some editing of the source code before it can compile, even 
on another SVR4-style Unix, such as Solaris.

You can probably get this source code to eventually compile and run on some 
version of Unix other than IRIX - possibly on Solaris. But it will require 
some work; and a passing knowledge of C programming.

Hope this helps a little bit,
Andrew

Dick Hoogendijk <dick@nagual.nl> writes:

>>> (except VMware)
>>
>> Including VMware.
>
> That's not specific enough. You _can_ get vmware software to run
> virtual OS's but you can't set them up with it, I remember.

Things have changed:
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/server_beta.html

There is a free VMWare Sever (no longer beta) now, and you *can*
create and configure VMs, install and run various gues OSes on it.

Cheers,
-- 
In order to understand recursion you must first understand recursion.
Remove /-nsp/ for email.

Paul Pluzhnikov wrote:
> Dick Hoogendijk <dick@nagual.nl> writes:
> 
>>>> (except VMware)
>>> Including VMware.
>> That's not specific enough. You _can_ get vmware software to run
>> virtual OS's but you can't set them up with it, I remember.
> 
> Things have changed:
> http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/server_beta.html
> 
> There is a free VMWare Sever (no longer beta) now, and you *can*
> create and configure VMs, install and run various gues OSes on it.


Great, it's on its way down to my disk. Thanks for the update.

On Jun 9, 8:24 am, "Andrew McLaren" <and...@somewhere.com> wrote:
> "John2005" <johnjmechani...@yahoo.com> wrote
>
> > I want to use a free program that seems to be compiled for an SGI IRIS
> > OS. The source files are available here...
> >http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/ftp/rmsl/usycams/
>
> SGI IRIX machines have a MIPS CPU. This is very different hardware to the
> SPARC or x86 CPUs which Solaris runs on. You cannot run a IRIX program on
> anything except a MIPS machine, such as an SGI Indy or Octane.
>
>
> Hope this helps a little bit,
> Andrew

You may want to look few companies that specialize in running compiled
binaries on alternative CPU architectures. The research and technology
has existed for many years, especially the last seven years, and
improved drastically.

- Ken

On Jun 9, 12:02 pm, Dick Hoogendijk <d...@nagual.nl> wrote:

>
> That's not specific enough. You _can_ get vmware software to run
> virtual OS's but you can't set them up with it, I remember. The main
> vmware thing is not free, is it?

Yes, you can set them up.  VMware server is free and has been for 6
months or more (see http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html).
I can confirm from first-hand experience that you can use this to set
up Solaris.  There is an enterprise product which has more features
and is not free.

> You may want to look few companies that specialize in running compiled
> binaries on alternative CPU architectures. The research and technology

Any specific suggestions?

Not saying you're wrong but, um ... my  experince has been that MIPS 
emulators on SPARC or x86 - such as QEMU or GXemul - are not really really 
viable, as fully fledged VMs; a la VMWare. Even getting IRIX to install on 
QEMU is difficult; let alone running any OpenGL applications.

The original poster would probably be better off buying a cheap second hand 
SGI Indy from eBay! 

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies.

If I can find an old IRIX machine on ebay at reasonable price, perhaps
that would be the way to go. I don't know anything about IRIX as I
have always used windows so I would need to make sure the machine
could actually run the program. Also, would I need to compile the
source code into an .exe file and if so, what is involved with doing
that ?

Thanks
John

> If I can find an old IRIX machine on ebay at reasonable price, perhaps
> that would be the way to go. I don't know anything about IRIX as I
> have always used windows so I would need to make sure the machine
> could actually run the program. Also, would I need to compile the
> source code into an .exe file and if so, what is involved with doing
> that ?

Hey John,

Gee, you must really love cam curves :-)

There are several good cam curve packages for Windows, like Camtrax - but I 
think they are quite expensive. Anyway, you probably already know about 
those.

The uCamSys download from McGill contains an already-compiled binary file, 
ready to run. It looks like its a MIPS COFF-format executable (begins with 
magic bytes x01 x60). It should run on any version of IRIX, even old ones. 
COFF is the predecessor to the more modern ELF format of Unix executable.

I have an SGI Octane running IRIX 6.5 on the shelf behind me. However it has 
been unplugged and switched off, for about 2 years. If I get time, I'll 
power it up and try running the uCamSys app, to see what happens. But I'm 
very lazy, so don't hold your breath waiting for me ... ;-)

You can probably buy a SGI Indy for under $100; probably for under $50. If 
you buy a second hand machine, make sure it already has IRIX installed; to 
buy a new copy of IRIX on CD from SGI costs something around $1,000 (yeah, 
seriously).

Indys date from around 1994, so they often have 64MB of RAM and, say, a 1GB 
SCSI disk. Those were very good specs, back then! The Indy uses a "13W3" 
style video connector, which was popular on Unix workstations in the 1990s. 
You can buy 13W3-to-VGA adapters for a few bucks, and plug in your regular 
PC monitor. Indy uses ordinary PS/2 style keyboard and mouse.

The uCamSys download has a Makefile, ready to run. So you should be able to 
compile the app, just by typing "make" at the command line. The Makefile 
contains all the complex dependencies. There's another small fly in the 
ointment: IRIX does not ship with a built-in C compiler! You need to either 
buy SGI's ProC compiler (or make sure it is already installed on your second 
hand Indy) or else, you can use gcc: the free, open source Gnu compiler. So 
you might need to download and install gcc. The Makefile should still work, 
but you'd need to change the "cc" command to "gcc".

An experienced Solaris C developer could probably convert the source code 
from IRIX to run on Solaris, or even Linux, in a couple of hours or less. 
But if you are not familiar with editing and compiling source code on Unix, 
it could bcome an enormous project.

Even if you cannot get uCamSys to run, you will have greatly increased your 
knowledge of Unix at this point! :-)

I'll let you know if I get more insights into the app.

Cheers
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thanks a million for  your reply & helpful feedback. I look forward to
hearing back if you have a little time to check into the app further.

Thanks again,
John