Resources

This section lists the resources that are available to you before and during installation, or during configuration and use of your SGI system.

IRIX 6.5 Overview Information

This section provides information about hardware system platforms and peripherals, the IRIX CD descriptions, internationalization, and supported third-party software.

Supported Hardware System Platforms and Peripherals

To find out more information about the supported hardware and peripherals, see the Minimum Requirements page.

CD Descriptions

See the CD Descriptions page for a detailed description about each CD.

Internationalization

See the Language and Cultural Support page for information on how to set up your system for different locales.

Supported Third-Party Software

To find out about supported third-party software and peripherals, see the SGI Applications & Solutions Directory (http://www.sgi.com/products/appsdirectory.dir/appsdirectory.html), a comprehensive guide to over 3,100 third-party software applications, peripherals, and services for SGI workstations and servers.

Freeware

SGI's Freeware web page http://freeware.sgi.com provides free downloads of many powerful open-source applications, packaged for convenient over-the-web installation onto your IRIX system. Graphics, design, development, media, desktop, utilities, web serving, system administration, and games software are available, including GNOME, KDE, Gimp, CDrecord, TeX/LaTeX, ViewFax, PlotUtils, Abiword, Gnumeric, Samba, Sharity, Mpg123, and many others.

General Documentation

This section provides information on the types of documentation that are available with this IRIX release.

Release Notes

You can access release notes for each software product in a few different ways, including:

  • Before installation, you can use the Base Documentation CD.

  • On systems running 6.3 or later, you can use Software Manager to read the release notes by selecting the product name from the distribution list and choosing Selected > Release Notes... .

  • After installation, choose Release Notes from the Toolchest Help menu.

Check for Caveat and Release Note Updates, which contain late-breaking information, at Supportfolio Online.

IRIX Man Pages

The IRIX man pages are available on the Technical Publications Library Web site at http://techpubs.sgi.com.

IRIX Manuals

Installed | Printed | On the Web

Installed

SGI documentation is installed by default. Most applications have a Help menu or Help button. You can also use the Help menu on the Toolchest.

Some things you will find under Toolchest > Help:

  • InfoSearch: "One-stop shopping" and searching for virtually all installed documentation, including online books, Man pages and Release Notes. (To launch InfoSearch from the command line, enter infosearch in a shell.)

  • Quick Answers: Quick answers to common questions related to the tasks and tools that are a part of your system's end user software environment, including personal system administration tasks. Includes search capability.

  • Hints and Shortcuts: A visual overview of hints and shortcuts for the IRIX Interactive Desktop.

  • Online Books: A searchable library of online books.

Note: You can also access online documentation before (and after) installation, by using the Base Documentation CD.

Printed

Each system comes with an Owner's Guide. Hardware boards and peripherals also come with printed documentation. In addition, some hardware documentation is shipped online, and most hardware documentation can also be found on the Technical Publications Library Web site (listed below).

On the Web

Another place to find general documentation is on the Web:

  • http://techpubs.sgi.com

    The IRIX 6.5 bookshelf on the Technical Publications Library Web site allows you to access all IRIX 6.5 books on the Web. It includes hardware books as well. You can search for a manual by entering its title or document number in the keyword search. You can download PDF files by clicking on the book's download link.

  • http://www.sgi.com/developers/technology/index.html

    Tech Focus provides easy access to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Newsgroups and much more.
     

Technical Support

SGI Technology Solutions

Complete information about SGI Technology Solutions, including worldwide support contact information, can be found at http://www.sgi.com/support/supportcenters.html.

Telephone Support

Obtaining service is easy. Simply contact the SGI Customer Support Center(CSC) for person-to-person technical assistance. The SGI CSC provides assistance in the following areas:

  • Hardware and software telephone technical support
  • Opening a service call or checking the status of an existing call
  • Requesting on-site assistance or replacement parts
  • Ordering spare parts

Service is provided in accordance with your system's current level of support. Service varies by warranty coverage and support program.

Online Support

Supportfolio Online (http://support.sgi.com/) provides you with online access to software downloads, technical help, including the SGI Knowledgebase, service call logging and tracking, and much more. You can also sign up for our email notification service to automatically receive updates on new support information and features.

Sign up for your free Supportfolio ID. It's easy and quick.

To experience the benefits of all of Supportfolio's features, you must have a support contract with a software component.

General Software Patches

Information about software patches that apply to the general user environment can also be found on Supportfolio (under the Browse Collections and Downloads sections).