r.in.ascii

Working through a new install of Grass 4.1 on a SGI Indigo with a new 5.3
operating system, I am having trouble reading in ASCII files to convert
to GRASS format using r.in.ascii.
Even using the 10x15 example data set given on page
341 in the GRASS 4.1 User's Reference Manual gets me only a blank white
output from d.rast. The r.in.ascii command seems fine when it runs
although it does not set up a /colr subdirectory nor consequent color
file when it does run. Faking a color file gets me a solid mauve (am
improvement over the white?) output from d.rast.

My suspicion is the interface between the GRASS4.1/XGRASS4.1 software and
the color table of the SGI system.

I'd appreciate any clues, hints, suggestions and, yes, even answers.

Denis