Bootable cdroms (was: Hows Alphadebian doing?)
On Mon 04 Jan 1999, Maurice Hilarius wrote:
> With regards to your message at 12:36 PM 01-04-99 +0100, Paul Slootman.
> Where you stated:
> >
> >The problem is that there is no standard for bootable cdroms on Alpha
> >systems like there is for Intel systems. E.g. the NT stuff will only
> >work on systems that have an ARC bios, and even then maybe only on
> >specific versions. Additionally, it seems that the specs for that is
> >not openly available...
>
> Nonsense. You have it almost exactly backwards.
> Booting from CDROM is possible on any alpha running SRM, and on most
> running ARC or AlphaBIOS. How do you think Digital UNIX is installed? With
> a floppy?
I wouldn't be surprised. Solaris x86 can _only_ be installed with a
floppy; we tried creating a bootable cdrom here but that crashed the
system at the moment the kernel takes over.
> The only OS you need a floppy for is Linux.
I'd love to hear details on how to fix this then, as you seem
knowledgeable on the subject. I have a cd-recordable so I won't mind
experimenting with cdroms on my XLT and Multia to create a bootable
cdrom for alpha.
As the Red Hat alpha cdroms aren't bootable either (at least, they
weren't when I last checked), and they have this magnificent intel
and sparc installation procedures (both architectures have bootable
cdroms) I assumed that the task on Alpha was much much more difficult.
> >> Not so important, but how is the "Install Windows NT" working in the
> BIOS ??
> >
> >As I said, I believe most Alpha's don't have that option in their bios.
>
> All do. Yes, I said _ALL_ with ARC, ARCS, or AlphaBIOS.
No, you said "..., and on most running ARC or AlphaBIOS". That's
"most", not "_ALL_". I left your quote in.
> A boot floppy is not a curse, just for install purposes, but to say it is
> needed is misleading..
The question of bootable Alpha cdroms has come up before, and no one
could say anything about it at the time. You apparently know a lot about
it. So, _please_ give some info on the subject instead of simply saying
"nonsense, you're wrong, of course it can be done", which is next to
useless.
Paul Slootman
--
home: paul@wurtel.demon.nl | work: paul@murphy.nl | debian: paul@debian.org
http://www.wurtel.demon.nl | Murphy Software, Enschede, the Netherlands
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