Re: Bug#23143: make-kpkg fails on Alpha
Jesse Goldman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As far as I know, the milo "package" doesn't consist of an executable or
> config files but, rather, is a binary image written to the disk which does
> the same job after the SRM console or ARC boot loader (which one you get
> seems to depend upon the Alpha chipset in question) hands off. I haven't
> seen any evidence of it in the file system.
>
> J. Goldman
I'm not an expert but milo is used only on ARC/Alphabios consoles.
Something called aboot is used for SRM. Also, you use bsd-labeled
disks for SRM and leave some blank space at the front of the disk
to use for the boot image from what I've read. Milo is installed in
a DOS filesystem along with linload.exe. What appears to happen
when you boot under ARC/Alphabios is that ARC/Alphabios start
linload.exe. Linload.exe then loads milo. Milo then loads your favorite
kernel image and you're off and running. I don't know what magic
linload.exe does but the source is not available. I guess it somehow
fools ARC/Alphabios into loading something other than WinNT.
Anyway, setting up boots on Alphas is non-trivial and has two
separate paths. I also read about building milo. Seems you need
to configure a simple kernel with little device support and no
modules before actually building milo based on it. That means
picking a couple SCSI controllers, a couple network cards,
your console, vga or tga, base TCPIP, NFS I suppose, cdrom
file system, ext2 file system, etc. I know Adaptec and Symbios
SCSI are supported. Also some Qlogic cards. Network would
probably be de4x5 or tulip and maybe NE2000 compatibles.
Use tga for the built in video systems, vga for standard cards.
I'm sure I've left stuff out but that's the basic idea. Plus, you
have to pick the proper machine type. I read somewhere that
the correct thing to do for Linux was to have unique PAL code
for each architecture and not mess with machine types in the
kernel source. Unfortunately, that isn't done and I don't know
if anyone is working on it. That would mean milo would have to
be smarter too and load the proper PAL code.
my $.02.
Wes
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