booting and other questions

[Alex Winbow <awinbow@mail.utexas.edu>]

After reading all the FAQs/HOWTOs/AlphaLinux web page, I turn here; I hope
these questions aren't RTFM. 

	I have a sx164/AlphaBIOS 5.62-1 running slink with kernel 2.2.12. 

1) I'm currently using an IDE disk and cdrom. I'm autobooting using
AlphaBIOS --> linload.exe on the cdrom --> milo on the cdrom --> kernel on
hda1.

	1a) I'd like to cut the CDROM out of the chain. How do I do
	this under IDE? 

	1b) Does rdev exist/work to put the root device string into the
	kernel?

	1c) Will switching to SCSI improve matters?	

	1d) Is SRM available on the board, and is there any benefit to
	using it?
	
	1e) Can MILO or the kernel image be written to flash?


2) I grabbed the DU Netscape 4.7 tarball and the DU libraries, following
the FAQ. Netscape dies needing extra libraries not listed in the docs,
eventually libots, libcxx, and libexc. After adding these, netscape works.
Any particular reason?


3) From prior posts I gather that EM86 on glibc 2.1 is broke, and EM86 is
not actively maintained? Does EM86 work on slink?

	
4) I run x86 on bleeding-edge potato; (thanks be to the wonderful
developers who make unstable more stable than other groups's relases!)
I've already switched the alpha to kernel 2.2, is there anything else I
need to be aware of before upgrading? 

	
	I hope these aren't too many questions; I haven't found current,
applicable answers posted elsewhere despite a fair bit of searching. 


						Thanks very much,

						Alex Winbow

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