Re: booting and other questions
On Sun, Dec 26, 1999 at 02:25:24AM -0600, Alex Winbow wrote:
> After reading all the FAQs/HOWTOs/AlphaLinux web page, I turn here; I hope
> these questions aren't RTFM.
Hi Alex,
Hehehe... These are indead the questions that are anwered in the FAQ...
> 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?
http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/alphabios-howto.html
> 1b) Does rdev exist/work to put the root device string into the
> kernel?
the commandline boot hda2:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/hda2 can be given in the OS
parameters of AlphaBios.
> 1c) Will switching to SCSI improve matters?
It does if you consider the speed. My (SX) IDE speed was about 5Mb/s. The UW
SCSI setup now pulls about 20Mb/s. Also the processor hogg has decreased
substantially.
> 1d) Is SRM available on the board, and is there any benefit to
> using it?
It is available. I saw a link on c.o.l.alpha the other day, pointing to a
sx164 rom. See the archive of the axp-list (redhat) for such comments. Also
AlphaLinux.org is a good source!
> 1e) Can MILO or the kernel image be written to flash?
Yes (AFAIK). See the AlphaBios howto.
>
> 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?
I don't know. I don't have DU running on a system near me.
> 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?
Yes it does. If I remenber correctly, a new EM86 version for glibc 2.1 floats
around somewhere. You'll have to look for it though... I can give you any
pointers.
> 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?
Upgrade to 2.2.13 (2.2.12 has some bugs and 2.2.13 is rock solid!). Use apt to
upgrade. There were some issues to upgrade without any problems. These include
upgrading bash (and depends), ncurses, libc in 1 run. But see the debian-alpha
archives on this. I do not know for sure this is an issue anymore... Maybe
someone else can comment on this!
> I hope these aren't too many questions; I haven't found current,
> applicable answers posted elsewhere despite a fair bit of searching.
No problem!
B.
--
B. Warmerdam GNU/Debian Linux
bartw@xs4all.nl, bartw@debian.org (Keyid: 10A0FDD1) ----------------
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