Re: MILO. now it boots - but ...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Phil Oleson wrote:
> Okay, let me try to add a little sanity to all the suggestions. There
> are 2 ways of partitioning an Alpha. One is to use BSD disklabels, the
> other is to use x86 partitions. I'm not very versed in bsd disklabels,
> so I'll let the ealier info stand on its own merit. (btw if somone
> knows where a howto on bsd disklabels etc I'd appreciate it) If this
> is your 1st foray into alpha from x86 machines, I'd suggest using the
> same partitions you are used to.
I now use BSD disklabels on my UDB. I found this to be slightly
complicated, and not easy to set up, but it has been working much better
for me. I used to have problems with ARC and MILO, but SRM has been
working reliably, and with no problems.
The biggest obstacle I found was that the fdisk on the Debian root floppy
is broken. It doesn't write a magic number in the disklabel.
My solution was to compile minlabel, and make a modified root disk with
that on it. Btw, minlabel doesn't know how to make Linux reload the
partition tables, so I had to reboot the floppy after writing the
disklabel. You can find this disk image at:
http://www.utsl.org/download/hacked_debian_disk/debian_alpha_2.1_root1440.gz
The rest of what you need to know is in the SRM Howto. The main thing to
watch out for is that minlabel and fdisk will show BSD-style partition
names /dev/sd0a, but Linux will still use /dev/sda1. That, and make sure
to leave 1-2M for aboot.
This configuration is the only one I've used (on i386 or alpha) where it's
possible to change kernels simply by changing a symlink, and rebooting!
If I can get the time, I'll right up a HOWTO.
---Nathan
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3a
Charset: noconv
iQDVAwUBN1gb7qUqhOQsTZ+hAQHpCwX+Ncrvsv4P/JPDA7sgOdlFvPQdRrUYg6+d
F0iMOkCrdobfDjYlGxXpPSzAZ4kFDua4Yj6Ghofxp41J8p8MbUIez+nlPyOI70Hw
3ZALTtaQrQP8gySjUSXcmLzfqBGZCCsnO8mQ9DBjGFVCwKztbB/vOlrX3PUFYibm
+pf2lAGeglAavG6/edP04ayzhSlc7ymIPtdMuiKYXwm6LWXE/yTsPZgd0YkFov99
klichvRtP59rUFa67aq9ccYTEaUQDkAj
=3C5D
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply to: