Re: EB164 SRM Problems
On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 11:37:20PM +0100, S.D. Pais wrote:
>
> I've just got hold of a 4 port Adaptec NIC, which I'ld like to place in my
> EB164 alpha, since I'm aa little short on expansion slots. Only after
> inserting this card, the system doens't boot up. Just in a hunch I switched
> to the ARC firmware (I just love those large roms), and what the heck, it
> booted up just fine... And so now I'm able to run my alpha just fine _with_
> the 4port NIC, and even some old ISA video card works (didn't boot on SRM
> either, having another PCI slot freed suits me just _fine_). But still I
> think/assume SRM is the better choice to boot linux when left the option. So
> I was wondering if there's a way to fix this behaviour. I guess SRM fails on
> the init of the PCI Bridge chip used on the NIC (DECchip 21154 rev02),
> whilst it doesn't have any problems with the one (DECchip 21050 rev02) on my
> SCSI adapter.
Your guess is correct; SRM on the EB164 doesn't know about newer bridges.
And yes, SRM is the preferred console for booting Linux.
> The only real difference I could see was upon booting, SRM says it uses BOIS
> Emulation V1.5, whereas ARC states Emulation V2.02... But I haven't got a
> clue if these to are interchangable between both Firmware, let alone on how
> to accomplish such a task.
This might have an impact on what VGA cards would be correctly BIOS-inited,
but on little else (and not the newer-bridge problem :-).
> Anyone has any ideas on how to get this baby to work with SRM, or any
> arguments on why not to bother and just keep using ARC (which parts of
> ARC/milo make it less favorable as opposed to SRM?)
If use of the 4-port NIC is important, by all means keep using MILO.
SRM console has more complete/tested PALcode for support of Linux, but
the MILO-provided PALcode should work OK.
Good luck.
--Jay++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay A Estabrook HPTC - LINUX support
Hewlett-Packard Company - MRO1-2/K15 (508) 467-2080
200 Forest Street, Marlboro MA 01752 Jay.Estabrook@hp.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: