Alexandre Fayolle wrote:
Hi, I got hold of an Alphastation 500 a few days ago and I'm trying to install Sarge on it (I thought I could maybe help testing the installer). While I'm quite at ease with Debian on intel machines, I'm a total newbie when it comes to Alpha machines, SRM and the like, though I've read the SRM howto. (I should probably read it a couple more timesto get things going).
(snip)I've done several debian installs on a PWS 500a as well as on an LX164 starting with the JUMPSTART! cd -- but not with the new installer, though.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/jumpstartIt's a cd containing an exe that you can run from alphabios or srm (so you don't need to boot the cd directly) that will hold your hand setting up the hard drive partitions and preparing for the regular debian install. It offers a rescue environment as well.
It seemed pretty foolproof in taking care of the alpha-specific boot necessities (special partitions, reserved "empty space" and loaders) and then handing control off to a distribution installer, but I never see it mentioned on this list so perhaps there are downsides that I'm unaware of.
Ed