Re: Help for someone starting out with Alpha 3000/600

[Angelo Bertolli <angelo@freeshell.org>]

Marc Schlensog wrote:

> On Sun, 14 May 2006 17:11:33 -0400
> Angelo Bertolli <angelo@freeshell.org> wrote:
>
>  
>
> > I inherited an Alpha 3000/600 from someone, but haven't been able to
> > get it to boot.  I have tried the alpha mini CD for Debian just to
> > see if it would work.  I really don't know anything about what to
> > expect, and I don't even know if this system is usable or not, so I
> > thought I'd ask here:
> >
> > When booting I do not get any diagnostic screen (like it says in the 
> > manual).  I only get a lonely cursor blinking at the bottom of the 
> > screen after a few moments of HD whirring.  Does this mean something
> > bad?
> >
> > Also, I'm using a SCSI CDROM that uses CD caddies.  Are burned CDR's 
> > going to work with this machine?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Angelo
> >    
>
> Hi Angelo,
>
> you're pretty out of luck trying to get Linux working on a DEC3000.
> Although there exists a port for these kind of machines, it is pretty
> experimental. You might want to go for NetBSD or grab a hobbyist license
> of OpenVMS.
>  
My first order of business is to gather some information on whether or 
not this machine has a serious problem that will prevent it from 
booting.  I don't think it had been used in quite some time, so I'm 
trying to figure out whether or not the machine is usable, and if so, 
will it read the CD on boot and start from a CDR?  I'm totally 
unfamiliar with these systems, but from my searches online I think I 
should be able to boot from CD.

Angelo