Debian Installation upon an Alpha Server 4000 5/400
To Whom It May Concern at Debian:
First -- Love the release 4.0r1 -- best yet! Used Debian on 32 bit before.
Next, not sure who to report this to and/or ask the question, as I am
relatively new to using the Debian site (used Redhat and SuSe in past),
anyway hopefully I have the right people I am e-mailing to in Debian --->
The issue is booting Debian Disk1 KDE on an Alpha Server 4000 5/400
system -- after many iterations and contortions with different Ultra Wide
Differential SCSI controllers -- I was able to utilize an Adaptec AHA-2944UW
controller card to have Debian locate a disk and complete a full
installation 99% successfully.
The last 1% is the booting of the formated, file system created, installed
Debian system which does NOT boot with the AHA-2944UW controller because the
driver for this card is in the distribution and thus found a disk during the
cdrom boot process, but the Alpha BIOS does NOT know about this card so any
"auto" boot sequence is out of the question... So reporting to Debian my
experience(s) is that:
*** the Adaptec AHA-2944UW - ultra wide differential scsi card is NOT
supported in the BIOS of Alpha Server 4000 and 4100's
*** the preferred controllers (used for VMS clusters and/or Tru64 Unix on
any 4000 or 4100 Alphas) KZPSA, KZPSA-BB, KZPSA-BB_N, or KZPSA-PS used for
Raid support with Ultra Wide Differential SCSI support for SCSI disks and
Storageworks is supported withing the BIOS of any 4000/4100 AlphaServer but
there is NO DRIVER within the Debian Linux Distribution that I could find
(or any Linux that I can find) and thus auto booting is impossible.
Which brings me to my questions:
1) Obviously Debian is supported on the Alphas (as with the Adaptec card,
once a disk is found in the boot process the auto load installers created by
Debian work great!!!), but my question is two fold -- the listed drivers
provided on either the standard disk1 or the KDE disk1 --->
Is there documentation describing what each driver is and what it
supports????? for example there is a "qla1280" or an "sg" or an "ips" --
what equipment does each support???? and
2) Is there a matrix documentation for Alpha Installations as to what are
the preferred and usable controllers and associated functions such as Raid,
Ultra Wide Differential etc. with each driver supplied by the out of the box
Debian system?
A few more questions:
3) If anyone at Debian supplies me with what controllers (cards) are
supported by each listed driver supplied with respect to any ALPHA server, I
will test the cards I have to give back a fuller matrix as to what cards are
supported in the BIOS of an ALPHA, so after one "installs" Debian, the
installed Debian will boot.
I now know two cards that do NOT work (See above) -- I am trying to located
a list of no-Raid and Raid cards that will work and that will also support
storage works, clusters, and simultaneously VMS, Tru64 and our favorite
Debian :).
Any help from any Debian Kernal and/or Boot Expert would be appreciated!!
Finally,
4) Does anyone know IF a:
KZPAC -- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 3 CH RAID CONTROLLER BD will work?
KZPAC-AA -- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 1 CH RAID CONTROLLER BD will work?
29-33446-01-- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 1 CH RAID CONTROLLER BD will work?
KZPAC-CA -- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 3 CH RAID CONTROLLER BD will work?
29-33447-01-- KZPBA-CB UltraWide SCSI RAID, 4MB CONTROLLER BD will work?
KZPAC-CB -- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 3 CH Raid Controller Board will work?
KZPAC-XD -- Mylex DAC960 SCSI 1 CH Raid Controller Board will work?
KZPAC-XE -- PCI to UW 3 CH SCSI Raid Controller Board, 4MB will work?
KZPAC-XF -- PCI to UW 3 CH SCSI Raid Controller Board, 8MB will work?
KZPAC-XE_N -- PCI to UW 3 CH SCSI Raid Controller Board, 8MB will work?
KZPBA -- PCI TO UW SCSI disk controller will work?
KZPBA-CA -- PCI TO 3 CH UW SCSI disk controller will work?
KZPBA-CB -- PCI TO UW DIFF SCSI disk controller will work? *
KZPBA-CX -- PCI TO UW SCSI INTELLIGENT disk controller will work?
ISP1020 -- QLogic Wide SCSI Controller BD will work?
KZPBA-CX_N -- PCI to UW SCSI Intelligent Disk Controller will work?
KZPBA-CY -- PCI to UW DIFF SCSI Disk Controller will work?
(connects to HSZ(10,20,50,70,80), NO Raid)
400295 -- Compaq UW DIFF SCSI Disk Controller will work?
ISP1040 -- QLogic UW DIFF SCSI Controller Board will work?
NOTE: all three (3) above are same card!
KZPBA-CY_N -- PCI to UW DIFF SCSI Disk Controller will work?
Thank you all in advance for any support and time provided.
Regards,
Robert Garron
914-472-2374 x21 Office with voice mail
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