Alpha, additional notes and a question...

[Darin Perusich]

take a look at http://www.linuxalpha.org/ for detailed info on running 
linux on alpha processors. you don't necessarily need to burn the cd's 
to install the OS on your system, if you have a fast internet connection 
that is. i did a network installation of debian stable on my Sun IPX 
over my cable modem in about 1 hour or so.

Ronald Maggio wrote:

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>     ----- Original Message -----
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>     From: Ronald Maggio <mailto:r.v.maggio at worldnet.att.net>
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>     To: nflug at nflug.org <mailto:nflug at nflug.org>
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>     Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 6:43 AM
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>     Subject: Re: Alpha, additional notes and a question...
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>         ----- Original Message -----
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>         From: Cyber Source <mailto:peter at thecybersource.com>
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>         To: nflug at nflug.org <mailto:nflug at nflug.org>
> 
>         Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:07 PM
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>         Subject: RE: Alpha, additional notes and a question...
> 
> 
>         Just wanted to cue in here and say that I experience a similar
>         situation on an UPGRADE. Bob Meyer and I worked on it and
>         eventually found:
>         1. BIOS (Motherboard NOT scsi) played a vital role in handing
>         the boot process to scsi over ide
>         2. On the upgrade, the necessary init link/file was not passed
>         to the boot strap.
>         This was determined through various steps but the most
>         noticeable was when (after suspecting hardware failure of course
>         :)) was on a fresh install everything worked and booted fine.
>         There are only a handful of scsi adapter manufacturers (less
>         than ide for sure), it's not inconceivable to think they put all
>         the adapter drivers on the distros.
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>         <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
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>         Well this is what I think is happening with Joseph's Alpha box.
>         First he was installing an OS other RedHat that may not have had
>         the drivers needed to set up the raid scsi card right.
>         Secondly using RedHat does not guarantee that either, but from
>         what I understood it was booting and not seeing the raid
>         controller card? Plus it did not see the drives. So lets say
>         (if) the card was seen that does not mean that the drives where
>         set up correctly. When I tried to install the OS on mine it saw
>         the scsi controller but had a problem with the drives. The odds
>         are that in Joe's case  that the raid scsi card not having
>         drivers available in the RedHat distro could be. But even if (
>         and I'm no expert if the drives where or not setup correctly )
>         say if the card is seen, but if the drives are not set just
>         right it may or may not have an influence as to weather the raid
>         scsi card functions correctly. Also it could be a bad card who
>         knows?  I've yet to see the box or see an attempt to do install
>         in action on the box in question. We'll find out in time the
>         in's and out's of the beast.
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>         Till future correspondence.
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>          
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>         Ron:)
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>          
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>         P.S. Boy I dun type good...Not!  Look at all the typo's and not
>         so perfect grammar. Its now 7am and I'm just getting coffee. I
>         think I should wait till I get some coffee in me before I start
>         writing.
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>          
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>         Ron:)
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>         On Wed, 2002-05-22 at 17:55, Todd Wirth wrote:
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>             On the subject of RedHat kernel having default support for a
>             every SCSI adapter I disagree. We have a Dell server running
>             RedHat 7.2, although I wasn't involved in the upgrade to a
>             newer kernel (Dell provided), I know what happened through
>             various emails between Dell and our other IT guy. They
>             tried 2 stock RedHat kernels that did not work with our SCSI
>             adapter, until finally the 3rd one did the trick. I was
>             about to take over the project and just compile a kernel,
>             but that would have voided our support w/ Dell & RedHat.
>              
>             I'm not too sure about the hardware as this server (besides
>             a Xeon) is in a remote office, but I did see the email
>             traffic, and you could tell the Dell guys were stumped. ;)
>              
>             -- Todd
> 


-- 
Darin Perusich
Unix Systems Administrator
Cognigen Corp.
darinper at cognigencorp.com