Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 13:38:48 -0500 (CDT) From: Mike Eldridge <diz@cafes.net> To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Alpha 4.x releases (production quality?) Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10010201319130.8064-100000@mail.cafes.net> In-Reply-To: <20001018214341.A4600@freebie.demon.nl>
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On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Wilko Bulte wrote: [snip] > > you couldn't boot from floppy because of a problem with the firmware. So > > I tried to boot from a cd. I do get sense errors from the cd-rom drive as > > it is booting, then it ends in the same errors. > > > > I guess my next step is to try a new version of the firmware. > > Yep. Helped my Multia pretty well. Okay, I've tried two different versions of the firmware. One version from digital's (or compaq i guess) site, it was pointed to by someone else on the list. I also tried your (Wilko) firmware version. Currently running firmware: BL5 V3.8-3 Aug 10 1995 03:22:55 The date on the firmware version from digital.com, as shown in the readme, was 1994. Every time I replaced the firmmware, it booted with the above version. IANAAE (I am not an alpha expert), but either a) the version from digital.com is actually 3.8-3 dated Aug 10 1995, or b) it won't downgrade firmware, which, to me, seems silly, so I'm betting on the former. Here's the interesting part... When attempting to replace the firmware with Wilko's version, the update process ran fine, but when it was rebooted, I got nothing on the console. No output from the video whatsoever. After a couple of reboots, still nothing. Does this firmware not support video out or something? I then rebooted with a "failsafe" image that was provided with my download from digital.com. Even though I couldn't see anything, the floppy was being accessed. I gave it a good 10 minutes to make sure it was done, then rebooted and viola, got my old SRM console back. At this point, I'm not quite sure what's going on. I'm going to peruse Compaq's site and see if I can find some more information. Surely someone has one of these godforsaken machines and has run into this problem. I have two identical alphas and they both do the same thing. I think I'm going to try an earlier release of FreeBSD and see if that works. Any insight, suggestions, and/or advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Mike ----------------------------------------------------- Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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