Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 19:33:03 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: shsrms@bellatlantic.net Cc: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Potential Newbie Question Message-ID: <199912130333.TAA04994@mass.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 12 Dec 1999 11:58:00 EST." <3853D418.E9D31DFA@bellatlantic.net>
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> Hi, > I have been using NetBSD on my Vaxen for a few years. > I have gotten interested in FreeBSD and am considering > setting up my newest alpha to run FreeBSD. > > I have a couple of questions that relate to my new > PC164. > > Looking in the various FreeBSD resources on the net, I do find > refs to jkh running SCSI drives on a PC164, so, does FreeBSD support > IDE drives on this beast? They should work, but you can't boot from them (only the PC164SX supports that AFAIK). > What are the supported/recommended video cards? Same as for the x86 - note that we don't support the TGA cards. In reality your prospects are a little more limited - eg. I have had no luck with TNT-based cards on the Alpha. I've had good results with #9 and Matrox cards though. > Now one, might be really dumb question, but that is ok.. > What is the best way to install FreeBSD on the alpha - > I can acquire a CD, I can do the floppies, I could do the FTP across the > net- FTP installs work well. We're still a bit early on with the Alpha CD distributions, and floppy installs are _agonising_. > I have looked into it a little, figuring on setting up a PC with Free on > it, just to play before I tackle the alpha, but I have been a little > frustrated, coming from the Netbsd environment where I can just download > the tarball and go at it, Free does not seem to do it that way. Am I off > base here? Just looking at things from a different angle. I'm not sure what you mean by "just download the tarball and go at it" - you still have to bootstrap the system and suck the tarball in. With FreeBSD all you download are the floppy images; it'll do all the rest itself. > I have been wrong before, I have missed stuff, so If I am missing > something now, please feel free to give me a clue!! Sounds like you're headed in about the right direction; if you want to tinker I'd recommend going to ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/alpha, grab the kern.flp and mfsroot.flp images out of the floppies directory in the most recent snapshot there, cut them onto floppies and boot the kern.flp image. Just about everything from there should be pretty self-explanatory (but feel free to ask). Don't forget the point about booting from IDE drives though. -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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