Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 09:30:29 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Victor Carranza <victorc@BitSmart.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Freebsd on the Alpha... Message-ID: <19990205093029.X1179@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <36B9CBFA.38C1B44F@BitSmart.com>; from Victor Carranza on Thu, Feb 04, 1999 at 10:34:02AM -0600 References: <36B9CBFA.38C1B44F@BitSmart.com>
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On Thursday, 4 February 1999 at 10:34:02 -0600, Victor Carranza wrote: > Hi everybody! > > My boss gave me a DEC AlphaServer 400 4/233, and instructed me to throw > away Digital Unix and to install Linux or FreeBSD. Of course, I want to > put FreeBSD on it, but I haven't found any instructions on how to begin > the installation process. RedHat Linux has a very understandable > tutorial about that (but heck, I don't know what is the code name for > this machine in particular, so I don't know what version of the loader > to install). Anyway, I want FreeBSD, not Linux... so, please somebody > tell me where to look for information about this matter, besides the > FreeeBSD/Alpha pages. I'm working on an addendum for the next reprint of The Complete FreeBSD. This is what I currently have on the subject. Please let me know what's missing, and I'll make sure that it's in the printed version (and send you a copy too). Greg Support for Compaq/DEC Alpha Processor ______________________________________ Support for Compaq (previously Digital Equipment Corporation or DEC) AXP processors and Alpha systems was introduced with FreeBSD 3.0. FreeBSD requires the same SRM console firmware as Digital UNIX. It will not work with the ARC firmware used with Microsoft NT. If your system is currently running Digital UNIX, then you should be able to use the existing SRM console. You can get firmware updates from ftp://gatekeeper.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/firmware. Note that the SRM firmware is board-specific, so take care to choose the correct file that matches your exact system: near enough is not good enough! Unfortunately, some Alpha systems do not support the SRM firmware. You cannot run FreeBSD on these systems. The SRM console commands differ from one version to another. The commands supported by your version are described in the hardware manual that was shipped with your system. The console help command lists all supported console commands. If your system has been set to boot automatically, you must type Ctrl-C to interrupt the boot process and get to the SRM console prompt (>>>). If the system is not set to boot automatically, it will display the SRM console prompt after performing system checks. All SRM console versions support the set and show commands which operate on environment variables that are stored in non-volatile memory. The show command lists all environment variables, including those that are read-only. The SRM console boot command has the following syntax: b[oot] -fl flags -fi filename boot_device These parameters have the following meaning: o flags is a string that is passed to the operating system. If it contains spaces, you must surround it with double quotes. When booting FreeBSD, these are the boot flags. For example, setting flags to s instructs the kernel to boot to single user mode. See boot(8) for more details. If the flags parameter is not defined in the boot command, the value defaults to the value of the boot_osflags environment variable. o filename is the name of the file to load, usually the operating system kernel. When booting FreeBSD, set filename to kernel or omit the filename parameter to boot from the default kernel. o boot_device is the device name (such as dka100). Your hardware reference manual describes the device naming convention used in your system. If the boot_device parameter is not defined in the boot command, the value defaults to the value of the bootdef_dev environment variable. If your system was previously set to boot automatically, the following command should cause the power up sequence stop at the SRM console prompt: set auto_action 3 The SRM console show device command lists the system devices that were detected during the power up checks. If you want to install FreeBSD from a CD-ROM or floppy disk, the device must be listed in the device list. To install from that device, just type: boot device_name at the SRM console prompt. From this point on, the rest of the installation is the same as for the Intel architecture. -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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