Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 07:07:49 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au> To: alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: HEADS UP, floppy installs desupported for 5.0 (fwd) Message-ID: <20021106200749.GJ6446@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au> In-Reply-To: <3DC9022E.6535EBBF@mindspring.com> References: <108E7D907871D6118B5000306E0189F85759A2@ednex504.dsto.defence.gov.au> <20021105002107.GA48239@dragon.nuxi.com> <20021105083559.B5083@freebie.xs4all.nl> <3DC77F65.727CCDA8@mindspring.com> <20021106080934.GA97235@dragon.nuxi.com> <20021106112120.A11476@freebie.xs4all.nl> <3DC9022E.6535EBBF@mindspring.com>
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On 2002-Nov-06 03:51:10 -0800, Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> wrote: >Wilko Bulte wrote: >> On Wed, Nov 06, 2002 at 12:09:34AM -0800, David O'Brien wrote: >> > On Tue, Nov 05, 2002 at 12:20:53AM -0800, Terry Lambert wrote: >> > > Yet... my DEC labelled Alpha box has a floppy drive, but doesn't >> > > have a CDROM drive, unless I hook my own to the SCSI connector... >> > >> > When was the last time you booted that box? When was the last time you >> > installed FreeBSD on that box? >> >> Lemme guess... Multia? > >Yes, Multia. > >I guess the answer to this problem can be the same as the answer to >several other recent problems, and you can declare the hardware >unsupported... not my first choice, of course. I'd also be disappointed if the Multia was de-supported. I'll agree with Terry that the Multia forms a convenient, low-cost solution for developers who want to keep a toe in the Alpha camp without needing to shell out lots of money. (And if developers were forced to test on something like a Multia, they might develop a greater appreciation for efficient code :-). Given that "netboot it" has been a common suggestion for installing FreeBSD on CDROM-less Alphas, it's probably worth mentioning that the FreeBSD netboot is incompatible at least with Multia SRM 3.8.3 (the last). The problem is that netboot's definition of `broken_firmware' in /usr/src/sys/boot/alpha/libalpha/srmnet.c does not cover the Multia (at least with SRM 3.8.3). This SRM is broken enough to need the MAC address explicitly included in netbbinfo, but call to prom_read() in prom_get() _does_ need to specify the receiving structure size (ie the broken_firmware test is not needed). I thought I'd written a PR about this in late 1999 but can't find it and there's been no change to srmnet.c. I'll submit a new PR later today. Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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