From owner-freebsd-alpha Mon May 14 7:24:41 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from maiatech.com (maiatech.com [204.246.250.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1354E37B43E for ; Mon, 14 May 2001 07:24:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from msmith@code-fu.com) Received: from TECHY07.code-fu.com (hqbusi04-gw.pipex.net [158.43.125.190]) by maiatech.com (8.11.0/8.11.0) with ESMTP id f4EEMkP02448 for ; Mon, 14 May 2001 10:22:46 -0400 Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.2.20010514151609.00a6dc48@www.maiatech.com> X-Sender: msmith@www.maiatech.com (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 15:24:21 +0100 To: From: "Michael A. Smith" Subject: Re: 500au In-Reply-To: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 09:42 2001-05-14 +0200, Riccardo.Veraldi@fi.infn.it wrote: >I saw a offer a good one about 500a (NOT 500au) >is the 500a model supported very well ?? >I mean if I have a scsi board adaptec or QLogic PCI boards >will it work with freebsd ?? >I mean is the a model as good as the au models running FreeBSD or might I >have lotsa problems ?? I can't give you a FreeBSD answer (I know...), but I can shed some light on the situation from a Linux perspective (running SRM). I bought a PWS433a on ebay to run Linux. I checked the digital/Compaq sites to get old manuals, etc... (very good resources to be had). I upgraded the BIOS to the latest version of SRM for the machine. The "a" models (433a, 500a, 600a) are a tiny bit different from the "au" models. They have Adaptec SCSI boards (from which you cannot boot via SRM) PLUS the motherboard layouts are a bit different. They *are* physically different machines. I swapped my Adaptec SCSI with a Tekram SCSI board that SRM recognizes. I also pulled the weird two-slot video card and replaced it with an old Matrox Millenium II I had lying about. Then I installed Linux. I've not had a single problem. The SRM even identifies the machine as a 433au now (even though it's not). I've had great luck with the machine. Good luck! -- "When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." -- Samuel Johnson -- Michael A. Smith To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message