From owner-freebsd-platforms Thu Dec 18 19:19:12 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id TAA15433 for platforms-outgoing; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 19:19:12 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-platforms) Received: from set.spradley.dyn.ml.org (fcn105-84.tmi.net [207.170.105.84]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id TAA15425 for ; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 19:19:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tsprad@spradley.dyn.ml.org) Received: from set.spradley.dyn.ml.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by set.spradley.dyn.ml.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id VAA28463; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 21:49:03 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from tsprad@set.spradley.dyn.ml.org) Message-Id: <199712190349.VAA28463@set.spradley.dyn.ml.org> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: port-alpha@netbsd.org, misc@openbsd.org, freebsd-platforms@freebsd.org Subject: DEC Alpha XL 366, can it run BSD? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 21:49:02 -0600 From: Ted Spradley Sender: owner-freebsd-platforms@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I just found out I'm going to have a happy Christmas indeed. My wife was playing at an internet auction and accidentally bought a Digital XL 366 Alpha, model no. SN-A23AA. Unfortunately, it comes with (gag!) WinNT. Please, tell me I can install BSD on this thing without being a certified kernel hacker. It's a 366 MHz 21164 with PCI and ISA bus slots, comes with a Matrox Millenium video adapter. I seem to recall from lurking on Alpha-BSD mailing lists in years past that there was an issue with Alphas configured to run NT not being able to boot BSD, you had to have boot ROMS configured for Digital Unix. I hope that's not still a problem. Anything else I need to be aware of? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give to one who is about to make the transition from 64-bit wannabe to 64-bit newbie.