Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 11:36:05 +0200 From: Wilko Bulte <wkb@freebie.xs4all.nl> To: Josh Tolbert <hemi@scoundrelz.net> Cc: Greg Lewis <glewis@eyesbeyond.com>, freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PC164 SRM firmware problem Message-ID: <20021015113605.B31764@freebie.xs4all.nl> In-Reply-To: <20021015030414.P41308-100000@view.scoundrelz.net>; from hemi@scoundrelz.net on Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 03:09:51AM -0500 References: <20021015085839.A31434@freebie.xs4all.nl> <20021015030414.P41308-100000@view.scoundrelz.net>
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On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 03:09:51AM -0500, Josh Tolbert wrote: > Hi Wilko, > I think I grabbed SRM 4.8 from Microway's site, but I'm definitely > interested in trying the firmware you have out. I'll try to dig it out tonight. > After much more experimenting tonight I could not > > a) get kermit to talk to the Alpha via a null modem setup > b) get the newer SRM firmware to boot > c) get any older SRM firmware to boot > > I'm fairly certain that a) is just my inexperience with serial > connections. I don't know what settings the Alpha is expecting, nor do I > know how to make Kermit do the right things. 9600N81 > I'm beginning to think that this particular PC164 motherboard is > one of the truly NT-only versions that can only play nicely with the ARC > console. I'm probably going to send an e-mail to someone at There are no real NT-only CPUs (contrary to popular belief..). There are some boxes that do not have an SRM available (like the XL, XLT series). But that is another issue. > DEC/Compaq/HP/whoever they are next week to see if my suspicion can be > confirmed. If this board truly is ARC-only, I'll just chalk the $50 up to > experience and sell it to someone that wants an NT/Alpha box. > By the way, the ARC firmware I flashed works like a charm. There > has to be a trick for making this buzzard work. > Any other ideas? Short of the little force-feeder box that I have at home to connect directly to the SROM (not:SRM) port not really. > Thanks, > Josh > > On Tue, 15 Oct 2002, Wilko Bulte wrote: > > > On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 01:15:25PM +0930, Greg Lewis wrote: > > > On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 10:12:34PM -0500, Josh Tolbert wrote: > > > > I obtained a PC164 motherboard, a 500MHz 21164 Alpha, 128M RAM and > > > > various other bits (including a dead CPU fan; I just re-pinned an Intel > > > > heatsink fan to work on the DEC motherboard) to use as a FreeBSD machine. > > > > Unfortunately, I'm not able to get FreeBSD installed because I'm having > > > > problems with the SRM firmware update. I know this is semi-off-topic for > > > > this list, but I've looked around and can't find a description of a > > > > similar problem anywhere. Hopefully someone on the list can point me in > > > > the right direction. > > > > When I received the board, it had ARC firmware in the ROM. Since > > > > that won't do for FreeBSD, I downloaded the SRM firmware and followed the > > > > documented procedure to flash the SRM firmware (put fwupdate.exe and > > > > pc164srm.rom on a floppy, update firmware from the ARC console and just > > > > follow the prompts). After rebooting, I get the standard blue screen with > > > > a black border, a blinking white cursor and nothing else. I don't see the > > > > customary SRM ">>>" prompt or a prompt of any sort. I've tried pressing > > > > enter (and other keys) as suggested, to no avail. > > > > > > I've had a really similar problem with a PC164 LX. I haven't even gotten > > > as far as you have yet unfortunately :(. > > > > > > Do get the serial console set up, it can be helpful if SRM has been > > > set up to talk to it :). One of the two boxes I was looking at > > > definitely had SRM set up to go to the first serial port. The other > > > is still stuck in ARC as we speak, but I have a few more things to > > > try before I completely give up :). > > > > > > The only other thing I can recommend is that a number of people have > > > found that there are problems going directly to the latest version of > > > the firmware. If you have an older version of SRM then give that a > > > try. > > > > The oldest FW CD I have that has the AlphaPC164 contains SRM 4.8 > > > > If anybody wants to try that I could make the f/w image available. > > > > Wilko > > > > [historians beware, the very oldest FW CD I own is a from 1993 ;-) ] > > > > -- > > | / o / /_ _ wilko@FreeBSD.org > > |/|/ / / /( (_) Bulte Arnhem, the Netherlands > > ---end of quoted text--- -- | / o / /_ _ wilko@FreeBSD.org |/|/ / / /( (_) Bulte Arnhem, the Netherlands To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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