Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:15:17 +0000 (GMT) From: Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com> To: Mark Gooderum <mark@jumpweb.com> Cc: "'freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Install on Multia Problems Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9903270906290.3322-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> In-Reply-To: <50C732FEDE87D211954300A024786203A659@archeron.good.com>
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On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Mark Gooderum wrote: > I'm trying to get FreeBSD loaded on a couple of DEC Multia's. I don't have > a good way to get a SCSI CD-ROM hooked up so I'm trying FTP and Hard Disk > installs. But I'm running into a couple of different problems. > > First it took a bit to figure out how to boot things. I actually had to go > to the NetBSD web site to find some pointers on SRM (I've gotten Linux and > NT loaded on the machines before but that uses the ARC console). > > The first box I'm working with has a Seagate Elite-9 (external case of > course) with 64MB of RAM. NT labels the disk as 8669 cyls w/a 64*32 > geometry. If I use the whole disk in FreeBSD setup, it resets the geometry > to 255*32 p/cyl. > > If I boot with the 3.1-RELEASE floppies I have a few problems: The install floppies for 3.1-RELEASE are really broken. Unfortunately, there isn't a more recent 3.1-STABLE snapshot available which has the fixed install program. I'm hoping for some improvements to this soon. > > * Terminal support is bizarre. > > * w/ANSI, things look okay but Enter and Spacebar are reversed > (spacebar seems to select, Enter works like TAB between fields. I can move > through most fields w/ CTRL-N but nothing highlights, so it's hard to tell > where you're at. I can get through all the screens but when I get to the > networking setup screen for FTP media (ip addr, etc), I can't get out of the > screen except w/ 'ESC'. Moving to OK or Cancel neither enter or space works > so I can't get the networking configured. > * w/VT100 or FreeBSD console, Enter/Space/Tab work right but other > things are odd, formatting is crappy b/o unsupported terminal escapes, etc. > * CTRL-P at _any_ point in the setup kicks me all the way out of Unix > right back to the SRM console. > > * Disk Labelling/Partitioning Fails, It looks like the FreeBSD table > gets written and maybe even the NewFS's succeed. I get a message about > unable to create the device node and it says /etc not updated. If I restart > the install, the label is there with the sizes and a N(o) on NewFS but there > is no mount points. This is fixed in more recent versions of sysinstall. > * I can't get any fixit stuff to work. The CD-ROM option prompts for > a CD (which I don't currently have available), the Emergency Holographic > Shell and Fixit disk options just repaint the screen (plus I don't have > 2.88MB floppies for the fixit disk and I don't believe the Multia's have > 2.88M floppy drives-at least they don't work if I set them to 2.88M in the > ARC console setup). So I can't actually set what's going on. I have never used fixit (either on i386 or alpha) so I don't know how its supposed to work. It might be asking for the 'live' filesystem CD which is i386 format in the release CD set. > > If I boot with any current snapshot floppies (tried 2/4, 2/6 and 3/6) I get > to the prompt on terminal type and then it locks up, sort of. No keyboard > entry works (although NumLock and CapsLock toggle). I don't know why that is. Can you try a more recent 4.0 snapshot from mirrors.rcn.com/pub/FreeBSD/alpha? > > Any pointers would be helpful. I'm also still somewhat at a loss with the > SRM console. Even if I get everything loaded, how do I get SRM to load > FreeBSD when there is a FDISK table? I can think of a few > possibilities...some sort of playing with the kernel on a FAT partition and > a load command with a fat: option.? Clobber the ARC firmware and put the > bootstrap code in Flash? The Linux docs have interesting instructions on how > to replace ARC with MILO in most of the Alpha's. With SRM you can't have an FDISK table on the boot disk. The SRM boot process needs a pointer to the bootstrap program in the first sector and this sits right on top of the FDISK partition table. The disk needs to be 'dedicated'. > > As far as I can tell there is no Alpha-specific documentation anywhere other > than what bits I scrounged out of the NetBSD web site. Linux is way ahead > in this department even though I prefer FreeBSD historically (returning to > having some Unix in the shop after about a 18 month NT only hiatus). The > RedHat manual has a pretty good description of ARC and it's options...anyone > know if there is anything similar floating around for SRM? I have a manual for SRM in pdf format which I picked up from www.digital.com somewhere. Try searching for srmcons.pdf. -- Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com Nonlinear Systems Ltd. Phone: +44 181 442 9037 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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