From owner-freebsd-alpha Wed Oct 18 23:20:11 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from post.mail.nl.demon.net (post-10.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B107337B4CF for ; Wed, 18 Oct 2000 23:20:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [212.238.54.101] (helo=freebie.demon.nl) by post.mail.nl.demon.net with smtp (Exim 3.14 #2) id 13m93e-00001E-00; Thu, 19 Oct 2000 06:20:07 +0000 Received: (from wkb@localhost) by freebie.demon.nl (8.11.0/8.11.0) id e9J6Mf706461; Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:22:41 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wkb) Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:22:41 +0200 From: Wilko Bulte To: "Brandon D. Valentine" Cc: Andrew Gallatin , freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Alpha XL 300 Message-ID: <20001019082241.A6172@freebie.demon.nl> References: <20001018192534.C1832@freebie.demon.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2i In-Reply-To: ; from bandix@looksharp.net on Wed, Oct 18, 2000 at 08:26:20PM -0400 X-OS: FreeBSD 4.1-STABLE X-PGP: finger wilko@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Oct 18, 2000 at 08:26:20PM -0400, Brandon D. Valentine wrote: > On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Wilko Bulte wrote: > > >On Wed, Oct 18, 2000 at 08:55:37AM -0400, Andrew Gallatin wrote: > >> > >> Brandon D. Valentine writes: > >> > I am looking to buy an Alpha to run FreeBSD/AXP on. I have the ability > >> > to buy a DEC Alpha XL 300 workstation and it looks like a good deal. > >> > It's got a 300Mhz 21164, 32MB of RAM, a 2.1 GB SCSI HDD and a SCSI CDROM > >> > in it. All for ~$450 USD. What I want to know is, is this as good a > >> > deal as it sounds, and will it run FreeBSD well. I have been unable to > >> > >> It won't run any of the *BSDs at all, because it does not have an SRM > >> console. > > > >And before someone asks: there won't be any SRM either. $450 is a stiff > >price to pay for what is essentially a dead-end NT-only (OK, it can run > >Linux IIRC) box. > > Yeah, I finally found some info on that last night. It's disappointing. > Anyone want to recommend some reasonably priced Alpha dealers online, > closeout and refurbished preferable to top-of-the-line, brand new. If > so, please email me off list, no sense discussing it further here. > > If I understand the way Linux manages to run on these machines correctly > is it has a miniloader which swaps the PALcode out before booting the > OS. Is there a specific reason this approach has not been pursued by > the BSDs? I'd imagine it would be dependent on the ability to swap in a Read the alpha mailing list archives at [net,freebsd].org. This issue has been discussed numerous times. -- Wilko Bulte wilko@freebsd.org Arnhem, the Netherlands To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message