Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 23:45:57 +0100 From: Wilko Bulte <wkb@freebie.demon.nl> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org>, freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Lynx test / 2nd attempt Message-ID: <20001206234557.A3309@freebie.demon.nl> In-Reply-To: <200012062235.PAA25544@usr08.primenet.com>; from tlambert@primenet.com on Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 10:35:45PM %2B0000 References: <200012062053.eB6KrNF52293@mass.osd.bsdi.com> <200012062235.PAA25544@usr08.primenet.com>
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On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 10:35:45PM +0000, Terry Lambert wrote: > > > Is FreeBSD being "a PnP OS" an alpha need? > > > > I don't think I understand this question. ... > > > If the card's default POST state didn't require the CPU to do > > > processing when the card was installed with PnP mode enable, > > > then doing the "PnP OS" thing would work; otherwise, it probably > > > won't. This means that ISA PnP will probably be broken on these > > > boxes as well. > > > > This is also bunk. > > PnP cards come up disabled by default, unless they are enabled; > what you're saying here (when you say it's "bunk") translates to > me to mean that that the cards aren't disabled by default, or > that all Apha machines with ISA slots have PnP support in their > firmware/BIOS? The NoName (AXPpci33) I had my hands on at a time had a 'isacfg' command in the SRM code so that you could setup an SRM table with irqs, ioports etc for your ISA cards. IIRC Tru64 goes out and pulls info from that table by using a handle/string one supplies to the isacfg command. At least that is what I remember having seen in the Tru64 device drivers manual. There are quite a few Alphas with EISA, but on those machines the ECU & EISA config cmos comes to the rescue I guess. > If so, I think the original complaint can be addressed by just > referencing the resource tables out of the PnP stuff on the > platform, but I have no idea how to do that on an Alpha, as > it's unlikely to have PnP BIOS entry points. 8-|. That is what I ment. > Since the controller is recognized by the AlphaBIOS, I wonder if > it is possible to load stuff into RAM with the AlphaBIOS, and > then switch to the SRM, without disturbing the memory image? I *think* SRM zeros the RAM for you. And in most cases you have to powercycle to switch from ARC/AlphaBIOS to SRM. > What are the chances of using the x86 emulator for video cards > to do the initialization job for SCSI cards? How do you want to convince the SRM to do that for non-VGA cards? -- Wilko Bulte Arnhem, the Netherlands wilko@freebsd.org http://www.freebsd.org http://www.nlfug.nl To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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