Alpha, additional notes and a question...

Ronald Maggio r.v.maggio at worldnet.att.net
Thu May 23 15:02:39 EDT 2002



----- Original Message -----
From: "JJ Neff" <jjneff at yahoo.com>
To: <nflug at nflug.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: Alpha, additional notes and a question...


This is what I wanted to chime in.  Debian works very hard to support the
widest range of hardware of the larger or more well known distros.  They
tend
to be behind in getting the newest stuff in the distro (ie KDE3, XF4.2)
because
they want stable to mean "stable" on a very large amount of hardware. Alpha
is
very supported by this group...

JJN

Thanks for the info John.
Yes I do know that, and thats why I'm trying to get the 233Mhz unit up and
running.
I already had plans to install Debian or one of the other distro's on the
166Mhz unit later.
The main problem is first understanding how to get them up and running. I
had to search high and low
to find any information on how to set up these units. Not a lot of available
info is on the mundain details
of how to set them up. I've read what authors where writing on the subject
and nearly all leave out the mundain
stuff and write like your already aware of how to start from the ground up.
If these authors could come down from
the clouds of super techville and cover the every conceivable notion
relating from (((setting up the hardware)))
and then to installing, and post installation checks. Most if not even all
questions would be answered.
But I have yet read one that relates to the hardware answering the question.
Now how do I make sure that the
hardware is correctly set up right to do an install? All I've mainly read
gave little information to hardware and focused
in on the OS installation. Not every one is a been there done that. Till
future correspondence.

Ron:)


--- Darin Perusich <Darin.Perusich at cognigencorp.com> wrote:
> take a look at http://www.linuxalpha.org/ for detailed info on running
> linux on alpha processors. you don't necessarily need to burn the cd's
> to install the OS on your system, if you have a fast internet connection
> that is. i did a network installation of debian stable on my Sun IPX
> over my cable modem in about 1 hour or so.
>
> Ronald Maggio wrote:
>
> > 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >     From: Ronald Maggio <mailto:r.v.maggio at worldnet.att.net>
> >
> >     To: nflug at nflug.org <mailto:nflug at nflug.org>
> >
> >     Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 6:43 AM
> >
> >     Subject: Re: Alpha, additional notes and a question...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >         ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >         From: Cyber Source <mailto:peter at thecybersource.com>
> >
> >         To: nflug at nflug.org <mailto:nflug at nflug.org>
> >
> >         Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:07 PM
> >
> >         Subject: RE: Alpha, additional notes and a question...
> >
> >
> >         Just wanted to cue in here and say that I experience a similar
> >         situation on an UPGRADE. Bob Meyer and I worked on it and
> >         eventually found:
> >         1. BIOS (Motherboard NOT scsi) played a vital role in handing
> >         the boot process to scsi over ide
> >         2. On the upgrade, the necessary init link/file was not passed
> >         to the boot strap.
> >         This was determined through various steps but the most
> >         noticeable was when (after suspecting hardware failure of course
> >         :)) was on a fresh install everything worked and booted fine.
> >         There are only a handful of scsi adapter manufacturers (less
> >         than ide for sure), it's not inconceivable to think they put all
> >         the adapter drivers on the distros.
> >
> >
>
<---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--snip----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------->
> >
> >         Well this is what I think is happening with Joseph's Alpha box.
> >         First he was installing an OS other RedHat that may not have had
> >         the drivers needed to set up the raid scsi card right.
> >         Secondly using RedHat does not guarantee that either, but from
> >         what I understood it was booting and not seeing the raid
> >         controller card? Plus it did not see the drives. So lets say
> >         (if) the card was seen that does not mean that the drives where
> >         set up correctly. When I tried to install the OS on mine it saw
> >         the scsi controller but had a problem with the drives. The odds
> >         are that in Joe's case  that the raid scsi card not having
> >         drivers available in the RedHat distro could be. But even if (
> >         and I'm no expert if the drives where or not setup correctly )
> >         say if the card is seen, but if the drives are not set just
> >         right it may or may not have an influence as to weather the raid
> >         scsi card functions correctly. Also it could be a bad card who
> >         knows?  I've yet to see the box or see an attempt to do install
> >         in action on the box in question. We'll find out in time the
> >         in's and out's of the beast.
> >
> >         Till future correspondence.
> >
> >
> >
> >         Ron:)
> >
> >
> >
> >         P.S. Boy I dun type good...Not!  Look at all the typo's and not
> >         so perfect grammar. Its now 7am and I'm just getting coffee. I
> >         think I should wait till I get some coffee in me before I start
> >         writing.
> >
> >
> >
> >         Ron:)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >         On Wed, 2002-05-22 at 17:55, Todd Wirth wrote:
> >
> >             On the subject of RedHat kernel having default support for a
> >             every SCSI adapter I disagree. We have a Dell server running
> >             RedHat 7.2, although I wasn't involved in the upgrade to a
> >             newer kernel (Dell provided), I know what happened through
> >             various emails between Dell and our other IT guy. They
> >             tried 2 stock RedHat kernels that did not work with our SCSI
> >             adapter, until finally the 3rd one did the trick. I was
> >             about to take over the project and just compile a kernel,
> >             but that would have voided our support w/ Dell & RedHat.
> >
> >             I'm not too sure about the hardware as this server (besides
> >             a Xeon) is in a remote office, but I did see the email
> >             traffic, and you could tell the Dell guys were stumped. ;)
> >
> >             -- Todd
> >
>
>
> --
> Darin Perusich
> Unix Systems Administrator
> Cognigen Corp.
> darinper at cognigencorp.com
>


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