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| leec... |
 Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 12:58 pm |
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Guest
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I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
I'm hoping to find a distribution with an active community around it
because 1) I want to run a distribution that is somewhat up to date
with the latest kernel and userland and 2) I'm relatively new to Alpha/
Linux and expect to need some newbie guidance occasionally.
I looked at the AlphaLinux distribution pointers off the
alphalinux.org main page and looks like Debian is the only
distribution with any active development being done and current
community activity - true?
Can folks on the list confirm this conclusion, or point me in the
direction of a distribution for Alpha and X86 that is current and
being maintained.
Thanks!
Lee C. |
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| Steven Underwood... |
| Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:50 pm |
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Guest
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"leec" <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac012c16-5e9c-4528-b1bf-b09ed927c34b at (no spam) o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
Quote: I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
FYI, This group has been virtually silent for the last 5 months. I started
monitoring it for the same reason, but I have an XL box (NT only) and am
more limited since LILO is no longer supported and I have 0 Linux
experience. I have gotten an old version of RedHat booted on it, but it is
not a usable environment at the moment (need bigger disks for that). |
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| F8BOE... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:00 am |
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Guest
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leec wrote:
Quote: I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
I'm hoping to find a distribution with an active community around it
because 1) I want to run a distribution that is somewhat up to date
with the latest kernel and userland and 2) I'm relatively new to Alpha/
Linux and expect to need some newbie guidance occasionally.
I looked at the AlphaLinux distribution pointers off the
alphalinux.org main page and looks like Debian is the only
distribution with any active development being done and current
community activity - true?
Can folks on the list confirm this conclusion, or point me in the
direction of a distribution for Alpha and X86 that is current and
being maintained.
Thanks!
Lee C.
Debian |
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| Tobias Klausmann... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:44 am |
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leec <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Quote: I looked at the AlphaLinux distribution pointers off the
alphalinux.org main page and looks like Debian is the only
distribution with any active development being done and current
community activity - true?
Gentoo still actively maintains an alpha port. Feel free to stop
by on #gentoo-alpha on Freenode.
Regards,
Tobias
--
fs_dprintk (FS_DEBUG_IRQ, "Iiiin-coming (0)!!!!\n");
linux-2.6.6/drivers/atm/firestream.c |
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| Anton Ertl... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:50 am |
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"Steven Underwood" <nobody at (no spam) spamcop.net> writes:
Quote: "leec" <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac012c16-5e9c-4528-b1bf-b09ed927c34b at (no spam) o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
We are running Debian (mostly stable) on most of our boxes, including
two Alpha UP1500 boxes.
Quote: FYI, This group has been virtually silent for the last 5 months. I started
monitoring it for the same reason, but I have an XL box (NT only) and am
more limited since LILO is no longer supported
I guess you mean MILO. Yes, I remember something like this. Also,
dealing with the ARC console and especially AlphaBIOS was so painful
that you would not want to use it. Maybe you can find an SRM console
upgrade for your box (but I remember that on one box where we tried to
switch to SRM, SRM talked only to a serial terminal, and we had to
solder a cable to talk to it and switch it back to ARC/AlphaBIOS).
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html |
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| Måns Rullgård... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:30 am |
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anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) writes:
Quote: "Steven Underwood" <nobody at (no spam) spamcop.net> writes:
"leec" <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac012c16-5e9c-4528-b1bf-b09ed927c34b at (no spam) o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
We are running Debian (mostly stable) on most of our boxes, including
two Alpha UP1500 boxes.
I've used Gentoo with good success on Alpha, although my Alpha machine
hasn't been powered on for some time.
Quote: FYI, This group has been virtually silent for the last 5 months. I started
monitoring it for the same reason, but I have an XL box (NT only) and am
more limited since LILO is no longer supported
I guess you mean MILO. Yes, I remember something like this. Also,
dealing with the ARC console and especially AlphaBIOS was so painful
that you would not want to use it. Maybe you can find an SRM console
upgrade for your box (but I remember that on one box where we tried to
switch to SRM, SRM talked only to a serial terminal, and we had to
solder a cable to talk to it and switch it back to ARC/AlphaBIOS).
The XL should work fine with SRM, IIRC.
--
Måns Rullgård
mans at (no spam) mansr.com |
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| juhana paavola... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:01 am |
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Guest
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On 2008-10-18, Steven Underwood <nobody at (no spam) spamcop.net> wrote:
Quote: "leec" <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac012c16-5e9c-4528-b1bf-b09ed927c34b at (no spam) o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
FYI, This group has been virtually silent for the last 5 months. I started
monitoring it for the same reason, but I have an XL box (NT only) and am
more limited since LILO is no longer supported and I have 0 Linux
experience. I have gotten an old version of RedHat booted on it, but it is
not a usable environment at the moment (need bigger disks for that).
MILO can load never kernels too, maybe not supported but before sold
out my Alpha, I used MILO to boot 2.6 series kernel on Debian. Try
googling for newer or some custom build MILO's, I didn't have luck
with distro milos.
Can't remember could XL have SRM, in Miata I used SRM for awhile but
SRM couldn't handle Adaptec 2940 SCSIs so turned back to MILO.
-juhana |
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| Steven Underwood... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:16 pm |
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Guest
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"Anton Ertl" <anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote in message
news:2008Oct19.145030 at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at...
Quote:
I guess you mean MILO. Yes, I remember something like this. Also,
dealing with the ARC console and especially AlphaBIOS was so painful
that you would not want to use it. Maybe you can find an SRM console
upgrade for your box (but I remember that on one box where we tried to
switch to SRM, SRM talked only to a serial terminal, and we had to
solder a cable to talk to it and switch it back to ARC/AlphaBIOS).
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be
believed
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be
seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
Yes MILO... and as far as I have been able to find, there is no publically
available SRM console for this machine (XL266), ARC only.
As I said. I got it working with an old version of RedHat via some
instructions I found on the web, but due to disk size, I was unable to load
a GUI and as such is not much use to me for a desktop plaything. I
currently have no need for a server. |
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| Anton Ertl... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:24 pm |
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=?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E5ns_Rullg=E5rd?= <mans at (no spam) mansr.com> writes:
Quote: Sorry, I had it confused with another machine, such as the LX164
which, although stubborn, can be coaxed into switching firmware.
IIRC we have one 164LX where we switched the firmware to SRM and
another where we did not manage to do that.
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html |
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| Marc Schlensog... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:44 pm |
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Guest
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On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:24:58 GMT
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) wrote:
Quote: =?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E5ns_Rullg=E5rd?= <mans at (no spam) mansr.com> writes:
Sorry, I had it confused with another machine, such as the LX164
which, although stubborn, can be coaxed into switching firmware.
IIRC we have one 164LX where we switched the firmware to SRM and
another where we did not manage to do that.
LX and SX both shouldn't be problematic. What *is* problematic (or
rather: impossible), though, is the UX.
YMVV |
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| Steven Hirsch... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 4:39 pm |
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juhana paavola wrote:
Quote: On 2008-10-18, Steven Underwood <nobody at (no spam) spamcop.net> wrote:
"leec" <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac012c16-5e9c-4528-b1bf-b09ed927c34b at (no spam) o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
I am in search of a current Linux distribution for an Alpha DS20,
ES40, and Alphaserver 1000 with an active community. I also need to
have a corresponding Linux release to run on a couple of X86 boxes
(IBM eServer X300s).
FYI, This group has been virtually silent for the last 5 months. I started
monitoring it for the same reason, but I have an XL box (NT only) and am
more limited since LILO is no longer supported and I have 0 Linux
experience. I have gotten an old version of RedHat booted on it, but it is
not a usable environment at the moment (need bigger disks for that).
MILO can load never kernels too, maybe not supported but before sold
out my Alpha, I used MILO to boot 2.6 series kernel on Debian. Try
googling for newer or some custom build MILO's, I didn't have luck
with distro milos.
Something in the back of my mind says that either Milo or the kernel needs to
be set correctly in terms of the memory model. And that magic setting may not
be the default. Wish I could remember more specifics, but since I gave away
my Multia all the boxen have used SRM. |
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| Måns Rullgård... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:01 pm |
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Guest
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Marc Schlensog <fishtank at (no spam) web.de> writes:
Quote: On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:24:58 GMT
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) wrote:
=?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E5ns_Rullg=E5rd?= <mans at (no spam) mansr.com> writes:
Sorry, I had it confused with another machine, such as the LX164
which, although stubborn, can be coaxed into switching firmware.
IIRC we have one 164LX where we switched the firmware to SRM and
another where we did not manage to do that.
LX and SX both shouldn't be problematic.
I have an SX that I switched. The process itself was simple. The
trouble was finding versions of SRM and the flashing tool that would
fit on the same floppy.
Still not as hard as bypassing the SRM password on a Miata...
--
Måns Rullgård
mans at (no spam) mansr.com |
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| DEMAINE Benoit-Pierre... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:43 pm |
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Guest
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I will resume what I know: i have an AS1200 and an AS4100 that can boot
Debian, and Gentoo. The boot loader is not Lilo (Steve, where did you
have this idea ?), but Milo.
Booting an alpha was been painfull for me, because my hardware trigerred
many bugs, known and not known. Even booting the installation materials
was difficult.
Both distributions have bugs and various problems. Both are weakly
maintained for Alpha. But both can run fine, if you take enough time.
The key for Linux is: upgrade your SRM to the latest available one,
check compatibility list, bug list. As example, latest Milo requires
SRM5 (when my Alphas were provided with SRM4), and, my SCSI chipset
trigered a bug in the corresponding driver on SMP kernels (bug occured
on all kernels with SMP enabled, whenever the driver is loaded, whether
the HW is in or not - bug been fixed for this driver early 2007; bug was
driver specific, and common with other arch).
I have a Debian with 2.6.21 (not so old). Debian changed their philosphy
those last years: the tronk is no more common: package introdcution and
stabilisation will no longer be common for all arch (old idea, but took
time to realise); this will help live arch (x86* and PPC; but since
Apple is now using x86, PPC may also leave this pool as well), and let
deprecated arch have "slower life" (less release per year).
Gentoo also have by essence different package list per arch.
Thus, it will be impossible, if that was your aim, to have an Alpha with
exactly the same packages and versions than an x86. You can in the best
case, "try" to have the same distro; not the same taste.
In any case, there are many ressources, and still active help rooms
(webforums, IRC, NNTP ...)
Good luck.
--
Quote: o_/ DEMAINE Benoit-Pierre (aka DoubleHP) http://benoit.demaine.info/
If computing were an exact science, IT engineers would not have work \_o
"So all that's left, Is the proof that love's not only blind but deaf."
(FAKE TALES OF SAN FRANCISCO, Arctic Monkeys) |
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| DEMAINE Benoit-Pierre... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:45 pm |
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Guest
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Steven Underwood wrote:
Quote: As I said. I got it working with an old version of RedHat via some
instructions I found on the web, but due to disk size, I was unable to
load a GUI and as such is not much use to me for a desktop plaything. I
currently have no need for a server.
GUI on Alpha is a problem; it will depend on many factors. It will be
machine specific.
It mostly depends on the PCI chipset, the memory topology, PCI revision
(1.0, 1.2, or 2.0), and the video chipset.
Some machines support FrameBuffer. Not mines.
I could start X on my machines; but it was garbagefull  Useless.
--
Quote: o_/ DEMAINE Benoit-Pierre (aka DoubleHP) http://benoit.demaine.info/
If computing were an exact science, IT engineers would not have work \_o
"So all that's left, Is the proof that love's not only blind but deaf."
(FAKE TALES OF SAN FRANCISCO, Arctic Monkeys) |
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| Anton Ertl... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:25 pm |
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Guest
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leec <leecou at (no spam) gmail.com> writes:
Quote: My conclusions are that 1) Debian is the way to go for Linux on Alpha,
and 2) not realistic to expect to have the same distribution on both
the Alpha and X86 boxes.
With Debian it is. Sure, for a few packages you may not get an Alpha
version or only with a different version, but the two installations
will certainly be much closer than if you go with Debian on one box
and Fedora on the other one.
Quote: That's OK, especially since I'm having
problems with Debian recognizing the NICs on the IBM x300 x86 boxes. :-
( I don't have the time to fool with it so its Fedora for the x86
servers.
You could use the Fedora kernel with a Debian userland, but it's
probably enough if you use the appropriate NIC driver with a Debian
kernel. Or, alternatively, just put (e.g.) e1000 cards in the x300
boxes and use the e1000 driver.
If you want to save time, it's a good idea to use as few different
distributions as possible.
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton at (no spam) mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html |
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