Very Computer

I am a total newbie to this stuff. I made my 2 disks (milo and ramdisk) but
I cannot get my multia to try to use them in either the SRM or ARC mode.
Well, it sort of tries in the ARC, but it says that the image is bad? I made
it off the CD....

Anyhow, is there an easier way to get this ^%#%^$ thing to work? Can someone
please give me very easy to understand step-by-step directions that even I
cannot mess up?

Thanks a million,

Todd

pls respond to :

kimntodd at execpc dot com

Quote:> I am a total newbie to this stuff. I made my 2 disks (milo and ramdisk)

You would either boot from CD (and not a ramdisk) or boot from floppy. Then
you'd need milo, a kernel and a ramdisk...

Could you please let us know, which Linux distribution you are trying to
install?

Ingo

RedHat 6.0, Alpha
Sorry

Quote:

> > I am a total newbie to this stuff. I made my 2 disks (milo and ramdisk)

> You would either boot from CD (and not a ramdisk) or boot from floppy.
Then
> you'd need milo, a kernel and a ramdisk...

> Could you please let us know, which Linux distribution you are trying to
> install?

> Ingo

Thanks...how do I do that? I asked for directions, remember?

Thank you,
Todd

Quote:

> > I am a total newbie to this stuff. I made my 2 disks (milo and ramdisk)

> You would either boot from CD (and not a ramdisk) or boot from floppy.
Then
> you'd need milo, a kernel and a ramdisk...

> Could you please let us know, which Linux distribution you are trying to
> install?

> Ingo

Quote:> Thanks...how do I do that? I asked for directions, remember?

I do, but the directions differ between distributions (RH, 5.2/6.0 or 6.1,
Suse debian), the initial loader (milo, srm) and the architectures (some of
them support only milo, others offer both).

I am only a little familiar with Milo - which roughly spoken) you can use
with machines that have been running NT before. I couldn't get RH6.1 booted
with srm (machines that ran OpenVMS, Tru64 or another *nix) on my AS200, but
was successful with milo. The other machines I have are called Ruffians
(164UX-boards from Samsung/API), they only offer milo.

Now the directions: with milo on my machines I boot from floppy by copying
the milo image "milo/images/ruffian.img or milo/images/avanti.img", then the
kernel image "kerlnels/generic.img" and last the ramdisk image
"images/ramdisk.img" from the RH6.1-CD to floppies.

Next I create an ArcsBIOS menu entry for booting the milo floppy
(instructions are in the milo-howto, call again for help if you can tell us
the exakt make and model of your Alpha).

From milo you can try and boot the CD (you won't need kernel or
ramdisk-floppies for this). In my case:

boot sr0:kerlnels/generic.gz root=/dev/scd0. (/dev/scd for others)

Boot the kernel from floppy needs three floppies with RH6.1: a. boot the
Milo floppy from the menu entry you created. Insert the kernel floppy and
enter

boot fd0:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1.

Then you will be prompted to insert the ramdisk floppy. Do so, and the
kernel might eventually start up and prompt you to install...

Both did not work on either machine, BTW. They work for others.

What worked on my AS200 was booting the floppy with the root device set to
the CD:

boot fd0:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/scd0

I can't remember wheter it was with loading a ramdisk or not.

Any other questions?

Cheers,
Ingo

Ouch, so sorry. Took me tto long to notice that "Multia" was in the subject.

my true apologies.

even worse: I've never seen a Multia, so I sure can't help with anything
machine specific.

Ingo

Thanks very much for the attempt.

I have seen references to getting the multia to boot from the SRC (ARC is
more graphical, rather blue actually).

I know there are many users out there that are running linux on this
machine. the how-to's are not very useful to me, as they all seem to be
written for the same people that write thier own linux kernels. Too much
information that doesnt make any sense to the newbie.

I created a bootdisk. I used rawrite and the kernels/generic.img to create
the disk. I tried to get this to boot from the SRC and the ARC, but niether
was successful.
I think the sytax I used was boot dva0 Milo (I also tried Linload.exe) from
the Milo disk, and I tried the same command with the boot disk, but it tells
me that the image is bad??? Rawrite did not report any errors, and I have
tried this process with a couple of different diskettes.

Also, I can tell you that the name of the image for the multia is the
udb-noname.img file, with was used to create the milo disk.

It may be possible that I dont need to use the boot disk per-se, as the milo
disk has the img file for the udb-noname.

That is all for now, thanks.

todd

Quote:> Ouch, so sorry. Took me tto long to notice that "Multia" was in the
subject.

> my true apologies.

> even worse: I've never seen a Multia, so I sure can't help with anything
> machine specific.

> Ingo

Quote:> I have seen references to getting the multia to boot from the SRC (ARC is
> more graphical, rather blue actually).

I should have posted earlier, but I'm just completing the switch from
RH5.? to debian 2.1 on this UDB (aka multia if it's running NT).
I find booting from ARC is much easier than SRM. If you get the blue
screen you are in ARC, if not just type arc at the ">>>" prompt.

Quote:> I know there are many users out there that are running linux on this
> machine. the how-to's are not very useful to me, as they all seem to be
> written for the same people that write thier own linux kernels. Too much
> information that doesnt make any sense to the newbie.

I agree that some things are lacking in the docs. The main thing is the
difference between dealing with ARC/milo and typical wintel/lilo concepts.

The ARC console has a lot of facilities to make booting the OS easier.
The trick is initially setting up the ARC boot menu. To do so, from the
ARC primary menu, select "Supplementary menu" using the arrow keys to
move and the <ENTER> key to select. Then select "Set up the System", then
"Manage boot selections". You can have multiple boot setups, and can make
one of them the default for AutoBoot. If you try to put in too many, you
will run out of memory for ARC environment variables, so I usually set up
four - 1. Linux Standard 2. Linux Single 3. Linux Exp 4. Linux Floppy
(Linux Exp is for Experimental kernels).
When you pick "Add a boot selection", you will be asked a series of questions.
You can just use the default answers - or take a guess - because you will
have to change some stuff later. After "Add ..", pick "Change ..".
To change an item, use the arrow keys to select the item, then type in
the new value. (You can use the <- and -> keys to move to a particular
character to change, then use <BackSpace> to delete the old character,
then type in the new character. Press <ENTER> to end the changes.
The boot selection for Linux Floppy should look like this when you
are done making changes.

LOADIDENTIFIER= Linux Floppy
SYSTEMPARTITION=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)
OSLOADER=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\linload.exe
OSLOADPARTITION=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)
OSLOADFILENAME=milo
OSLOADOPTIONS=boot fd0:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1

To get out of the "Boot menu", hit <ESC>,
then pick "Supplementary menu, and save changes"
From the supplementary menu, pick "Boot Selections".
Insert the floppy with linload.exe and MILO, then select "Linux Floppy"
After MILO starts, you will be asked to insert the disk with the kernel.
If the boot fails, you should be at the "MILO>" prompt.
Type "ls fd0:" to see what name was used for the kernel.
Type the stuff after the = in OSLOADOPTIONS above, except change
"vmlinux.gz" to whatever the kernel is named on the floppy.
NOTE: you will have to fix up the ARC stuff later as well.
This should boot the kernel on the first floppy, then tell you
to insert the other floppy.

If you get this far, you should be able to figure out the rest
from the RedHat or Debian or ??? docs.

Larry Z.
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