Very Computer

Hi!

I got a DECpc 150 AXP these days and am trying to install Linux on it.
But it doesn't seem to see the extern cdrom I added.
The bios mourns that I should configure the EISA bus with an ECU floppy disk.
Why?
And where could I get such an ECU disk?
I saw on the dec (compaq) page that I can't download the disk but have to buy
it.
Maybe one has such a system and could provide me with a copy?

Regards,
Mike

ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/linux/alphalinux/Linux-Alpha/JENSEN_INSTALL...

Hi Mike.

Welcome to the club of the beast - tamers. :-)

Quote:> But it doesn't seem to see the extern cdrom I added.
> The bios mourns that I should configure the EISA bus with an ECU floppy disk.
> Why?

Because for EISA cards, the motherboard has to be provided with
information about the functionality of the card to work properly.

Quote:> And where could I get such an ECU disk?

You can get a (free) copy of this disk at [1].

Also consider a firmware up-/downgrade to the version mentioned on the
page.

If installing via CD shouldn't work:
Follow the instructions for a 'diskette install' (yes, also you'll have
to go through the switch_srm_to_arc - copyboot - switch_srm_to_arc
hell), using [2] instead of jensen2.img.

[1] http://www.khubla.com/jensen.html
[2] ftp://ftp.lur.rwth-aachen.de/jensen/jensen3.img

hth & Greets
  Michael Keller
--
GCS/CC/E/IT d- s+: a- C++ UL++++/S++$ P+ L+++
E- W++ N+++ o? K? w O(++) M- V !PS !PE Y?
PGP+ t 5? X R !tv b+ DI+ D++ G e+++ h-- r++ y+

You actually don't need the ECU disk. Linux initializes the
peripherals itself.

Quote:>Hi Mike.

>Welcome to the club of the beast - tamers. :-)

Thank you :-)

Did I understand that correct: this machine can not boot from CD?
I have, under all circumstances, to use this procedure to install Linux?
Ack!

Regards,
Mike

Hi again!

If I try to update the firmware to 1.7 with the files from the digital server
(I copied jnupdate.exe and jensfw.bin to a freshly formatted 1.44 floppy
using win98) I get a checksum error while reading the .bin file.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Mike

Hi again Mike.

I don't know. I actually never tried booting from CDROM, because there
are no Jensen - bootable images available for the distribution I use
(debian potato).

Quote:> I have, under all circumstances, to use this procedure to install Linux?

No, it was just an advice if you weren't able to boot from CD.

Greets
  Michael Keller
--
GCS/CC/E/IT d- s+: a- C++ UL++++/S++$ P+ L+++
E- W++ N+++ o? K? w O(++) M- V !PS !PE Y?
PGP+ t 5? X R !tv b+ DI+ D++ G e+++ h-- r++ y+

Hi again Mike.

Hmm. Looks like you didn't configure the (2.88 MB) floppy drive to be
1.44 MB in dhe arc console. Do so and try again.

hth & Greets
  Michael Keller
--
GCS/CC/E/IT d- s+: a- C++ UL++++/S++$ P+ L+++
E- W++ N+++ o? K? w O(++) M- V !PS !PE Y?
PGP+ t 5? X R !tv b+ DI+ D++ G e+++ h-- r++ y+

Hi!

You all scared me! :-)
Ok, this install-thing is going to become personally.

Regards,
Mike

: Also, another gotcha when
: you get further...when formatting the disk with fdisk/minlabel, leave
: the last block untouched (use total-1) otherwise you'll wrap around
: and blow away an aboot sector.

It is fixed in fdisk from current versions of util-linux (say from 2.10f
and up, I think, maybe earlier).  The deal is simple - if fdisk suggests
that it will allocate for you cylinders with numbers highers than what
you have on a disk, and it tells you correctly how much you have, then
do not agree.  Not very surprisingly this does not work too well.

  Michal

Mike,

Make sure you have the 1025kb bios, not the 336 one. I had the same
problems and the 1025kb bios worked.

Quote:>Mike,

>Make sure you have the 1025kb bios, not the 336 one. I had the same
>problems and the 1025kb bios worked.

But where can I found it?

Regards,
Mike

http://ftp.europe.digital.com/pub/DEC/Linux-Alpha/ARCHIVES/JENSEN_INS...

It seems that this "big" image is only available on the european mirror.

Does anybody know why? I can hardly believe that the european and
us-models differ that much.

Hi!

I managed it to the 'aboot>' prompt!
If I do 'show dev' on OSF console, shouldn't I see my cd-rom device?
What now? I have Suse Linux CDs...
I'm a bit confused :-)

Regards,
Mike

You are as far as I now. I posted my problem to the axp-mailling list,
however, got no answer.
Here is my post; any hint is appreciated:

I had a look at
http://www.unix-ag.org/Linux-Alpha/Architectures/Jensen_install.html and
"installed" Linux this way.

Different here: I took a jensen.img from redhat 5.0 and put that with
copyboot onto /dev/sdc
Now aboot loads , there is no aboot in the bootdisk.srm that I put with
copyboot onto /dev/sdc before (according to the dec jensen-howto).

At step 12 ( typing 1/vmlinux.gz load_ramdisk=1 root=/dev/fd0H1440 at
the aboot prompt)

I get

booted_dev=`scsi 1 6 0 0 200 0 jens-io`, guessing boot_device=sda1`
dont know how to mount partition 1 (filesystem type 9)
mount of partition 1 failed

if I change 1/vmlinux.gz to 0/vmlinux.gz I get

booted_dev...(like above) , guessing boot_devce=`scd0`
loading compressed vmlinux.gz
unz8ip: unknown compression method
loading plain vmlinux.gz
unexpected object file format 0

My "linux-hd" is sdc , is scd0 a typo?!?
I have 8mb boot partition as partition 1 , 900mb extfs as 2 , 70mb swap
as 3

Any ideas?

What does 1/vmlinux.gz mean? Load /vmlinux.gz from partition 1 ??