Non-commercial-unix / AlphaStation 200 compatibility.
Keith Hayes
It appears that the non-commercial Tru-64 v5 is compatible on an
AlphaStation 200 4/233 on paper, but has anyone actually installed this
operating system on one of these workstations? I'd like to be sure it is
possible before I spend the $100 for the kit. And yes, this is very good
news from Compaq.
Thanks All,
Keith
Dizzy
I just got the True64 Unix this morning, and installed easy, but the Xserver
doesn't seem to work making the later part of the install a pain. If you
can't see the screen, its very hard to choose options and finish the
install. I wish it had a way to install with a script, or command shell
rather that in X. I think the issue has to do with my crappy video card.
Its' an S3 based card with only 2Mb of ram onboard.
Other than that it seems to be a great deal!! I got 6 CD-roms in the
package:
1 OS install disk
2 Tru64 applications disks
1 disk containing True64 ports of open source stuff.
1 disk containing a bunch of technical docs about True64
1 firmware update disk
Totally kewl!!
I'm wondering what is a good all-round video card for the AlphaStation 200
4/233?? I've heard that the matrox Millinum cards are good for Alpha but is
there any one card that is supported on all my OS's. Linux Redhat6.0, True64
5.0, and possibly One of the BSD's in the future?
Thanks in advance!!
-Jon Disnard
Keith Hayes <hay...@compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:80n46j$no6$1...@ssauraaa-i-1.production.compuserve.com...
Adam Price
Dizzy wrote in message <62867BC3B0724826.329FD5E7...@lp.airnews.net>...
>I own an AlphaStation 200 4/233 (144Mb ram).
>rather that in X
Don't know about 5 yet.
During boot, use ^c to interrupt the boot process before X starts.
Then type
restart -nogui
This should get you a text menu based install.
If this doesn't work, then try hooking a vt (or a pc pretending)
to the serial port, removing the keyboard and mouse, and then
typing set console serial at the >>> prompt. This should allow
you to do a text based install as well.
Hope this helps
Adam
PS Upgrade the graphics card.
Dizzy
> >I wish it had a way to install with a script, or command shell
> >rather that in X
> Under Dux4.0* you could do it this way...
> Don't know about 5 yet.
> During boot, use ^c to interrupt the boot process before X starts.
> Then type
> restart -nogui
Pressing CTRL+C during the boot sequence works like a charm, got me to a
command prompt where I belong.
Just to update you, I duno if this is diferent in du4.0, the syntax for the
command appears to now be the following:
^c
# restart nogui
It would appear that hyphen is not needed anymore. your advice and the doc's
both say to use they hyphen so just to let everyone know...
Anyways..... about the original post..... I know I kinda side tracked.....
The AlphaStation 200 4/233 seems to work with my copy of the True64
Evaluation copy. Good luck to all others who have this same machine.
Best,
-Jon
Yong S. Yi
> I own an AlphaStation 200 4/233 (144Mb ram).
>
> doesn't seem to work making the later part of the install a pain. If you
> can't see the screen, its very hard to choose options and finish the
> install. I wish it had a way to install with a script, or command shell
> rather that in X. I think the issue has to do with my crappy video card.
> Its' an S3 based card with only 2Mb of ram onboard.
Not really. You can do a text-based install. And as for the 'crappy
video card', the 2MB card is pretty decent given that the machine is an
AlphaStation 200. Not only are they ugly, they're slow as a ....
In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
> I'm wondering what is a good all-round video card for the AlphaStation 200
> 4/233?? I've heard that the matrox Millinum cards are good for Alpha but is
Millennium, I believe, /is/ supported for Tru64. I don't know whether
you wanna go that far to expand an AlphaStation 200, though. See if you
can find a cheap S3 Trio*. Or do some XFree86 hacking and get a server
to build for a S3 ViRGE first, *then* buy it if you're successful. They
ran around $45 USD for a 4MB card, maybe a year or two ago.
> there any one card that is supported on all my OS's. Linux Redhat6.0, True64
> 5.0, and possibly One of the BSD's in the future?
I believe the Millennium is supported in all of the above. And NT.
--
Yong S. Yi KeyID 1024/0AF3C425 http://async.org/~ysyi/
PGP Key Fingerprint = 3A 65 AE 82 07 2A EF 73 0B 84 67 5D 1D 96 9F 8D
<ys...@alf.dec.com> Enriched, VCard, and HTML messages > /dev/null
Tom Leitner
> Dizzy wrote:
> In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
> S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
> due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
You must be mistaken here. AFAIK nobody has ever built XFree856 under Tru64.
It's just not possible due to the different way Tru64 supports graphics
cards. However I'd really like to see some efforts in this area.
>> I'm wondering what is a good all-round video card for the AlphaStation 200
>> 4/233?? I've heard that the matrox Millinum cards are good for Alpha but is
> Millennium, I believe, /is/ supported for Tru64.
Sorry. This is wrong.
>> there any one card that is supported on all my OS's. Linux Redhat6.0, True64
>> 5.0, and possibly One of the BSD's in the future?
> I believe the Millennium is supported in all of the above. And NT.
No. The best/cheapest graphics cards currently for Tru64 are the Elsa
Gloria Synergy and the Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro. Both use the same chip
and work under Tru64 in 1280x1024 @ 24 bit.
Tom
--
Dr. Tom Leitner Dept. of Communications, Graz Univ. of Technology,
t...@radar.tu-graz.ac.at Inffeldgasse 12, A-8010 Graz / Austria / Europe
PGP public key @ http://wiis.tu-graz.ac.at/people/tom.html
Thor Lancelot Simon
Tom Leitner <t...@radar.tu-graz.ac.at> wrote:
>Yong S. Yi <ys...@nexus.async.org> wrote:
>> Dizzy wrote:
>
>> In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
>> S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
>> due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
>
>You must be mistaken here. AFAIK nobody has ever built XFree856 under Tru64.
>It's just not possible due to the different way Tru64 supports graphics
>cards. However I'd really like to see some efforts in this area.
s/different way Tru64/insane way XFree86/
--
Thor Lancelot Simon t...@rek.tjls.com
"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?"
Tom Leitner
>>
>>> In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
>>> S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
>>> due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
>>
>>You must be mistaken here. AFAIK nobody has ever built XFree856 under Tru64.
>>It's just not possible due to the different way Tru64 supports graphics
>>cards. However I'd really like to see some efforts in this area.
> s/different way Tru64/insane way XFree86/
I don't have enough insight into graphics cards programming under
Unix to judge this. As XFree86 is available under many other popular
Unix systems (e.g. Solaris and others) as well, I'd stick to the
"different way Tru64" version :-)
Yong S. Yi
>
> > In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
> > S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
> > due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
>
> You must be mistaken here. AFAIK nobody has ever built XFree856 under Tru64.
> It's just not possible due to the different way Tru64 supports graphics
> cards. However I'd really like to see some efforts in this area.
No? I once had a machine (AlphaStation 255/300) with a S3 ViRGE GX,
running XFree86. Not sure whether this was with 3.2G or 4.0B on the
machine.
> >> I'm wondering what is a good all-round video card for the AlphaStation 200
> >> 4/233?? I've heard that the matrox Millinum cards are good for Alpha but is
>
> > Millennium, I believe, /is/ supported for Tru64.
>
> Sorry. This is wrong.
The Millennium, AFAIK, is/was supported as of 4.0F.
> >> there any one card that is supported on all my OS's. Linux Redhat6.0, True64
> >> 5.0, and possibly One of the BSD's in the future?
>
> > I believe the Millennium is supported in all of the above. And NT.
>
> No. The best/cheapest graphics cards currently for Tru64 are the Elsa
> Gloria Synergy and the Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro. Both use the same chip
> and work under Tru64 in 1280x1024 @ 24 bit.
[ http://async.org/~ysyi/multia.html ]
"...onboard 2MB TGA graphics (it'll do, trust me -- don't go buying that
Elsa Gloria stuff for your Multia)"
And given that the AlphaStation is a Multia with more PCI slots, etc,
....
Tom Leitner
>>
>> > In any given case, as for the S3 line, I believe Tru64 supports only the
>> > S3 Trios. I may be wrong here, but I do recall having to build XFree86
>> > due to the fact that Xdec didn't support S3 ViRGE a long while ago.
>>
>> You must be mistaken here. AFAIK nobody has ever built XFree856 under Tru64.
>> It's just not possible due to the different way Tru64 supports graphics
>> cards. However I'd really like to see some efforts in this area.
> No? I once had a machine (AlphaStation 255/300) with a S3 ViRGE GX,
> running XFree86. Not sure whether this was with 3.2G or 4.0B on the
> machine.
No! Maybe you were running Linux/AXP on it. But XFree86 just can't be
compiled/used under Tru64. Really. You must be mistaken. Sorry.
Prove your claim if you can. I can easily prove mine: Just take any
XFree86 sources and try to compile it under Tru64. It'll fail miserably.
There *are* notes about OSF/1 in the XFree86 source but these are references
the old OSF/1 version which was available for PCs.
>> >> I'm wondering what is a good all-round video card for the AlphaStation 200
>> >> 4/233?? I've heard that the matrox Millinum cards are good for Alpha but is
>>
>> > Millennium, I believe, /is/ supported for Tru64.
>>
>> Sorry. This is wrong.
> The Millennium, AFAIK, is/was supported as of 4.0F.
No! You're probably mixing up things here. Show me a reference to this,
where it says that the Matrox Millenium is supported or even
works under 4.0F.
Sergey Tikhonov
> On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 14:04:08 -0500, "Keith Hayes"
> <hay...@compuserve.com> posted:
>
> > It appears that the non-commercial Tru-64 v5 is compatible on an
> >AlphaStation 200 4/233 on paper, but has anyone actually installed this
> >operating system on one of these workstations? I'd like to be sure it is
> >possible before I spend the $100 for the kit. And yes, this is very good
> >news from Compaq.
>
> I'm embarrassed to post this after seeing everyone else succeed, but I
> can't get it to successfully boot from the OS CDROM. Mine had the ARC
> firmware installed booting Linux, so I ran the 5.5 updater and
> installed SRM. I try to boot dka0, and it boots, goes to bootstrap,
> then gives an error that "dka0.0.0.6.0 has no media present or is
> disabled via the RUN/STOP switch". It then reboots. I have no clue
> what this means, and exhaustive searching of the web and Deja don't
> bring the phrase up at all. In desperation, I'm reading every
> DEC/UNIX/OSF/etc group I can find. If others can do it, I'm sure I can
> as well, but it's sure frustrating me so far. :(
I installed it on my home AlphaStation 200/233 without any problems.
Could you post output of SHOW and SHOW CONFIG SRM commands?
--
Sergey Tikhonov
Solvo Ltd.
t...@solvo.spb.su
Kevin P. Neal
>On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 14:04:08 -0500, "Keith Hayes"
><hay...@compuserve.com> posted:
>
>> It appears that the non-commercial Tru-64 v5 is compatible on an
>>AlphaStation 200 4/233 on paper, but has anyone actually installed this
>>operating system on one of these workstations? I'd like to be sure it is
>>possible before I spend the $100 for the kit. And yes, this is very good
>>news from Compaq.
>
>I'm embarrassed to post this after seeing everyone else succeed, but I
>can't get it to successfully boot from the OS CDROM. Mine had the ARC
>firmware installed booting Linux, so I ran the 5.5 updater and
>installed SRM. I try to boot dka0, and it boots, goes to bootstrap,
>then gives an error that "dka0.0.0.6.0 has no media present or is
>disabled via the RUN/STOP switch". It then reboots. I have no clue
My AlphaStation 200 4/233 did the same thing when attempting to boot
(firmware 5.3 switched to SRM mode) from two CD-ROM drives I have on hand.
No CD would boot: not firmware, and not Digital UNIX 4.0?.
One was a Plextor 4x, the other a RRD45.
I bought an RRD43 and it works like a charm.
--
Kevin P. Neal http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/
"You know, I think I can hear the machine screaming from here... \
'help me! hellpp meeee!'" - Heather Flanagan, 14:52:23 Wed Jun 10 1998
Mike Iglesias
Kevin P. Neal <k...@tome.neutralgood.org> wrote:
>My AlphaStation 200 4/233 did the same thing when attempting to boot
>(firmware 5.3 switched to SRM mode) from two CD-ROM drives I have on hand.
>No CD would boot: not firmware, and not Digital UNIX 4.0?.
>
>One was a Plextor 4x, the other a RRD45.
Interesting. My 200 4/233 booted the firmware and DU cdroms from a
Plexstor 12x with no problem.
--
Mike Iglesias Internet: igle...@draco.acs.uci.edu
University of California, Irvine phone: 949-824-6926
Office of Academic Computing FAX: 949-824-2069