[wplug] [OT] Booting Linux on a Compaq AlphaPC?

[Vanco, Donald]

Alexandros Papadopoulos wrote:
> Has anyone wrestled with this kind of beast? I have a couple of
> Compaq AlphaPC 264DPs and I'm trying to convince them to boot KNOPPIX
> or at least tomsrbtd. 
> 
> The manual claims that typing "set os_type nt" in the console and
> rebooting will do the trick, but it doesn't seem so... I still don't
> get a chance to reach the traditional BIOS utility, but am instead
> tossed to the SRM console. 
> 
> Anyone know how to tell it to boot from CD?
It's an SRM issue, not a linux issue - there's a command to tell the SRM
what to use as the boot device, but it's been so long since I loaded an
Alpha I really don't recall what it might have been.  Have you looked over
the docs at http://www.alphalinux.org?   One thing to look at is whether or
not that particular platform is even supported....
IIRC correctly it was something like.....
>>>bood dka0    <--(dka0 or dkb0 ...depends on the model and location of the
CD-rom)
>>> boot

if you do a >>> sh dev
	You'll get a list of devices and can figger out what dk number to
use


Also - Compaq (now H-P) paid Red Hat to build RH 7.2 for Alpha, and H-P
recently released an updated version of it that greatly reduces the pain of
getting it installed - you might look into downloading it from
http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/linux/index.html

Don