Alpha live CD boot problem: unable to mount root fs

[platem]

I recently aquired an Alpha 300 XL, on which I'd like to install Gentoo.

It came pre-installed with some old RedHat version (with unknown root password), so there is a working MILO already present. Following http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2004.2/handbook-alpha.xml?part=1&chap=2 I downloaded and burned a gentoo-alpha-1.4rc1-test4.iso CD.

1st weirdness: if a boot sr0: or ls sr0: command is given on the MILO prompt it'll show a lot of errors about the CDROM not being ready. If however, the command show is first given, the other commands operating on sr0: will function. No big deal, but maybe a sympton for a larger problem?

Anyway, after show I type the command

[frilled]

Would at least trying to use SRM for installation be an option for you? Because it's not only a lot faster, but booting is painless as well (like "boot dka0"). You might also consider the 2005 release
Admittedly tampering with the BSD disklabel quirks is a disadvantage (for me at least), but it's not such a big deal in the end.
_________________
"Failure is not an option!"
"Sir, we are out of further options."

[platem]

[frilled]

[platem]

Thanks for your reply.

Ok, now I got 3 floppies with 3 different MILOs (avanti, xl and xlt).

First of: the cover of the alpha system claims it is an Alpha XL 266, but the AlphaBIOS says it is an XL 300. What would be the correct MILO to use (is there a definitive list around the net somewhere)? This might be a theoretical question as none of these tree images seems to work .

They all do the same: start loading, and when the message switching to PALcode at <hexnum> appears nothing happens anymore.
Putting the MILO boot line in the OS boot options line in the AlphaBIOS setup does not make any difference.

After googling I found that it might be that MILO is using one of the RS232 ports for IO.

Hmm. Of to find a system with RS232 connection to use as terminal. Or can I disable MILO serial IO somehow? And shouldn't putting the bootline into the OS boot options section cause the system to start booting from CD (the CD ROM stays silent) even with IO to RS232?

[frilled]

Did you look at http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/milo/, for example?

Hm, I don't have the Alpha matrix right here (which model uses which architecture; like my PWS500a is a miata), but it's on the net. Have a look there and get the MILO image from the website above.

And I don't think XL266 and XL300 really makes a differece (but you can never be too sure...).
_________________
"Failure is not an option!"
"Sir, we are out of further options."

[frilled]

From http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/load-section.html#ARC-SECTION:

5.6.8. XL266

The XL266 is one of a family of systems that are known as Avanti. It has a riser card containing the Alpha chip and cache which plugs into the main board at right angles. This board can replace the equivalent Pentium board.

Some of these systems ship with the SRM console but others, notably the XL266 ship with only the Windows NT ARC firmware (Section Section 5.1).

Here is my list of compatible systems:

* AlphaStation 400 (Avanti),
* AlphaStation 250,
* AlphaStation 200 (Mustang),
* XL. There are two flavours, XL266 and XL233 with the only difference being in processor speed and cache size.

Note The system that I use to develop and test MILO is an XL266 and so this is the only one that I can guarentee will work. However, technically, all of the above systems are equivalent; they have the same support chipsets and the same interrupt handling mechanisms.



So Avanti should have been the right choice. And I know of no MILO that would work with a serial tty only. Though it may be possible, it's hard to guess someone would build a MILO without console support
_________________
"Failure is not an option!"
"Sir, we are out of further options."

[platem]

[frilled]

Huh?

chroot takes place in your RedHat, then ... I don't quite get it?!
_________________
"Failure is not an option!"
"Sir, we are out of further options."

[neysx]