[9fans] old alpha boot question

[9fans] old alpha boot question

[Benjamin Huntsman]

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Anyone remember off the top of their heads why the Alpha bootloader had to be downloaded over TFTP?  Is there a good reason why it couldn't be started from a floppy (or hard disk)?

Last time I tried to get it up and running, the Alpha boot stuff didn't like being served from a non-Plan9 server...

...and yes, I know the Alpha is dying.  I'm not giving mine up, though.

-Ben


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Re: [9fans] old alpha boot question

[jmk]

I think it was just done that way for convenience when debugging
the port. From what I remember, the Alpha firmware will happily boot
from a floppy if you have the layout correct, and the layout is
something trivial like a start address and a count of following
blocks to load.

--jim

On Tue Jan  3 15:10:14 EST 2006, BHuntsman@mail2.cu-portland.edu wrote:

> Anyone remember off the top of their heads why the Alpha bootloader had to be downloaded over TFTP?  Is there a good reason why it couldn't be started from a floppy (or hard disk)?
> 
> Last time I tried to get it up and running, the Alpha boot stuff didn't like being served from a non-Plan9 server...
> 
> ...and yes, I know the Alpha is dying.  I'm not giving mine up, though.
> 
> -Ben

Re: [9fans] old alpha boot question

[Bruce Ellis]

the alpha bootloader is full-on.  you can run "ps" e.g.
i can find out details from the guy who wrote it.
send me a private with any and all questions.
'tis the season to be jolly.

brucee

On 1/4/06, jmk@plan9.bell-labs.com <jmk@plan9.bell-labs.com> wrote:
> I think it was just done that way for convenience when debugging
> the port. From what I remember, the Alpha firmware will happily boot
> from a floppy if you have the layout correct, and the layout is
> something trivial like a start address and a count of following
> blocks to load.
>
> --jim
>
> On Tue Jan  3 15:10:14 EST 2006, BHuntsman@mail2.cu-portland.edu wrote:
>
> > Anyone remember off the top of their heads why the Alpha bootloader had to be downloaded over TFTP?  Is there a good reason why it couldn't be started from a floppy (or hard disk)?
> >
> > Last time I tried to get it up and running, the Alpha boot stuff didn't like being served from a non-Plan9 server...
> >
> > ...and yes, I know the Alpha is dying.  I'm not giving mine up, though.
> >
> > -Ben
>

Re: [9fans] old alpha boot question

[Brian L. Stuart]

In message <7DD37218104E31429E79EB0BB136800E265E58@vargas.ntdom.cupdx>, "Benjam
in Huntsman" writes:
>...and yes, I know the Alpha is dying.  I'm not giving mine up, though.

Me either.  But I don't have Plan 9 on mine.  It's a Digital Server 5300
(aka Alpha Server 1200).  Anyone have an educated guess how much work
would be involved with getting Plan 9 up on it?

Thanks,
BLS