From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <46dc3dd0e49ca017454e8cddb6385471@plan9.ucalgary.ca>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] bootalphapc
Date: Tue,  6 Jul 2004 13:54:21 -0600
From: andrey mirtchovski <mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
In-Reply-To: <20040706T093258Z_FFB700000000@mail2.cu-portland.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Topicbox-Message-UUID: b726002e-eacd-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

> Did you use the out-of-the-box bootalphapc, or some other method to
> get it going?  Also, is your filesystem running locally on the PWS, or
> from another machine via network?  How much trouble was all this?
>

i boot using bootalphapc from a Plan 9 cpu server on which i've
started ip/tftpd and ip/dhcpd.  the ndb configuration for the alpha
(i.e.  what the dhcp server will look at) is:

	sys=alpha
		ether=0000f875fafa
		ip=192.168.1.5
		bootf=bootalphapc
		proto=tcp
		fs=136.159.220.110
		auth=136.159.220.110
		authdom=plan9.ucalgary.ca
		ipgw=192.168.1.1
		dns=136.159.5.14
		dns=136.159.5.15

not all of this is required (it should be in the ipnet= configuration).

bootalphapc looks for a configuration
file describing the machine in /alpha/conf/AA.BB.CC.DD (the ip address
of the machine booting).  there's an example there (10.0.0.2), and here's
what i have:

	plan9% cd /alpha/conf
	plan9% ls
	10.0.0.2
	192.168.1.5
	plan9% cat 192.168.1.5
	bootfile=/alpha/9apccpu
	bootargs=tcp
	ether0=type=2114x
	fs=136.159.220.110
	auth=136.159.220.110
	plan9%

bootalphapc downloads the kernel via tftp and jumps to it.

as for hard -- it wasn't hard at all.  the kernel booted to 'root is
from:' immediately, the only thing i needed to do is fix interrupts
(the PCI interrupts seem to be offset by 8).  there's still something
wrong with the clock interrupts, of which there are about 500 extra
ones generated every second.

the combined time wasn't more than 4-5 days, of which most was spent
trying different permutations of the IRQ settings and waiting for
others who know to reply to my silly questions.

andrey

ps: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mirtchov/screenshots/alpha.png