AC-0.9 Testing Results (was: Re: Alpha Core ISO Images)

[Jay Estabrook]

On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 09:30:45PM +0200, geerten wrote:
> At 23:55 15/10/2004, Jay wrote:
> >         PC164           Permedia2       QLogic  CD      GUI install OK
> >                 * Millennium I causes X server crash
> >                 * NCR 875 works fine
> 
> Not in my case:
> PC164, NCR875, headless: serial install.
>  >>>sh dev
> dka100.1.0.5.0             DKA100             IBM DDYS-T18350N  S96H
> dka300.3.0.5.0             DKA300         IBM IC35L036UWD210-0  S5BS
> dka400.4.0.5.0             DKA400      PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-304  1.03
> dva0.0.0.0.1               DVA0
> ewa0.0.0.6.0               EWA0              00-00-F8-06-C4-41
> pka0.7.0.5.0               PKA0                  SCSI Bus ID 7
> 
> This is where it gets stuck:
> 
> Welcome to Alpha Core
> 
> 
> 
>                     +--------+ Loading SCSI driver +---------+
>                     |                                        |
>                     | Loading sym53c8xx driver...            |
>                     |                                        |
>                     +----------------------------------------+
> 
> 
>    <Tab>/<Alt-Tab> between elements  | <Space> selects | <F12> next screen
> 
> Redhat 7.2 works (i.e. it worked before, and this time I verified I could 
> at least reach Disk Druid.)
> I also succesfully installed TRu64 v5.1a 

Well, here's as close as I can come to your setup:

PC164 @ 433MHz and NCR875 and TULIP 21140, 512MB of memory :-)

Digital AlphaPC 164 432 MHz Console V5.5-1, Jul 14 1999 12:37:45
>>>sho dev
dka0.0.0.5.0               DKA0                       RZ1CB-BS  0658
dka100.1.0.5.0             DKA100                     RZ1BA-BS  3001
dka400.4.0.5.0             DKA400     TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-5301TA  1895
dva0.0.0.0.1               DVA0                               
ewa0.0.0.6.0               EWA0              00-00-F8-06-97-67
pka0.7.0.5.0               PKA0                  SCSI Bus ID 7
>>>b dka400 -fl 1

I encountered NO problems getting beyond the "Loading sym53c8xx driver"
message, no matter what I did WRT termination on the SCSI bus. That is:

	active termination
	terminate on CDROM
	active AND terminate on CDROM
	no termination at all

They all "just worked" for me.

Note that I didn't fiddle with termination jumpers on the NCR875;
both TERMHIGH and TERMLOW were jumpered, and I connected all the
devices on one 68-pin cable with a 68->50 adapter at the CDROM,
which came last/at the end.

I'm suspecting that perhaps your DVD-ROM drive is the culprit, for
some reason, or perhaps some aspect of termination that I didn't think
of trying. It's certainly been the case in the past where the Linux
SCSI drivers were more sensitive to termination issues than the Tru64
or SRM ones, as well as being "changeable", ie some versions of a
driver would work with funky termination and other versions of the
same driver wouldn't.

BTW, PC164 works quite well with IDE CDROM, I'd try that if you really
want to get it working (that's how I did my initial install).

Good luck, sorry I can't help more...

 --Jay++

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Jay A Estabrook                            HPTC - LINUX support
Hewlett-Packard Company - ZKO2-3/N30       (603) 884-0301
110 Spit Brook Road, Nashua NH 03062       Jay.Estabrook at hp.com
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