117 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
117 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
$NetBSD: STATUS,v 1.1 1995/04/25 18:59:14 cgd Exp $
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NetBSD/Alpha's Status
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Supported hardware:
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DEC 3000/[456789]00 (I've only tested it on the 400 and
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600, but the rest should "just work) using the following
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peripherals:
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Serial ports
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LANCE ethernet -- only the on-board interface. (see below.)
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SCSI system -- it recognizes and can use both on-board SCSI
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controller chips. However, it has trouble working with
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both at the same time.
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Things are aren't supported:
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No frame buffers of any type.
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Devices in TurboChannel option slots (see the
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TODO.users file.)
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The ISDN/Audio chip.
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DEC 3000/300 family, with same hardware above.
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NetBSD/Alpha has actually been run on the following types of machines:
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DEC 3000/400
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DEC 3000/600
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[ XXX THERE ARE MORE; if you're running it on a machine not
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listed, mail me about it.]
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At this time none of the following systems are supported:
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DECpc AXP systems -- the Alpha systems with EISA busses
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AlphaStations -- the Alpha systems with PCI busses (i.e.
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PCI/ISA or PCI/EISA)
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The Futurebus-based Alpha server systems
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The multiprocessor Alpha systems
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I am in the process of porting NetBSD/Alpha to the PCI-based systems,
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in particular, to the AlphaStation 400 4/233. I was hoping to get a
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DECpc AXP port working "for free" based on the PCI work, but the
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DECpc AXP is a very different (and, in my opinion, very alien) piece
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of hardware. If somebody wants to make NetBSD/Alpha run on the
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DECpc AXP system, get in touch and I'll do what I can to help you
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get started. (Right now, it can detect devices on the EISA bus, etc.,
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but the I/O layout is distinctly _not_ what I'd expected and/or hoped
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for. It's significantly more difficult to deal with than I'd expected.)
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It's unclear how much support for other PCI-based systems (i.e. the
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AlphaStation 200 and AlphaStation 250 machines) will be won by getting
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the AlphaStation 400 supported. It should at least make porting to
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those machines easier.
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Because no frame buffers are supported, NetBSD/Alpha _must_ be used with
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a serial console. To do that on:
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DEC 3000/[4-9]00's:
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Flip the appropriate switch on the back of the machine.
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DEC 3000/300 family machines:
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Boot the machine with the keyboard/mouse connector
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unplugged.
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DECpc AXP's and AlphaStations:
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Boot the machine with the keyboard unplugged. (Note:
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I've never actually booted one of these machines with
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a serial console, so I can't verify that this is
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correct. Also, people who've booted test kernels for
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me have reported trouble using these boxes with a
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serial console, but I'm not sure why; the kernel for
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these systems is not advanced enough to have its own
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serial driver yet, and so is using the PROM routines.)
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There actually is hope of getting somebody to come up with working
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graphics board drivers and even an X server. More on that as things
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develop.
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Getting people running with my latest sources still isn't as easy as
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it should be; not all of my sources are integrated into the NetBSD
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master source tree yet. Most of the diffs are in, however, and I
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suggest the following tactic for people who are trying to get running
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with an "up to date" system:
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Get the latest NetBSD sources from:
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ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/src/tar_files
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Replace that 'sys' tree with the latest snapshot I've put up
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for ftp under the directory:
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ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/alpha
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If you'd like to compile the compiler and tool chain, add to
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that the GNU tools tree (src/devo) from my original source
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distribution tar file, which can also be found under:
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ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/alpha
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(Unfortunately, there's not a way to get just that part of the
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source distribution; I'll fix that in a day or two.)
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That won't be perfect, but it'll get you most of the way there.
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I'm planning to put up a new 'sys' snapshot, as well as new kernel
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image, in a couple of days. Hopefully by that time, all of the
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user-land changes will have been merged into the master NetBSD source
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tree.
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Please see the file src/sys/arch/alpha/TODO.users for a list of things
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that users can do to help NetBSD/Alpha improve. If you're interested
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in doing any of them, or porting to new hardware, get in touch and
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I'll do what I can to help.
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Chris Demetriou
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cgd@netbsd.org
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