First Time Alpha install: Prep ?'s

[gzf at gbr.msd.ray.com (Jerry Feldman {75562})]

Noah Fields wrote:

> Any one have brief comments about the differences. For instance, how much
> additional prep time I should plan on?  Any special Alpha "Gotchas" I
> should be aware of?
I have not installed 6.0, but I have installed 5.2. First, Alpha uses milo.
If it is available I would suggest using the ARC console as your boot
console. I do not recommend installing milo into flash. Here is a reasonable
setup:
/dev/sda1 FAT 2 MB
Rest of the drive as you want it. 

Place Milo and loadlin.exe into the FAT partition. 
With the ARC console, you can set up several different boot alternatives.
You set up your OSLOADER to point to loadlin.exe, something like
SCSI(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\loadlin.exe

The OSLOAD options woudl contain the milo options:
boot sda2:/vmlinux.gz S root=/dev/sda2
or
boot sda2:/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda2

Currently these are normally defaulted to NT OSLOADER.
This console allows you to run DOS programs directly. There is a program
called arcinst.exe, which is essentially fdisk. Use this to set up your
initial partitions. From floppy when you use the run program menu item:
multi(0)fdisk(1)rdisk(0)\arcinst.exe

BTW: You can view your hardware setup and it will display these ugly strings
so you don't have to guess.

Also, note that linux is installed in root as vmlinux.gz, not /boot/vmlinuz

Most everything else is pretty standard red hat. 

Alphas come with one of 3 different consoles. The primary console (command
line) is called the SRM console. You can shift to the ARC console on most
alphas by typing arc at the srm prompt. I am not familiar with the third
console which is newer. Make sure you review the Alpha install FAQs. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman (HP On-Site Consultant) http://gbrweb.msd.ray.com/~gzf/
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