Linux on Alpha

[wdr at TheWorld.com (Bill Ricker N1VUX)]

Michael,

> ended up with a few DEC Alpha's.  (2) servers (an EB64+ and a PC164LX),

I've been running Linux on a couple of older Alphas equivalent to your EB64+
(Alpha Server 400 and an offbrand 21264), but am not yet an expert at
repurposing Alphas.  Debian seems to be the choice unless you can and want to
build from sources.  Installing can be a bit tricky, due to DEC firmware for
VMS and Ultrix/Tru64 and NT, and the variety in configurations.  Alpha
Firmware updates are still free from HP.  Recommendation appearst to be to
update the firmware BEFORE booting linux, but I didn't do that.

I'm still looking for a good price on a more recent or SMP Alpha, I guess
they're all still running OpenVMS at $DayJob.

Resources
* http://www.debian.org/ports/alpha/
* http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Alpha-HOWTO.shtml [generic Linux, not Debian]
* The Alpha Debian port mailing list archive is the master source of
information.
  http://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha/
* GoldenEgg config references http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/GECPQA/ archives
  and  more recent systems http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/Golden-Eggs/
  but I dont' see EB64 there.
 
Cheers,

Bill
 
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