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Alpha PWS500a

From HW wiki

Alpha Personal Workstation 500a

DEC Alpha (Wikipedia)

Digital Personal Workstation (Wikipedia)

Official HP information

Service manual

Software

Debian

Debian Alpha Port

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.10 _Lenny_ - Official alpha DVD Binary-1 20120310-15:37]/ lenny contrib main

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ lenny main non-free contrib
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian/ lenny main non-free contrib

# Security:
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-security/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free

# Volatile:
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib non-free
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib non-free

# Backports:
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-backports lenny-backports main contrib non-free

Hardware

sirin:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo 
cpu			: Alpha
cpu model		: EV56
cpu variation		: 7
cpu revision		: 0
cpu serial number	: 
system type		: Miata
system variation	: 0
system revision		: 0
system serial number	: ERSKINE
cycle frequency [Hz]	: 499893826 est.
timer frequency [Hz]	: 1024.00
page size [bytes]	: 8192
phys. address bits	: 40
max. addr. space #	: 127
BogoMIPS		: 992.88
kernel unaligned acc	: 3 (pc=fffffc00010e09a4,va=fffffc000f49a1ea)
user unaligned acc	: 0 (pc=0,va=0)
platform string		: Digital Personal WorkStation 500au
cpus detected		: 1
L1 Icache		: 8K, 1-way, 32b line
L1 Dcache		: 8K, 1-way, 32b line
L2 cache		: 96K, 3-way, 64b line
L3 cache		: n/a

Booting

For serial connection, connect to the Serial 1 with a null-modem cable. On your computer, use minicom with configuration 9600 8N1. Do not use gtkterm, it has problems with showing escape characters.

>>>boot dka0.0.0.1004.0 -fl console=/dev/ttyS0
aboot> b 2/vmlinuz ro initrd=/initrd.img root=/dev/sda3 console=ttyS0,9600

AlphaBIOS

AlphaBIOS is used to boot Win NT. Switch to SRM console in Setup (F2).

To do so, follow these steps Problem getting to SRM from AlphaBIOS 5.70:

 -- in the Alphabios:
   - press F2 to enter setup
   - select CMOS setup
   - press F6 to enter advanced CMOS setup
   - tab to Console Selection
   - select Digital Unix Console (SRM) with the arrow keys
   - press F10 twice to exit to setup and save
   - press Enter to confirm
   - press the _Reset_ button (the small button next to the power button) on the front of the workstation


  From http://www.decuslib.com/decus/vmslt01a/net/alphabios-key-equivs.txt

  Here are the serial console terminal equivilents of the function keys 
  that are referenced by AlphaBIOS (or ARC) console:

         F1   Ctrl/A
         F2   Ctrl/B
         F3   Ctrl/C
         F4   Ctrl/D
         F5   Ctrl/E
         F6   Ctrl/F
         F7   Ctrl/P
         F8   Ctrl/R
         F9   Ctrl/T
        F10   Ctrl/U
     Insert   Ctrl/V
     Delete   Ctrl/W
  Backspace   Ctrl/H
     Escape   Ctrl/[
     Return   Ctrl/M
   LineFeed   Ctrl/J
   (Plus) +   upselect (some systems)
  (Minus) -   downselect (some systems)
        TAB   down arrow
   SHIFT+TAB  up arrow
  To do the "Console selection" use 'ALT +'
  Instead of arrow keys it is possible to use 'TAB'


SRM console + Aboot

SRM HOWTO

>>>show device