On 3/20/26 16:11, Michael Cree wrote:
On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:12:07PM -0400, Dennis Clarke wrote:
I downloaded the debian-5010-alpha-CD-1.iso from here :
https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/5.0.10/alpha/iso-cd/
Things did not go so well :
[snip]
Processor
DECchip (tm) 21164-5 Pass 4 266 MHz 96 KBytes SCache
An EV5 processor? Then not supported by Debian ports anymore.
Ah, but you are installing Debian Lenny, so, yes, that should work.
That is my hope. Just enough to allow me to perhaps debootstrap
or at least try to get more up to date stuff compiled. It does run
latest OpenBSD just fine. However it would be nice to get some sort
of Linux there.
<snip>
Did you try "d boot" while in aboot to see what is in the boot
directory?
Well gee ... no ... let's take a look :
>>>init
ff.fe.fd.fc.fb.fa.f9.f8.f7.f6.f5.
ef.ee.ed.f4.ec.eb.
ea.e9.e8.e7.e6.e5.e4.
Digital AlphaStation 600 5/266 Console V6.9-5
built on Oct 10 1998 at 14:22:57
>>>boot dka500
(boot dka500.5.0.1001.0 -flags A)
block 0 of dka500.5.0.1001.0 is a valid boot block
reading 159 blocks from dka500.5.0.1001.0
bootstrap code read in
base = 142000, image_start = 0, image_bytes = 13e00
initializing HWRPB at 2000
initializing page table at 134000
initializing machine state
setting affinity to the primary CPU
jumping to bootstrap code
aboot: Linux/Alpha SRM bootloader version 0.9b
aboot: switching to OSF/1 PALcode version 1.22
aboot: booting from device 'SCSI 0 1001 0 5 500 0 0'
aboot: no disklabel found.
iso: Max size:331633 Log zone size:2048
iso: First datazone:52 Root inode number 106496
aboot: could not find default config `A'
Welcome to aboot 0.9b
Commands:
h, ? Display this message
q Halt the system and return to SRM
p 1-8 Look in partition <num> for configuration/kernel
l List preconfigured kernels
d <dir> List directory <dir> in current filesystem
b <file> <args> Boot kernel in <file> (- for raw boot)
i <file> Use <file> as initial ramdisk
with arguments <args>
0-9 Boot preconfiguration 0-9 (list with 'l')
aboot> d
boot
css
debian
dedication.txt
dists
doc
etc
install
md5sum.txt
milo
pics
pool
README.html
README.txt
README.mirrors.html
README.mirrors.txt
.disk
aboot> d boot
bootlx
initrd.gz
vmlinuz
aboot>
And did you try "l" to list preconfigured kernels (the list is read
from /etc/aboot.conf and I see the /etc directory is in the directory
listing above, so would hazard a guess that /etc/aboot.conf is
indeed present and would provide some boot options.)
OKay .. cool ... let me take a look :
aboot> l
0:boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=15608 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram
devfs=mount,dall
1:boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=15608 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram
devfs=mount,dall console=ttyS0
2:boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=15608 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram
devfs=mount,dall console=ttyS1
aboot>
Well this is promising. Let's try the digit "1" with serial console !
aboot> 1
aboot: loading uncompressed boot/vmlinuz...
aboot: loading compressed boot/vmlinuz...
aboot: zero-filling 854696 bytes at 0xfffffc0001680ac0
aboot: loading initrd (5076756 bytes/4957 blocks) at 0xfffffc003f93c000
aboot: starting kernel boot/vmlinuz with arguments ramdisk_size=15608
root=/dev/ram devfs=mount,dall console=ttyS0
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.26-2-alpha-generic (Debian 2.6.26-29)
([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.3 20080704 (prerelease) (Debian
4.1.2-25)) #1 Sun Mar 4 21:08:03 UTC 2012
[ 0.000000] Booting GENERIC on Alcor variation Alcor using machine
vector Alcor from SRM
[ 0.000000] Major Options: MAGIC_SYSRQ
[ 0.000000] Command line: ramdisk_size=15608 root=/dev/ram
devfs=mount,dall console=ttyS0
[ 0.000000] memcluster 0, usage 1, start 0, end 161
[ 0.000000] memcluster 1, usage 0, start 161, end 130955
[ 0.000000] memcluster 2, usage 1, start 130955, end 131072
[ 0.000000] freeing pages 161:2048
[ 0.000000] freeing pages 2987:130955
[ 0.000000] reserving pages 2987:2989
[ 0.000000] Initial ramdisk at: 0xfffffc003f93c000 (5076756 bytes)
[ 0.000000] 2048K Bcache detected; load hit latency 24 cycles, load
miss latency 88 cycles
[ 0.000000] pci: cia revision 1
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.
Total pages: 130059
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: ramdisk_size=15608 root=/dev/ram
devfs=mount,dall console=ttyS0
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Using epoch = 1980
[4194001.852669] Console: colour dummy device 80x25
[4194001.852669] console [ttyS0] enabled
[4194003.313606] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7,
1048576 bytes)
[4194003.409309] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288
bytes)
[4194003.673958] Memory: 1024480k/1047640k available (2162k kernel code,
21264k reserved, 3314k data, 304k init)
[4194003.810676] Security Framework initialized
[4194003.862434] Capability LSM initialized
[4194003.909309] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[4194003.966926] Initializing cgroup subsys ns
[4194004.017707] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[4194004.073371] Initializing cgroup subsys devices
[4194004.145637] net_namespace: 1208 bytes
[4194004.193489] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[4194004.253059] EISA bus registered
[4194004.293098] pci: passed tb register update test
[4194004.350715] pci: passed sg loopback i/o read test
[4194004.409309] pci: passed tbia test
[4194004.451301] pci: passed pte write cache snoop test
[4194004.511848] pci: failed valid tag invalid pte reload test (mcheck;
workaround available)
[4194004.610481] pci: passed pci machine check test
[4194004.667121] pci: enabling save/restore of SRM state
[4194004.736457] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:08.0
[4194004.783332] IO window: 9000-9fff
[4194004.826301] MEM window: 0x02200000-0x022fffff
[4194004.882941] PREFETCH window: disabled.
[4194004.931769] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:09.0
[4194004.978644] IO window: a000-afff
[4194005.021613] MEM window: 0x02300000-0x023fffff
[4194005.078254] PREFETCH window: 0x0000000002400000-0x00000000025fffff
[4194005.157355] pci 0000:00:08.0: enabling device (0106 -> 0107)
[4194005.227668] pci 0000:00:09.0: enabling device (0106 -> 0107)
[4194005.305793] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
[4194005.388800] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[4194005.454230] IP route cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3,
65536 bytes)
[4194005.542121] TCP established hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6,
524288 bytes)
[4194005.634894] TCP bind hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 262144 bytes)
[4194005.717902] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 32768)
[4194005.799933] TCP reno registered
[4194005.841925] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[4194005.898566] checking if image is initramfs... it is
[4194012.687625] Freeing initrd memory: 4957k freed
[4194012.750125] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
[4194012.799929] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 8192 bytes)
[4194012.880984] msgmni has been set to 2011
[4194012.930789] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4
loaded (major 253)
[4194013.021609] io scheduler noop registered
[4194013.071414] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[4194013.129031] io scheduler deadline registered
[4194013.182742] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[4194013.242312] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
[4194013.648562] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[4194013.738406] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports,
IRQ sharing enabled
[4194013.834109] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[4194013.909304] serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
[4194014.005007] brd: module loaded
[4194014.051882] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[4194014.114382] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[4194014.178835] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[4194014.244265] EISA: Probing bus 0 at 0000:00:0a.0
[4194014.301882] EISA: Mainboard DEC5100 detected.
[4194014.356569] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
[4194014.406374] TCP cubic registered
[4194014.448366] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[4194014.505007] registered taskstats version 1
[4194014.556765] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[4194014.634889] Freeing unused kernel memory: 304k freed
[4194014.870241] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input0
[4194015.263795] atkbd.c: keyboard reset failed on isa0060/serio1
[4194039.008900] SCSI subsystem initialized
[4194039.366322] qla1280: QLA1040 found on PCI bus 1, dev 1
[4194039.487416] qla1280: Failed mbox check
[4194040.514759] qla1280_mailbox_command: Command failed, mailbox0 =
0x0007, mailbox_out0 = 0x4003, istatus = 0x0000
[4194040.514759] m0 4003, m1 aaaa, m2 0000, m3 aa55
[4194040.514759] m4 55aa, m5 a5a5, m6 a5a5, m7 a5a5
[4194040.514759] scsi(0): RISC checksum failed.
[4194040.514759] scsi(0): initialize: pci probe failed!
[4194040.861439] qla1x160: Failed to initialize adapter
[4194041.598743] qla1280: QLA1040 found on PCI bus 1, dev 2
[4194041.815540] qla1280: Failed mbox check
[4194042.985461] qla1280_mailbox_command: Command failed, mailbox0 =
0x0007, mailbox_out0 = 0x4003, istatus = 0x0000
[4194042.985461] m0 4003, m1 aaaa, m2 0000, m3 aa55
[4194042.985461] m4 55aa, m5 a5a5, m6 a5a5, m7 a5a5
[4194042.985461] scsi(1): RISC checksum failed.
[4194042.985461] scsi(1): initialize: pci probe failed!
[4194043.333117] qla1x160: Failed to initialize adapter
[4194043.666125] sym0: <875> rev 0x26 at pci 0000:02:04.0 irq 28
[4194044.234484] sym0: Symbios NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-20, SE, parity checking
[4194044.312609] sym0: open drain IRQ line driver, using on-chip SRAM
[4194044.386827] sym0: using LOAD/STORE-based firmware.
[4194044.447374] sym0: SCSI BUS has been reset.
[4194044.504991] scsi2 : sym-2.2.3
Starting system log daemon: syslogd, klogd.
Bizarre timestamps there but eventually .... I get the blue install
window :)
So now I can try to actually install onto a scsi disk and see what
happens next. I know that it may ask for where to get "ports" type
packages and I seem to recall it was called archive.debian.org/ports or
some string like that. No idea.
┌──────────────┤ Detecting hardware to find CD-ROM drives
│
│ 0%
│
│ Detecting hardware, please wait...
│
Hangs there for a while. About five minutes. Funny ... I can boot the
CDROM but then can not "find" it :
┌───────────────────┤ [!!] Detect and mount CD-ROM ├──
│
│ No common CD-ROM drive was detected.
│
│ You may need to load additional CD-ROM drivers from removable media,
│ such as a driver floppy. If you have such media available now, insert
│ it, and continue. Otherwise, you will be given the option to manually
│ select CD-ROM modules.
│
│ Load CD-ROM drivers from removable media?
│
│ <Yes> <No>
│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
However this is progress. Thank you so much !
--
--
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken
