On Wed, Nov 17, 1999 at 02:51:39PM +0530, T. P. Saravanan wrote:
> We are making a storage controller.
>
> If booting has to be supported from storage controller,
> how can it be done? (For the drivers will be loaded only after linux
> has loaded, and therfore, cannot read from the storage controller for
> boot.)
>
> In x86 there "Expansion ROM" on the controller can contain "BIOS
> extension"
> which the x86 BIOS will use to load the boot code.
>
> How is this handled in Alpha (in context of Linux)?
Brian Pomerantz replied:
[snip]
> I assume you want
> to make your controller work under SRM as well as Alpha BIOS. I would
> expect that you need to get in touch with Compaq to get specs on how
> SRM works.
There's a pretty good description of the SRM boot sequence in the Alpha
Architecture Reference Manual. I strongly recommend this book for
anybody doing any non-zero amount of Alpha work. That not withstanding,
I agree with Brian. There's only so much you can do without Compaq/DEC
support at the SRM driver level.
-- Randy
