Simon Fryer wrote: > All, > >> A while ago Steve Murdoch tapped: > >> I have an Alphaserver 1000. >> >> The SCSI drives have failed so I have installed a PCI IDE contoller and >> IDE drive. >> >> The SRM doesnt recognise the IDE so after install I wont be able to boot >> from the drive. >> >> Is thee a way to have the floppy as the root device ? > > I don't see any reason why not. The only restriction would be getting enough > of a kernel and enough binaries to bring the system up into the space > available.
As a floppy is about 1.44M, and the GENERIC Alpha kernel is over 6M in size, I think that's a pretty good "why not". CDROM might be possible..not familiar enough with the Alpha boot process to say for sure. You might need a second Alpha to help you build such an ISO image, however (I'd start by trying to replace bsd.rd on cd37.iso with a GENERIC bsd, however, that was FAR from an authoritative suggestion. Maybe it can't suck 6M off a CD, either...) However, if your SCSI HD has failed, just get a replacement drive, you can pick 'em up very cheap, 'specially if all you want is enough to boot from. Nick.
