RE: congratulations in order
Thank you! That is very helpful information. I will post my results here. Skye -Original Message- From: Michael Cree [mailto:mc...@orcon.net.nz] Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2019 12:53 PM To: Bob Tracy Cc: Skye; debian-alpha@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: congratulations in order On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 08:44:01AM -0500, Bob Tracy wrote: > On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 04:15:17PM -0600, Skye wrote: > > Congrats! Can you tell us how you got to that point? I need to bring up a > > series of servers next week and dreading my ignorance. They are currently > > running an old release of Red Hat. > > Short answer: up-to-date Debian "sid" (unstable) on a PWS 433au with > a kernel built from the latest kernel.org source tree. > > Longer answer: your mileage *will* vary, depending on your hardware. > > The hardest part of "getting to that point" is going to be bootstrapping > from nothing. The debian-alpha archives have *many* postings that will > attest to that :-(. I probably missed it, but we might have an install > CD at this point that includes enough of the needed drivers to > accomplish an installation. The generic kernel has been fixed. The install CD should work except if you need non-free firmware such as the qlogic firmware. If you have USB that gives a way of supplying the firmware to the installer. > If not, the known traditional trouble spots > are video and disk controller support. You can always install by serial port and bring up the video later. In particular, if you have a radeon card you will need to build your own kernel with an inbuilt radeon driver to bring up full video. > If you clear that hurdle, > successfully partitioning hard disks on alpha is more difficult than it > should be, and depends entirely on what tool you choose: recent "fdisk" > versions on alpha are broken -- see the debian-alpha archives for > workarounds. Use parted. I believe the install disk now uses that. Cheers, Michael.
Re: congratulations in order
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 08:44:01AM -0500, Bob Tracy wrote: > On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 04:15:17PM -0600, Skye wrote: > > Congrats! Can you tell us how you got to that point? I need to bring up a > > series of servers next week and dreading my ignorance. They are currently > > running an old release of Red Hat. > > Short answer: up-to-date Debian "sid" (unstable) on a PWS 433au with > a kernel built from the latest kernel.org source tree. > > Longer answer: your mileage *will* vary, depending on your hardware. > > The hardest part of "getting to that point" is going to be bootstrapping > from nothing. The debian-alpha archives have *many* postings that will > attest to that :-(. I probably missed it, but we might have an install > CD at this point that includes enough of the needed drivers to > accomplish an installation. The generic kernel has been fixed. The install CD should work except if you need non-free firmware such as the qlogic firmware. If you have USB that gives a way of supplying the firmware to the installer. > If not, the known traditional trouble spots > are video and disk controller support. You can always install by serial port and bring up the video later. In particular, if you have a radeon card you will need to build your own kernel with an inbuilt radeon driver to bring up full video. > If you clear that hurdle, > successfully partitioning hard disks on alpha is more difficult than it > should be, and depends entirely on what tool you choose: recent "fdisk" > versions on alpha are broken -- see the debian-alpha archives for > workarounds. Use parted. I believe the install disk now uses that. Cheers, Michael.
Re: congratulations in order
On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 04:15:17PM -0600, Skye wrote: > Congrats! Can you tell us how you got to that point? I need to bring up a > series of servers next week and dreading my ignorance. They are currently > running an old release of Red Hat. Short answer: up-to-date Debian "sid" (unstable) on a PWS 433au with a kernel built from the latest kernel.org source tree. Longer answer: your mileage *will* vary, depending on your hardware. The hardest part of "getting to that point" is going to be bootstrapping from nothing. The debian-alpha archives have *many* postings that will attest to that :-(. I probably missed it, but we might have an install CD at this point that includes enough of the needed drivers to accomplish an installation. If not, the known traditional trouble spots are video and disk controller support. If you clear that hurdle, successfully partitioning hard disks on alpha is more difficult than it should be, and depends entirely on what tool you choose: recent "fdisk" versions on alpha are broken -- see the debian-alpha archives for workarounds. If all else fails, you can try either the last official Debian release for alpha, or maybe a Gentoo boot CD. I would encourage you to try the latest Debian CD though... and document here exactly what doesn't work so there's a chance of getting it fixed. Upgrading from the ancient Debian stable release *will* be problematic, and I can't really recommend that option. --Bob
