Install RH5.2 on PWS500au (miata)

[Andy Kahn <kahn zk3 dec com>]

hi all,

i'm trying to install Linux for the first time on an Alpha based
system (specifically, a PWS500au).  i went to one of the Redhat
mirror sites and grabbed two images: miata-s.img and ramdisk.img.
after making the floppies, i booted the first floppy from SRM
with this command:

	>>>b -fi vmlinux.gz -fl "load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"

the kernel starts up, appears to detect my devices (scsi controller,
disks, cdrom, network card, etc), but then does:

Partition check:
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda7 sda8
[MS-DOS FS Rel. 12,FAT0, check=n,conv=b,uid=0,gid=0,umask=022,bmap]
kernel: unalisnged trap at fffffc0000392f58: fffffc000bff2811 29 1
[me=0x0,cs=0,#f=0,fs=0,fl=0,ds=0,de=0,data=0,se=0,ts=0,ls=0,rc=0,fc=42949672951
Transaction block size = 512
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:02


it looks like the kernel thinks there are filesystems existing on the
disk itself, and tries to mount it...?  i was never prompted for the
ramdisk, which i thought was kind of odd.

does someone know what's going on here?  what am i missing?

thanks,
--andy