RE: srm upgrade 6.7 -> 7.0

[Waibel Niki <niki waibel setila ch>]

>I must confess to a pang of conscience after my last post. In 
>truth, I'm
>now unclear as to which step worked at which point. I know 
>that I had SRM
>for a time, and ARC for a time as well. So, the more I 
>thinkabout it, it
>seems that the DOS boot floppy worked whilst ARC was in ROM.

it seems so.

>However, there is a jumper on the motherboard that you can set to force
>an update. If my recollection is indeed becoming clearer, 

yes. i saw that.
could be that an update is possible with that and with a fat/msdos floppy.

>that's how I got
>SRM 7 back down to 6.9. I'm sorry I don't recall the jumper

hey - are there bugs in srm7?
i just upgraded from 6.7 -> 7.0.
should i downgrade to 6.9?
 
>number, but it
>is in the manual. I'd look it up for you, but I use other people's eyes
>for such things as mine don't work.

no need, thanks.

niki

>
>
>
>			Janina Sajka, Director
>			Information Systems Research & Development
>			American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
>
>janina@afb.net
>
>On Mon, 3 Jan 2000, Waibel Niki wrote:
>
>> are you using srm console, arc or alphabios?
>> i had srm v6.7.
>> i too tried to create a fat floppy with the firmware file 
>first - but it
>> did not boot.
>> i dont think it would work if i had done a 
>> `format a: /s' (instead of `format a:')
>> but i am new to alpha too and so i dont know.
>> 
>> can anyone make this clear?
>> 
>> thanks, niki
>> 
>> BTW:
>>  Michal Jaegermann [michal@ellpspace.math.ualberta.ca]:
>>   your perl script is VERY nice - perl really rules!
>>   i will use it next time :)
>> 
>> BTW2:
>>  happy new year
>> 
>> 
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >From: janina@afb.net [mailto:janina@afb.net]
>> >Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 4:29 PM
>> >To: 'axp-list'
>> >Subject: Re: srm upgrade 6.7 -> 7.0
>> >
>> >
>> >Maybe I'm too new to the world of Alpha's, but I'm missing 
>> >something here.
>> >What's the difference in your method over simply creating a bootable
>> >DOS/Win floppy? If the point is to get thie update to boot, 
>the latter
>> >method worked on my AS200 just fine.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >			Janina Sajka, Director
>> >			Information Systems Research & Development
>> >			American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
>> >
>> >janina@afb.net
>> >
>> >On Fri, 31 Dec 1999, Waibel Niki wrote:
>> >
>> >> i just a want to inform the i upgraded the srm console on 
>my good old
>> >> alphastation255 (ev45/233).
>> >> 
>> >> i thought that it could help me boot from the adaptec 
>scsi controller
>> >> - but it did not.
>> >> 
>> >> anyway - because it was such a pain to get info about the 
>> >upgrade process
>> >> under srm / linux, i will explain it in this mail.
>> >> 
>> >> if someone has a better solution - pls mail!
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> (the info below is without warrenty - it worked on my machine)
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> 1) get the latest firmware from
>> >> ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/index.html
>> >> (choose your machine on the left)
>> >> 
>> >> 2) download the firware file (in my case it was `as255_v8_1.exe')
>> >> 
>> >> 3) boot a linux
>> >> 
>> >> 4) format a floppy (`fdformat /dev/fd0H1440')
>> >>    *dont* put a filesystem onto it - you dont need it!
>> >> 
>> >> 5) put the firmware file onto the disk - starting with an 
>> >offset of 512
>> >> byte:
>> >>    `dd if=as255_v8_1.exe of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1'
>> >> 
>> >> the next step is somehow a hack.
>> >> maybe there is a better way to do it - pls inform me!
>> >> you need to boot from the disk (directly in the srm console)
>> >> - but currently there is no boot stuff on it.
>> >> 
>> >> 6) create an empty (hex) bootblock:
>> >>    `dd if=/dev/zero bs=512 count=1 | xxd boot_block_empty'
>> >> 
>> >> 7) determine the size of the firmware file
>> >>    `ls -la as255_v8_1.exe'
>> >>    divide that size by 512 (decimal) and calculate the hex 
>> >value of it.
>> >> 
>> >> 8) edit the file `boot_block_empty' you created in step 6.
>> >>    you have to jump to offset 1e0 (the line before the last line).
>> >>    the next is a bit complicated.
>> >>    you have to reverse the byte order of the hex value 
>calculated in
>> >>    step 7 in a long int (8 byte - 64 bit) order.
>> >>    example:
>> >>     your value from step 7 was: a09 (= 0000 0000 0000 0a09)
>> >>     the value you have to enter is: 090a 0000 0000 0000
>> >>    hope everyone undersood...
>> >> 
>> >> 9) edit the next long int
>> >>    enter: 0100 0000 0000 0000
>> >>    this is the offset the file starts.
>> >> 
>> >> 10) make sure that the next long int (at offset 1f0) is:
>> >>     0000 0000 0000 0000
>> >>      this is a flag - dont know what it is used for.
>> >> 
>> >> 11) edit the last long int. this is a checksum.
>> >>     it is the addition of all long ints (8 bytes) before.
>> >>     pay attention on the REVERSE ORDER!!!
>> >>     in my example it is:
>> >>     0a0a 0000 0000 0000
>> >> 
>> >> 12) exit editor and write the bootblock back to disk:
>> >>     `xxd -r boot_block_empty | dd of=/dev/fd0H1440'
>> >> 
>> >> 13) halt linux -> go to the srm console and boot from the 
>> >created disk:
>> >>     `boot dva0'
>> >> 
>> >> 14) the machine/srm seems to reboot - the the update menu 
>> >should appear.
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >
>> >-- 
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>> >
>> 
>> 
>
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