Re: Everyone's SRM woes

[alvin <alvin iplink net>]

Rich Payne wrote:
> 
> > The folks at Dec/Compaq have gone from SRM to ARC to AlphaBios and now
> > sort of back to SRM. The API people are now shipping SRM but it looks
> > like they are working on a propritary new boot method.
> 
> Ummm...not quite. SRM was there the whole time, to boot DU and VMS, it
> wasn't a progression as you have it. Now....why did people need to boot
> Linux from AlphaBIOS? because at the time many machines didn't come with
> SRM...you had to purchase it sepratly (or pay more for the board/machine).
> However, when NT left Q starting distributing SRM for just about
> everything (the exception being the XL series) for no charge.

Sorry... you are correct SRM has been there all along. I shold have been
more clear. As I have worked though various iterations of hardware I
have seen a progression of bootloaders.

> As for API's product being propriatary, could you please share with me the
> information you have regarding this? It's safe, I'm an API employee!

Yes I know.
I have no hard information. As I said it looks like you are working on
somthing new. This is my impression from my view as an outsider. I have
been in the hardware/software industry for over 20 years now and have
developed a "nose" for things like this. It is not allways correct but
is more often than not. YOu could of course state that I am catagoricly
wrong and I have no problem with that.


> > I have 10 year old PC's that boot the same way that the one I bought
> > last week boots. I have 4 generations of Alphas using 5 different boot
> > methods. This makes me crazy. I spend far too much time screwing around
> > with the boot loaders on various machines than I should have to.
> 
> Yup, and I bet those 10 year old PCs still can't handle a disk over X
> gigabytes, and still can't boot if the kernel's past the 1024 cylinder

Yep and the 10yo hardware will not support USB or AGP. But I can stick a
linux boot floppy in all of them and have them boot.

> mark etc...etc... I don't know why you boot your Alphas in different
> ways...I have 4 alphas and 2 boot methods (ARC->MILO for the XL and Multia
> and SRM for the SX and LX, the multias flash isn't healthy or I'd have
> SRM on it as well).

Part of it has to do with licensing. Part is that various boot loaders
have various problems. 


> > Since there is not enough alpha hardware being sold to force convergence
> > to a single boot method I would like to see somthing that is community
> > supported.
> 
> That start writing your own....you have that choice.

This may be my only choice. I am looking into extending the work that
has been done on LinuxBIOS. My feeling at this point is that it may be
better to spend my time there than to try and hack milo into shape.
 
> > Compaq and API have there own reasons to support and drop support on
> > vairous technologies the linux community shold not be limited by these 2
> > companies.
> >
> > To some extent who cares what Compaq and API do. The people running
> > linux on alpha the ability to have a reliable and supported boot loader.
> > If Compaq and API require magical boot loaders for there OS's then so be
> > it.
> 
> While I've heard SRM called many things...I don't think magical was ever
> one of those :)

No? Remember, any sufficently advanced technology is indestinguishable
from magic :)


-- 
Alvin Starr                   ||   voice: (416)585-9971
Interlink Connectivity        ||   fax:   (416)585-9974
alvin@iplink.net              ||