AC-0.9 Testing Results (was: Re: Alpha Core ISO Images)

[Jay Estabrook]

The first batch of machines I've tried it on were:

	machine		graphics	SCSI	IDE	result
	=======		========	====	===	======
	DS20		Radeon 7500	NCR896	CD	GUI install OK
		* SMP kernel is broken
		* xorg-x11 3D support works! :-)

	LX164		3DLabs VX1	2940UW	CD	GUI install OK
		* Permedia2 OK also
		* Voodoo Banshee, ATI Rage 128 OK in 3D! :-)
		* Adaptec 39160 SCSI was fine also

	MIATA		Millennium 2	QLogic	CD	GUI install OK

	PC164		Permedia2	QLogic	CD	GUI install OK
		* Millennium I causes X server crash
		* NCR 875 works fine

	AS800		S3 Trio64V+	QLogic		GUI install OK
		* S3 Trio64V+ a little "noisy" but worked

	AS250		Permedia2	NCR875		GUI install OK
		* Millennium II caused X server crash

	AS400		Permedia2	NCR810		GUI install OK

	AS2100A		Permedia2	NCR810		GUI install OK

	AS500		Permedia2	NCR875		GUI install OK

On XLT and AS1000A, the kernel hangs after the "Serial: 8250/16550 driver"
message.

AS1200 and AS4100 would not successfully boot the install kernel.

I had no luck on Ruffian/UX164 but can't remember the symptom.

In general, the common SCSI and Ethernet cards/drivers seem to work;
that is:

	SCSI: NCR-810/875/895/896, Qlogic-1020/1040, Adaptec 2940UW/39160
	NIC: Tulip 2104x/2114x

I seemed to have an install problem when booting with DE600 (eepro100)
but after the install it worked fine.

I didn't try anything (yet) with DAC960 controllers (KZPSC or KZPAC).

The PCI graphics cards that support 3D on Alpha seemed all to work,
at least on the non-SPARSE machines (LX/MIATA and EV6 machines);
those cards are:

	ATI Rage 128
	ATI Radeon (various flavors, inc. original, 7500, and 9100)
	3DFx Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3 3000


Biggest generic problems (IMHO/AFAICT): 
---------------------------------------
1. SMP kernel is not working on ANY machine (module loading errors).

2. TGA graphics support is not built into the kernel.

3. Matrox Millenniums do not work under X on EV4/EV5 SPARSE boxes
   (ie AS2x0/AS400/AS500/AS600/AS800/AS1000/AS1000A/AS2100/AS2100A, and
    CABRIO/EB164/PC164/XL/XLT).

4. the kernel does not support the TITAN-based machines (DS15/DS25/ES45),
   or WILDFIRE or MARVEL.


General comments (IMHO):
------------------------

CDROM and NFS installs were used successfully.

Both SCSI and IDE CDROM drives worked fine; though the SCSI CDs were
often not recognized during install automatically, they did work fine
when the installation was told where the media were.

No testing was done with IDE harddisks.

An "Everything" install amounts to more than 8GB of stuff!!! :-) :-)

NICE JOB, everyone who had a hand in producing this!!!!

 --Jay++

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Jay A Estabrook                            HPTC - LINUX support
Hewlett-Packard Company - ZKO2-3/N30       (603) 884-0301
110 Spit Brook Road, Nashua NH 03062       Jay.Estabrook at hp.com
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