We have ("we" = a site I work for) an Alpha, currently set up to
dual-boot Linux and Windows NT.  We want to try NetBSD/alpha on it.

On power-up, it displays a window headed "AlphaBIOS 5.62-1a", in which
it identifies the machine as an "AlphaPC 164LX", saying also "Digital
Alpha 21164, 533 MHz".

Since it currently boots NT, it presumably has the ARC console, which
as I understand it is not compatible with NetBSD.  This also fits with
the interface, which is all menus.

But when I tried to install the SRM console on this machine, I was
unable to manage it, despite the pseudo-Web-page at
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/firmware/index.html
listing the SRM console for 164LX motherboards.  While fussing with
firmware upgrades, I got the machine to *claim* to run the SRM console,
but only when booting the firmware-upgrade utility.

I did find the address alphaserver_firmware@service.digital.com, to
which I sent a query.  The reply said that the machine "does not
support the SRM", saying we needed to "purchase a UNIX Alpha
Motherboard which includes the licensing for the SRM Console and
Digital UNIX".  This sounds to me like a vendor lie; I have trouble
imagining what the hardware difference could be between an ARC machine
and an SRM machine, and if there's no hardware difference, well, then
there's no reason it can't run either.  (This opinion is further
supported by the way the machine claims, when running the LFU, to be
using SRM console code.)  I sent a reply

| > The Alpha machine you have does not support the SRM.
| 
| Um.  Then why does the firmware page list SRM for it?  What is the
| hardware difference between a non-SRM-capable machine like this one and
| an SRM-capable machine, and if it's not visible upon inspecting the
| board how can I tell which category a given machine falls into?

I have not gotten any response to this, despite getting a response
within a couple of hours to the first message, and it having been most
of a day since I sent the second one.  Thus, I turn to port-alpha,
people who have no particular interest in supporting vendor lies, if
such this be, and ask: can we run NetBSD/alpha on this machine?  If so,
what do we need to do?

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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