On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Tony Hernandez wrote:

> Has anyone found a cable to use an internal 2.5 IDE drive inside the
> multia ? I know you cant boot from it

I'm not sure this is still the case.  You might try the latest firmware,
and see if it recognizes your IDE controller.  I know that:

 (a) SRM firmware on the higher-end Alpha boards has added IDE support
 (b) The Linux Cult is precariously booting their little kernels 
     with ARC firmware on the Multia, which _does_ support IDE.

Attached is one of their messages.  You might ask on axp-list@redhat.com
if you need more info, or just try updating your firmware and see if it
works.

If that fails, there is an IDE-to-SCSI converter card you can get that
piggybacks onto your 2.5" IDE drive and provides a laptop SCSI interface.
A recent effort to purchase a batch of them from the Japanese company that
makes seems to have failed (or evaporated), but the large-capacity SCSI
drives in PowerBook Duo's and 500's often have them, as do some of the
recent SparcBook drives--Tadpole clearly confesses to using them on a
certain model of pre-Ultrabook drive module. 

You can sometimes get them in auctions, u.s.w., or scavenge them from a
Duo that a nearby large corporation was scrapping like i did. My friend
who works at a Mac dealer also saw one come across his bench, and didn't
know what it was.  It was attached to a ``replacement'' disk forwarded
from another store and destined toward an IDE Powerbook.  so you might be
able to get one from a Mac dealer if you can explain it to them.

-- 
Miles Nordin / v:1-888-857-2723 fax:+1 530 579-8680
555 Bryant Street PMB 182 / Palo Alto, CA 94301-1700 / US

Sender: rdong@Alpha.dfc.com
To: axp-list@redhat.com
CC: Gyenes Istvan <frts@matef.sch.bme.hu>,
        Robin Stephenson <robin.stephenson@blackwell.co.uk>
Subject: Re: UDB firmware update w/o Floppy
References: <kvwvyzmdn2.fsf@apollo.int.newport.com> <m3lnfectwo.fsf@fnord.blackwell.co.uk>
From: Rui-Tao Dong ~{6-HpLN~} <ruitao@home.com>
Date: 28 Apr 1999 22:25:11 -0700
In-Reply-To: Robin Stephenson's message of "27 Apr 1999 10:08:39 +0100"
Message-ID: <v5r9p4577s.fsf@Alpha.dfc.com>


I finally did it!   The newer firmware recognizes my notebook IDE.  All 
I need is a new kernel which knows IDE.

I found a bootp installable firmware for noname(decaxppci33_v1_6.exe),
but it didn't like my UDB (complained about a jumper.)  I did a

unix> mount -t msdos -o loop udbupd38.img /mnt

and found 4 files arc.exe, fwupdate.exe, qsbypass.scr, srm.exe.

Looking at qsbypass.scr, I decided to try the following.

I have a 1.6MB dos partition on my 340MB scsi for milo.  I put arc.exe 
and srm.exe there.  Because fwupdate.exe doesn't fit,  I put it up on
a bootp server.  At srm prompt, I did

>>> b -p bootp ewa0

which load up fwupdate.

I then did

update -path fat:arc.exe/dka0 -target arcflash

and then

update -path fat:srm.exe/dka0 -target srmflash

every works just great.

My original UDB died a couple of month back and I bought a replacement 
from cpumicromart.  As a consequence, I got an extra mini-scsi
internal cable.  I saw off a few pins on one end of cable and plug in
the mini-IDE to it.  The slim (12.7mm) drive fits into the floppy
enclosure perfectly.


-- 

Rui-Tao Dong ~{6-HpLN~}	<ruitao@home.com>, Mission Viejo, California