Hi,
   I do not know how much help I'll be, but I wanted to chime in here as
well with my recent `findings' on the same machine.  i was trying to
install NetBSD 1.4.2 on a Dec 3000/m400 -- I burnt the image from
alpha/installation/diskimages onto a CD, and put the binary distribution
onto another CD (ISO9660 filesystem).  When booting the first CD, all goes
well until we switch to serial console mode.  Looking around on the net we
discovered that the keyboard is not supported with NetBSD and this
specific machine, so you must use a serial console.  It SEEMS (someone
please correct me here because I want this to be inaccurate <grin>) that
the only way to connect a serial console to the Alpha and have it work is
to use some kind of `line chord' connected between the terminal (in this
case another PC running terminal software) and the MMJ connecter (where
the keyboard/mouse combo-cable plugs in).  There is a 25 pin serial port
on the back of the Alpha as well (this is tty00 under True'64 Unix) - It
is not possible to use this port as my serial console???  Further more, it
was mentioned (somewhere) that the serial code was buggy enough that
running this machine with a serial console would not be so enjoyable.

I look forward to some feedback,
Thanks a lot!

Ivan.




On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, George A. Dowding wrote:

> This is my first post.
> 
> I am trying to install NetBSD onto a a DEC 3000 M400.  I was unable to
> get the Netbsd disk to boot.  Also I was unable to upgrade the
> firmware using the "Digital Alpha Systems Firmware update v5.3" CD.
> 
> Here is the output of >>show config
> 
> Digital Equipment corporation
> 	VPP PAL X5.41-82000101/OSF PAL X1.28000201 - Built on
> 30-APR-1993 13:51:49.50
> 
> TCINFO	    DEVNAM	DEVSTAT
> ------	    ------	-------
> 	       CPU		ok kn15-ba -v2.4-s465-I077-sV1.0 DECchip P3.0
> .
> .
> .
> 
> Can someone confirm or deny that NetBSD will work on this machine?
> More information will be provided upon request.
> 
> -- 
> Thanks,
> George
> 
> dowdingg@math.uaa.alaska.edu 
> http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~dowdingg
> 
>