Subject: Re: dec 3000 m400
To: T. Martin <catfish@alltel.net>
From: Ivan Fetch <lists@ivanfetch.com>
List: port-alpha
Date: 11/04/2000 18:41:19
Hi,
   I connected a terminal to the 25 pin serial port using 9600,8,n,1 and
trying both no flow control, and hardware (xon/xoff) - niether of these
workked.  Is there anything special I am supposed to do on the alpha
machine itself?  Will it send output to the 25 pin serial port when it
says `switching to serial console...' or will it want to use the MMJ port?

Thanks very much - Ivan.




On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, T. Martin wrote:

> Ivan, 
>  Use the 25 pin serial port 9600 baud 8n1 no hardware flow control. 
>  I'm compiling a kernel as I type to play with the smart frame buffer and
> keyboard and see if it crashes. 
> Terry
> 
> 
> catfish: icq #20116127
> 
> 
> On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, Ivan Fetch wrote:
> 
> > 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
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> 
> 
>