Re: alpha performance

On Friday 28 January 2005 09:09 pm, Nick Smith wrote:
>
> thanks gabriel, not new to linux or gentoo, just new to alpha, have seen
> alot of your posts on the gentoo-user list. i know you know what your
> talking about im glad to see your on here too.  thanks for the info.

DOH!!!  I'm sorry... I didn't even look at the name.  Yes, I recognize you 
from gentoo-user, and yes I know you know your way around gentoo.  Please 
excuse my smart-@$$ remarks.  I misjudged your post.  My compliments to you 
on your tactful response.

Well, strip away the smart remarks, and I did give you some real answers.  
Also:

1. The BIOS-like thing is called "the SRM console" and/or "ARC console."   
Yours has both.  SRM is for *nix, the ARC is for windoze.  While both work 
with Linux, SRM is preferred.

2. Compaq/HP does a great job of posting computer data online.  You should be 
able to get a full users manual with SRM commands and everything.  Check hp's 
website for "retired systems".

3. Installing gentoo -- I had to use an old liveCD (like gentoo 1.4 or 
something).  If 2004.3 (or whatever's the latest) doesn't boot for you, try 
it.  There's also a "jumpstart" disc out there somewhere.  It's geared toward 
installing RedHat/SuSe... but if you run into trouble it will be handy in 
diagnosing your problem.  If you get *any* gentoo disc booted, still go ahead 
and use a current stage/portage tarball.  However, you'll have to work around 
a few missing commands that are in the current Handbook.  (E.g. mirrorselect 
will be gone, you'll have to select mirrors by hand.)

4. On my system (an AlphaStation 2/133) I have two persistent problems, but 
I'm able to work around them and live with them OK:
  a. When I issue 'halt -p', the box doesn't power down, nor does it
     give control to the SRM console correctly.  It goes into an infinite
     error loop.  Relatively harmless.  Workaround:  cold boots only.
     No remote booting.  :-(  AFAIK this is somewhat rare, and is a
     standing bug for FreeBSD as well as Linux.
  b. I can't get video to work.  That's OK for me, because I'm just using
     it as a server / toy machine.  Workaround:  serial console / ssh.
     Note:  I didn't try very hard to make it work.

5. Regarding speed -- the benchmarks I posted agree with my experience.  These 
old boxes don't 'fly.'  They just 'work.'  My AS 2/133 (133MHz) is like a 
Pentium 133MHz.  The slowest part is really the hard drives, IMHO.  Your 
500MHz system may have about 700MB of RAM, which makes for a nice desktop 
machine.

6. 2.4 kernels are still recommended.

Good luck, and I hope this helps.  Alpha systems require a bit of 
reading/research/playing to get up to speed.


-- 
            G a b r i e l   M .  B e d d i n g f i e l d

--
[email protected] mailing list