RE: AlphaPC failsafe floppy

Hi,

I have successfully fail-safe boot on the PC164SX(not PC164LX but very similar) in the following way:

1.set CF1 to OFF at power down
2.copy an SRM exe file renamed to "fwupdate.exe" from "sx164_v5_8.exe", for example, to FAT formatted FD
3.insert the FD and power on. It sounds "1-2-3" BEEP
4.if sx164_v5_8.exe, because no "option firmware", eject the FD and press return
5.Now, update program starts
6.use "list" command to display a target SRM
7.use "update" command to update to target SRM
8.(optional)use "verify" command to verify update
9.power off
10.set CF1 to ON
11.power on

ftp.hp.com is probably official, but not announced, site. It seems to DEC's gatekeeper site. For AlphaPC164LX, visit /pub/alphaserver/firmware/retired_platforms/alphapc/alphapc164lx/.

-- 
Yoshihiko Iwama

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Piotr Gli?niewicz
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 12:47 AM
To: Bérczi Gábor <[email protected]>; Kevin P. Neal <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: AlphaPC failsafe floppy



W dniu 2022-04-18 o 19:28, Gabor Berczi pisze:
> 
> On Apr 18, 2022, at 3:35 PM, Kevin P. Neal wrote:
> 
>>> Does anyone have the AlphaPC (LX164) failsafe floppy image? The one
>>> which has the FAILSAFE file in the root dir.
>>
>> I haven't heard of this. I have a 164LX that I haven't used in a long 
>> time.
>> What does this failsafe image do? I probably want a copy as well.
> 
> It's some kind of a debugger loadable with the CF7 jumper enabled (my 
> board developed some fault and doesn't boot from the ROM), I've 
> forgotten the details and my floppy developed bad sectors. I have no 
> idea where did I download it from.
> 
> The contents should look like this:
> 
>     49497 May  2  2010 failsafe*
>      2295 Sep 24  1999 fwupdate.txt*
>    163940 Aug 26  2016 lx164nt.rom*
>    466944 Aug 26  2016 lx164srm.rom*
>       464 Sep 24  1999 readme.1st*
>     80715 Jul 20  1999 relnotes.pdf*
>    259868 Jul 20  1999 relnotes.rtf*
> 

Hi,

I've only done it for AlphaBIOS, and the floppy had just the files from 
the .zip with the firmware. I think it could be reduced to only 
LX164NT.ROM on a FAT formatted floppy.

Here are the SRM files for the 164LX (look for ALPHAPC164LX):

https://ia903105.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/12/items/alphasystemsfirmwareupdate60_agrcfbjbs/Alpha%20Systems%20Firmware%20Update%20v6.0%20%28AG-RCFBJ-BS%29%28Compaq%20Computer%20Corporation%29%28June%202001%29.iso

but I've never used SRM on my 164LX, so I can't tell you, which and how 
you should use. My guess is lx164srm.rom is the SRM ROM, lx164_v5_8.exe 
is definitely not an Windows .exe file (no MZ header), probably the 
"loadable firmware upgrade" executable, that should be renamed to 
fwupdate.exe and put on the floppy. Not sure what the .sys files are.

I would try with lx164srm.rom first, then try fwupdate.exe.

--
Regards,
Piotr Gliźniewicz