Re: The problems in src/sys/dev/ic/isp.c

On 5/27/26 15:04, Julian Coleman wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>> Now then the real problem is what to serve to the DEC Alpha to get
>> it to net boot. I have no clue where to start on that and no clue
>> what the firmware/prom commands would be. Also .. what the heck is
>> the network port? I have the 100Mbit in there and the original 10Mbit
>> thing is in there also. This is all just like puzzle pieces with no
>> picture on top.
> 
> (I have netbooted my DS20L, but it was a while ago, and I didn't write
> down everything, but I don't think that I missed out anything here.)
> 
> You'll need the device name for SRM on the Alpha and also to setup
> the netboot server.  Using these as references:
> 
>    https://man.netbsd.org/alpha/boot.8
>    https://man.netbsd.org/sparc64/diskless.8
> 
> you can use:
> 
>    show devices
> 
> to list the hardware, and boot with something like:
> 
>    boot ewa0 -s
> 
> (guessing that you want ewa0 from your mail of Feb 13, and -s is optional).
> 
> For the server, you already have the SS20 booting, so you should have the
> daemons set up (tftpd, dhcpd, NFS server).  Grab prebuilt alpha binaries,
> from (e.g. for 10.1):
> 
>    https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-10.1/alpha/binary/
> 
> As a minimum sets/base.tgz sets/etc.tgz and kernel/netbsd-GENERIC.gz and
> unpack them to your exported root.  Copy usr/mdec/netboot to your tftp root
> (/tftpboot ?) and add a DHCPD entry something like:
> 
> host as600 {
>          hardware ethernet 08:00:2b:e7:d4:57;
>          fixed-address 192.168.XX.YY;
>          next-server 192.168.XX.ZZ;
>          filename "/netboot";
>          option swap-server 192.168.XX.ZZ;
>          option root-path "/path/to/as600/root";
> }
> 
> I usually create a swap file next to the root directory, but that's optional.
> Make sure that your NFS server is exporting this root to the AS600's IP and
> you should be set.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Julian
> 

At great risk of sounding very 1970s : Right On !

Thank you for the details and I shall mess around with that today.

My first big hope is that the DEC Alphastation 600 will power on
and give me a firmware prompt. Seems to be hit and miss lately.



-- 
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken