Re: PC164 SRM firmware problem

On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 03:09:51AM -0500, Josh Tolbert wrote:
> Hi Wilko,
>       I think I grabbed SRM 4.8 from Microway's site, but I'm definitely
> interested in trying the firmware you have out.

I'll try to dig it out tonight.

>       After much more experimenting tonight I could not
> 
> a) get kermit to talk to the Alpha via a null modem setup
> b) get the newer SRM firmware to boot
> c) get any older SRM firmware to boot
> 
>       I'm fairly certain that a) is just my inexperience with serial
> connections. I don't know what settings the Alpha is expecting, nor do I
> know how to make Kermit do the right things.

9600N81

>       I'm beginning to think that this particular PC164 motherboard is
> one of the truly NT-only versions that can only play nicely with the ARC
> console. I'm probably going to send an e-mail to someone at

There are no real NT-only CPUs (contrary to popular belief..). There are
some boxes that do not have an SRM available (like the XL, XLT series).
But that is another issue.

> DEC/Compaq/HP/whoever they are next week to see if my suspicion can be
> confirmed. If this board truly is ARC-only, I'll just chalk the $50 up to
> experience and sell it to someone that wants an NT/Alpha box.
>       By the way, the ARC firmware I flashed works like a charm. There
> has to be a trick for making this buzzard work.
>       Any other ideas?

Short of the little force-feeder box that I have at home to connect
directly to the SROM (not:SRM) port not really. 

> Thanks,
> Josh
> 
> On Tue, 15 Oct 2002, Wilko Bulte wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 01:15:25PM +0930, Greg Lewis wrote:
> > > On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 10:12:34PM -0500, Josh Tolbert wrote:
> > > >         I obtained a PC164 motherboard, a 500MHz 21164 Alpha, 128M RAM 
> > > > and
> > > > various other bits (including a dead CPU fan; I just re-pinned an Intel
> > > > heatsink fan to work on the DEC motherboard) to use as a FreeBSD 
> > > > machine.
> > > > Unfortunately, I'm not able to get FreeBSD installed because I'm having
> > > > problems with the SRM firmware update. I know this is semi-off-topic for
> > > > this list, but I've looked around and can't find a description of a
> > > > similar problem anywhere.  Hopefully someone on the list can point me in
> > > > the right direction.
> > > >         When I received the board, it had ARC firmware in the ROM. Since
> > > > that won't do for FreeBSD, I downloaded the SRM firmware and followed 
> > > > the
> > > > documented procedure to flash the SRM firmware (put fwupdate.exe and
> > > > pc164srm.rom on a floppy, update firmware from the ARC console and just
> > > > follow the prompts). After rebooting, I get the standard blue screen 
> > > > with
> > > > a black border, a blinking white cursor and nothing else. I don't see 
> > > > the
> > > > customary SRM ">>>" prompt or a prompt of any sort. I've tried pressing
> > > > enter (and other keys) as suggested, to no avail.
> > >
> > > I've had a really similar problem with a PC164 LX.  I haven't even gotten
> > > as far as you have yet unfortunately :(.
> > >
> > > Do get the serial console set up, it can be helpful if SRM has been
> > > set up to talk to it :).  One of the two boxes I was looking at
> > > definitely had SRM set up to go to the first serial port.  The other
> > > is still stuck in ARC as we speak, but I have a few more things to
> > > try before I completely give up :).
> > >
> > > The only other thing I can recommend is that a number of people have
> > > found that there are problems going directly to the latest version of
> > > the firmware.  If you have an older version of SRM then give that a
> > > try.
> >
> > The oldest FW CD I have that has the AlphaPC164 contains SRM 4.8
> >
> > If anybody wants to try that I could make the f/w image available.
> >
> > Wilko
> >
> > [historians beware, the very oldest FW CD I own is a from 1993 ;-) ]
> >
> > --
> > |   / o / /_  _                             wilko@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > |/|/ / / /(  (_)  Bulte                             Arnhem, the Netherlands
> >
---end of quoted text---

-- 
|   / o / /_  _                                 wilko@xxxxxxxxxxx
|/|/ / / /(  (_)  Bulte                         Arnhem, the Netherlands

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