#15 Can't boot Jumpstart on Alpha-XLT

[HP Admin User]

Machine: Alcor: Alpha XL 366
AlphaBios: 5.70
Jumpstart 1.4 Release

Error:

Opening file
scsi(0)cdrom(5)fdisk(0)MILO\Alpha-XLT ...
? File Open Error, Status = 0xe.
Error Loading
scsi(0)cdrom(5)fdisk(0)MILO\Alpha-XLT
Press any key to continue

The iso format was downloaded on the
19/4-2001 and burned with Adaptec Easy CD creater and
the cdrom was closed.

If you mount the cdrom the file seems to
be there but maybe it is because of 8+3 naming
(Alpha-XLT = 9 char)

I did check to se if it was submitted
before but couldn't find this error.

Thomas S. Kristensen
tsk@dk.ibm.com

[HP Admin User]

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From Lectron (Thomas S. Kristensen, tsk@dk.ibm.com)

For additionel information:

I tried to change milotab from:

21164;XXX;XXX;XL;MILO\Alpha-XLT;boot BOOTDEV:/boot/vmlinuz
root=/dev/ram initrd=/initrd.img;

To:

21164;XXX;XXX;XL;MILO\Alpha-XL.000;boot
BOOTDEV:/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram initrd=/initrd.img;

And the following happened:

----------------------------------------------------
Opening file scsi(0)cdrom(5)fdisk(0)MILO\Alpha-XL.000 ...

Loading file at 0x8008000 ...

... Memory size is 0xc000000 bytes

Setting up arguments for Milo @ 0x801FFC00

Setting up memory size for Milo @ 0x801FFE00

Setting up memory size for Milo @ 0x801FFF00

Swapping to PALcode at 0x80000 ...

----------------------------------------------------
But there it stoped... again!!!

It seems that the FAT filesystem was somehow overlooked, or
else the mistake was in my burning of the iso cdrom
format...

[HP Admin User]

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I don't think it stopping at the "Swapping to PALcode" line
is FAT related.

I tried booting MILO from a floppy disk using linload.exe
and a copy of the Alpha-XLT image renamed to 'milo' and it
did exactly the same thing. However if I used the version of
milo built against kernel 2.0.30 (the latest one available
on ftp.digital.com) it boots into MILO.

Bad MILO image for the XLTs included in JumpStart perhaps?

JumpStart 1.4.1 doesn't fix this either.

[HP Admin User]

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Oops... left a few things out from the last post.

Don't think it's CD ISO image related as well.

Machine was an Alpha XL 366, with Alpha BIOS 5.68
(Can't find a later one... anyone got any ideas? Can only
find 5.66 on the digital firmware site)

awatts@pett.com.au

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Just for info:

You can find FW 5.70 (august 2. 1999) for the XLT
300/366/433 on the following site:

http://www.compaq.com/support/files/alphant/firmware/alphaXL3.html

About the milo image, I had the same experience whit the new
version of milo from ftp.digital.com, it works fine. So
there seem to be some indications that the old milo on the
Jumpstart CDROM is defective somehow.

Thomas S. Kristensen
tsk@dk.ibm.com

[HP Admin User]

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Did the version of MILO you downloaded from ftp.digital.com
actually boot a recent kernel though? The version I
downloaded would not boot 2.2.16.

Thanks for the link to 5.7 firmware. Can you provide details
as to which MILO image you downloaded? As far as I know the
ones on ftp.digital.com are actually quite old, with the
most recent "production" image being cross-compiled to
2.0.30 kernel.

awatts@pett.com.au

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The problem appears to be that after jmpstart.exe is
executed, it looks in the MILO directory for file alpha-xlt.
If you look in that directory, there is no file by that
name. There is, however, a file "XLT" which may be the
correct one.

[HP Admin User]

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I am alos having this problem on a Alpha XL 300 myself using
BIOS 5.69. I to noticed the lack of an alpha-xlt file seemed
to be the problem. As to the Milo images, the one included
with redhat 7.1 does not work either, I also get the problem
of stopping at "Swapping to PALcode at 0x80000 ..." The
older Milo that other people have used works to boot to Milo
, but I have found that I am unable to boot using the CD-rom
after that getting an error. I did have some success getting
redhat 7.1 installed if I only used the three disks that can
be made (generic , ramdisk , etc) and I swap out the milo on
the XLT.IMG disk to the old one and use that to boot from.

[HP Admin User]

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I'd love to know where I can get a copy of RedHat 7.1 for
Alpha... I can't seem to find it anywhere on RedHat's site
(both www and ftp). Any chance of sharing the url?

awatts@pett.com.au