[plug] Linux on an Alpha?

[Peter Wright]

On Wed, May 10, 2000 at 09:38:15AM +0800, Matt Kemner wrote:
> On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bennett, Phillip wrote:
> > At work I have access to several unused Alpha 3000 model 800s.
> > Does anyone know if it's possible to run linux on these?
> 
> On Wed, 10 May 2000, Joshua Pierre wrote:
> 
> > Ermm, yeah well you can run Linux on Alpha's
> 
> Not on all Alphas.
> 
> Specifically those with TurboChannel rather than PCI are currently
> unsupported by Linux (at least they were last time I looked)
> 
> The webpage:
> http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/archive/axp/dec3000_800.html
> says the 3000 model 800s is a TurboChannel alpha, so I would suggest it is
> not supported by Linux.

Argh, I hate it when I get distracted from work by interesting things
like this. :-)

It appears that both NetBSD and OpenBSD support the Alpha 3000/800
though... OpenBSD lists it specifically:

http://www.openbsd.org/alpha.html

> Supported Hardware:
> 
>       DEC 3000/[3456789]00 series with the following peripherals: 
[ ... ]

The NetBSD page says they support the 3000 model 300 and 500, but
isn't too clear on the other models. However (and this is a big
however) it actually seems to say that it will only work with a serial
console, which probably isn't what you want.

The OpenBSD Alpha port started from the NetBSD port, but has since
diverged (improved?) quite a bit, so you may find that a better place
to start.

NB. Don't just believe what I say, I could be talking out of my ass,
have a look at the Net/Open BSD pages.

Actually, now I think of it, FreeBSD may have an Alpha port as well
(though it'd be much newer than the Open/Net Alpha ports). Might be
worth having a look at.

>  - Matt

Pete.
-- 
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

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