Linux and Compaq Alpha WS600AU

[jlittleII]

I have a Alpha Workstation 600AU, plenty of Hard Drive Space, but have had considerable difficulties in getting Linux for Alpha Installed.

The load sequence starts, and the stick point is the partitioning scheme for the hard drive installed. Linux will not reformat the drive using it's own tools, and will not continue to load since it declares there is not enough disk space in the "last" partition.

I have partitioned the system manually and have only two partitions, the first which is 500 mb, and the second partition is set for 20.5 gb.

I have read the manuals that came with SuSE's Alpha Linux, but still am not getting anywhere.

Anyone else run into this or have an idea of where I am making the mistake at?

Thanks

JohnL

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

I'm not trying to knock SuSE or anything, but it could be that the partitioning tools in SuSE are just plain buggy. With some digging, I've found that the last version of SuSE available for the Alpha was 7.1. Am I mistaken? That would seem to me like they've quit developing for it.

I would check out Debian's Alpha Port (http://www.fr.debian.org/ports/alpha/). They are still supporting it, and they don't plan on ever stopping support for it. If anything, you may be able to boot the machine with the Debian install media, get to a shell, use the Debian partitioning tools to make the partitions, and then install SuSE if you wanted.

I'm not very familiar with either SuSE or the Alpha platform; I'm just telling you in broad terms what I'd try to do next on any non-x86 system, as some distros have better tools for working on non-x86 systems than others.

[teeitup]

I have an AlphaStation 200. It's a couple of years older than yours. I run Debian Alpha on it. It installed right onto the attached scsi disks.

What kind of hard disk does the 600 use. I seem to remember it was an either or situation on those models.

With my model good video is a pipe dream. I use it as backup server on a small network.

Your box should be better supported than mine.

Good Luck,

[jlittleII]

The 7.1 release from SuSE on the Alpha version is dead on, and that my be exactly what is happening. Since I never can get it to load there may be other bugs in the software that I wouldn't know about.

I will jump up to the Debian site and take a look. I knew that RH had made a distro for the Alph, but they pulled it as fast as they provided it, so they also may not have a keen interest in Linux on the Alpha.

I would think this system is a screamer under Linux, since the other Hard disk screams with OpenVMS on it.

Thanks for the solid suggestion on Debian


John L

[teeitup]

Oh how I miss OpenVMS.

Might have been the best OS ever.

Mine multi booted with True64 Unix, OpenVMS, and Linux for a while.

After a couple of disk drives crapped out, it's Linux only for now.

You can obtain single user licenses for OpenVMS, they are intended for hobbiests.

It took me a while to figure out the partitioning and boot loader scheme. To allow me to boot without a floppy.
Just a warning.

[jlittleII]

Thats why I dual boot option, but would like to get Linux on there for the Unix side of things, and still play with the OVMS for maintaining my skills.......OVMS is a real kick.


JohnL