From: Robert Alan Byer [byer@chef.ourservers.net] Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 2:58 AM To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com Subject: Re: AXPPCI33 > > I know of no OpenVMS support for the AXPpci 33 SBC module... > > I can't say I know of anyone that has successfully booted OpenVMS > on AXPpci 33... (I'd be interested in knowing about this, too...) > I have sucessfully loaded and have running (in a cluster no less) an AXPpci33 166MHz motherboard with OpenVMS using the Multia kit. Here's the tips. One, you have to use the Multia kit, but DON'T LOAD THE MULTIA SRM FIRMWARE. Go to DEC/Compaq's Alpha Firmware site and download the latest firmware for AXPpci33. Also, a minimum of 64MEG is necessary if you plan to do any networking and use at least OpenVMS v7.2 which you can get from the OpenVMS Hobbyist program. Two, you can't use any PCI cards and if you plan on networking, you need to find a ISA ethernet card with an offical DEC chipset that shows up in the SRM firmware. Three, follow the directions for installing OpenVMS on the Multia (with the exception of loading the SRM firmware). When the AXPpci33 boards starts up, it will dump some stuff like a crash dump, but it will continue and so far hasn't caused me any hassles. The system shutdown procedure dosen't always work properly (like the reboot option). The serial console I haven't tried, but was told by others it dosen't work. The two serial ports do work under OpenVMS, but I haven't tried the parallel port or anything else. I've ben told that if you have one of the AXPpci33 motharboards with the PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors and a VGA card that will work under DECWindows you can run DECWindows on it. I don't have one of these boards so I haven't tried this. Currently I have an AXPpci33 system running OpenVMS v7.2 in a cluster and also running Multinet TCP/IP for over three months now. I'm in the process of putting together a WWW page on how to load OpenVMS on the AXPpci33 motherboard and now that I have my 256K SDSL link up I should have it up in a week or so and will post the URL here. If anyone has any problems, feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to help. - +--------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Robert Alan Byer | "I don't want to take over the world, | | byer@mail.ourservers.net | just my own little part of it." | | Phone: (317)357-2724 | http://www.ourservers.net/~byer | +--------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Send an E-mail request to obtain my PGP key. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+