Thanks to:
Bill Sadvary <sadvary_at_dickinson.edu>
Kevin Reardon <kreardon_at_na.astro.it>
Susan Rodriguez <SUSROD_at_HBSI.COM>
The consensus of opinion seems to be that you don't actually need to run
the ECU unless you need to configure EISA modules, but it is a good idea
to run it anyway when you do a major upgrade - and when you do run it,
make sure to use the correct version (V1.10 or higher for DU v.4.0D).
Bill referred me to the instructions for running the ECU, which I had
missed. They are in the "AlphaServer 2x00,2x00A Loadable Firmware Update
Utility User Guide and Release Notes", which you can print from the
Firmware version 5.0 CD. Chapter 7 tells you that if you are adding or
removing EISA modules it is necessary to rerun the ECU to reformat the
NVRAM data, and takes you through the steps to do this.
I used the ECU V1.11A diskette distributed with DU v.4.0D, and in fact,
it went straight to the main selection dialog box described in section
7.4. I changed the graphics card configuration from standard VGA to
ISA ATI MACH64 VGA, then when I selected Save and Exit, it said that the
system time must be set and went to the ARC menus shown in section 7.3.
On completing this step I pressed reset to reboot.
The system came up, as you might expect, with no graphics console driver
configured. I logged in at the console in line mode to rebuild the
kernel with controller ati0 instead of vga0, and it then rebooted with
the ATI Mach64 device driver enabled and started CDE with the correct
screen resolution.
Some points to note:
1) when I had deleted the old graphics card and was adding the new one,
the ECU took about several minutes to read the configuration files
from the diskette, and finally returned with a long list of files to
choose from, of which the required one, ISA6400.CFG, was about
number 12.
2) on reboot, I had to use the date command to correct the system time
again.
----------
Original question:
Can anyone tell me how to update the ECU (EISA Configuration Utility)?
The release notes for DU v4.0D say it should be updated to version 1.10
or higher, but I can't find any information about how to do this, apart
from the instructions for starting the ECU in the AlphaServer 2000
Owner's Guide. Do they just mean, make sure you have an ECU v1.10
diskette available in case you need to use it for configuration?
I have an AlphaServer 2000 4/233 which I have upgraded from DU v3.2C to
DU v4.0D (firmware updated to v5.0), which is now exhibiting the
condition described in the alpha-osf-managers archives whereby the
console screen resolution is set to 640x480, whereas before it was
1024x768. I intend to use the ECU to change the standard VGA controller
to ISA ATI MACH64 VGA, as described in the archives, but is there
something else I should be doing with the ECU at the same time?
Everything seems to work ok apart from the screen resolution.
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Helen Daley, Computer Systems Administrator e-mail: h.daley_at_newi.ac.uk
Post Point 22, North East Wales Institute, phone: 01978 293249
Wrexham, LL11 2AW, U.K. fax: 01978 293242/293254
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Received on Tue Aug 18 1998 - 13:47:59 NZST