Thanks to all those who replied so quickly! Kurt Ludwig sent me the following
solution that did the trick:
------
this Motherboard *WILL* run Tru64 once you get srm on it.
the PC164 series motherboards are 1/2 flash boards. This means you can have
either SRM OR AlphaBIOS/ARC in the firmware prom, but not both at the same
time.
you can update the machine to SRM as such:
get the PC164 firmware image at:
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/readmes/alphapc164.html
rename the file to pc164nt.rom (instead of pc164srm.rom). This way AlphaBIOS
will think it's an AlphaBIOS image and update to it.
[ JG: The floppy should have pc164nt.rom and fwupdate.exe in the ]
[ top level directory. ]
there will be a menu selection under setup to 'update alphabios'. put the
floppy in the drive with the .rom file on it that you just renamed and
select it.
[ JG: On my machine, it said "Install firmware update" or ]
[ or something like that. ]
it should prompt you that it will be replacing AlphaBIOS w/ SRM. give the go
ahead to do that.
once it finishes with this, power cycle the machine and you should have SRM.
------
Now on to installing Tru64.. Thanks again, Kurt.
Jim Guggemos
Jim Guggemos wrote:
>
> Greetings.
>
> I know this topic has come up before but I have been unable to find a previous
> discussion with the same problem I am having.
>
> I am trying to install Tru64 v5.1 on an older Alpha machine with an Alpha
> PC164 motherboard (assembled by a third party company). The firmware on the
> machine is ARC version 4.49-7 produced sometime in late 1996. (I upgraded it
> from 4.49-5 which was originally on the box.)
>
> The problem is to install Tru64, you need to run the SRM console firmware.
> According to the Tru64 Installation Guide (for version 5.1), section 5.4
> "Migrating Your System from Windows NT for Alpha to Tru64 Unix", it says that
> you need to select from the main menu "CMOS setup"/"Advanced CMOS
> setup"/"Console Selection: Digital UNIX console (SRM)". Then, once you are
> running SRM, you can upgrade it from the firmware CD. But these menus don't
> exist or at least I haven't found them.
>
> The firmware CD that comes with OSF1 v5.1 has SRM firmware for that
> motherboard but I don't know how to install it. There is a "Run Program"
> option from the ARC console - I don't know if there is a way to use that to
> switch to SRM or not.
>
> I have also heard that I may just be out of luck - some older motherboards
> just won't run SRM/Tru64. I'm hoping that is not the case here.
>
> I appreciate any help.
>
> Thank you,
> Jim Guggemos
> UNIX Systems Engineer
> Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Received on Fri Jun 08 2001 - 23:37:38 NZST