Original question:
> I have an old Alphastation 4/233 which spent most of its life
> as a headless node.
>
> I recently installed a Matrox video card in it and hooked up a monitor.
> I see the normal white-on-blue text as the system boots up
> and the boot appears to be normal until I get to the point
>
> configure_console: unable to install generic console
> attempting to switch to serial console.
> After this point I don't know if the system makes it the rest
> of the way up or not. I don't have a properly configured
> network connection at the moment and thus can't log on over the
> net.
>
>
> Obviously I could just set the appropriate console environment
> variable at the >>> prompt if the system weren't set to auto-boot.
> My questions are:
>
> 1) Is there any way to halt the system and get a >>> prompt
> before it boots all the way up? I think my keyboard is working
> but am not sure.
>
> 2) would just doing a fresh reinstall off of the CD-ROM
> use the video card by default? --if so, how to defeat the autoboot
> and get it to boot the CD-ROM instead?
>
> Obviously I could just hook up a serial port but would prefer not
> to do so if there is an easier way.
>
> The card is a Matrox Millenium PCI card. As far as I can tell
> from the kernel messages it is not being recognized by the kernel
> as being seen on the PCI--not surprising since I haven't attempted
> to change the config file to have the new card.
>
> Steve
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Steven C. Timm (630) 840-8525 timm_at_fnal.gov http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/
> Fermilab Computing Division/Operating Systems Support
> Scientific Computing Support Group--Computing Farms Operations
>From Dr. Tom Blinn:
If you can do a fresh install, it's your best bet. It's really messy
to add a video head to a system that didn't have one, as you are seeing
in your testing. You MUST have a serial console line hooked up while
you are doing the update to add the graphics, and even then, it's the
standard "add new hardware" with the added complexity that when you've
got a video option where there was none before, there are LOTS of things
from the original install that were OPTIONAL with no graphics that are
now MANDATORY to even build a new kernel, and may be missing from what
you've got on the system. It can be done, but you really have to know
what you are doing.
Tom
--------------------------
Even before the advice of the good Dr.Blinn I had broken down and
hooked up the serial port, after which I was able to
shutdown the system, which gave me the >>> prompt.
Then booting off of genvmunix got the system to recognize my card
as vga0 and now I can use the graphical interface at least in
640x480 mode.
I will probably eventually just do a fresh install. However,
does anyone know the tricks involved to get this particular
Matrox Millenium card to get a better video resolution?
Thanks
Steve Timm
Received on Fri Sep 07 2001 - 16:25:52 NZST