From owner-freebsd-alpha Sat Dec 4 15:47:46 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from mail1.panix.com (mail1.panix.com [166.84.0.212]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8237C153BB for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 15:47:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tls@panix.com) Received: from panix6.panix.com (panix6.panix.com [166.84.0.231]) by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DED9F31044; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 18:46:18 -0500 (EST) Received: (from tls@localhost) by panix6.panix.com (8.8.8/8.7.1/PanixN1.0) id SAA11749; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 18:46:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 18:46:18 -0500 From: Thor Lancelot Simon To: port-alpha@netbsd.org, alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Q: Compaq, *BSD and 'Linux-only' AlphaBIOS (fwd) Message-ID: <19991204184618.A11619@rek.tjls.com> Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com References: <199912032321.SAA17064@ghost.whirlpool.com> <199912040856.JAA55993@yedi.iaf.nl> <19991204173653.A16642@physics.clarku.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0pre3i In-Reply-To: <19991204173653.A16642@physics.clarku.edu> Sender: owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sat, Dec 04, 1999 at 05:36:53PM -0500, Greg Johnson wrote: > On Sat, Dec 04, 1999 at 09:56:34AM +0100, Wilko Bulte wrote: > > As Andrew Gillham wrote ... > > > Lord Isildur writes: > > > > > > > [...] > > > > > > > > certainly, if anyone _needs_ to use BSD with MILO for some strange > > > > reason, it'd be better to modify MILO than BSD. > > > > Wasn't there a problem with the PALcode that ARC brings you? > > (memory is dim here..) > > MILO provides its own PALcode. I can't *believe* I'm having to say this again, for the Nth time in as many months: The PALcode included in MILO has severe bugs. You can't use it to run BSD, or OSF/1 for that matter. It's remarkable that you can use it to run Linux, and sundry reports of Linux instability when run with MILO make me suspect that, in fact, you can't. This is the PALcode from the DEC EBSDK, which is really, *really* old and was worked-over to be built with a totally different toolchain than the PALcode in production SRM. Ross Harvey was on the verge of fixing some of the more obnoxious bugs in it once but managed to obtain the real SRM PALcode for the project he was working on, so he didn't. You can't run BSD with this PALcode, so you can't run BSD with MILO. If you want to waste a lot of your time and effort, it would be more productive to waste it persuading DEC to release SRM for more platforms, or to release the unmodified source code to a _current_ SRM, including the PALcode. Gee, it'd be nice if anyone would _remember_ this explanation for more than a month this time. -- Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message