Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 22:12:34 -0500 (CDT) From: Josh Tolbert <hemi@scoundrelz.net> To: freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.org Subject: PC164 SRM firmware problem Message-ID: <20021014215719.C34046-100000@view.scoundrelz.net>
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Hello, I obtained a PC164 motherboard, a 500MHz 21164 Alpha, 128M RAM and various other bits (including a dead CPU fan; I just re-pinned an Intel heatsink fan to work on the DEC motherboard) to use as a FreeBSD machine. Unfortunately, I'm not able to get FreeBSD installed because I'm having problems with the SRM firmware update. I know this is semi-off-topic for this list, but I've looked around and can't find a description of a similar problem anywhere. Hopefully someone on the list can point me in the right direction. When I received the board, it had ARC firmware in the ROM. Since that won't do for FreeBSD, I downloaded the SRM firmware and followed the documented procedure to flash the SRM firmware (put fwupdate.exe and pc164srm.rom on a floppy, update firmware from the ARC console and just follow the prompts). After rebooting, I get the standard blue screen with a black border, a blinking white cursor and nothing else. I don't see the customary SRM ">>>" prompt or a prompt of any sort. I've tried pressing enter (and other keys) as suggested, to no avail. The flash is "successful," according to fwupdate.exe. The nine blocks are counted and verified. I then re-downloaded and flashed the ROM using the fail-safe boot method (jumper C7) with the same result. I verified that the ROM writeable jumper was set to allow ROM writing. I've checked and re-checked everything I can think of (new floppy, new downloads, new jumper settings). I'm not sure if the SRM firmware defaults to com1, so I'm trying to get a serial console to work with the fail-safe booter just to test that I've got a working serial setup. Once the serial connection is verified, I'm going to try rebooting normally (no fail-safe boot) and see what happens. Is there anything else I can do? I've been fighting with this thing for a while. I've searched the web, posted at general-purpose hardware forums, searched some more, asked some of the Unix guys at work (none of which know anything about Alphas) and searched again. I'm not exactly new to dealing with hardware, but this thing has me at my wit's end. Once again, sorry for posting somewhat off-topic to the list. If anyone can help me or point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Josh To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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