Compaq DS10 User Manual

Linux Installation and Configuration Guide for AlphaServer  53 

ECG513/0100 

3. Configure the system SRM parameters to boot from your installation device. A table 

providing cross-referenced device names is located in Appendix C, for your convenience. 
Example commands for configuring to boot from the floppy device are shown here: 

P00>>>set bootdef_dev dva0 
P00>>>set boot_file vmlinux.gz 
P00>>>set boot_osflags "root=/dev/hda" 
P00>>>show boot* 
boot_dev             dva0.0.0.0.0     
boot_file            vmlinux.gz       
boot_osflags         root=/dev/hda 
boot_reset           OFF              
bootdef_dev          dva0.0.0.0.0     
booted_dev                            
booted_file                           
booted_osflags

                   

 

4. Insert the boot floppy into the drive. 

5. Boot the system using the "boot" command. The result should be that the system boots from 

the floppy.  

If during this process you encounter a problem, such as due to a typographic error in the setting of 
the SRM parameters, you will probably be stopped with an "aboot>" prompt. The best way to 
deal with this situation is to reset the system using the reset button on the front panel. Then using 
the SRM commands, correct the mistake, and repeat the "boot" process. 

The Red Hat version used in the testing for this guide has a simple installation program. Most of 
the devices available with the AlphaServers can be correctly autodetected by Red Hat. Testing for 
this Solutions Guide was performed using Red Hat Linux version 6.0. 

During the boot process, you may see messages about "IDE STO" errors. These can be safely 
ignored. 

When configuring "Timezones", do not select "Hardware clock set to GMT", nor "Startup 
through ARC console". Instead select "EST" for the timezone, or the value that is appropriate for 
your location. 

The process of partitioning your boot disk for Linux on your AlphaServer can be somewhat 
involved. This section provides an example of how perform the partitioning process using fdisk. 
Note, the partition recommendations used in steps 14-27 are based on a RZ1DD-AA disk 
geometry. If your disk has a different geometry you will need to use different starting/ending 
cylinder numbers for each partition. The correct starting/ending cylinder numbers can be 
computed by using these size recommendations and the number of bytes/cylinder for the disk that 
you are using (this figure is reported by fdisk). This section provides an example of how perform 
the partitioning process using fdisk. The disk used for this example is an 18.2GB drive (RZ2ED-
LS) which fdisk shows as having 17365 cylinders: 

4 partitions: 
#        size   offset    fstype   [fsize bsize   cpg] 
  a:     4096        0      boot    # (Cyl.    1 - 2) 
  b:   241664     4096      ext2    # (Cyl.    3 - 120) 
  c: 16547840   245760      swap    # (Cyl.  121 - 8200) 
  d: 18769920 16793600      ext2    # (Cyl. 8201 - 17365)