1dnl $OpenBSD: prep,v 1.36 2023/03/16 18:04:07 miod Exp $ 2OpenBSD/MACHINE requires the SRM console. Some alphas come with 3the AlphaBIOS (also known as the ARC firmware on older machines) instead; 4this is what Windows NT uses. It is fairly simple to replace the AlphaBIOS 5with the SRM firmware. 6 7Switching your MACHINE to SRM console: 8 9 AlphaServer class machines (except for models 300 and 400) and recent 10 enough machines (such as the Miata and later models) have enough 11 flash ROM space to carry both the AlphaBIOS and the SRM console. 12 13 To switch to SRM from AlphaBIOS, do the following: 14 - enter the AlphaBIOS setup upon startup 15 (F2 key, or Ctrl-B from serial console) 16 - choose "CMOS Setup" from the menu 17 - select "Advanced CMOS Setup" (F6 key, or Ctrl-F from serial console) 18 - change the "Console Selection" setting to "OpenVMS console (SRM)" 19 - confirm your changes with F10 (or Ctrl-U) twice, then enter. 20 - power-cycle your system for the changes to take effect. 21 22 If you didn't find a "Console Selection" entry (for example on 164SX or 23 164LX), your system can not hold both the AlphaBIOS and SRM console in 24 flash, and you will have to upgrade your firmware. 25 26 You can get replacement firmware either from a firmware update CD-ROM, 27 which can be downloaded from 28 https://archive.org/details/alphafwupcds 29 30 Note that, on most models, upgrading the firmware requires a jumper 31 to be moved on the motherboards; refer to the firmware update 32 instructions for details. 33 34AXPpci33 Motherboard specific notes: 35 36 The 1994 version of the OEM guide has an incorrect pinout for the 37 serial ports. The newer version used to be available at 38 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/axppci/design_guide.ps.Z 39 with a corrected pinout (as well as more information than the 1994 40 edition). Although ftp.digital.com does not exist anymore, a few 41 copies of this document are scattered across various ftp servers 42 on the globe, such as 43 https://manx-docs.org/collections/antonio/dec/MDS-2000-01/cd1/ALPHA/AXPCIDGC.PDF 44 45 Note that there are two flavors of PC serial connectors. If you 46 have the wrong kind, you won't get any output from the serial console. 47 48Using the SRM console: 49 50 This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide on using the 51 SRM firmware console. It should, however, give you enough 52 information to boot OpenBSD/MACHINE. 53 54 To see a list of devices connected to your alpha, you can 55 use the "show device" command. For booting, the devices you 56 are interested in are "dka*" (the disk drives). 57 58 You can set ROM variables by saying "set VARIABLE VALUE". 59 Some variables you will want to set: 60 61 auto_action 62 Determines what happens when you turn the power on, 63 halt, or restart your machine. Valid values are: 64 65 "halt" 66 the system will not autoboot, will restart when 67 rebooted (shutdown -r), and will not restart 68 when halted (shutdown -h). 69 "boot" 70 the system will autoboot on powerup, and when the 71 system is halted (shutdown -h) or rebooted 72 (shutdown -r). 73 "restart" 74 the system will autoboot on powerup, will restart 75 when rebooted (shutdown -r), and will not restart 76 when halted (shutdown -h). 77 78 Most users will want to set this to "restart". 79 80 bootdef_dev 81 Default boot device (or list of devices). 82 83 boot_file 84 Name of the kernel to boot. If this variable is empty, 85 the default "bsd" will be loaded. Note that this variable 86 does not exist in all versions of the SRM console. 87 88 To see a list of all variables on your machine, use the "show" 89 command with no arguments. If there are too many of them, you 90 might want to page with "show | more". 91 92 You can bypass the boot_file value from the command prompt, with the 93 -fi option. For example, 94 95 boot -fi bsd.rd dka0 96 97 will boot the "bsd.rd" kernel on dka0. However, some versions of the 98 SRM console (mainly on DEC 3000 series) will only let you specify 99 uppercase filenames. It is preferred to boot without any particular 100 option, and enter the correct filename at the boot loader "boot>" 101 prompt. 102 103USB support on the XP1000: 104 105 For some unknown reason, the USB interface found on the XP1000 106 (and possibly the XP900 and the XP1100) is not enabled unless a 107 specific SRM environment variable is set. 108 109 If you plan to use USB devices on these machines, enter 110 set usb_enable on 111 at the SRM prompt, followed by 112 init 113 before attempting to install OpenBSD. 114 115EISA configuration: 116 117 A few MACHINE systems support EISA devices. However, the SRM firmware 118 has only a very limited knowledge of EISA devices and is not able to 119 configure them. 120 121 Every time an EISA board is added to or removed from the system, the 122 EISA Configuration Utility needs to be run from a floppy disk using the 123 ``runecu'' command at the SRM prompt. An ECU floppy disk is supposed to 124 be provided with EISA-capable systems; this disk will be updated with 125 the current configuration every time it is run, and needs to be 126 writeable. ECU disks should not be shared between systems. 127 128 Redistributing ECU is not allowed, however a copy of it can be 129 downloaded from: 130 https://archive.org/details/digitalecudisk 131 132 Extract this archive to a newly FAT-formatted 3"1/2 floppy disk to get 133 a pristine ECU disk. 134 135SRM console boot device restrictions: 136 137 The SRM firmware on your system may or may not be able to boot from 138 any disk controller you may install in your MACHINE. 139 The built-in disk controllers on your MACHINE will always be supported, 140 however on IDE-based machines, such as the EB164, 164SX and 164LX, as 141 well as the low-end Personal Workstation (non-u models), you can plug 142 in a SCSI controller, and boot from it if it is recognized. 143 144 Recent SRM releases for these machines will be able to boot (or netboot) 145 from the following controllers: 146 QLogic PCI SCSI controllers 147 Symbios Logic (NCR) 53C8xx (but not on PC164) 148 Adaptec AHA-[23]9[34]x[U][W] cards 149 Intel i8255x-based cards (EtherExpress PRO) 150 The following controllers are known not to be supported as boot devices 151 by the SRM: 152 Adaptec AHA-[23]9[34]xU2 cards 153 154 Depending on your specific model, your mileage may vary, though. 155 156OpenBSD/MACHINE console device restrictions: 157 158 On systems with no framebuffer supported (currently all 159 TURBOchannel-based machines), OpenBSD/MACHINE must be used with a 160 serial console. 161 162 Setting an Alpha system to use a serial console is system-specific. 163 Although most models will default to serial console if no keyboard 164 is connected on powerup, this behaviour can't be relied upon. 165 The recommended procedure is: 166 167 DEC 3000/[4-9]00 168 Flip the `S3' switch on the back of the machine 169 (up for glass console, down for serial console). 170 171 When configured to use a serial console, it is also 172 necessary to set the ``server'' SRM environment 173 variable to ``on'' for the system to autoboot on 174 powerup despite the lack of a keyboard and mouse 175 plugged in. 176 177 DEC 3000/300 family machines 178 Console is selected by the `W2' jumper block, to the 179 edge of the logic board, near the memory banks. 180 181 Setting the jumper cap on pins 1-2 selects glass 182 console, and on pins 2-3 selects serial console. 183 184 All other machines 185 From the SRM console, enter either 186 set console serial 187 or 188 set console graphics 189 at the SRM prompt, then enter 190 init 191 or cycle power. 192 193