DS10 6.0 new install hangs mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0a

[Thomas Laus]

> is this a alpha ds10 issue or are you saying that all alphas (will)
> have this kind of a problem ???
> 
All Alpha's have this issue when trying to load FreeBSD on a drive that has had 
a previous OS.  Just boot Disk 2 (Live Filesystem) and DD the first 20 MB of 
the disk.

> just thinking about some boot after install issues i'm now seeing with
> freebsd (alpha) v6.0-release on an alphaserver2100A and a dec
> alphastation model 255.
> 
The AlphaServer 2100A is quite 'special' in many areas.  FreeBSD and the other 
Open Source OS do not have hardware support for a lot of the hardware options 
that this server may possess.

> while i have not tried to install freebsd on teh 2100a the alphastation
> 255 bombed out when i went to boot after instalation, both have scsi
> cards and drives (both i think are using seagate drives).
> 
You should not have any problem loading any FreeBSD release on the AlphaStation 
255.  The PBXGB-AA TGA card has some 'probing' issues which may cause machine 
hangs during the boot process.  Most any other (non-DEC)PCI graphic card is 
usable and should work.  I have a few AlphaStation 255's and have been able to 
run all of the releases since 3.5 to the present, successfully. 

> some insight would be apreciated, its getting to be a bit frustrating
> to get freebsd/netbsd to install properly and run on both these
> machines, though dec unix v4.0b seems to not have any problems
>
There is a lot of 'DEC Secrets' that were only shared between the DEC guys 
writing the True64 OS and the hardware team that designed the components.  
These secrets were not shared with the Open Source Community.

Tom 
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