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<sect2 arch="alpha" id="alpha-firmware">
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<title>Alpha Console Firmware</title>
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Console firmware is stored in a flash ROM and started when an Alpha
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system is powered up or reset. There are two different console
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specifications used on Alpha systems, and hence two classes of console
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<emphasis>SRM console</emphasis>, based on the Alpha Console Subsystem
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specification, which provides an operating environment for OpenVMS, Tru64
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UNIX, and Linux operating systems.
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<emphasis>ARC, AlphaBIOS, or ARCSBIOS console</emphasis>, based on the
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Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) specification, which provides an operating
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environment for Windows NT.
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From the user's perspective, the most important difference between SRM
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and ARC is that the choice of console constrains the possible
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disk-partitioning scheme for the hard disk which you wish to boot off
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ARC requires that you use an MS-DOS partition table (as created by
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<command>cfdisk</command>) for the boot disk. Therefore MS-DOS partition
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tables are the <quote>native</quote> partition format when booting from
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ARC. In fact, since AlphaBIOS contains a disk partitioning utility, you may
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prefer to partition your disks from the firmware menus before
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Conversely, SRM is <emphasis>incompatible</emphasis><footnote>
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Specifically, the bootsector format required by the Console Subsystem
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Specification conflicts with the placement of the DOS partition table.
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</footnote> with MS-DOS partition tables. Since Tru64 Unix uses the BSD
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disklabel format, this is the <quote>native</quote> partition format for
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GNU/Linux is the only operating system on Alpha that can be booted from
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both console types, but &debian; &release; only supports booting on
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SRM-based systems. If you have an Alpha for which no version of SRM is
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available, if you will be dual-booting the system with Windows NT, or if
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your boot device requires ARC console support for BIOS initialization,
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you will not be able to use the &debian; &release; installer. You can
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still run &debian; &release; on such systems by using other install
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media; for instance, you can install Debian woody with MILO and upgrade.
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Because <command>MILO</command> is not available for any of the Alpha
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systems currently in production (as of February 2000), and because it
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is no longer necessary to buy an OpenVMS or Tru64 Unix license to have
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SRM firmware on your older Alpha, it is recommended that you use SRM
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The following table summarizes available and supported system
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type/console combinations (see <xref linkend="alpha-cpus"/> for the
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system type names). The word <quote>ARC</quote> below denotes any of the
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ARC-compliant consoles.
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<informaltable><tgroup cols="2">
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<entry>System Type</entry>
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<entry>Console Type Supported</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>avanti</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>cabriolet</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>jensen</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>mikasa</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>mikasa-p</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>nautilus</entry>
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<entry>ARC (see motherboard manual) or SRM</entry>
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<entry>noname</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>noritake</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>noritake-p</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>rawhide</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>ruffian</entry>
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<entry>ARC only</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>sable-g</entry>
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<entry>SRM only</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>takara</entry>
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<entry>ARC or SRM</entry>
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<entry>ARC only</entry>
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<entry>ARC only</entry>
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Generally, none of these consoles can boot Linux directly, so the
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assistance of an intermediary bootloader is required. For the SRM
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console, <command>aboot</command>, a small, platform-independent
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bootloader, is used. See the (unfortunately outdated) <ulink
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url="&url-srm-howto;">SRM HOWTO</ulink> for more information on
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<command>aboot</command>.
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</para><para condition="FIXME">
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The following paragraphs are from the woody install manual, and are
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included here for reference; they may be useful to someone at a later
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date when Debian supports MILO-based installs again.
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</para><para condition="FIXME">
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Generally, none of these consoles can boot Linux directly, so the
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assistance of an intermediary bootloader is required. There are two
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mainstream Linux loaders: <command>MILO</command> and <command>aboot</command>.
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</para><para condition="FIXME">
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<command>MILO</command> is itself a console, which replaces ARC or SRM in
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memory. <command>MILO</command> can be booted from both ARC and SRM and is
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the only way to bootstrap Linux from the ARC console.
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<command>MILO</command> is platform-specific (a different <command>MILO</command>
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is needed for each system type) and exist only for those systems, for
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which ARC support is shown in the table above. See also the
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(unfortunately outdated) <ulink url="&url-milo-howto;">MILO HOWTO</ulink>.
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</para><para condition="FIXME">
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<command>aboot</command> is a small, platform-independent bootloader, which
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runs from SRM only. See the (also unfortunately outdated) <ulink
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url="&url-srm-howto;">SRM HOWTO</ulink> for more information on
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<command>aboot</command>.
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</para><para condition="FIXME">
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Thus, three scenarios are generally possible, depending on the
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system's console firmware and whether or not <command>MILO</command> is
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<informalexample><screen>
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</screen></informalexample>
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Because <command>MILO</command> is not available for any of the Alpha
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systems currently in production (as of February 2000), and because it
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is no longer necessary to buy an OpenVMS or Tru64 Unix license to have
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SRM firmware on your older Alpha, it is recommended that you use SRM and
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<command>aboot</command> on new installations of GNU/Linux, unless you wish
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to dual-boot with Windows NT.
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The majority of AlphaServers and all current server and workstation
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products contain both SRM and AlphaBIOS in their firmware. For
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<quote>half-flash</quote> machines such as the various evaluation boards,
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it is possible to switch from one version to another by reflashing the
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firmware. Also, once SRM is installed, it is possible to run
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ARC/AlphaBIOS from a floppy disk (using the <command>arc</command>
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command). For the reasons mentioned above, we recommend switching to
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SRM before installing &debian;.
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As on other architectures, you should install the newest available
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revision of the firmware<footnote>
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Except on Jensen, where Linux is not supported on firmware versions
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newer than 1.7 — see <ulink url="&url-jensen-howto;"></ulink>
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for more information.
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</footnote> before installing &debian;.
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For Alpha, firmware updates can be obtained from
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<ulink url="&url-alpha-firmware;">Alpha Firmware Updates</ulink>.
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<sect2 arch="alpha"><title>Booting with TFTP</title>
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In SRM, Ethernet interfaces are named with the <userinput>ewa</userinput>
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prefix, and will be listed in the output of the <userinput>show dev</userinput> command,
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like this (edited slightly):
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> show dev
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ewa0.0.0.9.0 EWA0 08-00-2B-86-98-65
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ewb0.0.0.11.0 EWB0 08-00-2B-86-98-54
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ewc0.0.0.2002.0 EWC0 00-06-2B-01-32-B0
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</screen></informalexample>
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You first need to set the boot protocol:
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> set ewa0_protocols bootp
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</screen></informalexample>
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Then check the medium type is correct:
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> set ewa0_mode <replaceable>mode</replaceable>
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</screen></informalexample>
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You can get a listing of valid modes with <userinput>>>>set ewa0_mode</userinput>.
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Then, to boot from the first Ethernet interface, you would type:
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot ewa0 -flags ""
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</screen></informalexample>
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This will boot using the default kernel parameters as included in the
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If you wish to use a serial console, you <emphasis>must</emphasis>
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pass the <userinput>console=</userinput> parameter to the kernel.
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This can be done using the <userinput>-flags</userinput> argument to
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the SRM <userinput>boot</userinput> command. The serial ports are
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named the same as their corresponding files in
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<userinput>/dev</userinput>. Also, when specifying additional kernel
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parameters, you must repeat certain default options that are needed by
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the &d-i; images. For example, to boot from <userinput>ewa0</userinput>
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and use a console on the first serial port, you would type:
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot ewa0 -flags "root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=16384 console=ttyS0"
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</screen></informalexample>
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<sect2 arch="alpha"><title>Booting from CD-ROM with the SRM Console</title>
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The &debian; install CDs include several preconfigured boot options for
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VGA and serial consoles. Type
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot xxxx -flags 0
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</screen></informalexample>
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to boot using VGA console, where <replaceable>xxxx</replaceable> is your
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CD-ROM drive in SRM notation. To use serial console on the first
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot xxxx -flags 1
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</screen></informalexample>
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and for console on the second serial port, type
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot xxxx -flags 2
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</screen></informalexample>
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<sect2 arch="alpha" condition="FIXME">
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<title>Booting from CD-ROM with the ARC or AlphaBIOS Console</title>
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To boot a CD-ROM from the ARC console, find your sub-architecture code
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name (see <xref linkend="alpha-cpus"/>), then enter
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<filename>\milo\linload.exe</filename> as the boot loader and
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<filename>\milo\<replaceable>subarch</replaceable></filename> (where
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<replaceable>subarch</replaceable> is the proper subarchitecture name)
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as the OS Path in the `OS Selection Setup' menu. Ruffians make an
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exception: You need to use <filename>\milo\ldmilo.exe</filename> as
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<sect2 arch="alpha" condition="supports-floppy-boot">
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<title>Booting from Floppies with the SRM Console</title>
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At the SRM prompt (<prompt>>>></prompt>), issue the following
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot dva0 -flags 0
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</screen></informalexample>
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possibly replacing <filename>dva0</filename> with the actual device
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name. Usually, <filename>dva0</filename> is the floppy; type
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> show dev
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</screen></informalexample>
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to see the list of devices (e.g., if you want to boot from a CD).
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Note that if you are booting via MILO, <command>-flags</command> argument
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is ignored, so you can just type <command>boot dva0</command>.
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If everything works OK, you will eventually see the Linux kernel boot.
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If you want to specify kernel parameters when booting via
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<command>aboot</command>, use the following command:
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<informalexample><screen>
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>>> boot dva0 -file linux.bin.gz -flags "root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 arguments"
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</screen></informalexample>
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(typed on one line), substituting, if necessary, the actual SRM boot
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device name for <filename>dva0</filename>, the Linux boot device name for
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<filename>fd0</filename>, and the desired kernel parameters for
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<filename>arguments</filename>.
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If you want to specify kernel parameters when booting via
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<command>MILO</command>, you will have to interrupt bootstrap once you get
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into MILO. See <xref linkend="booting-from-milo"/>.
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<sect2 arch="alpha" condition="supports-floppy-boot">
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<title>Booting from Floppies with the ARC or AlphaBIOS Console</title>
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In the OS Selection menu, set <command>linload.exe</command> as the boot
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loader, and <command>milo</command> as the OS Path. Bootstrap using the
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<sect2 arch="alpha" condition="FIXME" id="booting-from-milo"><title>Booting with MILO</title>
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MILO contained on the bootstrap media is configured to proceed straight
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to Linux automatically. Should you wish to intervene, all you need is to
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press space during MILO countdown.
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If you want to specify all the bits explicitly (for example, to supply
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additional parameters), you can use a command like this:
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<informalexample><screen>
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MILO> boot fd0:linux.bin.gz root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 <!-- arguments -->
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</screen></informalexample>
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If you are booting from something other than a floppy, substitute
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<filename>fd0</filename> in the above example with the appropriate device name
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in Linux notation. The <command>help</command> command would give you a brief
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MILO command reference.
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nl/boot-installer/alpha.xml
