> From: Jon Katz <jkatz@in.net>
> Hello!
> I am thinking of plunking down a lot of cash and building a
> killer Alpha system for myself. I am looking pretty seriously at getting
> a EB64+ and running Linux on it. BUT, I have a few questions:
> * I know you can't boot of the IDE controller on some DEC MBs. Does that
> hold true for the EB64, which has an IDE controller on it?
> * What are any EB64 specific problems?
> * Is BLADE a good choice, or should I go with Red Hat?
> * Am I stuck using a SCSI CD-ROM or can I use one off the IDE controller?
> * Would this setup be viable for a WWW server for a client of mine
> (on a seperate box)
I think you should definitly use the Redhat distirbution. BLADE was only
intended to be a temporary distribution until other distributions were
developed. Now you can use Redhat, and soon you will be able to use Debian.
I suspect (but dont know) that there will be no more updates to BLADE.
Given that you want to build a killer Alpha system, and that you seem
to have the cash to do it, I am wondering why you want to go with IDE
drives. I believe that most platforms which support Linux already have
a builtin SCSI controller, so the cost difference should not be that great.
Given that you have a reason for prefering IDE, I do not know the answer
to the rest of your IDE questions.
I was looking at the FAQ to try to figure out if the EB64+ had a built in
SCSI controller, and I notice that the FAQ does not speak very highly of them:
EB* : Digital sells Alpha evaluation boards (e.g., EB66, EB64+, etc.).
Reportedly, Linux/Alpha may run on some of these. But they are
relatively pricey and, given that they are evaluation boards, they may
have other baggage that a normal user would never want.
I think most people who want a high performance system are Cabriolet
boards. Perhaps you should consider one of these.
The subject of using Linux/Alpha for WWW servers come up yesterday on the
Redhat/AXP mailing list. The general feeling was that software is not
mature enough for this yet. Prehaps in a few more months it will be.
Jim