Please demand, if there is a human at Digital to demand it of, that *they*
tell you whether the machine is Linux compatible or not. They should be
made to realize that Linux users constitute a real market for their
machines and chips. I bought a 533MHz 21164-based machine from Microway
recently, because it was so difficult to get information from Digital as
to whether I would even be able to use their machine. I told Digital as
much.
As to a more immediate answer to your query, however, it is very difficult
to tell whether Linux will even run on this hardware. The motherboard,
SCSI controller, video, and Ethernet controllers are unknown. Beat them up
a little; tell them why you need the data.
Good luck,
Michael Leslie
On Tue, 19 May 1998, Heikki Kortti wrote:
>
> Hullo,
>
> a certain group of people I know are planning on buying a Digital Server
> 5305. According to the vendor and one poxy fax-festered Digital tech info
> sheet, the specimen at hand sports the following:
>
> * 1 533MHz 21164 cpu with 4 MB cache
> * 1 GB RAM
> * 6 PCI + 1 PCI/EISA- slots
> * 2*9GB UltraSCSI hot-swap disks
> * TZ88N 20/40GB internal DLT tape drive
> * an _unspecified_ 3-channel RAID controller
> * an integrated 1 MB DRAM PCI SVGA controller
> * an integrated PCI Fast-Ethernet controller
>
> Of course there are also the usual extras thrown in for measure, such as
> cd-rom drive, floppy drive, monitor, keyboard, blah blah blah. Now, while
> all this seems so very fine and dandy, I'd like some expert opinions and
> educated guesses as to whether this machine would run Linux/Alpha without
> any hindrance, as the server is only designated as "64-bit Windows
> NT-ready" and having Windows NT 4.0 as "Certified Operating System", oh
> the horror! ;)
>
> Specifically, do any of you see any reason why the RAID controller or the
> DLT drive wouldn't work (driver availability etc.)? The make and type
> of the RAID controller is strangely unspecified; does this mean that
> it's likely to be some DEC thingy, or simply that it doesn't matter one
> way or another? Neither is the system board type defined -- do you see any
> problems there?
>
> The people who are buying this magnificent beast are very keen on
> promoting Linux and would be very pleased if someone could shed light on
> these functional matters before they start dishing out the money :-)
>
> * Heikki Kortti *
>