Ok. This one drove me nuts! I FINALLY got the box up and running (and trust me, I am not a Linux nor Alpha expert!). I wrote it all down, and hope it helps those out there like me who were THIS close to admitting defeat. Remember, it all worked for me, but I can't promise anything. Individual results may vary.

Update firmware to as200_v6_8.exe.

Boot ARC console.

There appear to be several version of this floating around. I downloaded the file referenced here: "http://www.windows.digital.com/ntsbuftp/index/epid152.htm

It appears to be just the ARC firmware, but I don't really know. At any rate, don't following the instructions inside the README.1ST file in that archive -- it's for updating ARC (from ARC). Use the instructions from step #1 of the first link above instead (i.e. http://home.pacbell.net/ryanlath/as200.html).

Create 3 DOS floppy disks.

Disk 1: renamed \milo\avanti to just "milo", then copy milo a:copy \milo\arc\linload.exe a:

This worked fine. NOTE, HOWEVER, IF YOU HAVE A REDHAT ALPHA CD and have added a CD-ROM drive to your system, you can boot it right from ARC. I used the following command: boot -t iso9660 scd0:kernels/xl.gz root=/dev/scd0

Note that it uses the "xl" kernel, which seems to work OK for getting into the RedHat installer (there is no "avanti" kernel, I don't know why). [ I didn't figure this out until AFTER I installed everything! ]

Disk 2: copy \kernels\xl.gz a:

I'm not sure if I tried this. Instead, I got the avanti image file from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/linux/redhat/redhat-5.1/alpha/images/avanti.img and used rawrite to put it on the second disk.

Disk 3: rawrite \images\ramdisk.img a:

Note, the avanti.gz and avanti-s.gz (SRM) kernels do not seem to work. Nor did the other 897 milo/ kernel/ ramdisk combos I think I tried...

RedHat doesn't even appear to HAVE an avanti.gz image -- strange. At any rate, I used the ramdisk image from here: ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/linux/redhat/redhat-5.1/alpha/images/ramdisk.img

At this point, just do what I say and rename xl.img to vmlinux.img and rawrite it onto a floppy. During the end of the install you will be asked for the boot disk - use this one. I am not sure why, but it worked.

I just used the disk #2, above. I don't know why you would need to do this extra step.

I have a boot choice called "Boot Linux Floppy". My load options look like this:

LOADIDENTIFIER=Linux Floppy 
SYSTEMPARTITION=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0) 
OSLOADER=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\linload.exe 
OSLOADPARTITION=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0) 
OSLOADFILENAME=\milo 
OSLOADOPTIONS=nodebug 

Boot the box with the Disk 1 in the floppy drive, then choose "Boot Linux Floppy" from the boot menu.

At the MILO> prompt place the Disk 2 in the floppy and type: boot fd0:xl.gz "root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"

I used "boot fd0:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1", perhaps because I used the avanti disk image rather than the xl.gz kernel mentioned here (or perhaps the filename is inconsequential).

When prompted for the ramdisk, place Disk 3 into the floppy. After it gets loaded, you *SHOULD* get the Red Hat setup screen.

Partition your drive(s), choose your packages, etc. Install Red Hat.

You can't use the RedHat partitioner to create your MILO (FAT) partition as a primary partition (at least I couldn't figure out how). I used fdisk to first create the DOS/FAT/MILO partition (first), then the linux partition (again a primary), and then an extended partition with the rest of the disk (with swap and other partitions inside it).

After the install, I used Disk 1 to boot again, but changed the "Boot Linux Floppy"

OSLOADOPTIONS=nodebug to: 
OSLOADOPTIONS=boot sda6:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda6. 

sda6 is mounted on / (root).

One BIG caveat. NONE of this worked with the Number9 video card that was shipped with my Alpha from Onsale. I replaced it with a generic S3 Trio64 pci video card I had.

I had much better luck with the #9 card, but I still had problems with it once I got everything up and running -- it appeared to lock up every once in awhile. I tried a #9 Motion 771 (a S3/968 based card) and that wouldn't even boot! Luckily, I had an STB Nitro 3D (S3/VirgeGX) around as well, and that appears to work fine (but I had to add the XF86S3V X-server package).

If you are wondering, I partitioned my hard drive as follows:

 
/home is /dev/sda5 100Mb 
swap is /dev/sda7 48Mb 
/dos 3Mb 
/usr  is /dev/sda1  802Mb 
/  is /dev/sda6  80Mb 

Now, after logging in as root I used: "dd if=/dev/fd0 of/dev/sda8 bs=1440k" with Disk 1 in the floppy to copy Milo to the DOS partition. Then you can set the load options to boot Linux from the DOS partition.

My load options now look like this:

 
LOADIDENTIFIER=Linux 
SYSTEMPARTITION=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5) 
OSLOADER=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\linload.exe 
OSLOADPARTITION=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5) 
OSLOADFILENAME=\milo 
OSLOADOPTIONS=boot sda6:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda6 

For me, with linux installed on sda2, and linload/milo on the first primary partition, the lines look like this:

 
LOADIDENTIFIER=Linux 
SYSTEMPARTITION=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) 
OSLOADER=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\linload.exe 
OSLOADPARTITION=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) 
OSLOADFILENAME=\milo 
OSLOADOPTIONS=boot sda2:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda2 

As others have mentioned, setting SYSTEMPARTITION, OSLOADPARTITION and OSLOADFILENAME are not needed (since linload automatically tries to load milo from the same directory). I updated them because I didn't want to actually verify that the above is true ;-)

The critical thing that isn't really mentioned is that the OSLOADER line should refer to your DOS/FAT/MILO partition. This is one reason I put it into a primary partition (although I guess it doesn't really matter). The OSLOADOPTIONS line is (obviously) for your actual linux kernel partition.

Reboot the machine, choose "Boot Linux" and away you go!

You probably also want to set up "Autoboot" in the ARC console. I have two Linux boot entries defined, one for linux from the HD (which is the first selection, which is what gets auto-booted), and another entry for booting MILO from a floppy (the original load options from above).

 
Good luck, 
 
Claude 
 
//claude@highlandconsulting.com 

PS - Now comes getting XWindows up and running.  Hmmm... 
 
Once I got a working card in there (and ran Xconfigurator) things seem to 
be 
working fine. 
 
Have fun.... 
 
Matt Goheen