| Greetings. I am the project leader for Digital UNIX support of
the Tadpole ALPHAbook 1.
There is sufficient support in V4.0B that you should be able to
install the software on an ALPHAbook 1 from CDROM or via RIS.
We have had limited success using the Panasonic portable CDROM
drives that Tadpole recommends with V4.0B. They do not seem to
operate reliably in 512 byte block mode. The Digital RRD42-DA
(in the external box) or another Digital drive should work OK,
if you can address the cabling question (you need high density
to attach to the ALPHAbook 1). The PtMin release should allow
the Panasonic and other PC market CDROM drives to operate using
2048 byte blocks, which may solve the reliability problems.
If you are going to run Digital UNIX on an ALPHAbook 1 prior to
the PtMin release, then you should get a patch kit that has the
changes made for PtMin BL5 back-ported to V4.0B. This is NOT in
the support pools, because some of the changes involved parts of
the kernel that are used on every platform, and were judged to be
a bit risky without comprehensive testing. The patches will fit
on two 1.44MB floppy disks; you can also use a floppy disk to do
a firmware update (we've found that V4.9-2 ALPHAbook 1 firmware
works reasonably well).
If you have an ALPHAbook 1 and want to install Digital UNIX V4.0B
with the platform specific patches, contact me by email and we'll
work out a way for you to get the patches. If you have an extra
Tadpole disk, I could pre-load it for you (just as Tadpole would
"FIS" the software). I don't want to be in the business of making
floppy patch kits, but I can provide you with the files for you to
make your own, or if you've got your ALPHAbook 1 on the network,
you could bypass the floppies and load the patch kit directly on
your system and install it.
Tom
[email protected]
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