AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Sun, 24 Apr 2016, Robert Jarratt wrote:

> >  Reminds me to revive my 3000/700, once I get the mechanical issues from
> > mishandling in shipping sorted out.  I hope it hasn't rotted from disuse
> > -- it was alright, booted OSF/1 even, when I last powered it on ~10 years
> ago.
> > I should have done it sooner.  Having a physical box I might be able to
> help
> > even more, check things, etc.  The only difference is the clock rate I
> believe.
> > 
> 
> 
> >From what I read the 3000 is a slightly earlier generation, not sure how
> close it will be. Sounds like a good idea to get it going anyway.

 It's much different, being a TURBOchannel box, and the line is the only 
one of the smaller Alphas not supported under Linux.

 My grand plan was to get it going (based on Peter De Schrijver's patches 
he once posted -- once as in "12 years ago"), along VAXstation 4000, with 
Linux under unified TURBOchannel support.  The latter part has since been 
done and merged with the official code base, converting code previously 
tightly coupled with DECstation 5000 support.  It later proved functional 
with the VAXstation, but the VAX port has never made it.

 Various life distractions made me never complete this effort, but I still 
hope to get there sometime, while hardware survives.

> The thing
> I am struggling with at the moment is getting sys$crmpsc_pfn_64 to work so I
> can use C to test the NVRAM. I seem to have a problem with the service
> writing back the address and length, but I don't yet know why.

 That's beyond my abilities I'm afraid, can't help.

  Maciej