firmware update for PWS433au alpha personal workstation

[erstling]

hello,

1. trying to boot a DEC PWS433au Miata MX5 (EV56) with openvms 8.3 hobbyist CD, I get the following error on SRM console:

%sysboot-f-firmrev, firmware rev. 6.6. is below the absolute minimum of 6.8, please update... to 6.9, which can be found on firmware CD labeled alpha systems firmware update 6.8

I couldn't find any such CD or iso image on the web.. any suggestions where to get it?

2. is the PCI graphics ATI rage pro 215GP (rev5c) support by openvms?

Appreciate your help. thanks!

[Mark_Corcoran]

The second company I worked for paid ££££££ to Compaq for a support contract, so we were on the consolidated distribution list, and got regular updates of the firmware, SPL, docs &etc. CDs.

I don't believe that unless you had a support contract (at or above a certain level) that you got the CDs, unless you paid separately for them (if that was even possible).

There might be issues with making ISOs available on the web (if the CDs were even ISO format;  certainly, original VAX CDs weren't).

I've had a look at the pile of CDs I have here, and there are no firmware CDs in amongst them;  I know I have some, so they must be at home somewhere, but it will be weeks before I next go home.

I'm not sure if there is a recent enough firmware CD to provide what you want.

If I have it, (and it's a big IF...) you're certainly welcome to borrow it - if you send me a private message, letting me know generally where you are based (UK? EMEA?  USA) I can determine whether or not I could drop it off in person, or would need to post it.

Mark

[David R. Lennon]

It looks to me like this firmware is still available the "old" wa, via anonymous FTP:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/alphaserver/firmware/retired_platforms/workstations/digital_pers_wrksta/

[erstling]

Thanks, David! Yes, right, thank you! Your link points to the individual fw-update files for PWS; they require to make a bootable floppy disk. Eventhough my PWS has a floppy drive (which hopefully still works) I need to find a 3.5" floppy disk...

I wonder if this iso contains also the FW for the PWS, in which case it'd be simpler to just burn a CD-R instead of trying the floppy disk way, which I consider risky:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/alphaserver/firmware/iso_images/
file V69.iso

[erstling]

p.s. I checked

V69.iso

 it doesn't contain any FW for older workstations :(

the good news is, i found a 3.5" floppy disk and will report back soon if the fw-update worked.

[Steven Schweda]

> V69.iso
>  it doesn't contain any FW for older workstations :(

   I found an "Alpha Systems Firmware Update V6.5" CD ("June 2003")
lying around here.  It says:

      2  Important Changes on Firmware CD

      Starting with the V6.1 Alpha Systems Firmware Update CD, files for
      systems that have not had a new firmware release for at least
      three years have been dropped from the CD. [...]

"Digital Personal Workstation" is among the "no longer included" models
listed.  (The Internet sources suggested in the Release Notes Overview,
like ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/firmware may not be as useful as
what you've already found.)

   I also found a V5.1 CD ("February 1998") which seems to include
DIGITALPW_V6_7.EXE (and .SYS).

                    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++          Jan 17, 1997
                    + DIGITAL Personal Workstations  +
                    +         README-First !!!       +
                    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

        1. Latest Firmware Update Revisions

             The latest Firmware Update Bootfile "DIGITALPW_V6_7.EXE" on the
             Alpha Firmware CD V5.1,  contains the SRM Console V6.7, which
             has the following components (* = CHANGED since last release) :

                        APU  6.7 *
                        SRM  6.7 *
                  AlphaBIOS  5.64 *
                       SROM  5.85 *  (See note below in section 3)
                 BIOS (SRM)  1.15a
                 BIOS (ARC)  2.02
                VMS PALcode  1.21-10
                OSF PALcode  1.18-10

  So, my guess would be that the V5.7 CD might have a decent
chance of having the latest/last PWS firmware.

2. is the PCI graphics ATI rage pro 215GP (rev5c) support by openvms?

   All the "ATI" I see in SYS$SYSTEM:SYS$CONFIG.DAT are these:

device = "ATI Mach32"        id = 0x41581002
device = "ATI Mach64-GX"     id = 0x47581002
device = "ATI Mach64-CX"     id = 0x43581002
device = "ATI Mach64-CT"     id = 0x43541002
device = "ATI Radeon 7500"   id = 0x51571002
device = "ATI Radeon 7000"   id = 0x51591002

   If your PCI vendor/device data don't match any of these, then I'd
guess no.

[Steven Schweda]

> *in short*, I made the fw-update floppy [...]

   I'd've looked (much) harder for a suitable CD image.

> but I wonder where my decw$startup.com file is. [...]

   Around here, it's in SYS$MANAGER:

ITS $ dire/size/date sys$startup:decw$startup.com

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]

DECW$STARTUP.COM;1        29  22-MAR-2010 04:17:56.34

   Did you install DWMOTIF?

ITS $ product show product *dwmotif*
------------------------------------ ----------- ---------
PRODUCT                              KIT TYPE    STATE
------------------------------------ ----------- ---------
HP I64VMS DWMOTIF V1.7               Full LP     Installed
HP I64VMS DWMOTIF_SUPPORT V8.4       Full LP     Installed
------------------------------------ ----------- ---------
2 items found

I don't have an Alpha running now, but I'd expect it to be similar.

> what I've not yet tested is remote login with a terminal emulator.

   "remote" comes in many flavors.  (Serial port, DECnet, LAT, rlogin,
SSH, Telnet, ...)

[erstling]

what happened? the post I wrote an hour ago and which you replied to disappeared!

yes the other decw$* files are there but not decw$startup.com

I doubt there is a suitable fw cd for pws. SRM 6.7 is not enough for vms 8.3, see quote from the first post in this thread:

%sysboot-f-firmrev, firmware rev. 6.6. is below the absolute minimum of 6.8 ...

[Steven Schweda]

> what happened? the post I wrote an hour ago and which you replied to
> disappeared!

   Russian hackers?  Lame forum software?  It's a mystery.  (I edit my
postings on my VMS system, and copy+paste them into the forum editor.
Trust no one, I always say.)

> yes the other decw$* files are there but not decw$startup.com

   Which " the other decw$* files"?  DECwindows and Motif are different.
What does yours say?:

      product show product *dwmotif*

> I doubt there is a suitable fw cd for pws. SRM 6.7 is not enough for
> vms 8.3

   Yes, but that was from an "Alpha Firmware CD V5.1".  The version of
the CD and the version of the firmware/software on the CD may differ.

>   So, my guess would be that the V5.7 CD might have a decent
> chance of having the latest/last PWS firmware.

   Still my advice.

[erstling]

Hi Steven

>   So, my guess would be that the V5.7 CD might have a decent
> chance of having the latest/last PWS firmware.

thanks, you are right! I downloaded and checked the content, you are right it contains digitalpw_v72_1.exe etc.

By the way, the PWSs were delivered with IDE cd-rom (toshiba) drives. Since my cd-rom drive was mechanically broken when I got it, I replaced it with an IDE cd-r/w (4x4x32) drive since I didn't have any IDE cd-rom drive available.

When I tried to boot the vms 8.3 installation ec axpvms  from dqa0 (cd-r/w drive), I got an error that the block 0 is not a valid boot block. I don't know if this error was due to using an cd-r/w instead of cd-rom drive.

Since I found contracdictory info about the SRM console being able to boot from IDE cd-rom or not (sorry I lost the link), I replaced the IDE cd-r/w with a SCSI cd-rom [teac] drive, which booted the vms install CD which lead to the firmware upgrade requirement.

$ product show product *dwmotif*

dec axpvms dwmotif v1.6 Full LP installed

dec axpvms dwmotif_support v8.3 Full LP installed