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Dual-Boot Tru64

 
phish
New Member

Dual-Boot Tru64

Hi Guys,

I'm new to Tru64, and need to investigate dual booting. I need to du two things with two differenct versions of Tru64:

1. Dual Boot off two different disks on the same machine as required.
2. Dual Boot off two different partitions on the same disk as required.

Anyone tried this, or know where i could find documentation or a "howto"?

Thanks!
6 REPLIES 6
Mulgund
Frequent Advisor

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

As I understand (1) is possible, (2) isn't.

>> Dual Boot of two different disks on the same machine as required..

While you are installing the first required
OS ver from boot CD, choose the disks one say dsk0.

While you are installing the alternate OS ver.,
choose the alternate disk say dsk1.

Now on the srm prompt you will see both disk0 and dsk1 are
bootable. Just choose the one from which you want to boot each time.

>> Dual Boot off two different partitions on the same disk as required...

is not possible because during installation boot disk partition has
to be partition c (say dsk0c) only.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Srinivas.
Vladimir Fabecic
Honored Contributor

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

Hello
1. Dual boot
You can boot Alpha server from any accessible disk, i.e. disk visible from console. You can even boot different operating systems.
Example: You have four disks, DKA0 , DKA100 , DKA200 and DKA300. You can have one TRU64 installation on disk DKA0, and OpenVMS installation on DKA100. On DKA200 you can have another installation of TRU64. You choose from which disk you boot and with which OS flag.
>>> boot -flag a dka0 (you boot from disk DKA0 and with flag "a" because it is TRU64)
>>> boot -flag 0 dka100 (you boot from disk DKA100 and with flag "0" because it is OpenVMS)
You can also boot from SAN disks.
2. Dual Boot of two different partitions on the same disk as required
It is not supported because TRU64 MUST boot from partition "a", i.e. from beggining of disk (block 0). And you can have just one "a" partition on disk.
OpenVMS does not use partitions. Teoreticaly you can boot OpenVMS from different "roots" wcich can be on tha same disk.
In vino veritas, in VMS cluster
Derek Haining
Advisor

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

One further note on the dual booting of different operating systems. You will probably also have to change the "os_type" environment variable as the SRM/console prompt.

The biggest difference between Tru64 UNIX and OpenVMS that you could see here is that Tru64 UNIX treats IDE devices as "dumb" SCSI devices, while OpenVMS sees them as "dumb" IDE devices. :)

For example, on my DEC PWS500a system, which has two IDE controllers built onto the motherboard, under Tru64 UNIX those two IDE controllers are seen as SCSI controllers (BUSes) 0 and 1. From the SRM level, if memory serves, any devices attached, such as CD-ROM drives, would be on either the DKA and DKB chains.

For OpenVMS, however, those same devices would be DQA and/or DQB devices.

For Tru64 UNIX this was more of an issue with versions prior to V5.0 when the new device naming scheme was installed. (dsk0) For V4.0x these devices would have been in the rz0->rz15 range -- unless you had wide controllers, in which case they could have gone up to rz31 I think. (I don't recall
running into that issue, but then I was always setting the OS_TYPe variable when swithching operating systems.)

HTH.
Arch_Muthiah
Honored Contributor

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

Phish,

Answer for your Ist question:
You can have any of the following two OS on your alpha (NT, Tru64, OpenVMS)

go to SRM prompt >>>
To install NT, switch from SRM to Alpha BIOS
to do this,
>>> SET os_type NT
then power cycle the system.
now the system entered into Alpha BIOS
Follow this now to install NT....

Now you can install the NT.

And if you choose to run UNIX, you must install it either from CD-ROM or RIS
installation.

As usual enter into Alpha BIOS
a) Select CMOS SETUP menu item
b) Press F6 key to enter ADVANCED
c) Tab down to CONSOLE SELECTION
d) Select DIGITAL UNIX Console (SRM)_
e) Press F10 key twice
f) Press [Enter].
g) Power Cycle the system with your Tru64 CDROM inserted, now you can continue tru64 installation using the menu appear now.

After Tru64 installation, you can boot using this procedure....

To Switch to Alpha BIOS (Boot Windows NT)
a) At the SRM console prompt, type SET os_type NT
b) Power cycle the system.
c) Alpha BIOS will be entered when the system comes up.
d) After logging into Windows NT, check the system date/time and correct if
necessary.

V. To Switch to SRM (Boot UNIX)
a) From NT, shutdown the system.
b) After Alpha BIOS completes memory test, press the F2 key to enter setup.
c) Select the CMOS SETUP menu item.
d) Press F6 ADVANCED
e) Tab down to Console Selection
f) Select : DIGITAL UNIX Console (SRM)
g) Press F10 key twice
h) Press [Enter]
i) Power cycle the system
j) The SRM Console will be entered when the system comes up.
k) After logging into DIGITAL UNIX, check the system date/time and correct if
necessary.

Archunan
Regards
Archie
Arch_Muthiah
Honored Contributor

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

Phish,

If you need docs on this, please let me know with your email id.


Archunan
Regards
Archie
phish
New Member

Re: Dual-Boot Tru64

Thanks Guys,

You've been very helpfull :-)

Archunan, yes, please mail me the docs! michael.hofmeyr@gmail.com