Alpha Server ES40 ARC from SRM

[Alice Daniel]

ES40, 1Gig, EV67 500Mhz
Arc Console V5.71
SRM V7.2-1
console = Graphics

When entering Alphabios (ARC) from SRM, the graphics screen and keyboard become disabled. All output is then sent to the com1(MMJ) terminal output. The message "All I/O is being sent to com port 1" is displayed on the com1 terminal, followed by the working output from Alphabios. Console is set to graphics as stated above. Is this (1) an environment variable problem, (2) an Alphabios rejection of the graphics/driver installation, or something else? I have other ES40's with the same firmware but later mainboards and processors. Alphabios works fine on them.

[Steven Schweda]

So, what _is_ the graphics hardware in these
systems?

And, if I may be so curious, why do you want
the AlphaBIOS?

[Ivan Ferreira]

If you just changed the console evironment variable, you must run init before the setting takes effect.

[Alice Daniel]

The graphics adapter is the Oxygen VX1. It works fine with Tru 64 and SRM.

I have primarily used Alphabios to manipulate the bios settings of SCSI adapters and run bios updates. The Debian Linux "aboot" installation starts from Alphabios (Arc). On this machine, that puts the entire installation procedure on the serial terminal and results in Debian booting and running on the terminal. When I have time to investigate/download another installation method for Debian I will see if I can get around Alphabios.