From: curt steinmetz (curt@cola.iges.org)
Date: Mon Dec 29 2003 - 18:38:52 EST
Thanks to Ian Barker and Thomas Blinn!
The short answer: I don't have to worry
about the warning about "HAL Revision G"
if I am running Tru64 (at least for v4.0F).
From Ian Barker:
HAL refers to the Hardware Abstraction Layer, used for Windows NT.
If you are using Tru64, the SRM firmware performs the bootstrap, not
AlphaBIOS.
SRM can call AlphaBIOS via the 'arc' command, and will work OK for
using the AlphaBIOS utils on those rare occasions they may be required.
But for Tru64 you won't be booting via AlphaBIOS so you can ignore the
requirement of HAL.
From Thomas Blinn:
Whether your system even uses AlphaBIOS features depends on which
hardware options are present; some hardware options make use of
BIOS emulation.
I strongly suspect that the SRM console has no dependency on the
HAL update and it sounds like it's probably intended for systems
that run Windows NT. I'm confident that Tru64 UNIX does NOT have
any dependency on this; it sounds a lot like something that you
must install if you are running Windows NT and don't need if you
are running OpenVMS or Tru64 UNIX. You *might* need it for one
of the open source operating systems (or not).
Windows NT (and 2000 and XP and the follow-ons) definitely has
a HAL layer that's designed to be update-able by third-party
media, and I strongly suspect that's what this is about, but I
would have to track down a firmware engineer to be absolutely
sure.
Unless there is something in the latest firmare release that is
explicitly documented as fixing a problem seen with V4.0F you
might be safer just leaving well enough alone. If you were in
the first stages of an update to V5.1B, I might give different
advice.
Thanks again!
- Curt
On Dec 29, 2003, at 2:19 PM, curt steinmetz wrote:
> Executive Summary:
> (1) I want to upgrade the firmware on a
> ds20 system to v6.6.
> (2) I am running Tru64 v4.0f.
> (3) Do I need to worry about the warning
> that states "AlphaBIOS V5.70 requires
> HAL Revision G" in the release notes?
>
> More Detailed Problem Description:
>
> (1) In the release notes for v6.6 I read:
> "AlphaBIOS 5.70 supports changes
> introduced in HAL Revision G for
> systems based on the Alpha 21264
> CPU. You MUST install HAL Revision
> G on your system BEFORE attempting
> to install AlphaBIOS 5.70. Otherwise,
> the system will hang at boot time.
> See the AlphaBIOS 5.70 Section of the
> AlphaBIOS release notes for additional
> details."
>
> (2) The Release notes for AlphaBIOS
> 5.70 repeat this warning without further
> elucidation.
>
> (3) The release notes for HAL Revision
> G give no hint of how to install under
> anything other than Windows NT (such
> as Tru64).
>
> (4) So, do I need to install "HAL Revsion G"
> (whatever it is) to upgrade the firmware
> on my DS20 running Tru64 v4.0F?
> And, if so, how does one install "HAL
> Revision G" on a system running Tru64?
>
> Thanks in advance for any and all advice
> and help.
>
> Curt Steinmetz
>
>
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