[TriLUG] Linux for DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha?

[Neil Roeth]

On Nov 24, Liyun Yu (yu at radonc.unc.edu) wrote:
 > The biggest problem to me is that there is no Linux video driver for the
 > Alphas.   We have tried to put Linux on the Alpha XP1000 workstations.
 > Eventually I give up the X windows application and put Debian on the
 > Alpha machines. It works great for me since I just need the console.
 > 
 > What I did was that I went to Debian web site got the bootable cd iso
 > files, the installation was very intuitive.
 > 
 > When I was on that project, I happen to know that there were some
 > vendors that will offer the video card for Alphas to replace the original
 > Video Card. The new video card will cost about $150 last year when
 > I checked them, and of course they comes with Linux drivers.
 > 
 > If you check with the UUNET news group, or comp.unix.tru64,
 > there should be many threads leading to the right directions.

I have Debian Linux running on an Alpha XP1000, too, and IIRC there were 3 or
4 video cards available for that machine, two of which have no Linux drivers.
Apparently Liyun and I have those.  So, it cannot run an X server.  However,
remember that it can still run any X client, so you can ssh or telnet in to
the Alpha machine from another machine and run an X app on the Alpha
displaying back to the other machine.

-- 
Neil Roeth