> >I have it running fine on a pair of them.  I use the serial port.  
> >I don't know anything about displays. 

> Uh, not at all?  I mean, doesn't it _come_ with a graphics card by
> default?

Yes, but I removed it so I could put in another network card. 

[The machine is down in a lab.  The display doesn't do any good when 
I'm up in my office accessing it over the net.] 


> >I had trouble with a 3rd 600au system.  I forget the fine print but 
> >I think I can look it up.  It was something about the firmware setting 
> >something up in a strange mode.  A simple edit and kernel rebuild 
> >fixed things. 

> Kinda hard to do when you're trying to install, unfortunately.  Sounds
> like the 600au is a lost cause :-(

I was fortunate enough to have another machine available that didn't 
have the problem.  I probably would have given up too without it.


I fished through my old mail.  They symptoms were crisp - a panic
pretty early during startup:

...
  cia0: using BWX for PCI config access
  sio_intr_setup: 1 LT!
  sio_sis: initial: ocw = (a3,ff), elcr = ( 2,14)
           current: ocw = (a3,ff), elcr = ( 0,14)
  panic: sio_setirqstat: hosed

The fix (from Ross Harvey) was:

        [1] Edit arch/alpha/pci/sio_pic.c and take out the define for
            BROKEN_PROM_CONSOLE (or make it xxBROKEN_PROM_CONSOLE)