On Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 09:51:43PM +1000, Ray Phillips wrote:

 > I'm thinking of installing NetBSD onto an AlphaStation 255 (which I haven't
 > purchased yet) and have a couple of questions, please.
 > 
 > 1) Are the two know hardware bugs listed for this machine at
 >    http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/alpha/models.html#alphastation-200,250,255,400
 >    (viz. 32bpp frame buffers are not currently supported, and the 53c810 driver
 >    is buggy) still present in NetBSD 1.5?

NetBSD 1.5 has the "siop" driver, which is less buggy :-)  I'm using an
AlphaStation 200 (which is more-or-less identical to a 255) as a file server,
and all is just fine.

The 32-bit framebuffer issue no longer applies, either.  Basically, the
web pages are way out of date in this regard -- I'll see if I have time
to update them this weekend.

 > 2) If so, how much does the 53c810 problem affect the normal running of the
 >    system?
 > 3) Is there anything to watch out for when upgrading the firmware?

Re. firmware -- just make sure you know where the failsafe boot jumper
is in case the update fails.  Last time I updated my AS200 firmware, I
updated it via a network boot and it went just fine.

-- 
        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@zembu.com>