Compaq 4100 manual Setting Up Your System to Run ARC-based Utilities

4 Running EISA, RAID, and Other Configuration Utilities

NOTE:Relocation of AlphaBIOS to a different sector in flash ROM was implemented in the 5.3 release. Please ensure you have read Chapter 2. Of particular importance is the change for updating the SRM and AlphaBIOS firmware. Failure to have followed the procedure properly will invalid the AlphaBIOS image. This invalid image problem is corrected by excuting the LFU a second time and updating the AlphaBIOS.

To help configure an AlphaServer 4100 system, various utilities may need to be run before booting your operating system. The ECU, RCU, and KZPSA Configuration utilities are examples - these utilities run on top of the AlphaBIOS console since they use ARC-based callbacks based on the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) Specification developed by Microsoft.

4.1Setting Up Your System to Run ARC-based Utilities

To invoke one or more of these utilities, you must first bring up the AlphaBIOS console. Do so by entering the ALPHABIOS command at the SRM console prompt or by setting the SRM console’s OS_TYPE environment variable (EV) to "NT" and then resetting your machine.

If you have a graphics display device installed in your machine, you may wish to set the CONSOLE EV to "GRAPHICS" before invoking AlphaBIOS since it and the associated utilities are graphically oriented. [They do support serial line mode, however. See Section 4.2 for more details.]

4.2Using a Serial line Interface to Run ARC-based Utilities

These utilities can be run either in graphics or serial mode. The SRM console’s CONSOLE environment variable controls which mode AlphaBIOS runs in at the time it is loaded by the SRM console.

To run AlphaBIOS and ARC-based utilities in serial mode, CONSOLE must be set SERIAL and the terminal must be a VT320 or greater with the following settings:

•8-bit character mode.

•’~’ key set to send ESC.

Refer to your user documentation (e.g., AlphaServer 4100 System Drawer User’s Guide) for details about running utilities such as ECU, RCU, and other ARC-based utilities.

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