RedHat HCL listing - x86 vs. Alpha - what is Alpha?

newbie~wan · December 17th, 2001, 03:37 PM

As some of the resident linux people already know, I am having trouble w/ my Ethnet and/or Internet connection in my linux OS.

Sitting here at work, I decided to try to gather more info before going home and tackling this problem. I went to the RedHat web page to check to see if my onboard SiS ethernet was compatible. Here is the response I got. I have the 900 Fast Ethernet Adapter. What is alpha? I thought everybody computers were x86 architecture.

I am not sure if I am golden or not, I am afraid I'm not.......

storm2k · December 17th, 2001, 03:44 PM

alpha is a computer architecture developed by digital a while ago. it's 64-bit based, and it's been around a while. you need specalized hardware to run it and specalized software as well. microsoft used to do nt for alpha, but i don't know if they do anymore.

SpookyEddy · December 17th, 2001, 03:45 PM

Hi,

Alphas use a different CPU architecture.

You can get linux for Alphas, Sparcs (Sun worksations) & x86 (Intel & AMD chips that most of us have).

Here are some sample Alpha based machines.

Regards

Eddy

newbie~wan · December 17th, 2001, 10:43 PM

Did you guys look at the link I provided? I am positive that I have the SiS 900-Based Etherent adapter - it says its approved for alpha but makes no mention of x86.

Am I SOL?

TOAD6147 · December 17th, 2001, 10:53 PM

But it clearly shows that it is compatible with RH 7.1 also. So, what's the problem? Have you asked for tech help from RH?
THIS doesn't specifically deal with your card but it sounds like it might be related.

pbharris · December 17th, 2001, 10:54 PM

hello,
no you are not SOL. it is simply one of the many peices of hardware which is not 'offically' supported but should work fine. in fact if you did a mighty modprobe sis900 and then tried to oing someting it might work. if not then run netconf and in the tab which says adaptor 1 enter sis900 in the box that says module -save the changes, restart the network and you should be up nad running.
a fast google search gave me this interesting link:
http://kernelnewbies.org/documents/k...0/install.html

if this does not help let us know.

newbie~wan · December 18th, 2001, 05:31 PM

Thanx for the links guys. I will be leaving work soon and will try them - after a full reinstall that is. The system moves dog slow and something is really mucked up - but , being new to linux, I don't know where to begin.

pbharris · December 18th, 2001, 06:42 PM

BTW - how did the partitions get set up? if they are not on native linus partitons it would be slow. one distro i tried for about 3 hours created a fat partition and installed itself on that, even though it was the only OS on the machine. i have never heard of redhat doing that but then i have never choosen to let the installer set up my partitions.

newbie~wan · December 19th, 2001, 12:46 AM

Linux resides on partitions that I created during the redhat install. From the MS-dos Fdisk it was a fat partition, but when in the installer, I deleted that partition and created two linux parts : linux and linux swap I think it calls them.

I decided to just hang out w/ my roommates tonight instead of work on the box. I almost never get to see them since their nocturnal and I do the 8 to 5.....I have to be a contributing member of society.

I will definitely reformat tomorrow and post back.

pbharris · December 19th, 2001, 12:58 AM

did the NIC ever come up correctly?