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swift 11/08/15 19:58:08 |
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|
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Modified: gentoo-alpha-faq.xml |
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Log: |
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Bug #379317 - Updated Gentoo Alpha FAQ thanks to Matt Turner (mattst88) and armin76 |
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|
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Revision Changes Path |
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1.8 xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml |
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|
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file : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml?rev=1.8&view=markup |
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plain: http://sources.gentoo.org/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml?rev=1.8&content-type=text/plain |
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diff : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml?r1=1.7&r2=1.8 |
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|
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Index: gentoo-alpha-faq.xml |
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=================================================================== |
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RCS file: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml,v |
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retrieving revision 1.7 |
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retrieving revision 1.8 |
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diff -u -r1.7 -r1.8 |
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--- gentoo-alpha-faq.xml 20 Jan 2008 12:25:01 -0000 1.7 |
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+++ gentoo-alpha-faq.xml 15 Aug 2011 19:58:07 -0000 1.8 |
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@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ |
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
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-<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml,v 1.7 2008/01/20 12:25:01 yoswink Exp $ --> |
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+<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml,v 1.8 2011/08/15 19:58:07 swift Exp $ --> |
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|
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<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd"> |
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<guide link="/doc/en/gentoo-alpha-faq.xml"> |
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@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ |
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<author title="Editor"> |
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<mail link="nightmorph"/> |
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</author> |
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+<author title="Author"> |
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+ <mail link="mattst88">Matt Turner</mail> |
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+</author> |
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|
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<abstract> |
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This FAQ is intended to answer some of the most frequently asked questions |
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@@ -24,8 +27,8 @@ |
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<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 --> |
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<license/> |
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|
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-<version>1.5</version> |
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-<date>2008-01-20</date> |
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+<version>2</version> |
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+<date>2011-08-15</date> |
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|
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<faqindex> |
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<title>About this Document</title> |
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@@ -59,20 +62,6 @@ |
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|
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</body> |
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</section> |
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-<section id="status"> |
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-<title>What is the current status of the Gentoo/Alpha Project?</title> |
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-<body> |
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- |
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-<p> |
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-You can find out about the current status of the Gentoo/Alpha project via |
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-status reports. These reports inform the public about what we've been up to. |
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-New status reports will be posted about once every 6 months. Current and past |
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-status report can be found on the <uri |
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-link="/proj/en/base/alpha/status/index.xml">Status Reports Project page</uri>. |
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-</p> |
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- |
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-</body> |
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-</section> |
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</chapter> |
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|
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<chapter> |
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@@ -82,10 +71,10 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-Not quite! HP stopped taking orders for new Alpha systems on April 27, 2007. |
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-They will take orders for Alpha options and upgrades until April 25, 2008. See |
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-their <uri link="http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/evolution.html">planning |
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-page</uri> for more details. |
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+Kind of, yes. HP stopped taking orders for new Alpha systems on April 27, 2007. |
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+and for Alpha options and upgrades on April 25, 2008. See their <uri |
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+link="http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/evolution.html">planning page</uri> |
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+for more details. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -107,8 +96,8 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-All Alpha systems support both little and big endian. However, Linux only uses |
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-little endian. |
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+Alpha systems are little endian. A large Cray system using Alphas was big |
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+endian, but Linux will never support it. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -118,12 +107,12 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-No, not without a full x86 system emulator like <uri |
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-link="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/">bochs</uri>. In the past DEC/Compaq/HP |
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+No, not without a x86 emulator like <uri |
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+link="http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page">qemu</uri>. In the past DEC/Compaq/HP |
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maintained a program called <c>em86</c> which allowed Linux/x86 applications to |
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be run on Linux/Alpha systems. However, the program is closed source and no |
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longer maintained upstream. There are no <c>em86</c> binaries available that |
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-are compatible with gcc3's ABI. |
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+are compatible with gcc-3's ABI. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -156,12 +145,10 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-Alpha hardware generally isn't available at your local computer store. If you |
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-want a new Alpha you're going to have to contact <uri |
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-link="http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/">HP</uri>. If you want a used |
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-Alpha (more economical), <uri link="http://ebay.com">eBay</uri> is usually a |
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+Alpha hardware generally isn't available at your local computer store. |
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+<uri link="http://ebay.com">eBay</uri> is usually a |
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good option, assuming that the shipping doesn't cost you too much. There are |
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-several used equipment dealers that can be found via google, however most of |
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+several used equipment dealers that can be found via Google, however most of |
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them charge too much. |
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</p> |
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|
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@@ -291,7 +278,7 @@ |
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<c>-msmall-data</c>. This will cause <c>gcc</c> to take advantage of some |
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features of the Alpha architecture by storing heavily used pieces of data in |
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specific sections called the small memory sections. The sections are limited to |
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-64kb which means accessing anything stored in them will only take one |
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+64KiB which means accessing anything stored in them will only take one |
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instruction. |
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</p> |
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|
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@@ -303,7 +290,7 @@ |
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|
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<p> |
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This flag should probably not be used in your global <c>CFLAGS</c> as some |
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-objects require more than 64kb to be stored, and this will cause a gp_overflow |
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+objects require more than 64KiB to be stored, and this will cause a gp_overflow |
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ld error. |
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</p> |
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|
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@@ -395,13 +382,13 @@ |
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supports both SRM and ARCs (ARC, AlphaBIOS, ARCSBIOS), then you should follow |
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<uri link="http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/x31.html">the SRM Firmware Howto</uri> |
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for switching to SRM and use aboot. If your system can only use ARCs (Ruffian, |
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-nautilus, xl, etc.) then you will need to choose milo. |
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+xl, etc.) then you will need to choose milo. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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</section> |
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<section id="abootfs"> |
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-<title>Can aboot boot kernels from xfs, reiserfs, or jfs partitions?</title> |
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+<title>Can aboot boot kernels from EXT4, XFS, ReiserFS, or JFS partitions?</title> |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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@@ -412,9 +399,11 @@ |
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</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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-Support for reiserfs and xfs is planned. In fact, there are patches floating |
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-around that add support for those two file systems. However, the use of those |
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-patches is unsupported. |
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+Support for ext4 is planned. In fact, there are patches floating |
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+around that add support for <uri |
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+link="https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106855">ReiserFS</uri>, <uri |
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+link="https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107103">XFS</uri>, and <uri |
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+link="http://alphalinux.org/wiki/index.php/Aboot_EXT4_support">ext4</uri>. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -428,10 +417,9 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-There was only one option for Java VM and Java SDK on Gentoo/Alpha. The |
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-packages were called <c>compaq-jre</c> and <c>compaq-jdk</c>. Sadly, Compaq/HP |
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-stopped all support and the packages were removed from Gentoo on October 11, |
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-2006. |
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+Compaq/HP offered binary packages, called <c>compaq-jre</c> and <c>compaq-jdk</c>. |
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+They stopped all support, and the packages were removed from Gentoo on October |
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+11, 2006. Since then, we haven't supported Java. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -442,9 +430,9 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-We really hope so. We are following the development of the jdk from <uri |
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-link="http://sablevm.org">SableVM</uri>. It isn't ready yet, but we hope with |
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-time that it will be a full drop in replacement jdk. |
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+It's possible to use <c>icedtea</c> on Alpha, but we have no plans to |
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+support it, due to the high maintenance costs involved with testing hundreds of |
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+additional packages. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -466,7 +454,7 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-Bringing .NET to alpha isn't a simple task. It requires coding all of the |
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+Bringing .NET to Alpha isn't a simple task. It requires coding all of the |
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assembly language code generation macros for the JIT (just in time) compiler |
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and coding architecture specific functions (register allocators, etc). |
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</p> |
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@@ -502,7 +490,7 @@ |
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</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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-Gentoo/Alpha will review all bug reports about non working 2.6 systems and |
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+Gentoo/Alpha will review all bug reports about non-working 2.6 systems and |
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will try to help as much as we can. |
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</p> |
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|
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@@ -515,7 +503,7 @@ |
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|
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<p> |
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Short answer is no. They were supported some time ago, but we lost the hardware |
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-and the maintainer so right now they are not supported. If you are interested |
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+and the maintainer so now they are not supported. If you are interested |
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and want to continue the initial work, please let us know. |
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</p> |
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|
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@@ -526,12 +514,8 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-There were some times in the past when it was broken. However, <c>2.6.15.1</c> |
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-and <c>2.6.16.19</c> are both known to work well. If you find that SMP is |
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-broken and want SMP support you will need revert to the one of the versions |
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-mentioned above or use a 2.4 kernel. If you really need to run the latest 2.6 |
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-kernel on an SMP box and you don't care that only one of your processors is |
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-getting used, then you could configure the 2.6 kernel without SMP support. |
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+There were some times in the past when it was broken. However, modern kernel |
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+versions are known to work well. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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@@ -593,7 +577,7 @@ |
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<chapter> |
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<title>Troubleshooting</title> |
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<section id="tshoot-xorg"> |
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-<title>Why is my Xorg locking up my Alpha?</title> |
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+<title>Why is Xorg locking up my Alpha?</title> |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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@@ -647,8 +631,8 @@ |
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<body> |
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|
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<p> |
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-<uri link="http://alphalinux.org/">AlphaLinux.org</uri> is a central repository |
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-for all things Alpha/Linux. |
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+<uri link="http://alphalinux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page">AlphaLinux.org</uri> |
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+is a central repository for all things Alpha/Linux. |
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</p> |
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|
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</body> |
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