[gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Matt Turner]

Hello,

Our build and testing machine which was graciously hosted for free for
many years has been decommissioned. I had planned to host an
AlphaServer ES47 and a DS20L at a local university, but the DS20L blew
a capacitor and the ES47 has never been stable enough to warrant using
it for much more than a personal testing machine. I personally have
other machines (UP1500, PC164{,LX,BX,SX}, DP264) but they're not ideal
for building installation media and offering remote build testing
access to multiple developers. I also have 2x 600MHz DS10Ls which
could presumably be hosted at OSUOSL, but again, single CPU 600MHz
systems are pretty useless as a replacement for our quad-CPU ES40.

Ideally we'd have the DS20L fixed and the ES47 stabilized and then
continue using them. That would require:

(1) I would be able to replace the capacitors on the DS20L and have it
working again, but I tried and the new ones blew up too, so that's
evidently just a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.
Electrical engineering advice required if this is to be fixed.

(2) I would be able to figure out what's causing the ES47 to be
unstable. It seems to lock up under load but I haven't really made
much progress beyond that.

So we're considering various options. Should we stop alpha support all
together? Should we replace stable alpha keywords with ~alpha? Should
we make the alpha profiles unstable and allow dependency breakage?
Should we try to find another suitable build machine and host it?

I guess the answer to some of these will depend on how many
Gentoo/alpha users there are. I personally would like to keep alpha
support alive, while reducing the amount of work to keep it going.

So, do we have users? Do they have opinions? Can they offer help?

Thanks,
Matt

Re: [gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Gary Lee Phillips]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2225 bytes --]

I would be a user but Gentoo alpha seems to lack many things needed to make
it suitable for daily use. I use my PWS with the last Debian release and
with OpenVMS.

That said, I have a rack mount Alphaserver DS10 that is operational but not
in use. I could donate that, but perhaps it isn't large enough?



On Sun, Sep 1, 2019, 16:47 Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Our build and testing machine which was graciously hosted for free for
> many years has been decommissioned. I had planned to host an
> AlphaServer ES47 and a DS20L at a local university, but the DS20L blew
> a capacitor and the ES47 has never been stable enough to warrant using
> it for much more than a personal testing machine. I personally have
> other machines (UP1500, PC164{,LX,BX,SX}, DP264) but they're not ideal
> for building installation media and offering remote build testing
> access to multiple developers. I also have 2x 600MHz DS10Ls which
> could presumably be hosted at OSUOSL, but again, single CPU 600MHz
> systems are pretty useless as a replacement for our quad-CPU ES40.
>
> Ideally we'd have the DS20L fixed and the ES47 stabilized and then
> continue using them. That would require:
>
> (1) I would be able to replace the capacitors on the DS20L and have it
> working again, but I tried and the new ones blew up too, so that's
> evidently just a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.
> Electrical engineering advice required if this is to be fixed.
>
> (2) I would be able to figure out what's causing the ES47 to be
> unstable. It seems to lock up under load but I haven't really made
> much progress beyond that.
>
> So we're considering various options. Should we stop alpha support all
> together? Should we replace stable alpha keywords with ~alpha? Should
> we make the alpha profiles unstable and allow dependency breakage?
> Should we try to find another suitable build machine and host it?
>
> I guess the answer to some of these will depend on how many
> Gentoo/alpha users there are. I personally would like to keep alpha
> support alive, while reducing the amount of work to keep it going.
>
> So, do we have users? Do they have opinions? Can they offer help?
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2736 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Don Wilburn]

I commandeered the monitor from my Alpha, so it's been dormant for a 
long time.  All my Alphas are the flaky PWS kind, so I can't offer any 
hardware.

This is probably not the problem, but if a capacitor is supposed to be 
low ESR and you use a regular replacement, it will fail again.

I figured there was probably only a double digit number of Alpha users 
beyond the developers.  Besides one message in July, the last stuff in 
my Alpha list mail folder was in 2015.  I think it was me.  Maybe the 
forum traffic is more active.

Adios,  DW

[gentoo-alpha] Re: Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Måns Rullgård]

Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Our build and testing machine which was graciously hosted for free for
> many years has been decommissioned. I had planned to host an
> AlphaServer ES47 and a DS20L at a local university, but the DS20L blew
> a capacitor and the ES47 has never been stable enough to warrant using
> it for much more than a personal testing machine. I personally have
> other machines (UP1500, PC164{,LX,BX,SX}, DP264) but they're not ideal
> for building installation media and offering remote build testing
> access to multiple developers. I also have 2x 600MHz DS10Ls which
> could presumably be hosted at OSUOSL, but again, single CPU 600MHz
> systems are pretty useless as a replacement for our quad-CPU ES40.
>
> Ideally we'd have the DS20L fixed and the ES47 stabilized and then
> continue using them. That would require:
>
> (1) I would be able to replace the capacitors on the DS20L and have it
> working again, but I tried and the new ones blew up too, so that's
> evidently just a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.
> Electrical engineering advice required if this is to be fixed.

Capacitors generally explode only from overvoltage.  Without seeing the
circuit, it's hard to give more specific advice.

> (2) I would be able to figure out what's causing the ES47 to be
> unstable. It seems to lock up under load but I haven't really made
> much progress beyond that.

Power supply?  Maybe a bad capacitor.

> So we're considering various options. Should we stop alpha support all
> together? Should we replace stable alpha keywords with ~alpha? Should
> we make the alpha profiles unstable and allow dependency breakage?
> Should we try to find another suitable build machine and host it?
>
> I guess the answer to some of these will depend on how many
> Gentoo/alpha users there are. I personally would like to keep alpha
> support alive, while reducing the amount of work to keep it going.
>
> So, do we have users? Do they have opinions? Can they offer help?

I have an Alpha with Gentoo, but I can't really say I use it.

-- 
Måns Rullgård

Re: [gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Christian Groessler]

I could donate/dedicate an ES45.

regards,
chris

On 9/1/19 11:46 PM, Matt Turner wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Our build and testing machine which was graciously hosted for free for
> many years has been decommissioned. I had planned to host an
> AlphaServer ES47 and a DS20L at a local university, but the DS20L blew
> a capacitor and the ES47 has never been stable enough to warrant using
> it for much more than a personal testing machine. I personally have
> other machines (UP1500, PC164{,LX,BX,SX}, DP264) but they're not ideal
> for building installation media and offering remote build testing
> access to multiple developers. I also have 2x 600MHz DS10Ls which
> could presumably be hosted at OSUOSL, but again, single CPU 600MHz
> systems are pretty useless as a replacement for our quad-CPU ES40.
>
> Ideally we'd have the DS20L fixed and the ES47 stabilized and then
> continue using them. That would require:
>
> (1) I would be able to replace the capacitors on the DS20L and have it
> working again, but I tried and the new ones blew up too, so that's
> evidently just a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.
> Electrical engineering advice required if this is to be fixed.
>
> (2) I would be able to figure out what's causing the ES47 to be
> unstable. It seems to lock up under load but I haven't really made
> much progress beyond that.
>
> So we're considering various options. Should we stop alpha support all
> together? Should we replace stable alpha keywords with ~alpha? Should
> we make the alpha profiles unstable and allow dependency breakage?
> Should we try to find another suitable build machine and host it?
>
> I guess the answer to some of these will depend on how many
> Gentoo/alpha users there are. I personally would like to keep alpha
> support alive, while reducing the amount of work to keep it going.
>
> So, do we have users? Do they have opinions? Can they offer help?
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>

Re: [gentoo-alpha] Gentoo/Alpha is without a build machine

[Matt Turner]

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 4:45 AM Christian Groessler <chris@groessler.org> wrote:
>
> I could donate/dedicate an ES45.

Thank you! That is extremely generous. I'll email you privately.

Matt