Alpha Miniloader Howto

Rich Payne

v0.90, 12 November 2025

This document describes the Miniloader, a program for Alpha based systems that can be used to initialize the machine and load Linux. The Alpha Linux Miniloader (to give it it's full name) is also known as MILO.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1. Copyright
1.2. New Versions of this Document

2. What is MILO?

3. Pre-Built Standard MILO Images.

4. How To Build MILO

5. How To Load MILO

5.1. Loading MILO from the Windows NT ARC firmware
5.2. Loading MILO from the Evaluation Board Debug Monitor
5.3. Loading MILO from a Failsafe Boot Block Floppy
5.4. Loading MILO from Flash
5.5. Loading MILO from the SRM Console
5.6. System Specific Information

6. MILO's User Interface

6.1. The ''help'' Command
6.2. Booting Linux
6.3. Rebooting Linux
6.4. The ''bootopt'' command

7. Running the Flash Management Utility

7.1. The ''help'' command
7.2. The ''list'' command
7.3. The ''program'' command
7.4. The ''environment'' command
7.5. The ''bootopt'' command
7.6. The ''quit'' command

8. Restrictions.

9. Problem Solving.

10. Acknowledgements.

11. Changelog