Kernel 2.2.16 and after for Linux-Alpha with aboot

[G. Hugh Song]

I found the following surprising remark made by the maintainer of Aboot,
Mr. David Higgins:

> This includes patches from Matt Wilson <[e-mail]> to fix 
> compilation with Linux 2.3 kernel headers and a problem with the 
> vsprintf() implementation, as well as a patch to the "raw kernel" 
> mode. I've also removed the copy of the SRM HOWTO, since it will 
> inevitably be out of date with respect to the official copy on 
> www.alphalinux.org. 
> With regard to the "raw kernel" mode: If you were previously "raw 
> booting" by concatenating a kernel stripped of its ELF/a.out headers 
> with aboot and writing it to the boot sectors with swriteboot, this 
> broke as of 0.7. This works again in 0.7a, but requires a valid ELF 
> binary image for the kernel, which I think makes more sense anyway. 
> 
> I hope to rewrite the disk-loading code soon so that you can use a 
> compressed kernel, and hopefully fix net_aboot while I'm at it :-)

I myself noticed that there is something new in 2.2.16 about dual header
format, which I cannot understand at all.

It appears that mere mortals like me is not supposed to tamper with aboot.
Then, it also means that I am not supposed to compile new versions of 
the kernel on an alpha with SRM-console.

Let me report my current problem with kernel-2.2.16 or newer on a
UP2000 (obviously with an SRM console and aboot).  I successfully 
compiled my own kernels up to the version 2.2.15.  Now with 2.2.16
I am getting:

---------------------------------
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1 
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1 
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1 
ext2_blkno: error on iblk read
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1 
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1
failed to send Read to dka0.0.0.8.1

[ it goes on forever ]
-----------------------------------

The above lines are all blue.  That means that it is still on the SRM 
console.  Something really changed compressed kernels out of 2.2.16
from that out of 2.2.15.  Any clue?  I have not seen any relevant info
in the kernel revision note written by Alan Cox about this header problem.
Do I need to update aboot myself to use an Alpha machine effectively?
I wish I could rely on the new installation CDROM for these things.
This means that I am not supposed to compile newer kernels as needed.

Why am I getting the above SRM error?  I got completely stuck.

Thank you

G. Hugh Song