Windows 2000/Whistler 64-bit for Alpha AXP really exists!

[roytam1]

I did think why there is Alpha64 depends.exe which no system can run it, but now an AXP64 dump is leaked!
Details: https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/05/15/win ... alpha-axp/

[dixieLH]

ooo this is nice !

[anonymous74]

It exists! I've heard references to a 64-bit 2000 across the web over the years but never was able to find evidence. This is neat!

[roytam1]

There is another build of AXP64, but it is wiped.
https://twitter.com/itanium_guy/status/ ... 1172061186

[louisw3]

There is another build of AXP64, but it is wiped.
https://twitter.com/itanium_guy/status/ ... 1172061186

quite the shame too.

[anonymous74]

Can’t quite understand why someone would wipe that drive…..

[dixieLH]

no toilet paper ?

[roytam1]

It exists! I've heard references to a 64-bit 2000 across the web over the years but never was able to find evidence. This is neat!

and blog entry is updated with link to archive!

[anonymous74]

Perhaps I'm just missing the obvious but I can't see any download link?
Edit: looks like it isn't the full build?

[roytam1]

Perhaps I'm just missing the obvious but I can't see any download link?
Edit: looks like it isn't the full build?

it is full build, but registry hives are not included in that archive.

Bonus: there is x86 SysWOW64 folder and you may possible to mix 2210 WOW64 and 2211 to make a bootable 2210 system.

[anonymous74]

Is it? Because BetaWiki's been edited today for the page on this build and they still say it's unleaked.

[louisw3]

Is it? Because BetaWiki's been edited today for the page on this build and they still say it's unleaked.

it'll be soon enough I want to reproduce it on another system and make sure the PII stuff is all wiped

have patience.

https://archive.org/details/splash_20230516

since most people don't have alphas and there is no setup, it's just a filesystem dump anyways.

[linuxlove]

Oh boy, it's time to pull my Alphas out of storage again.

[roytam1]

Just heard that a discord member was able to recreate install ISO of 2210 axp64!

[phuclv]

How about emulation? Does it work?

I'm also interested in how task manager displays the process information, unfortunately it seems older task manager versions don't have the subsystem column

[roytam1]

Just heard that a discord member was able to recreate install ISO of 2210 axp64!

it is ready for uploading now, but does BA accept it?

[roytam1]

Just heard that a discord member was able to recreate install ISO of 2210 axp64!

it is ready for uploading now, but does BA accept it?

got README.TXT from ISO author:

Code: Select all

README
======

This is the Whistler Professional build 2210 axp64chk installable disc image.
This build was supposed to be installed/upgraded from the NTDev network share
(\\NTDev\Release\MAIN\Usa\2210\axp64chk\pro) through winnt32.exe located in
the axp64 directory. In this case here build 2209 was upgraded to 2210, and
during the process winnt32.exe copied parts of the axp64 and i386 directories
to the hard drive (\$WIN_NT.~LS). Those directories and files were soon
deleted and partially overwritten by other files, but some remained
recoverable. After we got our hands on that hard drive, we performed forensic
analysis on it and recovered a bunch of those files. Sadly, there is not
enough files for this build to be installable, for the following reasons:

1.  The files were copied from the network share by winnt32.exe, only the
    files required for an upgrade were copied. Even worse, winnt32.exe itself
    and related files were not copied. Even if those files were there, an
    upgrade would require a working installation of a 64-bit Windows build for
    DEC Alpha, which we don't have. Missing files needed for a clean install
    from disc:
        1.  cdrom_nt.5        <= for installation CD-ROM check
        2.  cdrom_xp.5        <= for setup medium architecture check
        3.  axp64\arcinst.exe <= for disk partitioning, optional for AlphaBIOS

2.  We were unable to recover some of the files, a clean install would result
    in file missing errors (which can be ignored, thankfully). Files in
    \$WIN_NT.~LS that we could not recover:
        1.  axp64\agt0404.dl_
        2.  axp64\c_858.nl_
        3.  axp64\dech261.dr_
        4.  axp64\gzip.dl_
        5.  axp64\iis5_01.cab
        6.  axp64\iis5_02.cab
        7.  axp64\iis5_03.cab
        8.  axp64\iismap.dl_
        9.  axp64\iisrtl.dl_
        10. axp64\ims.cab
        11. axp64\inetinfo.ex_
        12. axp64\inetsloc.dl_
        13. axp64\infoadmn.dl_
        14. axp64\is11.dl_
        15. axp64\isatq.dl_
        16. axp64\iwrps.dl_
        17. axp64\logscrpt.dl_
        18. axp64\lonsint.dl_
        19. axp64\nsepm.dl_
        20. axp64\ntfs40.sys
        21. axp64\rpcref.dl_
        22. axp64\sspifilt.dl_
        23. axp64\status.dl_
        24. axp64\vgx.dl_
        25. axp64\w3svapi.dl_
        26. i386\wdgsetup.dl_
        27. i386\wusbui.dl_
        28. i386\wwdmaud.dr_

To ensure that people can install this build smoothly, we have decided to
add some of those missing files from other builds. Please do not use this disc
image for preservation purposes, consider preserving the folder dump instead.

Files from other builds:
    1.  cdrom_nt.5         <= from build 2211 I386
    2.  cdrom_xp.5         <= from build 2211 I386 (renamed from cdrom_ip.5)
    3.  axp64\arcinst.exe  <= from build 2128 Alpha
    4.  axp64\dech261.dr_  <= from build 2209 AXP64

This build's setup loader (SETUPLDR) has a bug that causes a fatal error
("The entry "A321064.PAL" in the [SourceDisksFiles] section of the INF file is
corrupt or missing.") when started from CD-ROM. It happens because SETUPLDR
attempts to ensure that the disc with "A321064.PAL" is in the drive, but that
file being a 32-bit binary does not exist under the [SourceDisksFiles.axp64]
section of txtsetup.sif, hence SlGetDisk cannot work out which disc it's
supposed to be on. SlGetDisk has a special property that it ignores all errors
if the setup loader was launched from non-removable media (eg: hard drive) or
from the network, so starting SETUPLDR from hard drive is one way of working
around this bug. The better solution to the problem is to change the hard
coded 32-bit PALcode name to a 64-bit one (a121165.p64), which is what
Microsoft did at some point after this build was made. To make it easy for
people to install this build, we have patched SETUPLDR to fix this bug.


TIMEBOMB
========

This build has a timebomb so you must set your clock back to the 4th of March
2000 before you install it.

To remove the timebomb from the setup CD, zero out 3 bytes (80 C1 09) in
\AXP64\SETUPREG.HIV starting at offset 0x6FEC. Note that you will still have
to set your clock back for the installation, because of the way this build was
digitally signed.

To remove the timebomb after installation, zero out the middle 4 bytes of
PriorityQuantumMatrix in
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Executive and 3 bytes
starting at the 3rd byte of SystemPrefix in SYSTEM\Setup. It is suggested that
you do this offline and that you create a backup of the SYSTEM registry hive
before proceeding.


FOLDER DUMP
===========

The folder dump is basically a compressed folder with all the files copied
by winnt32.exe to the hard drive. The files in there are all original and
unmodified (we hope, at least) and most of them contain their original
timestamps from the network share in high precision format. Some build 2209
files are also in there. This build was never an ISO, so for the sake of
preservation, please don't 'convert' it to ISO or dumb down the high precision
timestamps to local or DOS ones.


DISC IMAGE
==========

This disk image was built using Microsoft CDIMAGE 2.27, with the arguments:

    cdimage -lW2PXS_EN -t03/04/2000,12:00:00 -g -n -x -o -y6 [in] [out]

Which are identical to the CDIMAGE arguments Microsoft used to build the
Windows 2000 build 2128 Alpha AXP disc image, except for the timestamp and
disc label.

The label W2PXS_EN was derived from build 2128's label (W2PAS_EN), with the
"A" (for Alpha) after "W2P" replaced by "X" (for AXP64).


NOTES
=====

This build's NTFS driver (ntfs.sys) and Auto Check Utility (autochk.exe) are
buggy and known to corrupt files and filesystems. It is suggested that you
install this build on a machine without important data and that you skip all
disk checks during bootup. We are not responsible for any data loss, install
this build at your own risk.

At the end of installation, it will say "One or more minor errors occured
installing Windows 2000". Those errors are unavoidable and even happened to
Microsoft when they installed this build, so you do not have to worry about
them.

[roytam1]

and finally a write-up for ISO reconstruction made public, and also provided reconstructed ISO and original Folder Dump for Preservation.
https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/06/26/axp ... struction/

(P.S.: also corrected 2128 for AXP32 ISO as well)