![[OpenBSD]](images/smalltitle.gif){kind=small}
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The OpenBSD/alpha port was begun in the summer of 1996 by using code ! from the NetBSD/alpha port which was begun by Chris Demetriou ! <cgd@netbsd.org> in 1994. After the original OpenBSD port, some copyright issues prevented OpenBSD from tracking the NetBSD code. Regardless, work on the alpha port continued and many fixes were made. ! While we were making fixes, NetBSD continued to make improvements to the alpha port which we were unfortunately unable to use. Over time, because of a lack of programmer resources and the inability to use NetBSD code, hardware and software support became very outdated. This caused the 2.5 and 2.6 releases of alpha to have few kernel ! enhancements. As a result of its becoming so stale, alpha was not ! included in the 2.7 and 2.8 releases.
!Shortly after 2.8 was released, there has been a great deal of ! interest in bringing the port up to date. This coupled with the fact ! that NetBSD changed the license on its alpha code so that there are no longer copyright issues has lead to an effort to bring the alpha port back up. (For details on why we were not able to keep tracking the ! NetBSD code, check our policy page.)
!Nate Binkert, Art Grabowski, Niklas Hallqvist and Eric Jackson, with the help of a few others, eventually brought the port in good shape ! again, and starting with the 2.9 release alpha is a major OpenBSD port ! again.
!However, there is currently no maintainer for the alpha port. ! Technical discussion about the alpha port should be directed to <alpha@openbsd.org>. If you ! are at all interested in development of the alpha port, please send ! inquiries to this address. If you are interested in the job of alpha ! port maintainer, help out the project for a while and step up to the ! job.
!
! Booting off the CD provides an El Torito 2.88MB floppy image that
! contains drivers for the most popular devices found in alpha hardware.
! This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices, keyboard and
! some ethernet adapters).
! For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at
! the
! RAMDISKBIG config file.
!
! This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware: !
!
! This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware: !
!
! Use the method that works best for you. !
Because of the changes that are currently being made to alpha, the ! currently supported hardware is in flux. To the best of our knowledge, ! the following hardware is supported, but there might be occasional ! breakage on some models. Since there are many models and combinations ! that we have not tested, we would appreciate very much if you told us ! about things that work and do not work. To help us keep track of what ! hardware people use, please mail your dmesg to ! <dmesg@openbsd.org>. If ! there are things that do not work, please file a bug report using ! sendbug(1).
!
!
! OpenBSD/alpha runs on a large set of the alpha computers manufactured by ! Digital (then Compaq, now Hewlett-Packard). !
!! A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/alpha port is available at ! alpha@openbsd.org. ! To join the OpenBSD/alpha mailing list, send a message body of "subscribe ! alpha" to majordomo@openbsd.org. ! Please be sure to check our mailing list policy before ! subscribing. !
! !! There is currently no maintainer for the alpha port. ! Technical discussion about the alpha port should be directed to the ! alpha@openbsd.org mailing list. ! If you are interested in the job of alpha port maintainer, help out the project ! for a while and step up to the job. !
! ! !!
! The OpenBSD/alpha port was started in the summer of 1996 by using code ! from the NetBSD/alpha port which was started by ! Chris Demetriou in 1994. ! After the original OpenBSD port, some copyright issues prevented OpenBSD from tracking the NetBSD code. Regardless, work on the alpha port continued and many fixes were made. ! Meanwhile, NetBSD continued to make improvements to the alpha port which we were unfortunately unable to use. Over time, because of a lack of programmer resources and the inability to use NetBSD code, hardware and software support became very outdated. This caused the 2.5 and 2.6 releases of alpha to have few kernel ! enhancements. As a result of its becoming so stale, there was no ! OpenBSD/alpha port included in the 2.7 and 2.8 releases. !
!! Shortly after OpenBSD 2.8 was released, there has been a great deal of ! interest in bringing the port up to date. This, coupled with the fact ! that NetBSD changed the license on its alpha code so that there were no longer copyright issues has lead to an effort to bring the alpha port back up. (For details on why we were not able to keep tracking the ! NetBSD code, check our policy page.) !
!! Nathan Binkert, Art Grabowski, Niklas Hallqvist and Eric Jackson, with the help of a few others, eventually brought the port in good shape ! again, and starting with the 2.9 release OpenBSD/alpha is a supported ! OpenBSD port again. !
!! Currently, all the hardware listed in the ! supported hardware list section below boots ! multi-user, and supports enough of the on-board devices to be generally ! useable, unless specified otherwise. ! A large set of PCI cards also work reliably, while ISA devices support has ! limitations. !
++ The X-Window system is supported on TGA cards, as well as a few regular PCI + cards, of which the following have been tested:
! The last supported OpenBSD/alpha release is ! OpenBSD 3.2. ! Here are the ! ! OpenBSD/alpha 3.2 installation instructions ! . !
++ Snapshots are made available from time to time, in + this location + as well as in a few + mirrors. + Here are the + + OpenBSD/alpha snapshot installation instructions + as well. +
!! There are several installation media provided: !
! Booting off the OpenBSD CD provides an El Torito 2.88MB floppy image
! that contains drivers for the most popular devices found in alpha
! hardware.
! This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices, keyboard and
! some ethernet adapters).
! For the latest list of drivers available on this image, please take a
! look at the
! RAMDISKBIG
! kernel configuration file.
!
! This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware: !
! This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware: !
! To the best of our knowledge, the following hardware is supported, but there ! might be occasional breakage on some models. ! Since there are many models and combinations that have not been tested, ! we would appreciate very much if you told us about things that work and ! do not work. ! To help us keep track of what hardware people use, please mail your dmesg to ! dmesg@openbsd.org. ! If there are things that do not work, please file a bug report using ! ! sendbug(1). !
! !!
(*) Drivers for hardware marked with (*) are not included on the installation floppies, but are available in the cd-rom installation ! kernel as well as the GENERIC kernel which will be installed.
(-) Drivers for hardware marked with (-) are not available on the installation floppies, or the cd-rom installation kernel, but are ! available in the GENERIC kernel which will be installed.
-Snapshots of the alpha port are available on - an irregular basis.
-
! www@openbsd.org
(*) Drivers for hardware marked with (*) are not included on the installation floppies, but are available in the cd-rom installation ! kernel as well as the GENERIC kernel that will be installed.
(-) Drivers for hardware marked with (-) are not available on the installation floppies, or the cd-rom installation kernel, but are ! available in the GENERIC kernel that will be installed.
!