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
+
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,
+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NetBSD code, hardware and software support became very outdated.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
@@ -36,12 +39,12 @@
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.
+
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
-
This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware:
@@ -87,38 +90,39 @@
EB164 based machines, such as the PC164, 164SX and 164LX
Personal Workstation (Miata)
-It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines, however
-due to lack of place there are only few other drivers. In particular, this
-floppy lacks cdrom support and won't allow you to install from cdrom media.
+It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines,
+however due to lack of place there are only few other drivers. In
+particular, this floppy lacks cdrom support and won't allow you to
+install from cdrom media.
Floppy B:
This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware:
Alpha Processor, Inc. UP1000
XP1000, 264DP, DS10, and DS20
-It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines, however
-due to lack of place there are only few other drivers. In particular, this
-floppy lacks cdrom support and won't allow you to install from cdrom media.
+It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines,
+however due to lack of place there are only few other drivers. In
+particular, this floppy lacks cdrom support and won't allow you to
+install from cdrom media.
Use the method that works best for you.
-
Supported Hardware:
+
Supported Hardware:
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).
+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).
-
Supported Platforms:
+
Supported Platforms:
DS20, DS10, XP1000, 264DP, and other EV6 machines using the
Tsunami chipset (Only one processor on the DS20 will be used)
@@ -139,13 +143,15 @@
ISA devices that require DMA operation.
-
API UP1000 machines and other EV6 machines using the Irongate chipset
+
API UP1000 machines and other EV6 machines using the Irongate
+chipset
Supported devices:
Built-in serial and parallel ports.
Built-in DEC21040 ethernet.
-
Built-in IDE controller works, though there may be stability issues.
+
Built-in IDE controller works, though there may be stability
+ issues.
Unsupported devices:
@@ -154,9 +160,10 @@
Digital Personal Workstation (Miata)
-Some of these machines are known not to work (random hangs or crashes). At the
-moment, there is no known method to detect which machines will run stably and
-which will not, apart from trying to install OpenBSD on them.
+Some of these machines are known not to work (random hangs or crashes).
+At the moment, there is no known method to detect which machines will
+run stably and which will not, apart from trying to install OpenBSD on
+them.
Supported devices:
@@ -176,9 +183,10 @@
EB164 based machines (including PC164, 164SX, 164LX, but NOT the
164UX)
-Some of these machines are known not to work (random hangs or crashes). At the
-moment, there is no known method to detect which machines will run stably and
-which will not, apart from trying to install OpenBSD on them.
+Some of these machines are known not to work (random hangs or crashes).
+At the moment, there is no known method to detect which machines will
+run stably and which will not, apart from trying to install OpenBSD on
+them.
Supported devices:
@@ -196,7 +204,8 @@
Alphastation 500 and 600
- These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about them.
+ These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about
+them.
CMD Tech PCI0640, PCI0643, PCI0646, PCI0648, and PCI0649
Contaq Microsystems/Cypress CY82C693
-Any other PCI IDE-compliant controller should work, but are untested
-at this point
+Any other PCI IDE-compliant controller should work, but are untested at
+this point
SCSI Host Adapters
-
Adaptec AIC-7770-based SCSI host adapters (including the
- Adaptec AHA-274x and AHA-284x families). (ahc) (*)
-
Adaptec AIC-789[29] chips and products like the AHA-29160 based upon it
-which do 160MB/sec SCSI. (ahc) (*)
-(However, the 7899G card is currently not supported with more than one device
-attached)
-
Adaptec AIC-789[29] chips and products like the AHA-29160 based upon
+it which do 160MB/sec SCSI. (ahc)(*)
+(However, the 7899G card is currently not supported with more than one
+device attached)
+
Symbios Logic (NCR) 53C8xx, 53C1010 and 53C1510D-based PCI SCSI host
-adapters
-(including generic/no name cards, old ASUS cards, the DTC-3130 series,
-Diamond Fireport series, etc.) (siop)
+adapters (including generic/no name cards, old ASUS cards, the DTC-3130
+series, Diamond Fireport series, etc.) (siop)
Broadcom BCM570x (a.k.a. Tigon3) based PCI adapters (bge), including: (-)
3Com 3c996-T (10/100/1000baseTX)
3Com 3c996-SX (1000baseSX)
@@ -431,23 +443,23 @@
SysKonnect SK-9D41 (1000baseSX)
-
Sundance/Tamarack TC9021 based PCI adapters (stge), including: (-)
+
Sundance/Tamarack TC9021 based PCI adapters (stge), including: (-)
D-Link DGE-550T (10/100/1000baseTX)
Antares Microsystems Gigabit Ethernet board
-Please be aware that many NE2000 adapters fail or perform very poorly. We do
-not recommend using them, but your mileage may vary.
+Please be aware that many NE2000 adapters fail or perform very poorly.
+We do not recommend using them, but your mileage may vary.
-The following peripherals are compiled into the system, but are not known to work. It's our best guess that they do, but any feedback is appreciated.
+
Untested Peripherals:
+The following peripherals are compiled into the system, but are not
+known to work. It's our best guess that they do, but any feedback is
+appreciated.
(*)
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.
+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.
+installation floppies, or the cd-rom installation kernel, but are
+available in the GENERIC kernel which will be installed.
-
Snapshots:
+
Snapshots:
-
Snapshots of the alpha port are available on an irregular basis.
+
Snapshots of the alpha port are available on
+an irregular basis.