Annotation of www/i386.html, Revision 1.728
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1.402 krw 16:
1.327 miod 17: <h2><font color="#e00000">OpenBSD/i386</font></h2>
18: <hr>
19:
20: <p>
21: OpenBSD/i386 runs on the standard PC's and clones, with a wide variety
22: of processors, I/O bus architectures and peripherals supported.
23:
1.618 nick 24: <a name="toc"></a>
1.327 miod 25: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><i>Table of contents</i></font></h3>
26: <ul>
1.333 jufi 27: <li><a href="#history">History of the port</a>
1.327 miod 28: <li><a href="#status">Current status</a>
1.432 nick 29: <li><a href="#hardware">Supported hardware</a>
1.327 miod 30: <li><a href="#multiboot">Installation with other operating systems</a>
31: <li><a href="#install">Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386</a>
32: </ul>
1.54 deraadt 33:
1.327 miod 34: <hr>
35: <a name="history"></a>
36: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>History:</strong></font></h3>
1.34 johns 37:
1.32 grr 38: <p>
1.327 miod 39: The OpenBSD/i386 port has been present since the inception of the project.
40: Over the years, more and more hardware support has been written
41: specifically for OpenBSD (such as the cryptographic accelerator drivers),
42: or adapted from FreeBSD and NetBSD.
43:
44: <hr>
45: <a name="status"></a>
46: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>
47:
48: <p>
49: It can be expected to install and run with minimal difficulty on most current
50: hardware.
51: Machines using custom BIOS (such as older proprietary PC's, laptops, and some
52: specialized server machines) may cause problems.
53:
54: <p>
1.488 matthieu 55: X Window System support is available for most graphics cards, using
1.682 deraadt 56: the X.Org server. As with other free operating systems it is highly recommended
1.685 deraadt 57: that Nvidia cards are avoided since this vendor continues to show tremendous
1.683 deraadt 58: resistance towards releasing information that would allow X.Org to support their
1.684 jasper 59: hardware properly.
1.327 miod 60:
61: <hr>
62: <a name="hardware"></a>
63: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></font></h3>
1.34 johns 64:
1.327 miod 65: <h4>Processors</h4>
66:
67: <p>
1.718 nick 68: All CPUs compatible with the Intel 80486 or better, with Intel-compatible
69: hardware floating point support should work.
1.327 miod 70:
1.425 nick 71: <h4>SMP support</h4>
1.725 tedu 72:
73: <p>
1.718 nick 74: OpenBSD/i386 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor) systems,
75: including multi-chip, multi-core and/or hyperthreading designs.
1.449 grange 76: To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (<tt>bsd.mp</tt>) is
1.427 saad 77: included with the installation file sets.
1.34 johns 78:
1.327 miod 79: <h3><font color="#0000e0">Unsupported Hardware:</font></h3>
1.402 krw 80:
1.327 miod 81: <p>
1.722 tedu 82: New hardware is constantly being released, some of which may lack support.
83: Your <a href="donations.html">donation of time, hardware, or documentation</a>
1.327 miod 84: can accelerate this support!
1.402 krw 85:
1.31 deraadt 86:
1.3 fn 87: <hr>
1.330 miod 88: <a name="multiboot"></a>
89: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Installation with other operating systems:
90: </strong></font></h3>
91:
92: <p>
93: OpenBSD/i386 can be installed to share the system disks with other operating
94: systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows or Linux, using the MBR/partition table
95: scheme, and an optional boot selector program.
96: Everyday operation is trouble free, but setup requires care, and several
97: operating systems, such as Windows 95, are known to be careless about
98: pre-existing MBR information.
99:
100: <p>
101: Also, some laptop computers use a specific partition as suspend-to-disk
102: storage, which should not be clobbered.
103:
104: <p>
105: More details on this process can be found in the
106: <a href="faq/faq4.html">Installation Guide</a> and
107: <a href="faq/faq14.html">Disk Setup Manual</a>.
108:
109: <hr>
110: <a name="install"></a>
111: <h3><font color="#0000e0">
112: <strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386:</strong>
113: </font></h3>
114:
1.402 krw 115: <p>
1.330 miod 116: The latest supported OpenBSD/i386 release is
1.728 ! miod 117: <a href="56.html">OpenBSD 5.6</a>.
1.330 miod 118: Here are the
1.728 ! miod 119: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/5.6/i386/INSTALL.i386">
! 120: OpenBSD/i386 5.6 installation instructions
1.330 miod 121: </a>.
122:
123: <p>
124: Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
1.717 sthen 125: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386">this location</a>
1.330 miod 126: as well as in a few
127: <a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
128: Here are the
1.717 sthen 129: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386/INSTALL.i386">
1.330 miod 130: OpenBSD/i386 snapshot installation instructions
131: </a> as well.
132:
133: <p>
134: There are several installation media provided:
1.402 krw 135:
1.330 miod 136: <ul>
137: <li><strong>CD boot</strong>
1.421 deraadt 138: <br>
1.610 tom 139: The CD provides an <i>El Torito</i> no-emulation boot image
140: that includes almost all OpenBSD drivers.
1.330 miod 141: This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices and keyboard).<br>
142: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 143: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK_CD?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK_CD</a>
1.330 miod 144: kernel configuration file.
1.728 ! miod 145: <li><strong>Floppy A</strong> (floppy56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 146: <br>
1.330 miod 147: This 1.44MB floppy image contains the most common drivers.
148: It is designed to cover the most typical PC. As a general rule, you will
149: find that the missing drivers are ones which need large microcodes to run,
1.432 nick 150: such as for rare SCSI cards, gigabit ethernet cards, or RAID devices.<br>
1.330 miod 151: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 152: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK</a>
1.330 miod 153: kernel configuration file.
1.728 ! miod 154: <li><strong>Floppy B</strong> (floppyB56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 155: <br>
1.330 miod 156: This 1.44MB floppy image contains some drivers that are missing from
157: Floppy A.
158: This media is designed to help people setting up modern server type systems.
159: It contains support for pretty much all the SCSI and RAID drivers, gigabit
160: ethernet cards, and such.
161: Due to space considerations, you will find that some other drivers are
1.435 deraadt 162: missing. In particular, support for most PCMCIA devices is missing, the
163: MSDOS filesystem, and for really ancient hardware devices.<br>
1.330 miod 164: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 165: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKB?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKB</a>
1.330 miod 166: kernel configuration file.
1.728 ! miod 167: <li><strong>Floppy C</strong> (floppyC56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 168: <br>
1.415 brad 169: This 1.44MB floppy image contains many CardBus and PCMCIA device drivers.
1.330 miod 170: This media is designed for installing on laptops.
171: In most cases, one would discover that Floppy A also works, but the odd
172: laptop might benefit more from using this image.<br>
173: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 174: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKC?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKC</a>
1.330 miod 175: kernel configuration file.
176: </ul>
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