Annotation of www/i386.html, Revision 1.730
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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:
1.729 bentley 24: <h3 id="toc"><font color="#0000e0"><i>Table of contents</i></font></h3>
1.327 miod 25: <ul>
1.333 jufi 26: <li><a href="#history">History of the port</a>
1.327 miod 27: <li><a href="#status">Current status</a>
1.432 nick 28: <li><a href="#hardware">Supported hardware</a>
1.327 miod 29: <li><a href="#multiboot">Installation with other operating systems</a>
30: <li><a href="#install">Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386</a>
31: </ul>
1.54 deraadt 32:
1.327 miod 33: <hr>
1.729 bentley 34:
35: <h3 id="history"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>History:</strong></font></h3>
1.34 johns 36:
1.32 grr 37: <p>
1.327 miod 38: The OpenBSD/i386 port has been present since the inception of the project.
39: Over the years, more and more hardware support has been written
40: specifically for OpenBSD (such as the cryptographic accelerator drivers),
41: or adapted from FreeBSD and NetBSD.
42:
43: <hr>
1.729 bentley 44:
45: <h3 id="status"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>
1.327 miod 46:
47: <p>
48: It can be expected to install and run with minimal difficulty on most current
49: hardware.
50: Machines using custom BIOS (such as older proprietary PC's, laptops, and some
51: specialized server machines) may cause problems.
52:
53: <p>
1.488 matthieu 54: X Window System support is available for most graphics cards, using
1.682 deraadt 55: the X.Org server. As with other free operating systems it is highly recommended
1.685 deraadt 56: that Nvidia cards are avoided since this vendor continues to show tremendous
1.683 deraadt 57: resistance towards releasing information that would allow X.Org to support their
1.684 jasper 58: hardware properly.
1.327 miod 59:
60: <hr>
1.729 bentley 61:
62: <h3 id="hardware"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></font></h3>
1.34 johns 63:
1.327 miod 64: <h4>Processors</h4>
65:
66: <p>
1.718 nick 67: All CPUs compatible with the Intel 80486 or better, with Intel-compatible
68: hardware floating point support should work.
1.327 miod 69:
1.425 nick 70: <h4>SMP support</h4>
1.725 tedu 71:
72: <p>
1.718 nick 73: OpenBSD/i386 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor) systems,
74: including multi-chip, multi-core and/or hyperthreading designs.
1.449 grange 75: To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (<tt>bsd.mp</tt>) is
1.427 saad 76: included with the installation file sets.
1.34 johns 77:
1.327 miod 78: <h3><font color="#0000e0">Unsupported Hardware:</font></h3>
1.402 krw 79:
1.327 miod 80: <p>
1.722 tedu 81: New hardware is constantly being released, some of which may lack support.
82: Your <a href="donations.html">donation of time, hardware, or documentation</a>
1.327 miod 83: can accelerate this support!
1.402 krw 84:
1.31 deraadt 85:
1.3 fn 86: <hr>
1.729 bentley 87:
88: <h3 id="multiboot"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Installation with other operating systems:
1.330 miod 89: </strong></font></h3>
90:
91: <p>
92: OpenBSD/i386 can be installed to share the system disks with other operating
93: systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows or Linux, using the MBR/partition table
94: scheme, and an optional boot selector program.
95: Everyday operation is trouble free, but setup requires care, and several
96: operating systems, such as Windows 95, are known to be careless about
97: pre-existing MBR information.
98:
99: <p>
100: Also, some laptop computers use a specific partition as suspend-to-disk
101: storage, which should not be clobbered.
102:
103: <p>
104: More details on this process can be found in the
105: <a href="faq/faq4.html">Installation Guide</a> and
106: <a href="faq/faq14.html">Disk Setup Manual</a>.
107:
108: <hr>
1.729 bentley 109:
110: <h3 id="install"><font color="#0000e0">
1.330 miod 111: <strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386:</strong>
112: </font></h3>
113:
1.402 krw 114: <p>
1.330 miod 115: The latest supported OpenBSD/i386 release is
1.730 ! nick 116: <a href="57.html">OpenBSD 5.7</a>.
1.330 miod 117: Here are the
1.730 ! nick 118: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/5.7/i386/INSTALL.i386">
! 119: OpenBSD/i386 5.7 installation instructions
1.330 miod 120: </a>.
121:
122: <p>
123: Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
1.717 sthen 124: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386">this location</a>
1.330 miod 125: as well as in a few
126: <a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
127: Here are the
1.717 sthen 128: <a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386/INSTALL.i386">
1.330 miod 129: OpenBSD/i386 snapshot installation instructions
130: </a> as well.
131:
132: <p>
133: There are several installation media provided:
1.402 krw 134:
1.330 miod 135: <ul>
136: <li><strong>CD boot</strong>
1.421 deraadt 137: <br>
1.610 tom 138: The CD provides an <i>El Torito</i> no-emulation boot image
139: that includes almost all OpenBSD drivers.
1.330 miod 140: This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices and keyboard).<br>
141: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 142: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK_CD?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK_CD</a>
1.330 miod 143: kernel configuration file.
1.728 miod 144: <li><strong>Floppy A</strong> (floppy56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 145: <br>
1.330 miod 146: This 1.44MB floppy image contains the most common drivers.
147: It is designed to cover the most typical PC. As a general rule, you will
148: find that the missing drivers are ones which need large microcodes to run,
1.432 nick 149: such as for rare SCSI cards, gigabit ethernet cards, or RAID devices.<br>
1.330 miod 150: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 151: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK</a>
1.330 miod 152: kernel configuration file.
1.728 miod 153: <li><strong>Floppy B</strong> (floppyB56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 154: <br>
1.330 miod 155: This 1.44MB floppy image contains some drivers that are missing from
156: Floppy A.
157: This media is designed to help people setting up modern server type systems.
158: It contains support for pretty much all the SCSI and RAID drivers, gigabit
159: ethernet cards, and such.
160: Due to space considerations, you will find that some other drivers are
1.435 deraadt 161: missing. In particular, support for most PCMCIA devices is missing, the
162: MSDOS filesystem, and for really ancient hardware devices.<br>
1.330 miod 163: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 164: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKB?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKB</a>
1.330 miod 165: kernel configuration file.
1.728 miod 166: <li><strong>Floppy C</strong> (floppyC56.fs)
1.421 deraadt 167: <br>
1.415 brad 168: This 1.44MB floppy image contains many CardBus and PCMCIA device drivers.
1.330 miod 169: This media is designed for installing on laptops.
170: In most cases, one would discover that Floppy A also works, but the odd
171: laptop might benefit more from using this image.<br>
172: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.727 nick 173: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKC?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKC</a>
1.330 miod 174: kernel configuration file.
175: </ul>
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