Annotation of www/i386.html, Revision 1.764
1.753 bentley 1: <!doctype html>
2: <html lang=en id=platform>
3: <meta charset=utf-8>
4:
1.1 deraadt 5: <title>OpenBSD/i386</title>
1.3 fn 6: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD/i386 page">
1.738 tb 7: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
8: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="openbsd.css">
1.742 tb 9: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html">
1.3 fn 10:
1.753 bentley 11: <h2 id=OpenBSD>
1.739 tb 12: <a href="index.html">
1.753 bentley 13: <i>Open</i><b>BSD</b></a>
14: i386
1.738 tb 15: </h2>
1.327 miod 16: <hr>
1.753 bentley 17:
18: <table><tr><td>
1.738 tb 19: <p>
1.736 mmcc 20: OpenBSD/i386 runs on the standard PCs and clones, with a wide variety
1.327 miod 21: of processors, I/O bus architectures and peripherals supported.
1.753 bentley 22: </table>
1.327 miod 23:
24: <hr>
1.729 bentley 25:
1.753 bentley 26: <h3 id="history"><strong>History:</strong></h3>
1.34 johns 27:
1.32 grr 28: <p>
1.327 miod 29: The OpenBSD/i386 port has been present since the inception of the project.
30: Over the years, more and more hardware support has been written
31: specifically for OpenBSD (such as the cryptographic accelerator drivers),
32: or adapted from FreeBSD and NetBSD.
33:
34: <hr>
1.729 bentley 35:
1.753 bentley 36: <h3 id="status"><strong>Current status:</strong></h3>
1.327 miod 37:
38: <p>
39: It can be expected to install and run with minimal difficulty on most current
40: hardware.
1.736 mmcc 41: Machines using custom BIOS (such as older proprietary PCs, laptops, and some
1.327 miod 42: specialized server machines) may cause problems.
43:
44: <p>
1.488 matthieu 45: X Window System support is available for most graphics cards, using
1.755 tj 46: the X.Org server. As with other free operating systems, it is highly recommended
1.685 deraadt 47: that Nvidia cards are avoided since this vendor continues to show tremendous
1.683 deraadt 48: resistance towards releasing information that would allow X.Org to support their
1.684 jasper 49: hardware properly.
1.755 tj 50:
51: <p>
52: Due to the increased usage of <a href="amd64.html">OpenBSD/amd64</a>, as well
53: as the age and practicality of most i386 hardware, only easy and critical
54: security fixes are backported to i386. The project has more important things
55: to focus on.
1.327 miod 56:
57: <hr>
1.729 bentley 58:
1.753 bentley 59: <h3 id="hardware"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></h3>
1.34 johns 60:
1.327 miod 61: <h4>Processors</h4>
62:
63: <p>
1.758 jsg 64: All CPUs compatible with the Intel Pentium or later, with Intel-compatible
1.754 deraadt 65: hardware floating point support should work.
1.327 miod 66:
1.425 nick 67: <h4>SMP support</h4>
1.725 tedu 68:
69: <p>
1.718 nick 70: OpenBSD/i386 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor) systems,
71: including multi-chip, multi-core and/or hyperthreading designs.
1.753 bentley 72: To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (<code>bsd.mp</code>) is
1.427 saad 73: included with the installation file sets.
1.34 johns 74:
1.753 bentley 75: <h3>Unsupported Hardware:</h3>
1.402 krw 76:
1.327 miod 77: <p>
1.722 tedu 78: New hardware is constantly being released, some of which may lack support.
79: Your <a href="donations.html">donation of time, hardware, or documentation</a>
1.327 miod 80: can accelerate this support!
1.402 krw 81:
1.3 fn 82: <hr>
1.729 bentley 83:
1.753 bentley 84: <h3 id="multiboot"><strong>Installation with other operating systems:
85: </strong></h3>
1.330 miod 86:
87: <p>
88: OpenBSD/i386 can be installed to share the system disks with other operating
89: systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows or Linux, using the MBR/partition table
90: scheme, and an optional boot selector program.
91: Everyday operation is trouble free, but setup requires care, and several
92: operating systems, such as Windows 95, are known to be careless about
93: pre-existing MBR information.
94:
95: <p>
96: Also, some laptop computers use a specific partition as suspend-to-disk
97: storage, which should not be clobbered.
98:
99: <p>
100: More details on this process can be found in the
101: <a href="faq/faq4.html">Installation Guide</a> and
102: <a href="faq/faq14.html">Disk Setup Manual</a>.
103:
104: <hr>
1.729 bentley 105:
1.753 bentley 106: <h3 id="install">
1.330 miod 107: <strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386:</strong>
1.753 bentley 108: </h3>
1.330 miod 109:
1.402 krw 110: <p>
1.330 miod 111: The latest supported OpenBSD/i386 release is
1.764 ! tj 112: <a href="72.html">OpenBSD 7.2</a>.
1.330 miod 113: Here are the
1.764 ! tj 114: <a href="https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.2/i386/INSTALL.i386">
1.748 tj 115: OpenBSD/i386 installation instructions</a>.
1.330 miod 116:
117: <p>
118: Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
1.751 tj 119: <a href="https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386">this location</a>
120: as well as on a few
1.330 miod 121: <a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
122: Here are the
1.751 tj 123: <a href="https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386/INSTALL.i386">
1.745 tb 124: OpenBSD/i386 snapshot installation instructions</a> as well.
1.330 miod 125:
126: <p>
127: There are several installation media provided:
1.402 krw 128:
1.330 miod 129: <ul>
1.764 ! tj 130: <li><strong>CD image</strong> (install72.iso)
1.421 deraadt 131: <br>
1.745 tb 132: The CD ISO provides an <i>El Torito</i> no-emulation boot image
1.610 tom 133: that includes almost all OpenBSD drivers.
1.330 miod 134: This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices and keyboard).<br>
135: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.750 bentley 136: <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK_CD?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK_CD</a>
1.330 miod 137: kernel configuration file.
1.764 ! tj 138: <li><strong>Disk image</strong> (miniroot72.img)
1.733 tedu 139: <br>
1.745 tb 140: The same installer as the CD ISO, but in a form suitable for creating bootable
1.733 tedu 141: hard drives or USB flash drives.
1.764 ! tj 142: <li><strong>Floppy</strong> (floppy72.img)
1.421 deraadt 143: <br>
1.330 miod 144: This 1.44MB floppy image contains the most common drivers.
145: It is designed to cover the most typical PC. As a general rule, you will
146: find that the missing drivers are ones which need large microcodes to run,
1.432 nick 147: such as for rare SCSI cards, gigabit ethernet cards, or RAID devices.<br>
1.330 miod 148: For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
1.750 bentley 149: <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK</a>
1.330 miod 150: kernel configuration file.
151: </ul>