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<h2><font color="#e00000">OpenBSD/i386</font></h2>
<hr>

<p>
OpenBSD/i386 runs on the standard PC's and clones, with a wide variety
of processors, I/O bus architectures and peripherals supported.

<h3 id="toc"><font color="#0000e0"><i>Table of contents</i></font></h3>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#history">History of the port</a>
  <li><a href="#status">Current status</a>
  <li><a href="#hardware">Supported hardware</a>
  <li><a href="#multiboot">Installation with other operating systems</a>
  <li><a href="#install">Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386</a>
</ul>

<hr>

<h3 id="history"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>History:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
The OpenBSD/i386 port has been present since the inception of the project.
Over the years, more and more hardware support has been written
specifically for OpenBSD (such as the cryptographic accelerator drivers),
or adapted from FreeBSD and NetBSD.

<hr>

<h3 id="status"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
It can be expected to install and run with minimal difficulty on most current
hardware.
Machines using custom BIOS (such as older proprietary PC's, laptops, and some
specialized server machines) may cause problems.

<p>
X Window System support is available for most graphics cards, using
the X.Org server.  As with other free operating systems it is highly recommended
that Nvidia cards are avoided since this vendor continues to show tremendous
resistance towards releasing information that would allow X.Org to support their
hardware properly.

<hr>

<h3 id="hardware"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></font></h3>

<h4>Processors</h4>

<p>
All CPUs compatible with the Intel 80486 or better, with Intel-compatible
hardware floating point support should work.  

<h4>SMP support</h4>

<p>
OpenBSD/i386 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor) systems,
including multi-chip, multi-core and/or hyperthreading designs.
To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (<tt>bsd.mp</tt>) is
included with the installation file sets.

<h3><font color="#0000e0">Unsupported Hardware:</font></h3>

<p>
New hardware is constantly being released, some of which may lack support.
Your <a href="donations.html">donation of time, hardware, or documentation</a>
can accelerate this support!


<hr>

<h3 id="multiboot"><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Installation with other operating systems:
</strong></font></h3>

<p>
OpenBSD/i386 can be installed to share the system disks with other operating
systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows or Linux, using the MBR/partition table
scheme, and an optional boot selector program.
Everyday operation is trouble free, but setup requires care, and several
operating systems, such as Windows 95, are known to be careless about
pre-existing MBR information.

<p>
Also, some laptop computers use a specific partition as suspend-to-disk
storage, which should not be clobbered.

<p>
More details on this process can be found in the
<a href="faq/faq4.html">Installation Guide</a> and
<a href="faq/faq14.html">Disk Setup Manual</a>.

<hr>

<h3 id="install"><font color="#0000e0">
<strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386:</strong>
</font></h3>

<p>
The latest supported OpenBSD/i386 release is
<a href="57.html">OpenBSD 5.7</a>.
Here are the
<a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/5.7/i386/INSTALL.i386">
OpenBSD/i386 5.7 installation instructions
</a>.

<p>
Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
<a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386">this location</a>
as well as in a few
<a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
Here are the
<a href="http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386/INSTALL.i386">
OpenBSD/i386 snapshot installation instructions
</a> as well.

<p>
There are several installation media provided:

<ul>
  <li><strong>CD boot</strong>
  <br>
  The CD provides an <i>El Torito</i> no-emulation boot image
  that includes almost all OpenBSD drivers.
  This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices and keyboard).<br>
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
  <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK_CD?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK_CD</a>
  kernel configuration file.
  <li><strong>Floppy A</strong> (floppy56.fs)
  <br>
  This 1.44MB floppy image contains the most common drivers.
  It is designed to cover the most typical PC. As a general rule, you will
  find that the missing drivers are ones which need large microcodes to run,
  such as for rare SCSI cards, gigabit ethernet cards, or RAID devices.<br>
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
  <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK</a>
  kernel configuration file.
  <li><strong>Floppy B</strong> (floppyB56.fs)
  <br>
  This 1.44MB floppy image contains some drivers that are missing from
  Floppy A.
  This media is designed to help people setting up modern server type systems.
  It contains support for pretty much all the SCSI and RAID drivers, gigabit
  ethernet cards, and such.
  Due to space considerations, you will find that some other drivers are
  missing. In particular, support for most PCMCIA devices is missing, the
  MSDOS filesystem, and for really ancient hardware devices.<br>
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
  <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKB?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKB</a>
  kernel configuration file.
  <li><strong>Floppy C</strong> (floppyC56.fs)
  <br>
  This 1.44MB floppy image contains many CardBus and PCMCIA device drivers.
  This media is designed for installing on laptops.
  In most cases, one would discover that Floppy A also works, but the odd
  laptop might benefit more from using this image.<br>
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
  <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISKC?rev=HEAD">RAMDISKC</a>
  kernel configuration file.
</ul>

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