OpenBSD/sparc runs on most of the 32bit Sun SPARC workstations, including
the sun4, sun4c, sun4e and sun4m architecture families
(but not the 64bit UltraSPARC computers, which are supported by
OpenBSD/sparc64).
+
-The OpenBSD/sparc port was discontinued after the 5.9 release.
-
+The OpenBSD/sparc port was discontinued after the 5.9 release.
+
A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/sparc and OpenBSD/sparc64 ports is
-available at sparc@openbsd.org.
+available at sparc@openbsd.org.
To join the OpenBSD/sparc mailing list, send a message body of "subscribe
sparc" to majordomo@openbsd.org.
Please be sure to check our mailing list policy before
subscribing.
+
-
-
History:
+
History:
The original 4.4BSD port was done by Chris Torek as a contract to
@@ -54,7 +57,6 @@
code. Just after the NetBSD/sparc 1.0 release, Peter Galbavy wrote an
ESP SCSI device driver as a replacement for Chris' sparc-specific SCSI
code.
-
At this point a conflict emerged between Theo and the other people he
@@ -63,13 +65,11 @@
NetBSD group did some other things for the port: Paul Kranenburg
ported a floppy driver and started writing support for the 4/400.
Chuck spent many long hours working on the ie, xy, xd device drivers.
-
Theo continued working independently, and made a number of additions:
P4 support, flexible boot strategy, a few graphics drivers with the help
from John Stone, and masses of bug fixes.
-
Work on porting OpenBSD/sparc to the sun4m platform was started by Theo,
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@
funds. This initial stuff consisted mostly of a few attempts at building
pmap structure that could support all 3 MMU types efficiently. Also,
David Miller of the UltraLinux project got a little bit involved.
-
Theo and Jason Downs merged the NetBSD sparc code back into OpenBSD, making
@@ -90,11 +89,10 @@
and added non-executable stack and heap on sun4m machines.
The frame buffer and console code was completely overhauled for OpenBSD 3.2,
improving display speed with some frame buffers, and supporting more cards.
-
-
Current status:
+
Current status:
Currently, all the hardware listed in the
@@ -102,22 +100,19 @@
multi-user, and supports enough (if not all) of the on-board devices to
be generally usable.
A growing set of third-party SBus cards are also supported.
-
The X Window System works on all supported frame buffers, including
multi-head configurations.
No accelerated server is provided at the moment, although this is being
worked on.
-
An important note about OpenBSD/sparc is that it is designed so that
-a single kernel can run on ALL SUPPORTED SPARC machines. Whereas
-SunOS and Solaris have always had separate `kernel architectures', i.e. sun4,
-sun4c, sun4e and sun4m, the same `GENERIC' OpenBSD kernel will run on all the
+a single kernel can run on ALL SUPPORTED SPARC machines. Whereas
+SunOS and Solaris have always had separate 'kernel architectures', i.e. sun4,
+sun4c, sun4e and sun4m, the same 'GENERIC' OpenBSD kernel will run on all the
supported models.
-
Most of the problems with OpenBSD/sparc are believed to stem from the wide
@@ -125,11 +120,10 @@
undocumented bugs, rather than general kernel problems.
Feedback on which models do and do not work reliably is
appreciated, particularly with newer models or upgrades.
-
-
Supported hardware:
+
Supported hardware:
Supported machines
@@ -207,10 +201,9 @@
Supported devices
-This list of devices basically declares that any ``stock'' sun4c or sun4m
-``SPARCstation'' or ``SPARCserver'' machine will probably work; for sun4
+This list of devices basically declares that any "stock" sun4c or sun4m
+"SPARCstation" or "SPARCserver" machine will probably work; for sun4
and sun4e machines one must be more careful.
-
Mbus CPU modules
@@ -237,162 +230,162 @@
Sun keyboard and mouse
Type 2, 3, 4, and 5 keyboards with several layouts
-(zskbd)
+(zskbd)
Floppy drives
sun4c and sun4m floppy disk drive
-
+
Serial ports
ttya and ttyb on-board serial ports
-(zs)
+(zs)
(can be used as console if needed)
4/300 ttyc and ttyd on-board serial ports
-(zs)
+(zs)
SBus magma serial port cards, including: 4Sp, 8Sp, 12Sp, 16Sp, LC2+1Sp,
2+1Sp, 4+1Sp, 8+2Sp, and 2+1HS Sp.
-(magma)
+(magma)
-* Not supported in sun4c and sun4e class machines
+* Not supported in sun4c and sun4e class machines
due to PROM limitations.
@@ -425,7 +418,6 @@
First of all, there are MANY unsupported devices.
A comprehensive list can probably not be written.
-
@@ -475,7 +467,7 @@
-
Hardware documentation:
+
Hardware documentation:
Previous to 2007, it was extremely difficult or impossible to get much of
the necessary hardware documentation for these machines. Members of our
@@ -491,9 +483,9 @@
-
There are several installation media provided, so that
@@ -550,13 +541,10 @@
Netboot (boot.net, bsd.rd)
Using a diskless setup, it is also possible to boot the OpenBSD/sparc
- boot loader, boot.net, from the network via tftp, and access
- the bsd.rd standalone miniroot over NFS.
+ boot loader, boot.net, from the network via tftp, and access
+ the bsd.rd standalone miniroot over NFS.
Refer to the
- diskless(8)
+ diskless(8)
manual page for details on how to setup a network boot environment.
-