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   <a href="index.html"><img alt="[OpenBSD]" height="30" width="141" src="images/smalltitle.gif" border="0"></a>
   <p>
   <h2><font color="#e00000">OpenBSD/vax</font></h2>
   
 <h2>OpenBSD/vax</h2>  
   
 <hr>  <hr>
 <h3><strong>History and Status:</strong></h3>  
   
 <a href="images/vax.jpg"><img src="images/vax.jpg" ALIGN=right alt="[nothing sucks like a vax]"></a>  <p>
   <a href="images/vax.jpg">
   <img src="images/vax.jpg" width="350" height="467" align="right" alt="[nothing sucks like a vax]">
   </a>
   OpenBSD/vax runs on a large set of the VAX computers manufactured by
   <a href="http://www.digital.com">Digital</a> (then Compaq, now Hewlett-Packard).
   </p>
   
 <p>  <p>
 VAX has been a supported OpenBSD architecture since early 2000, when code was  A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/vax port is available at
 synchronized with NetBSD's port. Being the second architecture to run BSD Unix  <u><font color="#23238e">vax@openbsd.org</font></u>.
 (in 1979!), it seems appropriate that these venerable vaxen should still have  To join the OpenBSD/vax mailing list, send a message body of <b>"subscribe
 a modern OS. The codebase is mostly from Berkeley, with contributions of free  vax"</b> to <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">majordomo@openbsd.org</a>.
 code from Digital, Mt Xinu, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others. Development is ongoing,  Please be sure to check our <a href="mail.html">mailing list policy</a> before
 and changes are shared among VAX hackers even to this day. The result of this  subscribing.
 work is an Operating System that is stable and familiar to any OpenBSD user.  
 </p>  </p>
   
 <p>  <p>
 <b>Significant changes between 3.1 and 3.2:</b>  The current port maintainers are
   <a href="mailto:bjc@cvs.openbsd.org">Brandon Creighton</a>
   and <a href="mailto:hugh@cvs.openbsd.org">Hugh Graham</a>.
   Others are definitely welcome to contribute!
 </p>  </p>
   
   <a href="#toc"></a>
   <h3><font color="#0000e0"><i>Table of contents</i></font></h3>
   <p>
 <ul>  <ul>
 <li>Corrected handling of arithmetic fault allows SIGFPE, SIG_IGN to work    <li><a href="#history">Past history of the port</a>
 <li>Kernel debugger enhanced to recognise and disassemble two-byte opcodes    <li><a href="#status">Current status</a>
 <li>Support for booting off MSCP disks integrated    <li><a href="#projects">Project list</a>
     <li><a href="#hwdocs">Documentation wanted</a>
     <li><a href="#install">Getting and installing OpenBSD/vax</a>
     <li><a href="#hardware">Supported hardware list</a>
 </ul>  </ul>
   </p>
   
   <hr>
   <a name="history"></a>
   <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>History:</strong></font></h3>
   
 <p>  <p>
 <b>Significant changes between 3.0 and 3.1</b>  VAX has been a supported OpenBSD architecture since early 2000, when code was
   synchronized with NetBSD's port. Being the second architecture to run BSD Unix
   (in 1979!), it seems appropriate that these venerable vaxen should still have
   a modern OS.
 </p>  </p>
   
 <ul>  <p>
 <li>Support for "Cougar" machines confirmed  The current codebase is mostly from Berkeley, with contributions of free
 <li>Support for "Legacy" machines added  code from Digital, Mt Xinu, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others.
 <li>Binary logical page size changed to 4096 bytes  </p>
 </ul>  
   
 <p>  <p>
 <b>Significant changes between 2.9 and 3.0:</b>  After the port was sychronized with the NetBSD codebase, fixes and improvements
   were made, such as support for 16 partition per drive, support for more VAX
   models, improved emulation of unimplemented instructions, and so on.
 </p>  </p>
   
 <ul>  <p>
 <li>Support for "Omega" machines added  Development is ongoing, and changes are shared among VAX hackers even to
 <li>Event counters attached to most devices  this day. The result of this work is an operating system that is stable
 <li>More addressing modes added to the emulation system  and familiar to any OpenBSD user.
 </ul>  </p>
   
   <hr>
   <a name="status"></a>
   <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>
   
 <p>  <p>
 <b>Significant changes between 2.8 and 2.9:</b>  Currently, all the hardware listed in the
   <a href="#hardware">supported hardware list</a> section below boots
   multi-user, and supports enough of the on-board devices to be generally
   useable.
   Some models can only run diskless at the moment, though.
 </p>  </p>
   
   <p>
   Since none of the VAXstation frame buffers are currently supported, there
   are currently no X-Window servers available.
   However, a complete set of X-Window clients and utilities is available,
   allowing OpenBSD/vax machines to behave as X11 font servers, or run
   X-Window clients on remote display.
   </p>
   
   <p>
   There a few problems still left in the OpenBSD/vax port, though:
 <ul>  <ul>
 <li>Support for 16 filesystems per drive    <li>The current compiler sometimes has optimizer issues (i.e. gcc -O2
 <li>Emulation of the EMODD instruction        produces incorrect code, while -O1 or -O0 work). They are slowly being
 <li>Support for "Cheetah" machines added        worked on as we are aware of them. Most code should work nowadays.
 <li>Interrupt signals no longer cause ksh subshells to core    <li>Addressing limits in the pmap module. This can cause the kernel to panic.
         Some of these situations have been been taken care of and fail gracefully,
         but there might be unfixed cases.
     <li>Missing SIGINFO support. This is being worked on.
 </ul>  </ul>
   </p>
   
   <hr>
   <a name="projects"></a>
   <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Projects (in no particular order):
   </strong></font></h3>
   
 <p>  <p>
 OpenBSD runs on a wide variety of VAX hardware, but our personal  <ul>
 <a href="want.html#vax">inventory of systems</a>    <li>Write a SIGINFO implementation.
 is limited. OpenBSD/vax may actually run on your machine even if it's not    <li>Write driver for the VAXstation 2000's HDC9224
 listed here, and we rely on your testing and feedback to keep this list up        (floppy/MFM hard disk controller)
 to date. After you finish installing your new system, consider running    <li>MSCP support may still be rough
 "dmesg |mail dmesg@openbsd.org" to help us determine what types of    <li>Finish writing POSIX threads (libc_r) support.
 hardware people are using.    <li>Write frame buffer drivers.
     <li>Move to ELF and shared libraries.
     <li>Support for any new systems we encounter
   </ul>
 </p>  </p>
   
 <table WIDTH="100%">  <hr>
 <tr VALIGN=top>  <a name="hwdocs"></a>
     <td WIDTH="40%">  <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Documentation wanted:</strong></font></h3>
         <p>  
         <b>Tested systems:</b>  
         </p>  
   
         <ul>  <p>
         <li>VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000  <ul>
         <li>VAXstation 3100/{30,40} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)    <li>Programming info for LCG or SPGFX framebuffers
         <li>VAXstation 3100/{38,48} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)    <li>Software references for SHAC DSSI
         <li>VAXstation 3100/76 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)    <li>Any edition VARM
         <li>VAXstation 4000/VLC (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  </ul>
         <li>VAXstation 4000/60 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  </p>
         <li>VAXstation 4000/90 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>VAXstation 4000/96 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>MicroVAX 3100/{10,20}{,e} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>MicroVAX 3100/80 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>MicroVAX 3100/90 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>MicroVAX 3300  
         <li>VAX 4000 100 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>VAX 4000 105 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)  
         <li>VAX 4000 200  
         <li>VAX 4000 300  
         <li>VAX 4000 {400,500,600}  
         <li>VAX 4000 {500A,700A}  
         </ul>  
     </td>  
   
     <td WIDTH="60%">  <hr>
         <p>  <a name="install"></a>
         <b>Projects being worked on:</b>  <h3><font color="#0000e0">
         </p>  <strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/vax:</strong>
   </font></h3>
   
         <ul>  <p>
         <li>VAXstation 2000's HDC9224 (floppy/mfm hard disk controller)  The latest supported OpenBSD/vax release is
         <li>MSCP support may still be rough  <a href="32.html">OpenBSD 3.2</a>.
         <li>Shared libraries? eventually...  Here are the
         <li>Support for any new systems we encounter  <a href="ftp://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.2/vax/INSTALL.vax">
         </ul>  OpenBSD/vax 3.2 installation instructions
   </a>.
   </p>
   
         <p>  <p>
         <b>Documentation we're looking for:</b>  Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
         </p>  <a href="ftp://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/vax">this location</a>
   as well as in a few
   <a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
   Here are the
   <a href="ftp://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/vax/INSTALL.vax">
   OpenBSD/vax snapshot installation instructions
   </a> as well.
   </p>
   
         <ul>  <hr>
         <li>Programming info for LCG or SPGFX framebuffers  <a name="hardware"></a>
         <li>Software references for SHAC DSSI  <h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></font></h3>
         <li>Any edition VARM  
         </ul>  
   
         <p>  <p>
         <b>Known problems:</b>  The list of supported hardware below is not meant to be exhaustive.
         </p>  Due to a limited
   <a href="want.html#vax">inventory of systems</a>
   available to developers, not all hardware combinations have been tested.
   </p>
   
         <ul>  <p>
         <li>toolchain issues - overzealous gcc optimizer  As a result, OpenBSD/vax may actually run on your machine even if it's not
         <li>pmap - addressing limits  listed here, and we rely on your testing and feedback to keep this list up
         </ul>  to date.
     </td>  To help us improve the accuracy of this list, <b>PLEASE</b>
 </tr>  <a href="faq/faq4.html#SendDmesg">send your dmesg</a> after installation
 </table>  to <a href="mailto:dmesg@openbsd.org">dmesg@openbsd.org</a>.
   </p>
   
 <p>  <p>
 In addition to formal releases, snapshots that reflect our current work  <h4>Supported models</h4>
 are available for download from the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirrors</a>,  
 and a mailing has been set up at  
 <a href="mailto:vax@openbsd.org"> vax@openbsd.org</a>.  
 To join the OpenBSD/vax mailing list, send a message body of <b>"subscribe  
 vax"</b> to <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>.  
 Please be sure to check our <a href="mail.html">mailing list policy</a> before  
 subscribing.  
 </p>  </p>
   
 <p>  <p>
 The OpenBSD/vax port maintainers are  Almost all the on-board devices are supported on these models, except for
 <a href="mailto:bjc@cvs.openbsd.org">Brandon Creighton</a>  frame buffers and keyboard interfaces.
 and <a href="mailto:hugh@cvs.openbsd.org">Hugh Graham</a>.  SCSI controller is only supported when listed.
 </p>  </p>
   
 <br><br>  <p>
   <ul>
     <li>VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000
     <li>VAXstation 3100/{30,40} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 3100/{38,48} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 3100/76 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 4000/VLC (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 4000/60 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 4000/90 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAXstation 4000/96 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>MicroVAX 3100/{10,20}{,e} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>MicroVAX 3100/{30,40} (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>MicroVAX 3100/80 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>MicroVAX 3100/90 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>MicroVAX 3300
     <li>VAX 4000 100 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAX 4000 105 (<font color="#009900">SCSI</font>)
     <li>VAX 4000 200
     <li>VAX 4000 300
     <li>VAX 4000 {400,500,600}
     <li>VAX 4000 {500A,700A}
   </ul>
   
 <hr>  <hr>
 <a href=plat.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>  <a href="plat.html">
 <a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>  <img height="24" width="24" src="back.gif" border="0" alt="Supported platforms">
   </a>
   <br>
   <small><a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a></small>
 <br>  <br>
 <small>$OpenBSD$</small>  <small>$OpenBSD$</small>
   
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