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Revision 1.45, Mon Apr 14 07:11:47 2003 UTC (21 years, 1 month ago) by jmc
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.44: +4 -4 lines 

some corrections to my X Window System changes from miod.
ok miod@

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<p>
<h2><font color="#e00000">OpenBSD/vax</font></h2>

<hr>

<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>
A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/vax port is available at
<u><font color="#23238e">vax@openbsd.org</font></u>.
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>
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>

<a href="#toc"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><i>Table of contents</i></font></h3>
<p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#history">History of the port</a>
  <li><a href="#status">Current status</a>
  <li><a href="#projects">Project list</a>
  <li><a href="#hardware">Supported hardware list</a>
  <li><a href="#hwdocs">Documentation wanted</a>
  <li><a href="#install">Getting and installing OpenBSD/vax</a>
</ul>
</p>

<hr>
<a name="history"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>History:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
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>
The current codebase is mostly from Berkeley, with contributions of free
code from Digital, Mt Xinu, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others.
</p>

<p>
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>
Development is ongoing, and changes are shared among VAX hackers even to
this day. The result of this work is an operating system that is stable
and familiar to any OpenBSD user.
</p>

<hr>
<a name="status"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Current status:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
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>
Since none of the VAXstation frame buffers are currently supported, there
are currently no X Window System servers available.
However, a complete set of X clients and utilities is available,
allowing OpenBSD/vax machines to behave as X11 font servers, or run
X clients on remote display.
</p>

<p>
There a few problems still left in the OpenBSD/vax port, though:
<ul>
  <li>The current compiler sometimes has optimizer issues (i.e. gcc -O2
      produces incorrect code, while -O1 or -O0 work). They are slowly being
      worked on as we are aware of them. Most code should work nowadays.
  <li>Addressing limits in the pmap module. This can cause the kernel to panic.
      Some of these situations have been taken care of and fail gracefully,
      but there might be unfixed cases.
  <li>Missing SIGINFO support. This is being worked on.
</ul>
</p>

<hr>
<a name="projects"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Projects (in no particular order):
</strong></font></h3>

<p>
<ul>
  <li>Write a SIGINFO implementation.
  <li>Write driver for the VAXstation 2000's HDC9224
      (floppy/MFM hard disk controller)
  <li>MSCP support may still be rough
  <li>Finish writing POSIX threads (libpthread) support.
  <li>Write frame buffer drivers.
  <li>Move to ELF and shared libraries.
  <li>Support for any new systems we encounter
</ul>
</p>

<hr>
<a name="hardware"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
The list of supported hardware below is not meant to be exhaustive.
Due to a limited
<a href="want.html#vax">inventory of systems</a>
available to developers, not all hardware combinations have been tested.
</p>

<p>
As a result, OpenBSD/vax may actually run on your machine even if it's not
listed here, and we rely on your testing and feedback to keep this list up
to date.
To help us improve the accuracy of this list, <b>PLEASE</b>
<a href="faq/faq4.html#SendDmesg">send your dmesg</a> after installation
to <a href="mailto:dmesg@openbsd.org">dmesg@openbsd.org</a>.
</p>

<p>
<h4>Supported models</h4>
</p>

<p>
Almost all the on-board devices are supported on these models, except for
frame buffers and keyboard interfaces.
SCSI controller is only supported when listed.
</p>

<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>
<a name="hwdocs"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0"><strong>Documentation wanted:</strong></font></h3>

<p>
<ul>
  <li>Programming info for LCG or SPGFX framebuffers
  <li>Software references for SHAC DSSI
  <li>Any edition VARM
</ul>
</p>

<hr>
<a name="install"></a>
<h3><font color="#0000e0">
<strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/vax:</strong>
</font></h3>

<p>
The latest supported OpenBSD/vax release is
<a href="32.html">OpenBSD 3.2</a>.
Here are the
<a href="ftp://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.2/vax/INSTALL.vax">
OpenBSD/vax 3.2 installation instructions
</a>.
</p>

<p>
Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
<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>

<hr>
<a href="plat.html">
<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>
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