OpenBSD/i386

History and Status:

The i386 port has quite a few architecture specific changes from the NetBSD/i386 port, but the major ones are:

• Also runs on machines with 512MB of ram or more, does not crash.
• the addition of ISA bounce buffer support so that ISA scsi cards (ie. Adaptec 1542) can be used in machines with more than 16MB of memory.
• The same one GENERIC kernel works on all machines, whether it has BusLogic or Adaptec scsi cards.
• some APM and PCMCIA support (3c589, NE2000-clone, and COM ports)
• some DDB improvements
• OPTI mcd support
• ATAPI cdrom support
• P5/P6 improved NTP support
• pccons has userland replaceable keymaps, and screen blanking
• boot "-a" support like other ports (asks for root partition)
• floppy disk formatting
• Cyclades Cyclom serial driver
• faster (assembly) IP checksumming (typically 20% faster, up to 62% faster in some cases)
• vmstat -i prints interrupt information.
• latest rev of adaptec 2940 driver from FreeBSD
• supports "ep* at port ? irq ?"
• faster i386-specific `pccom' device driver.
• /dev/pctr pseudo-device & program for accessing the Pentium and PentiumPro performance counters.
• Fixed major i386 kernel interrupt race.
• Fixed UCONSOLE security hole without breaking xconsole.
• Much faster i387-specific libm available for those who want the option.
• ISA Plug-and-Play support
• the GPL FP emulator from Linux/Freebsd, for users who want to use it. Much better!
• Prefer partition type 166, so that OpenBSD can co-reside on the same disk as a 386BSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD install.
• Attempt to fault in a ptp; this avoids two ptp panic cases.
• RAW_PART is now 'c', not 'd'. It should start at 0, and cover your whole disk.
• Updated ncr driver, much more performance.
• 3c59x and 3c9xx cards work.
• Can mount DOS file systems with cluster size > 16KB.

Working hardware includes:
(Drivers listed with an XXX might not work. We do not own all the hardware listed. You must let us know if this list is incorrect, or if a driver is broken.)

• Basically all ISA, VLB, PCI, or PCMCIA machines.
• No support for MCA (IBM PS/2).

• Floppy controllers.
• MFM, ESDI, IDE, and RLL hard disk controllers.
• Most ATAPI IDE CD-ROM drives

• MDA, CGA, VGA, SVGA, and HGC Display Adapters.

• 8250/16450-based ports
• 16550-based ports
• AST-style 4-port serial boards
• BOCA 8-port serial cards
• Cyclades Cyclom-{4, 8, 16}Y serial boards (XXX)
• IBM PC-RT 4-port serial boards
• Parallel ports.

• AMD LANCE and PCnet-ISA: Novell NE1500T/Novell NE2100, Kingston 21xx
• AMD PCnet-PCI: BOCALANcard/PCI
• AT&T StarLAN 10, EN100, and StarLAN Fiber
• 3COM 3c501
• 3COM 3c503
• 3COM 3c505
• 3COM 3c507
• 3COM 3c509, 3c579, 3c589, and 3c9xx
• 3COM 3c59x (XXX)
• Digital DC21x4x PCI: SMC EtherPower 10, 10/100 (PCI only!), Znyx ZX34X, Cogent EM100, Digital DE450, Digital DE500
• BICC Isolan (XXX)
• Intel EtherExpress 16
• SMC/WD 8003, 8013, and the SMC "Elite16" ISA boards
• SMC/WD 8216 (the SMC "Elite16 Ultra" ISA boards)
• Novell NE1000, NE2000

• Adaptec AHA-154xA, -B, -C, and -CF, Buslogic 54x
• Adaptec AHA-174x
• Adaptec AIC-6260 and AIC-6360
• Adaptec AHA-294x[W] and other PCI AIC-7xxx chips/boards.
• BusLogic 445, 74x, 9xx (But not "FlashPoint" series)
• Symbios Logic (NCR) 53C8xx-based PCI SCSI host adapters
• Ultrastor 14f, 34f, and (possibly) 24f
• ST01/02, Future Domain TMC-885/TMC-950
• Most SCSI tape drives
• QIC-02 and QIC-36 format (XXX)
• Mitsumi CD-ROM drives (XXX)
• Most SCSI CD-ROM drives
• Most SCSI tape changers.

• "Logitech"-style bus mice
• "Microsoft"-style bus mice
• "PS/2"-style mice
• Serial mice (no kernel support necessary)

• SoundBlaster
• Gravis Ulrasound and Ultrasound Max
• Personal Sound System
• Windows Sound System
• ProAudio Spectrum

• APM power management -- if your system supports it, turn it off!
• PCMCIA: most chipsets.
• 3COM 3c589 pcmcia ethernet
• WD-7000 SCSI host adapters.
• Digital DEFPA PCI FDDI adapters (support barely missed this release; it works in other ports, and will work in this one in the next release)
• ATM cards -- some. Mail chuck@openbsd.org to get this entry updated.

Snapshots are made available from time to time.