OpenBSD/pmax

History and status:

The pmax port of OpenBSD is being worked on by Thomas Graichen (graichen@OpenBSD.org). From the pmax specific code it is heavily based on NetBSD/pmax. I usually try to keep it in sync with all fixes and improvements from NetBSD/pmax. Starting with the 2.1 release of OpenBSD the pmax port is now no longer only available in form of snapshots but i still plan to make new snapshots of the current state of OpenBSD/pmax from time to time available. So far it is running very stable for me and is also reported to do so from a lot of other people on different kinds of machines. I want to take the chance here to say thanks to Dieter Mayer and Rob Urban for supplying me with the hardware to do the development on. Also i want to thank all the people from the NetBSD/pmax team and mailinglists for their help in many situations. If you are interested in getting OpenBSD/pmax you can either use the latest formal release of OpenBSD or one of the snapshots of OpenBSD/pmax if you are interested in tracking the current state - you may get them both from the usual OpenBSD ftp servers.

I'm very interested in getting feedback from people running OpenBSD/pmax on their machines ... so if you do so - please send me a mail about it ... this way i can get a feeling of how many people are using it - thanks.

Despite of the fact that the hardware specific code in OpenBSD/pmax doesn't differ much from NetBSD/pmax there are for the system as a whole some ...

Differences to NetBSD/pmax:

• we have native shared libraries (... but also for NetBSD/pmax there are snapshots with shared libraries based mostly on the OpenBSD shared library support from per fogelstrom available now - but the latest formal release of it - 1.2 is completely statically linked)
• the port is self-hosting (... that means it only uses in-tree tools - there is no need for externel binutils).
• i try too keep the release of snapshots and releases close to releasing X11 binaries too (X11R5 servers and X11R6 clients - both compiled with ProjectRoot /usr/X11R6) so that you should have a usable system including X11 without having to build or search all the stuff yourself
• you get all the usual OpenBSD improvements, additions and fixes - most important here the security related stuff and fixes
• i have tried to make the installation of the release as simple as possible ... i hope to improve this further with the next release

Supported machines:

OpenBSD/pmax currently supports the following machines:

• decstation 2100 and 3100 (pmin and pmax)
• decstation 5000/120, /125 and /133 (3min)
• decstation 5000/200 (3max)
• decstation 5000/240 (3maxplus)
• decstation 5000/20 and /25 (personal decstation)

OpenBSD/pmax does currently not run on:

• decstation 5100 (r2000 based cousin of the decstation 3100)
• decsystem 5400 and 5500 (close to mayfair and mayfair II vax with mips cpu)
• decsystem 5800 (close to vax 6300/6300 with mips cpus)

Per Fogelstrom (pefo@OpenBSD.org) now also has one of the r4000 cpu upgraded decstations ... so i expect support for them soon.

Supported devices:

If something is wrong here - please let me know!

Framebuffer:

• pm mono (1024x864x1) or color (1024x864x8) onboard framebuffer (pmin and pmax)
• PMAG-DV (1024x864x8) onboard framebuffer (personal decstation)
• PMAG-AA (1024x864x1) turbochannel framebuffer card - mfb
• PMAG-BA (1024x864x8) turbochannel framebuffer card - cfb
• PMAGB-BA (1024x864x8) turbochannel framebuffer card - sfb

Keep in mind that you need a monitor which can do sync on green- because all the above framebuffers give sync on green output. Also the monitor should be multisync-capable or it should have a dec-compatible fixed frequency. All the above framebuffers should be supported by the x server too.

Ethernet:

• onboard amd lance ethernet interface
• turbochannel amd lance lance interface card

SCSI:

• onboard dec SCSI controller - sii (pmin and pmax)
• onboard dec SCSI controller - asc
• turbochannel dec SCSI controller card - asc

Misc:

• dec lk201 or compatible keyboard
• dec or compatible mouse
• onboard serial ports on most machines

Hints and fixes for OpenBSD/pmax 2.1 release:

At this place i plan to collect all hints for the installation of the 2.1 release and fixes for problems while doing it to. Up to now there are no known problems to mention here.