OpenBSD/pmax

History and status:

The pmax port of OpenBSD was started by Thomas Graichen (graichen@OpenBSD.org) shortly before the OpenBSD 2.0 release and is currently mostly maintained by Todd C. Miller (millert@OpenBSD.org) but if you have any questions regarding this port, the hardware or the installation feel free to also contact Thomas. This port is integral part of the OpenBSD releases since OpenBSD 2.1. From the pmax specific code it is heavily based on NetBSD/pmax. I want to take the chance here to say thanks to Dieter Mayer and Rob Urban for supplying me (Thomas) with the hardware to do the development on. Also i want to thank all the people from the NetBSD/pmax team and mailinglists especially Jonathan Stone and Michael Hitch 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.

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:

• the port is self-hosting (... that means it only uses in-tree tools - there is no need for external binutils).
• you get all the usual OpenBSD improvements, additions and fixes - most important here the security related stuff and fixes

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 sometime in the future.

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 (1280x1024x8) 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