INTRO(4) | Device Drivers Manual (i386) | INTRO(4)

# NAME

`intro` —
introduction to i386 special files and hardware support

# DESCRIPTION

This section describes the special files, related driver functions, and networking support available in the system. In this part of the manual, the SYNOPSIS section of each configurable device gives a sample specification for use in constructing a system description for the config(1) program. The DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the console and/or in the system error log /var/log/messages due to errors in device operation; see syslogd(8) for more information.

This section contains both devices which may be configured into the system and network related information. The networking support is introduced in netintro(4).

# DEVICE SUPPORT

This section describes the hardware supported on the i386 (PC-clone) platform. Software support for these devices comes in two forms. A hardware device may be supported with a character or block device driver, or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a network interface driver. Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file system of a special type; see mknod(8). Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess communication facilities provided by the system; see socket(2).

A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled into the system. When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the software support for it. If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration time it is not accessible at any time afterwards. To enable a device which did not autoconfigure, the system must be rebooted.

The autoconfiguration system is described in i386/autoconf(4). A list of the supported devices is given below.

# LIST OF DEVICES

The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of the system. Devices are indicated by their functional interface. Not all supported devices are listed.

Standard builtin devices:

com
  NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial communications device interface
lpt
  Parallel port device interface
fdc
  Standard NEC 765 floppy disk controller.
mca
  MCA I/O bus.
mem
  Main memory interface
pci
  PCI I/O bus.
eisa
  EISA I/O bus, either as main bus or via PCI-EISA bridge.
isa
  ISA bus and ISA devices, either as main bus or via PCI-ISA bridge.
isa
  isa I/O bus.
isapnp
  ``bus'' for ISA devices with PnP support.
speaker
  console speaker device interface

PCMCIA devices are supported through the pcmcia(4) bus and associated device drivers.

Cardbus devices are supported through the cardbus(4) bus and associated device drivers.

USB devices are supported through the usb(4) bus and associated device drivers.

Console devices using ISA, EISA, or PCI video adaptors and standard AT or PS/2 keyboards are supported by the machine independent wscons(4) console driver.

Disk, tape and SCSI devices:

aha
  Adaptec 154x ISA SCSI adapter boards.
ahb
  Adaptec 1742 EISA SCSI adapter boards.
ahc
  Adaptec 274x, 284x, 2940 and 3940 VL/EISA/PCI SCSI adapter boards.
aic
  Adaptec AIC-6260, Adaptec AIC-6360, Adaptec 152x, and SoundBlaster SCSI boards.
bha
  Buslogic BT-445 (ISA), BT-74x (EISA), and BT-9[45][68] (PCI) SCSI boards.
mcd
  Mitsumi CD-ROM drives.
ncr
  Symbios (formerly NCR) PCI SCSI adapter boards.
pciide
  PCI IDE controllers.
sea
  Seagate/Future Domain SCSI cards. ST01/02, Future Domain TMC-885, and Future Domain TMC-950.
uha
  Ultrastor ISA and EISA SCSI adapter cards. Ultrastore 14f, Ultrastore 34f, and Ultrastore 24f.
wdc
  Standard ISA Western Digital type hard drives controllers. MFM, RLL, ESDI, and IDE.
wt
  Wangtek and compatible ISA controllers for QIC-02 and QIC-36 tapes.

Network interfaces:

de
  Ethernet driver for dc21040, dc21042, and dc21140-based 10Mbit and 100Mbit PCI Ethernet adaptors, including DE-430, DE-450 DE-500, SMC EtherPower, and Znyx.
fea, fpa
  FDDI driver for Digital DEFEA (EISA) and DEFPA FDDI adaptors.
ed
  Western Digital/SMC 80x3 and Ultra, 3Com 3c503, and Novell NE1000 and 2000 Ethernet interface
eg
  3Com 3c505 Ethernet board.
el
  3Com 3c501 Ethernet board.
ep
  3Com EtherLink III (3c5x9) Ethernet interface
ie
  Ethernet driver for the AT&T StarLAN 10, EN100, StarLan Fiber, and 3Com 3c507.
iy
  Ethernet driver for the ISA Intel EtherExpress PR0/10 adaptor.
le
  Ethernet driver for BICC Isolan, Novell NE2100, Digital DEPCA cards, and PCnet-PCI cards.
tl
  Ethernet driver for ThunderLAN-based Ethernet adaptor.

Serial communication cards:

ast
  multiplexing serial communications card first made by AST.
boca
  Boca BB100[48] and BB2016 multiplexing serial communications cards. NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial communications device interface, or internal modems that provide a serial-chip compatible interface.
cy
  Cyclades Cyclom-4Y, -8Y, and -16Y asynchronous serial communications device interface
rtfps
  a multiplexing serial communications card derived from IBM PC/RT hardware.

Sound cards:

gus
  Gravis Ultrasound non-PnP soundcards.
guspnp
  Gravis Ultrasound PnP soundcards.
pas
  ProAudio Spectrum soundcards.
pss
  Personal Sound System-compatible soundcards, including Cardinal Digital SoundPro 16 and Orchid Soundwave 32.
sb
  Soundblaster, Soundblaster 16, and Soundblaster Pro soundcards.
wss
  Windows Sound System-compatible sound cards based on the ad1848 chip.

Mouse and pointer devices:

joy
  joystick game adaptor
lms
  Logitech-style bus mouse device interface
mms
  Microsoft-style bus mouse device interface
pms
  PS/2 auxiliary port mouse device interface

Serial mice can be configured on any supported serial port.

# SEE ALSO

config(1), i386/autoconf(4), netintro(4)

# HISTORY

The i386 `intro` appeared in NetBSD 1.0.

February 17, 2017 | NetBSD 9.2