xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/intro.4 (revision 4baa9a4e9a8b56fc94b3d3ffcf8261a183367db4)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Jonathan Stone
4.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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34.\" <<Id: LICENSE,v 1.2 2000/06/14 15:57:33 cgd Exp>>
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36.Dd February 26, 2021
37.Dt INTRO 4 i386
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm intro
41.Nd introduction to i386 special files and hardware support
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43This section describes the special files, related driver functions,
44and networking support
45available in the system.
46In this part of the manual, the
47.Tn SYNOPSIS
48section of
49each configurable device gives a sample specification
50for use in constructing a system description for the
51.Xr config 1
52program.
53The
54.Tn DIAGNOSTICS
55section lists messages which may appear on the console
56and/or in the system error log
57.Pa /var/log/messages
58due to errors in device operation;
59see
60.Xr syslogd 8
61for more information.
62.Pp
63This section contains both devices
64which may be configured into the system
65and network related information.
66The networking support is introduced in
67.Xr netintro 4 .
68.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT
69This section describes the hardware supported on the i386
70(PC-clone) platform.
71Software support for these devices comes in two forms.
72A hardware device may be supported with a character or block
73.Em device driver ,
74or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
75.Em network interface driver .
76Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
77system of a special type; see
78.Xr mknod 8 .
79Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
80communication facilities provided by the system; see
81.Xr socket 2 .
82.Pp
83A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
84and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
85into the system.
86When the resultant system is booted, the
87autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device
88and, if found, enable the software support for it.
89If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
90time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
91To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
92the system must be rebooted.
93.Pp
94The autoconfiguration system is described in
95.Xr x86/autoconf 4 .
96A list of the supported devices is given below.
97.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
98The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of
99the system.
100Devices are indicated by their functional interface.
101Not all supported devices are listed.
102.\"
103.\"
104.\"
105.Pp
106Standard builtin devices:
107.Bl -tag -width speaker(4) -offset indent -compact
108.\"
109.\"
110.\"
111.It Xr com 4
112NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial
113communications device interface
114.It Xr x86/lpt 4
115Parallel port device interface
116.It Xr x86/fdc 4
117Standard NEC 765 floppy disk controller.
118.It Xr mca 4
119MCA I/O bus.
120.It Xr x86/mem 4
121Main memory interface
122.It Xr pci 4
123PCI I/O bus.
124.It Xr eisa 4
125EISA I/O bus, either as main bus or via PCI-EISA bridge.
126.It Xr isa 4
127ISA bus and ISA devices, either as main bus or via PCI-ISA bridge.
128.It Xr isa 4
129isa I/O bus.
130.It Xr isapnp 4
131``bus'' for ISA devices with PnP support.
132.It Xr speaker 4
133console speaker device interface
134.El
135.\"
136.\"
137.\"
138.Pp
139PCMCIA devices are supported through the
140.Xr pcmcia 4
141bus and associated device drivers.
142.\"
143.\"
144.\"
145.Pp
146Cardbus devices are supported through the
147.Xr cardbus 4
148bus and associated device drivers.
149.\"
150.\"
151.\"
152.Pp
153USB devices are supported through the
154.Xr usb 4
155bus and associated device drivers.
156.\"
157.\"
158.\"
159.Pp
160Console devices using ISA, EISA, or PCI video adaptors and standard
161AT or PS/2 keyboards are supported by the machine independent
162.Xr wscons 4
163console driver.
164.\"
165.\"
166.\"
167.Sh SEE ALSO
168.Xr config 1 ,
169.Xr netintro 4 ,
170.Xr x86/autoconf 4
171.Sh HISTORY
172The
173.Tn i386
174.Nm intro
175appeared in
176.Nx 1.0 .
177