xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.evbarm/intro.4 (revision 3b4f5b4cb08298dee6385f0e73b088c41a5638dd)
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30.Dd May 27, 2020
31.Dt INTRO 4 evbarm
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm intro
35.Nd introduction to evbarm special files and hardware support
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37The evbarm port is really a collection of ports of
38.Nx
39to a range of development and evaluation boards based on the ARM Architecture.
40.Pp
41This section describes the supported boards, the special files,
42related driver functions, and networking support available in each system.
43In this part of the manual, the
44.Tn SYNOPSIS
45section of
46each configurable device gives a sample specification
47for use in constructing a system description for the
48.Xr config 1
49program.
50The
51.Tn DIAGNOSTICS
52section lists messages which may appear on the console
53and/or in the system error log
54.Pa /var/log/messages
55due to errors in device operation;
56see
57.Xr syslogd 8
58for more information.
59.Pp
60This section contains both devices
61which may be configured into the system
62and network related information.
63The networking support is introduced in
64.Xr netintro 4 .
65.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT
66This section describes some of the hardware supported on the various boards.
67Software support for these devices comes in two forms.
68A hardware
69device may be supported with a character or block
70.Em device driver ,
71or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
72.Em network interface driver .
73Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
74system of a special type; see
75.Xr mknod 8 .
76Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
77communication facilities provided by the system; see
78.Xr socket 2 .
79.Pp
80A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
81and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
82into the system.
83When the resultant system is booted, the
84autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device
85and, if found, enable the software support for it.
86If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
87time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
88To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
89the system must be rebooted.
90.Pp
91The autoconfiguration system is described in
92.Xr autoconf 4 .
93.Sh SEE ALSO
94.Xr config 1 ,
95.Xr autoconf 4
96.Sh HISTORY
97The
98.Tn evbarm
99.Nm intro
100appeared in
101.Nx 2.0 .
102