xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.prep/intro.4 (revision ce099b40997c43048fb78bd578195f81d2456523)
1.\" $NetBSD: intro.4,v 1.2 2007/03/02 20:51:09 wiz Exp $
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7.\" by Tim Rightnour
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37.Dd March 1, 2007
38.Dt INTRO 4 prep
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm intro
42.Nd introduction to prep special files and hardware support
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44This section describes the special files, related driver functions,
45and networking support available in the system.
46In this part of the manual, the
47.Tn SYNOPSIS
48section of each configurable device gives a sample specification
49for use in constructing a system description for the
50.Xr config 1
51program.
52The
53.Tn DIAGNOSTICS
54section lists messages which may appear on the console
55and/or in the system error log
56.Pa /var/log/messages
57due to errors in device operation;
58see
59.Xr syslogd 8
60for more information.
61.Pp
62This section contains both devices
63which may be configured into the system
64and network related information.
65The networking support is introduced in
66.Xr netintro 4 .
67.Sh PMPPC DEVICE SUPPORT
68This section describes the hardware supported on the
69.Tn PowerPC Reference Platform
70machines.
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 will have to be rebooted.
93.Pp
94The autoconfiguration system is described in
95.Xr autoconf 4 .
96A list of the supported devices is given below.
97.Sh SEE ALSO
98.Xr config 1 ,
99.Xr autoconf 4 ,
100.Xr nvram 4 ,
101.Xr pnpbus 4
102.Sh HISTORY
103The
104.Tn prep
105.Nm intro
106man page first appeared in
107.Nx 4.0 .
108.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
109The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of
110the system.
111Devices are indicated by their functional interface.
112Not all supported devices are listed.
113.Pp
114The pnpbus is a psuedo-bus which is a configuration interface for certain
115devices on PReP machines.  These devices are defined in the PReP
116residual data with configuration information, similar to
117.Xr isapnp 4 .
118The underlying bus is generally ISA.
119.Pp
120ISA devices are supported through the
121.Xr isa 4
122bus and associated devices.
123.Pp
124PCI devices are supported through the
125.Xr pci 4
126bus and associated devices.
127.Pp
128USB devices are supported through the
129.Xr usb 4
130bus and associated devices.
131.Pp
132Additionally, the following specific devices are supported:
133.Bl -tag -width "xxxxxxxx" -compact -offset indent
134.It Em com
135serial ports
136.It Em nvram
137NVRAM chip
138.It Em wdc
139ISA IDE controller
140.It Em we
141Western Digital/SMC WD80x3 ethernet driver
142.It Em mcclock
143mc146818 compatible time-of-day clock
144.It Em mkclock
145Mostek MK48T18 time-of-day chip
146.El
147