xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/intro.4 (revision 50b7afb2c2c0993b0894d4e34bf857cb13ed9c80)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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31.Dd $Mdocdate: June 29 2013 $
32.Dt INTRO 4 i386
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm intro
36.Nd introduction to special files and hardware support
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The manual pages in section 4 describe the special files,
39related driver functions, and networking support
40available in the system.
41In this part of the manual, the SYNOPSIS section of
42each configurable device gives a sample specification
43for use in constructing a system description for the
44.Xr config 8
45program.
46The DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the console
47and/or in the system error log
48.Pa /var/log/messages
49due to errors in device operation;
50see
51.Xr syslogd 8
52for more information.
53.Pp
54This section contains both devices
55which may be configured into the system
56and network related information.
57The networking support is introduced in
58.Xr netintro 4 .
59.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT
60This section describes the hardware supported on the i386
61(PC-clone) platform.
62Software support for these devices comes in two forms.
63A hardware device may be supported with a character or block
64.Em device driver ,
65or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
66.Em network interface driver .
67Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
68system of a special type; see
69.Xr mknod 8 .
70Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
71communication facilities provided by the system; see
72.Xr socket 2 .
73.Pp
74A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
75and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
76into the system.
77When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration facilities
78in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the software
79support for it.
80If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
81time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
82To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
83the system will have to be rebooted.
84.Pp
85The autoconfiguration system is described in
86.Xr autoconf 4 .
87.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
88A complete list of available devices is contained within the pages
89describing the system buses and controllers.
90For example, a PCI device would be listed in the
91.Xr pci 4
92man page.
93The following buses and controllers list these devices:
94.Pp
95.Bl -tag -width "cardbus(4)XX" -offset 3n -compact
96.It Xr cardbus 4
97introduction to CardBus support
98.It Xr eisa 4
99introduction to EISA bus support
100.It Xr iic 4
101Inter IC (I2C) bus
102.It Xr isa 4
103introduction to ISA bus support
104.It Xr isapnp 4
105introduction to ISA Plug-and-Play support
106.It Xr onewire 4
1071-Wire bus
108.It Xr pci 4
109introduction to PCI bus support
110.It Xr pcmcia 4
111introduction to PCMCIA (PC Card) support
112.It Xr usb 4
113introduction to Universal Serial Bus support
114.El
115.Sh SEE ALSO
116.Xr autoconf 4 ,
117.Xr cpu 4 ,
118.Xr config 8
119.Sh HISTORY
120The
121i386
122.Nm intro
123first appeared in
124.Nx 1.0 .
125