intro(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

INTRO(4)            NetBSD/evbarm Kernel Interfaces Manual            INTRO(4)


NAME

     intro -- introduction to evbarm special files and hardware support


DESCRIPTION

     The evbarm port is really a collection of ports of NetBSD to a range of
     development and evaluation boards based on the ARM Architecture.

     This section describes the supported boards, the special files, related
     driver functions, and networking support available in each 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 sys-
     tem and network related information.  The networking support is intro-
     duced in netintro(4).


DEVICE SUPPORT

     This section describes some of the hardware supported on the various
     boards.  Software support for these devices comes in two forms.  A hard-
     ware 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 autoconfigura-
     tion 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 autoconf(4).


SEE ALSO

     config(1), autoconf(4)


HISTORY

     The evbarm intro appeared in NetBSD 2.0.

NetBSD 10.99                     May 27, 2020                     NetBSD 10.99