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INTRO(4)             NetBSD/i386 Kernel Interfaces Manual             INTRO(4)


NAME

     intro -- introduction to i386 special files and hardware support


DESCRIPTION

     This section describes the special files, related driver functions, and
     networking support available in the system.  In this part of the manual,
     the SYNOPSIS section of each configurable device gives a sample specifi-
     cation 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 the hardware supported on the i386 (PC-clone)
     platform.  Software support for these devices comes in two forms.  A
     hardware 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 x86/autoconf(4).  A list of
     the supported devices is given below.


LIST OF DEVICES

     The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of the system.
     Devices are indicated by their functional interface.  Not all supported
     devices are listed.

     Standard builtin devices:
           com(4)      NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous
                       serial communications device interface
           x86/lpt(4)  Parallel port device interface
           x86/fdc(4)  Standard NEC 765 floppy disk controller.
           mca(4)      MCA I/O bus.
           x86/mem(4)  Main memory interface
           pci(4)      PCI I/O bus.
           eisa(4)     EISA I/O bus, either as main bus or via PCI-EISA
                       bridge.
           isa(4)      ISA bus and ISA devices, either as main bus or via PCI-
                       ISA bridge.
           isa(4)      isa I/O bus.
           isapnp(4)   ``bus'' for ISA devices with PnP support.
           speaker(4)  console speaker device interface

     PCMCIA devices are supported through the pcmcia(4) bus and associated
     device drivers.

     Cardbus devices are supported through the cardbus(4) bus and associated
     device drivers.

     USB devices are supported through the usb(4) bus and associated device
     drivers.

     Console devices using ISA, EISA, or PCI video adaptors and standard AT or
     PS/2 keyboards are supported by the machine independent wscons(4) console
     driver.


SEE ALSO

     config(1), netintro(4), x86/autoconf(4)


HISTORY

     The i386 intro appeared in NetBSD 1.0.

NetBSD 10.99                   February 26, 2021                  NetBSD 10.99