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OpenBSD/hppa

Overview

The port of the OpenBSD Unix-like operating system to HP PA-RISC computers (OpenBSD/hppa) focuses on 32-bit workstations and some 64-bit models running in 32-bit mode. Hardware support is solid for most on-board components and HP expansion options; in contrast to HP-UX there is significant support for generic/third-party devices.

Work on an OpenBSD port to PA-RISC HP 9000/700 systems was started by Michael Shalayeff around 1999. Main sources of information and code at that time were mainly the previous porting efforts Lites/HPPA and MkLinux. The first more or less complete OpenBSD/hppa release was version 3.5, albeit still with limitations many unsupported machines and I/O devices.

NetBSD/hp700 is heavily based on OpenBSD/hppa, from the codebase of around 2001.

An OpenBSD/hppa64 port to support PA-RISC 2.0 computers running in 64-bit mode was started preliminary in 2007, but will probably not succeed due to lack of maintainership.

Since 2008/2009, work on the OpenBSD/hppa port stalled and became pretty quiet, similar to the other open-source PA-RISC ports.

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Supported systems

  1. System (hardware) is 64-bit but running in 32-bit mode

Unsupported systems: PA-RISC 1.0 systems and the older HP 9000/800 servers (Nova, the E-Class, and the even older systems). Also in doubt are some of the newer 64-bit server systems (with the rp designations), due to their very special chipsets and I/O systems.

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Supported hardware

Processors

32-bit PA-RISC 1.0 PA-7000, PA-7100, PA-7100LC, PA-7200 and PA-7300LC; some systems with 64-bit processors in 32-bit mode: PA-8000, PA-8200, PA-8500, PA-8600 and PA-8700.

Buses and chipsets

All PCI, GSC and Runway buses and onboard bus controllers (ASP, LASI, Dino/Cujo, U2/Uturn, Astro and Elroy) on the above machines are supported. Additionally, Yenta-compatible PCI-Cardbus bridges are supported, as for instance found on the RDI Precisionbook.

ISA/EISA and HP-PB buses and bus controllers are not supported. Support for the EISA bus controller is in progress.

Networking

All on-board Ethernet and Fast-Ethernet network interfaces on the above machines are supported; the FDDI on the 735/755 are not supported. Expansion cards for the GSC/HSC and PCI bus slots with a supported Ethernet (10, 100 and Gigabit) chipset (Intel i82596, DEC 21142/43 Tulip, Intel EtherExpress PRO/10 and PRO/100 series, Intel Gigabit chipsets, in various incarnations for the PCI bus, NE2000-compatible, 3Com 3c9xx EtherLink XL) should also work. PCMCIA (and to a lesser extent Cardbus) devices are supported in a compatible PCI-Cardbus bridges, including various WLAN and Ethernet cards (the OpenBSD port page has the current and complete list).

Storage

Storage is at the moment supported via either the NCR 53C700 narrow, NCR 53C710 Fast-Narrow, NCR 53C720 Fast-Wide (HVD/differential) or the NCR 53C875 Ultra-Wide SE SCSI controllers. GSC/HSC and PCI expansion cards with one of the 53C7x0 or 53C8xx SCSI chipsets and Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI adapters should also work, though are not neccessarily bootable.

Various newer PCI SCSI controllers based on Adaptec (AHA) and LSI Fusion-MPT chipsets are also supported, though also not bootable.

Graphics

All on-board graphics adapters are supported for text-mode via STI routines (similar to PC VGA BIOS), additionally the CRX, CRX-24, HCRX-8, HCRX-24, Visualize-EG and Visualize-FX (FX2, FX4 and FX6) graphics expansion boards (GSC and PCI) are supported. At the present, there is no working X server for OpenBSD/hppa, so there are no graphics (X11) capabilities for now.

Human I/O and multimedia

Input/output is supported via PS/2 or HIL on-board interfaces, though not all HIL devices are supported.

Various USB devices are supported, including networking adapters and I/O devices attached to expansion USB controllers (PCMCIA/PCI).

The on-board 16-bit Harmony audio device, found on many PA-RISC workstations, is supported.

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Software

Please check for newer supported OpenBSD software versions, which may have changed since the last version of this page.

Releases

Add-on software

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References

Manuals

Websites

Other documents

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