OpenBSD/alpha

OpenBSD/alpha runs on a large set of the alpha computers manufactured by Digital (then Compaq, now Hewlett-Packard).

A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/alpha port is available at alpha@openbsd.org. To join the OpenBSD/alpha mailing list, send a message body of "subscribe alpha" to majordomo@openbsd.org. Please be sure to check our mailing list policy before subscribing.

Table of contents

• History of the port
• Current status
• Supported hardware
• Getting and installing OpenBSD/alpha

History:

The OpenBSD/alpha port was started in the summer of 1996 by using code from the NetBSD/alpha port which was started by Chris Demetriou in 1994. After the original OpenBSD port, some copyright issues prevented OpenBSD from tracking the NetBSD code. Regardless, work on the alpha port continued and many fixes were made. Meanwhile, NetBSD continued to make improvements to the alpha port which we were unfortunately unable to use. Over time, because of a lack of programmer resources and the inability to use NetBSD code, hardware and software support became very outdated. This caused the 2.5 and 2.6 releases of alpha to have few kernel enhancements. As a result of its becoming so stale, there was no OpenBSD/alpha port included in the 2.7 and 2.8 releases.

Shortly after OpenBSD 2.8 was released, there has been a great deal of interest in bringing the port up to date. This, coupled with the fact that NetBSD changed the license on its alpha code so that there were no longer copyright issues has lead to an effort to bring the alpha port back up. (For details on why we were not able to keep tracking the NetBSD code, check our policy page.)

Nathan Binkert, Art Grabowski, Niklas Hallqvist and Eric Jackson, with the help of a few others, eventually brought the port into good shape again, and starting with the 2.9 release OpenBSD/alpha is a supported OpenBSD port again.

Current status:

Currently, all the hardware listed in the supported hardware section below boots multi-user, and supports enough of the on-board devices to be generally usable, unless specified otherwise. A large set of PCI cards also work reliably, while ISA devices support has limitations.

X11 server support is currently broken on alpha.

Supported hardware:

To the best of our knowledge, the following hardware is supported, but there might be occasional breakage on some models. Since there are many models and combinations that have not been tested, we would appreciate very much if you told us about things that work and do not work. To help us keep track of what hardware people use, please mail your dmesg to dmesg@openbsd.org. If there are things that do not work, please file a bug report using sendbug(1).

Supported Machines:

• DS15, DS15A, DS25, ES45, TS15 and TS202C
• 264DP, CS20, DS10, DS20, DS20L, ES40, XP900, XP1000, and other EV6 machines using the Tsunami chipset
• API UP1000, UP1100, UP2000, and UP2000+ and other EV6 machines using the Irongate chipset
• Digital Personal Workstation (Miata)
  
• EB164 based machines (including PC164, 164SX, 164LX, but NOT the 164UX)
  
• AlphaStation 600A, 1200
• AlphaServer 800 (also known as Digital Server 3300 and 3305), 1000, 1000A
• AlphaServer 1200, 4000 and 4100
• AlphaServer 300, 400 and AlphaStation 200, 250, 255 and 400
• AlphaStation 500 and 600
• AXPpci based machines (including ``Noname'', UDB, Multia)
• DEC 3000 models 300{,L,X,LX}
• DEC 3000 models 400,500,500X,600,700,800,900

Unsupported Machines

• DECpc AXP150 (2000/300) ``Jensen'' systems (EISA-bus PC-like systems)
• AlphaServer 2000, 2100 and 2100A
• AlphaServer 8200, 8400, GS60 and GS140
• AlphaServer ES47, ES80 and GS1280
• AlphaServer GS80, GS160 and GS320
• Alpha XL systems (no SRM)
• DEC 4000, 7000, and 10000 systems (FutureBus+ and XMIBus-based)
• EB64+ based systems
• Samsung 164BX/UX (no SRM)
• VME Alpha systems
• Tadpole ALPHAbook

Supported devices

• Host Controllers and Bridges, including:
  • tcasic(4) TURBOchannel host bus,
  • lca(4) DECchip 21066 Core Logic,
  • apecs(4) DECchip 21072/21071 Core Logic,
  • cia(4) DECchip 2117x Core Logic,
  • tsc(4) DECchip 21272 and 21274 Core Logic,
  • irongate(4) API UP1000 AMD751 Core Logic and AGP,
  • mcbus(4) MCBUS System Bus.
• com(4) built-in serial.
• lpt(4) built-in parallel.
• de(4) built-in DEC Ethernet.
• fxp(4) built-in i8255x Ethernet.
• le(4) built-in LANCE Ethernet.
• isp(4) built-in ISP SCSI controller.
• ahc(4) built-in Adaptec SCSI controller.
• siop(4) built-in 53C810 SCSI controller.
• asc(4) built-in 53C94/53CF94-2 SCSI controller.
• pciide(4) built-in IDE controller.
• usb(4) built-in USB supports most USB devices.
• uvideo(4) UVC-compatible Video devices.
• pci(4) most PCI devices.
• isa(4) some ISA devices.
• eisa(4) some EISA devices.
• pckbd(4) PS/2 and AT keyboards.
• pms(4) PS/2 mice.
• le(4) TURBOchannel LANCE Ethernet cards (PMAD-A) on DEC 3000.
• asc(4) TURBOchannel SCSI (53C94) (PMAZ-A) on DEC 3000.

Unsupported devices

• Floppy drive.
• ISA devices that require DMA operation.
• ISA IDE controller (wdc) on the EB164.
• Built-in framebuffer on DEC 3000.

Getting and installing OpenBSD/alpha:

The latest supported OpenBSD/alpha release is OpenBSD 5.4. Here are the OpenBSD/alpha 5.4 installation instructions .

Snapshots are made available from time to time, in this location as well as in a few mirrors. Here are the OpenBSD/alpha snapshot installation instructions as well.

There are several installation media provided:

• CD boot

  Booting off the OpenBSD CD provides an El Torito 2.88MB floppy image that contains drivers for the most popular devices found in alpha hardware. This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices, keyboard and some Ethernet adapters).
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, please take a look at the RAMDISKBIG kernel configuration file.

• Floppy A (floppy54.fs)

  This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware:

  • AlphaStation 200, 250, 255, 400
  • AlphaServer 800, 1000, 1000A, 1200, and 4100
  • AXPpci33 based machines, such as the ``Noname'', UDB, and Multia
  • EB164 based machines, such as the PC164, 164SX and 164LX
  • Personal Workstation (Miata)

  It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines, however due to lack of space there are only a few other drivers. In particular, this floppy lacks cdrom support and will not allow installation from cdrom media.
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, please take a look at the RAMDISK kernel configuration file.

• Floppy B (floppyB54.fs)

  This 1.44MB floppy image supports the following alpha hardware:

  • Alpha Processor, Inc. UP1000
  • XP1000, 264DP, DS10, and DS20, CS20
  • Alpha Processor, Inc. UP2000, UP2000+
  • DS15, DS15A, DS25, ES45, and TS15, TS202C

  It contains support for the on-board devices found on these machines, however due to lack of space there are only a few other drivers. In particular, this floppy lacks cdrom support and will not allow installation from cdrom media.
  For the latest list of drivers available on this image, please take a look at the RAMDISKB kernel configuration file.