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OpenBSD/vax runs on a large set of the VAX computers manufactured by
Digital (then Compaq, now Hewlett-Packard).
A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/vax port is available at vax@openbsd.org. To join the OpenBSD/vax mailing list, send a message body of "subscribe vax" to majordomo@openbsd.org. Please be sure to check our mailing list policy before subscribing.
VAX has been a supported OpenBSD architecture since early 2000, when code was synchronized with NetBSD's port. Being the second architecture to run BSD Unix (in 1979!), it seems appropriate that these venerable vaxen should still have a modern OS.
The current codebase is mostly from Berkeley, with contributions of free code from Digital, Mt Xinu, NetBSD, OpenBSD and others.
After the port was synchronized with the NetBSD codebase, fixes and improvements were made, such as support for 16 partitions per drive, support for more VAX models, improved emulation of unimplemented instructions, and so on.
Development is ongoing, and changes are shared among VAX hackers even to this day. The result of this work is an operating system that is stable and familiar to any OpenBSD user.
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. Some models can only run diskless at the moment, though.
As of OpenBSD 4.0, most of the VAXstation frame buffers are supported.
Of course, regardless of frame buffer support, a complete set of X clients and utilities is available, allowing OpenBSD/vax machines to behave as X11 font servers, or run X clients on remote display.
There a few problems still left in the OpenBSD/vax port, though:
The list of supported hardware below is not meant to be exhaustive. Due to a limited inventory of systems available to developers, not all hardware combinations have been tested.
As a result, OpenBSD/vax may actually run on your machine even if it's not listed here, and we rely on your testing and feedback to keep this list up to date. To help us improve the accuracy of this list, PLEASE send your dmesg after installation to dmesg@openbsd.org.
Either one of the first two controllers are found onboard most 3100s and VAXstation 4000s, as well as the VAX 4000 10x series.
The VXT2000 monochrome frame buffer, the LEGSS 16 plane option and the SPXg/SPXgt options for VAXstation 4000s are not supported yet.
The latest supported OpenBSD/vax release is OpenBSD 5.4. Here are the OpenBSD/vax 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/vax snapshot installation instructions as well.