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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 (based on PA-7100, PA-7100LC, PA-7200 and PA-7300LC CPUs) and some 64-bit models running in 32-bit mode (based on PA-8000, PA-8200, PA-8500, PA-8600 and PA-8700).

The current (as of Summer 2007) release of OpenBSD/hppa is 4.2 and has more or less full support for the listed systems and hardware.

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.

The OpenBSD/hppa64 port to support PA-RISC 2.0 computers running in full 64-bit mode is in its beginning stages.

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Supported Systems

Systems supported by the 32-bit OpenBSD/hppa port.

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

Unsupported systems: there will probably never be support for both PA-7000 (and before) based systems and all of the older Series 800 servers (Nova, and the E-Class, and the even older systems). Also questionably are some of the very new (64-bit) server systems (many of those with rp-designations), due to their use of very special chipsets and I/O systems.

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Supported hardware

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 the works.

Networking

All on-board Ethernet and Fast-Ethernet network interfaces on any of the above machines are supported; the FDDI sliders 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 adapters and Ethernet cards (look on the OpenBSD port page for the current and complete list).

Storage

Storage-I/O 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 available in some of these machines. 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

Human-I/O is supported via either the PS/2 or HIL on-board interfaces, though not all HIL devices are supported.

Varous USB devices are supported, including networking adapters and various 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

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References

OpenBSD/hppa
Official page of the 32-bit PA-RISC port of OpenBSD. The OpenBSD Project (Aug 2007). Accessed 27 Aug 2007.
OpenBSD/hppa 4.2 release at ftp.openbsd.org
Contains binary snapshots of the current 4.2 release of 32-bit OpenBSD/hppa.
INSTALL.hppa of the 4.2 release
Extensive installation instructions for the OpenBSD/hppa 4.2 relase.
Snapshots directory at ftp.openbsd.org
Contains binary snapshots of the current development status of 32-bit OpenBSD/hppa.
INSTALL.hppa in the snapshots directory
Extensive installation instructions for the OpenBSD/hppa snapshot.
OpenBSD/hppa64
Official page of the 64-bit PA-RISC port of OpenBSD. The OpenBSD Project (May 2005). Accessed 12 Dec 2005.
Michael Shalayeff: OpenBSD on PA-RISC
Talk at New York City BSD User Group (NYCBUG) March 02, 2005. NYCBUG (2007). Accessed 28 Sep 2007.

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