xref: /netbsd/share/man/man4/man4.prep/intro.4 (revision 6550d01e)
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30.Dd March 1, 2007
31.Dt INTRO 4 prep
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm intro
35.Nd introduction to prep special files and hardware support
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37This section describes the special files, related driver functions,
38and networking support available in the system.
39In this part of the manual, the
40.Tn SYNOPSIS
41section of each configurable device gives a sample specification
42for use in constructing a system description for the
43.Xr config 1
44program.
45The
46.Tn DIAGNOSTICS
47section lists messages which may appear on the console
48and/or in the system error log
49.Pa /var/log/messages
50due to errors in device operation;
51see
52.Xr syslogd 8
53for more information.
54.Pp
55This section contains both devices
56which may be configured into the system
57and network related information.
58The networking support is introduced in
59.Xr netintro 4 .
60.Sh PMPPC DEVICE SUPPORT
61This section describes the hardware supported on the
62.Tn PowerPC Reference Platform
63machines.
64Software support for these devices comes in two forms.
65A hardware device may be supported with a character or block
66.Em device driver ,
67or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
68.Em network interface driver .
69Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
70system of a special type; see
71.Xr mknod 8 .
72Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
73communication facilities provided by the system; see
74.Xr socket 2 .
75.Pp
76A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
77and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
78into the system.
79When the resultant system is booted, the
80autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device
81and, if found, enable the software support for it.
82If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
83time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
84To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
85the system will have to be rebooted.
86.Pp
87The autoconfiguration system is described in
88.Xr autoconf 4 .
89A list of the supported devices is given below.
90.Sh SEE ALSO
91.Xr config 1 ,
92.Xr autoconf 4 ,
93.Xr nvram 4 ,
94.Xr pnpbus 4
95.Sh HISTORY
96The
97.Tn prep
98.Nm intro
99man page first appeared in
100.Nx 4.0 .
101.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
102The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of
103the system.
104Devices are indicated by their functional interface.
105Not all supported devices are listed.
106.Pp
107The pnpbus is a pseudo-bus which is a configuration interface for certain
108devices on PReP machines.
109These devices are defined in the PReP
110residual data with configuration information, similar to
111.Xr isapnp 4 .
112The underlying bus is generally ISA.
113.Pp
114ISA devices are supported through the
115.Xr isa 4
116bus and associated devices.
117.Pp
118PCI devices are supported through the
119.Xr pci 4
120bus and associated devices.
121.Pp
122USB devices are supported through the
123.Xr usb 4
124bus and associated devices.
125.Pp
126Additionally, the following specific devices are supported:
127.Bl -tag -width "xxxxxxxx" -compact -offset indent
128.It Em com
129serial ports
130.It Em nvram
131NVRAM chip
132.It Em wdc
133ISA IDE controller
134.It Em we
135Western Digital/SMC WD80x3 ethernet driver
136.It Em mcclock
137mc146818 compatible time-of-day clock
138.It Em mkclock
139Mostek MK48T18 time-of-day chip
140.El
141