xref: /openbsd/share/man/man4/man4.i386/intro.4 (revision 404b540a)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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31.Dd $Mdocdate: October 9 2007 $
32.Dt INTRO 4 i386
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm intro
36.Nd introduction to special files and hardware support
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The manual pages in section 4 describe the special files,
39related driver functions, and networking support
40available in the system.
41In this part of the manual, the
42.Sx SYNOPSIS
43section of
44each configurable device gives a sample specification
45for use in constructing a system description for the
46.Xr config 8
47program.
48The
49.Sx DIAGNOSTICS
50section lists messages which may appear on the console
51and/or in the system error log
52.Pa /var/log/messages
53due to errors in device operation;
54see
55.Xr syslogd 8
56for more information.
57.Pp
58This section contains both devices
59which may be configured into the system
60and network related information.
61The networking support is introduced in
62.Xr netintro 4 .
63.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT
64This section describes the hardware supported on the i386
65(PC-clone) platform.
66Software support for these devices comes in two forms.
67A hardware device may be supported with a character or block
68.Em device driver ,
69or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
70.Em network interface driver .
71Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
72system of a special type; see
73.Xr mknod 8 .
74Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
75communication facilities provided by the system; see
76.Xr socket 2 .
77.Pp
78A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
79and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
80into the system.
81When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration facilities
82in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the software
83support for it.
84If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
85time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
86To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
87the system will have to be rebooted.
88.Pp
89The autoconfiguration system is described in
90.Xr autoconf 4 .
91.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
92A complete list of available devices is contained within the pages
93describing the system buses and controllers.
94For example, a PCI device would be listed in the
95.Xr pci 4
96man page.
97The following buses and controllers list these devices:
98.Pp
99.Bl -tag -width "cardbus(4)XX" -offset 3n -compact
100.It Xr cardbus 4
101introduction to CardBus support
102.It Xr eisa 4
103introduction to EISA bus support
104.It Xr iic 4
105Inter IC (I2C) bus
106.It Xr isa 4
107introduction to ISA bus support
108.It Xr isapnp 4
109introduction to ISA Plug-and-Play support
110.It Xr onewire 4
1111-Wire bus
112.It Xr pci 4
113introduction to PCI bus support
114.It Xr pcmcia 4
115introduction to PCMCIA (PC Card) support
116.It Xr usb 4
117introduction to Universal Serial Bus support
118.El
119.Sh SEE ALSO
120.Xr autoconf 4 ,
121.Xr cpu 4 ,
122.Xr config 8
123.Sh HISTORY
124The
125i386
126.Nm intro
127first appeared in
128.Nx 1.0 .
129