INSTALLATION NOTES for OpenBSD/alpha 2.9 What is OpenBSD? ---------------- OpenBSD is a fully functional, multi-platform UN*X-like Operating System based on Berkeley Networking Release 2 (Net/2) and 4.4BSD-Lite. There are several operating systems in this family, but OpenBSD differentiates itself by putting security and correctness first. The OpenBSD team strives to achieve what is called 'a secure by default' status. This means that an OpenBSD user should feel safe that their newly installed machine will not be compromised. This 'secure by default' goal is achieved by taking a proactive stance on security. Since security flaws are essentially mistakes in design or implement- ation, the OpenBSD team puts as much importance on finding and fixing existing design flaws and implementation bugs as it does writing new code. This means that an OpenBSD system will not only be more secure, but it will be more stable. The source code for all critical system components has been checked for remote-access, local-access, denial- of-service, data destruction, and information-gathering problems. In addition to bug fixing, OpenBSD has integrated strong cryptography into the base system. A fully functional IPSEC implementation is provided as well as support for common protocols such as SSL and SSH. Network filtering and monitoring tools such as ipf, ipnat, and bridging are also standard. For high performance demands, support for hardware cryptography has also been added to the base system. Because security is often seen as a tradeoff with usability, OpenBSD provides as many security options as possible to allow the user to enjoy secure computing without feeling burdened by it. To integrate more smoothly in other environments, OpenBSD 2.9 also provides several binary emulation subsystems (which includes iBCS2, Linux, OSF/1, SunOS, SVR4, Solaris, and Ultrix compatibility), aiming at making the emulation as accurate as possible so that it is transparent to the user. Many new user programs and device drivers have been added in OpenBSD 2.9, as well, bringing it closer to our goal of supplying a complete and modern UN*X-like environment. Tools like perl and an improved ksh are standard, as are numerous other useful tools. Because OpenBSD is from Canada, the export of Cryptography pieces (such as SSH, IPSEC, and KerberosIV) to the world is not restricted. (NOTE: OpenBSD can not be re-exported from the US once it has entered the US. Because of this, take care NOT to get the distribution from an FTP server in the US if you are outside of Canada and the US.) OpenBSD/alpha 2.9 is a port to Alpha processor-based machines, such as some workstations manufactured by Digital (now Compaq), as well as OEM motherboards designed by Alpha Processor, Inc. This port is undergoing a lot of changes to improve stability and hardware coverage, although this release should be pretty usable. Sources of OpenBSD: ------------------- This is a list of currently known ftp servers: Argentina: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org.ar/pub/OpenBSD Australia: ftp://ftp.aba.net.au/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.au.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.it.net.au/mirrors/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.wiretapped.net/pub/OpenBSD ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/OpenBSD Austria: ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/OpenBSD Belgium: ftp://openbsd.rug.ac.be/pub/OpenBSD Canada: ftp://openbsd.sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.ca.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp1.ca.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD China (Hong Kong): ftp://ftp.shellhung.org/pub/OpenBSD France: ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.fr.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.grolier.fr/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp2.fr.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.bsdfr.org/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp3.fr.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD Germany: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.de.openbsd.org/unix/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp2.de.openbsd.org/unix/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.fh-wolfenbuettel.de/pub/os/openbsd ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.gigabell.net/pub/OpenBSD Greece: ftp://filoktitis.noc.uoa.gr/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.duth.gr/pub/OpenBSD Hungary: ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/OpenBSD Ireland: ftp://ftp.esat.net/pub/OpenBSD Italy: ftp://ftp.volftp.mondadori.com/mirror/openbsd Japan: ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.jp.openbsd.org/OpenBSD ftp://ftp2.jp.openbsd.org/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.netlab.is.tsukuba.ac.jp/pub/os/OpenBSD ftp://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/OpenBSD The Netherlands: ftp://ftp.calyx.nl/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.nl.uu.net/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/OpenBSD New Zealand: ftp://mirror.qsi.net.nz/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.nz.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD Norway: ftp://ftp.inet.no/pub/OpenBSD ftp://sunsite.uio.no/pub/OpenBSD Romania: ftp://quasar.uvt.ro/pub/OpenBSD Russia: ftp://ftp.chg.ru/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.radio-msu.net/pub/OpenBSD ftp://vell.nsc.ru/pub/OpenBSD Saudi Arabia: ftp://ftp.isu.net.sa/pub/mirrors/ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD South Korea: ftp://ftp.snu.ac.kr/pub/BSD/OpenBSD Spain: ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/OpenBSD Sweden: ftp://ftp.stacken.kth.se/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.se.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp1.se.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/OpenBSD Switzerland: ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/pub/OpenBSD Taiwan: ftp://openbsd.csie.nctu.edu.tw/pub/OpenBSD Thailand: ftp://ftp.riubon.ac.th/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.th.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.kmitl.ac.th/pub/OpenBSD United Kingdom: ftp://ftp.knowledge.com/pub/mirrors/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.plig.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://sunsite.org.uk/Mirrors/ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD USA: ftp://openbsd.cs.colorado.edu/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp6.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/pub/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp1.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp4.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.cerias.purdue.edu/pub/os/OpenBSD == ftp://ftp7.usa.openbsd.org/pub/os/OpenBSD ftp://archive.progeny.com/OpenBSD ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/OpenBSD ftp://download.sourceforge.net/pub/mirrors/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.geto.net/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.op.net/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.src.uchicago.edu/pub/OpenBSD ftp://ftp.tux.org/bsd/openbsd ftp://ftp.twoguys.org/pub/OpenBSD ftp://gandalf.neark.org/pub/distributions/OpenBSD ftp://mirror.csit.fsu.edu/pub/OpenBSD ftp://mirrors.rcn.net/pub/OpenBSD ftp://rt.fm/pub/OpenBSD As well, the file ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/2.9/ftplist contains a list which is continually updated. If you wish to become a distribution site for OpenBSD, contact miod@openbsd.org. OpenBSD 2.9 Release Contents: ----------------------------- The OpenBSD 2.9 release is organized in the following way. In the .../2.9 directory, for each of the architectures having an OpenBSD 2.9 binary distribution, there is a sub-directory. The alpha-specific portion of the OpenBSD 2.9 release is found in the "alpha" subdirectory of the distribution. That subdirectory is laid out as follows: .../2.9/alpha/ INSTALL.alpha Installation notes; this file. CKSUM Output of the cksum(1) and md5(1) programs MD5 usable for verification of the correctness of downloaded files. floppy29.fs The standard alpha boot and installation floppy; see below. *.tgz alpha binary distribution sets; see below. bsd A stock GENERIC alpha kernel which will be installed on your system during the install. bsd.rd A compressed RAMDISK kernel; the embedded filesystem contains the installation tools. Used for simple installation from a pre- existing system. In summary, there is one alpha floppy image called "floppy29.fs" (which you can copy to a floppy using rawrite.exe or `dd'; as described later in this document). This is a bootable install floppy which can be used both to install and to upgrade OpenBSD to the current version. It is also useful for maintenance and disaster recovery. Bootable installation/upgrade floppy: This disk contains a file system, is bootable, and has enough utilities on board to prepare your hard disk drive for OpenBSD and to install the OpenBSD distribution. It also holds the utilities needed in order to upgrade a system to the current version of OpenBSD. The OpenBSD/alpha binary distribution sets contain the binaries which comprise the OpenBSD 2.9 release for alpha systems. There are ten binary distribution sets. The binary distribution sets can be found in the "alpha" subdirectory of the OpenBSD 2.9 distribution tree, and are as follows: base29 The OpenBSD/alpha 2.9 base binary distribution. You MUST install this distribution set. It contains the base OpenBSD utilities that are necessary for the system to run and be minimally functional. It includes shared library support, and excludes everything described below. [ 49.9M gzipped, 133.6M uncompressed ] comp29 The OpenBSD/alpha Compiler tools. All of the tools relating to C, C++, and FORTRAN (yes, there are two!) are supported. This set includes the system include files (/usr/include), the linker, the compiler tool chain, and the various system libraries (except the shared libraries, which are included as part of the base set). This set also includes the manual pages for all of the utilities it contains, as well as the system call and library manual pages. [ 18.0M gzipped, 65.6M uncompressed ] etc29 This distribution set contains the system configuration files that reside in /etc and in several other places. This set MUST be installed if you are installing the system from scratch, but should NOT be used if you are upgrading. (If you are upgrading, it's recommended that you get a copy of this set and CAREFULLY upgrade your configuration files by hand.) [ 160.6K gzipped, 720.0K uncompressed ] game29 This set includes the games and their manual pages. [ 7.1M gzipped, 18.0M uncompressed ]) man29 This set includes all of the manual pages for the binaries and other software contained in the base set. Note that it does not include any of the manual pages that are included in the other sets. [ 3.4M gzipped, 13.1M uncompressed ] misc29 This set includes the system dictionaries (which are rather large), the typesettable document set, and man pages for other architectures which happen to be installed from the source tree by default. [ 1.6M gzipped, 5.4M uncompressed ] xbase29 This set includes the base X distribution. This includes programs, headers, libraries, configuration files. [ 44.1M gzipped, 114.1M uncompressed ] xshare29 This set includes all text files equivalent between all architectures. [ 1.4M gzipped, 8.3M uncompressed ] xfont29 This set includes all of the X fonts. [ 5.9M gzipped, 7.1M uncompressed ] xserv29 This set includes all of the X servers. [ 4.5M gzipped, 12.4M uncompressed ] OpenBSD System Requirements and Supported Devices: -------------------------------------------------- OpenBSD/alpha 2.9 is expected to run on the following hardware. If you have hardware that is listed here and are unable to run OpenBSD, or if you are able to run OpenBSD on hardware not listed here, please send mail to with as much information as possible. Supported hardware: XP1000, DS10, 264DP, and other single processor EV6 machines using the Tsunami chipset Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in DEC21143 ethernet. Built-in ISP SCSI. Built-in IDE controller. Built-in USB should work, but has not been thoroughly tested. Most PCI devices (see below). Some ISA devices (see below). Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. ISA devices that require DMA operation. API UP1000 machines and other EV6 machines using the Irongate chipset Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in DEC21040 ethernet. Built-in IDE controller works, though there may be stability issues. Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. ISA devices that require DMA operation. Digital Personal Workstation (Miata) Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in DEC21043 ethernet. Built-in ISP SCSI, when present (i.e. on ``au'' models). Built-in IDE controller. Most PCI devices (see below). Some ISA devices (see below). Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. Built-in audio. ISA devices that require DMA operation. EB164 based machines (including PC164, 164SX, 164LX, but NOT the 164UX) Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in PCIIDE controller, when present. PCI graphics card (TGA or VGA compatible). Most PCI devices (see below). Some ISA devices (see below). Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. ISA IDE controller on the EB164. ISA devices that require DMA operation. Alphastation 500 and 600 These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about them. Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in DEC21040 ethernet. Built-in ISP SCSI. Built-in IDE controller. PCI graphics card (TGA or VGA compatible). Most PCI devices (see below). Some ISA and EISA devices (see below). Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. Built-in audio. ISA devices that require DMA operation. AXPpci based machines (including ``Noname'', UDB, Multia) These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about them. Supported devices: Built-in serial and parallel ports. Built-in DEC21040 ethernet. Built-in 53C810 SCSI (using the old ncr driver). Built-in IDE controller. (though, will not boot from ide) PCI graphics card (TGA or VGA compatible). Most PCI devices (see below). Some ISA devices (see below). Unsupported devices: Floppy drive. ISA devices that require DMA operation. DEC 3000 models 300{,L,X,LX} These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about them. Supported devices: Built-in serial ports. Built-in LANCE ethernet. Built-in SCSI (53C94). TurboChannel LANCE ethernet cards (PMAD-A). (untested) Unsupported devices: Built-in ISDN/audio chip. Built-in framebuffer. Other TurboChannel cards. DEC 3000 models 400,500,500X,600,700,800,900 These systems should work, but we need to hear from people about them. Supported devices: Built-in serial ports. Built-in LANCE ethernet. Built-in SCSI (53C94 or 53CF94-2), although both scsi controlers may not work at the same time. TurboChannel LANCE ethernet cards (PMAD-A). (untested) Unsupported devices: Built-in ISDN/audio chip. Built-in framebuffer. Other TurboChannel cards. At this time none of the following systems are supported: DS20, API UP2000, UP2000+ (mostly because we don't have any to test on.) DECpc AXP150 (2000/300) systems (EISA-bus PC-like systems) AlphaServer systems, other than models 400 and 500, which seem to be disguised AlphaStation machines. Alpha XL systems. DEC 4000, 7000, and 10000 systems (FutureBus+ and XMIBus based). EB64+ based systems. Samsung 164BX/UX. (No SRM) Multiprocessor alpha systems. VME Alpha systems. Supported Peripherals: SCSI Host Adapters Adaptec AIC-7770-based SCSI host adapters (including the Adaptec AHA-274x and AHA-284x families). (ahc) Adaptec AHA-[23]94x[W] cards. (ahc) Adaptec AHA-[23]9[34]xU[2W] cards . (ahc) Adaptec AIC-789[29] chips and products like the AHA-29160 based upon it which do 160MB/sec SCSI. (ahc) QLogic PCI SCSI controllers (isp) Symbios Logic (NCR) 53C8xx-based PCI SCSI host adapters (Including generic/no name cards, old ASUS cards, the DTC-3130 series, Diamond Fireport series, etc.) (ncr) PCI IDE Controllers (pciide) Acer Labs M5229 CMD Tech PCI0640, PCI0643, PCI0646, PCI0648, and PCI0649 Contaq Microsystems/Cypress CY82C693 Any other PCI IDE-compliant controller should work, but are untested at this point Ethernet Adapters 3Com 3c9xx EtherLink XL adapters (xl), including: 3Com 3c900/3c900B PCI adapters 3Com 3c905/3c905B/3c905C PCI adapters 3Com 3c980/3c980C server adapters 3Com 3cSOHO adapter 3Com 3c900B-FL and 3c900B-FL/FX fiber optic adapters 3Com 3c990 3XP Typhoon/Sidewinder PCI adapters, including: 3CR990-TX-95 3CR990-TX-97 3CR990-TX-SVR95 3CR990-TX-SVR97 Intel i8255x-based (except the i82556) PCI adapters (fxp), including: Intel EtherExpress PRO/10+ Intel EtherExpress PRO/100, PRO/100B, and PRO/100+ Intel EtherExpress PRO/100+ "Management Adapter" Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 Dual Port Digital DC21x4x-based PCI adapters (de), including: Older SMC PCI EtherPower 10, 10/100 (models 8432, 9332, and 9334) Older LinkSys 10, 10/100 (newer models are supported by other drivers) Znyx ZX3xx Cogent EM100FX and EM440TX Digital PCI DE435, EISA DE425, DE450, DE500 Asante Almost all other variants work. FDDI Adapters Digital DEFPA PCI FDDI adapters (fpa) Cryptography Accelerators Hi/Fn 7751-based boards (hifn), including: GTGI PowerCrypt Encryption Accelerator NETSEC 7751 HiFn reference board Invertex AEON Sound Devices Ensoniq AudioPCI (eap) SoundBlaster PCI128 (eap) Untested Peripherals: The following peripherals are compiled into the system, but are not known to work. It's out best guess that they do, but any feedback is appreciated. SCSI Host Adapters AdvanSys ABP940UW, ASB3940UW-00, ASB3940U2W-00 and ASB3950U160 PCI SCSI controlers. (adw) RAID and Cache Controllers DPT SmartCache and SmartRaid III/IV PCI/EISA adapters (dpt) ICP-Vortex GDT 6xxxR[DNPS] series (gdt) Serial Ports Cyclades PCI Cyclom-{4, 8, 16}Y serial boards (cy) Communications Controllers Universal Serial Bus host controllers, including: USB Universal Host Controller (uhci) USB Open Host Controller (ohci) Ethernet Adapters 3Com 3c503 (ec) 3Com 3c509, 3c579, and 3c59x (ep) Adaptec "Starfire" AIC-6915 based PCI adapters (sf), including: Adaptec Single32 ANA-69011 Adaptec Single64 ANA-62011 and ANA-62020 Adaptec Duo64 ANA-62022 Adaptec Quartet64 ANA-62044 ADMtek AL981 ("Comet") and AN983 ("Centaur-P") based PCI adapters (dc), including: Accton EN2242 MiniPCI Linksys LNE100TX v4.x Mototech ME316 ADMtek AN986-based USB adapters (aue), including: Billionton Systems USB100 Corega FEther USB-TX D-Link DSB-650TX LinkSys USB100TX Melco Inc. LU-ATX SMC 2202USB Kingston KNU101TX AMD LANCE and PCnet-based PCI adapters (le), including: BOCALANcard/PCI AT&T StarLAN 10, EN100, and StarLAN Fiber ASIX 88140A/88141-based PCI adapters (dc), including: CNet Pro110B Alfa Inc. GFC2204 CATC USB-EL1210A-based USB adapters (cue), including: CATC Netmate and Netmate II Belkin F5U011/F5U111 Davicom DM9100, DM9102, and DM9102A based PCI adapters (dc), including: Jaton XpressNet Digital DC2114x-based four port cards, (de) including: Adaptec ANA-6944A Cogent EM400 Compex 400TX Znyx ZX346 Kawasaki LSI KL5KUSB101B-based USB adapters (kue), including: 3Com 3C19250 3Com 3c460 HomeConnect ADS Technologies USB-10BT Aox USB101 ATen UC10T Corega USB-T D-Link DSB-650 Entegra NET-USB-E45 Kawasaki USB101 LinkSys USB10T Netgear EA101 Peracom USB SMC 2102/2104USB I/O Data USB-ET/T Lite-On PNIC/PNIC-II-based adapters (dc), including: Kingston KNE110TX LinkSys LNE100TX Matrox Networks FastNIC 10/100 Netgear FA310TX Macronix 98713/98715/98725-based adapters (dc), including: Accton EN1217 Addtron AEF-320TX/AEF-330TX NDC Communications SOHOware SFA110A SVEC PN102-TX Fast Ethernet card National Semiconductor DP83815-based PCI adapters (sis), including: NetGear FA311 NetGear FA312 Novell NE1000, NE2000 (ISA, and PCI variants thereof) (ne) RealTek 8129/8139-based adapters (rl), including: Accton MPX 5030/5038 Allied Telesyn AT2550 D-Link DFE530TX+ D-Link DFE538TX Encore ENL832-TX 10/100 M PCI Genius GF100TXR KTX-9130TX 10/100 Fast Ethernet Longshine LCS-8038TX-R NDC NE100TX-E Netronix EA-1210 Net Ether 10/100 Nortel BayStack 21 OvisLink LEF-8129TX, LEF-8139TX SMC EZ Card 10/100 PCI 1211-TX SiS 900 and SiS 7016-based PCI adapters (sis), including: Mototech ME313 NetSurf NS-KFE30D SMC/WD 8003, 8013, and the SMC "Elite16" ISA boards (we) Sundance ST201-based PCI adapters (ste), including: D-Link DFE-550TX Texas Instruments ThunderLAN PCI adapters (tl), including: Compaq Netelligent PCI Adapters Compaq NetFlex 3/P Compaq Deskpro integrated adapter Compaq Prosignia integrated adapter Olicom OC2135, OC2183, OC2325, OC2326 Racore 8165 and 8148 TI ThunderLAN adapters Winbond W89C840F-based adapters (wb), including: Trendware TE100-PCIE Compex RL100-ATX 10/100 Please be aware that many NE2000 adapters fail or perform very poorly. We do not recommend using them, but your mileage may vary. Gigabit Ethernet Adapters Alteon Tigon I/II-based adapters (ti), including: 3Com 3c985 and 3c985B Alteon ACEnic V (fiber and copper) Digital EtherWORKS 1000SX Farallon PN9000SX Netgear GA620 and GA620T SGI Tigon Intel i82452-based adapters (wx), including: Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter SysKonnect SK-984x (9841/9842/9843/9844) based adapters (sk) ATM Adapters Efficient Networks EN-155 and Adaptec ANA-590x ATM interfaces (en) FDDI Adapters Digital DEFEA EISA FDDI adapters (fea) WAN Adapters Lan Media Corporation SSI (T1)/HSSI/DS1/DS3 WAN interfaces (lmc) Universal Serial Bus (USB) Devices USB Audio (uaudio) USB Diamond MultiMedia Rio MP3 players (urio) USB Ethernet adapters (aue, cue, kue), see above USB Generic Human Interface Devices (catch-all) (uhid) USB Handspring Visor (uvisor) USB Hubs (uhub) USB Keyboards (ukbd) USB Mass Storage devices, i.e., USB floppy drives and USB memory stick controllers (umass) USB Mice (umouse) USB Modems (umodem) USB Printers (ulpt) USB Scanners (uscanner, usscanner) USB-USB cables (upl) Sound Devices C-Media CMI8[37]38 (cmpci) ESS Solo-1 PCI AudioDrive (eso) Forte Media FM801 audio (fms) VIA VT82C686A SouthBridge integrated AC'97 audio (auvia) S3 SonicVibes (sv) Console frame buffers and keyboards are only supported on systems explicately mentioned above. On other systems, including all TurboChannel-based machines, OpenBSD/Alpha *must* be used with a serial console. Getting the OpenBSD System onto Useful Media: --------------------------------------------- Installation is supported from several media types, including: FFS partitions Tape Remote NFS partition CD-ROM FTP HTTP If you have the OpenBSD CD-ROM distribution (and a CD-ROM drive) you can boot from it. Otherwise, you will need to create a bootable disk. This may be a floppy or a hard disk (floppy is simplest). To boot from CD-ROM: At the SRM console enter "show device" to find the device ID of your CD-ROM drive (the device ID is in the second column and should start with DKA). If your drive shows up with a drive number with trailing zeros, you will want to ignore them (unless it is DKA0). For example, if your cdrom is listed as DKA600, you want to use dka6 (device ID's are case insensitive). Insert the OpenBSD/alpha CD and enter "boot -fi 2.9/alpha/bsd.rd DEVICE" where DEVICE is the dka device. Note that the argument order is important here. If this does not work, you'll have to create a boot floppy or bootable hard disk; follow the directions below. (A boot floppy image is included on the CD-ROM as 2.9/alpha/floppy29.fs.) If you have a floppy drive on your alpha: If you are using a UN*X-like system to write the floppy image to disk, you should use the "dd" command to copy the file system image (floppy29.fs) directly to the raw floppy disk. It is suggested that you read the dd(1) manual page or ask your system administrator to determine the correct set of arguments to use; it will be slightly different from system to system, and a comprehensive list of the possibilities is beyond the scope of this document. If you are using a DOS PC to write the floppy image to disk, you should use the "rawrite" utility, provided in the "2.9/tools" directory of the OpenBSD distribution. It will write the file system image (floppy29.fs) to a disk. You can boot it using "boot dva0". If you are using a NT to write the floppy image to disk, you should use the "ntrw" utility, provided in the "2.9/tools" directory of the OpenBSD distribution, instead. Note that, when installing, the floppy can be write-protected (i.e. read-only). If you don't have a floppy drive on your alpha: If you don't have a floppy drive you can copy the floppy image onto the hard disk you intend to install OpenBSD on. Doing so will overwrite the disk's old contents, however. You must use a UN*X-like system to write the floppy image to the hard disk you will be using for OpenBSD/alpha. You should use the "dd" command to copy the file system image (floppy29.fs) directly to the raw 'c' device (whole disk) of the target hard disk. It is suggested that you read the dd(1) manual page or ask your system administrator to determine the correct set of arguments to use; it will be slightly different from system to system, and a comprehensive list of the possibilities is beyond the scope of this document. Please note that this will put a floppy disklabel on your disk which will confuse the install script. To fix this you need to answer "n" to the first question when booting your disk and do "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rsd0c count=20" assuming your booted from sd0. After doing this you will not be able to boot that disk again unless you complete the install. You can now enter "install" and start the actual install process. The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation depend on which method of installation you choose. Some methods require a bit of setup first that is explained below. To install or upgrade OpenBSD using a tape, you need to do the following: To install OpenBSD from a tape, you need to make a tape that contains the distribution set files, in "tar" format. If you're making the tape on a UN*X-like system, the easiest way to do so is probably something like: tar cf where "" is the name of the tape device that describes the tape drive you're using (possibly /dev/rst0, or something similar, but it will vary from system to system. (If you can't figure it out, ask your system administrator.) In the above example, "" are the distribution sets' directories, for the distribution sets you wish to place on the tape. For instance, to put the "base29" and "etc29" distributions on tape (in order to do the absolute minimum installation to a new disk), you would do the following: cd .../2.9 # the top of the tree cd alpha/ tar cf base29 etc29 (Note that you still need to fill in "" in the example.) Once you have the files on the tape, you can proceed to the next step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're installing OpenBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing installation, go directly to the section on upgrading. To install OpenBSD using a remote partition, mounted via NFS, you must do the following: NOTE: This method of installation is recommended only for those already familiar with using BSD network configuration and management commands. If you aren't, this documentation should help, but is not intended to be all-encompassing. Place the OpenBSD distribution sets you wish to install into a directory on an NFS server, and make that directory mountable by the machine on which you are installing or upgrading OpenBSD. This will probably require modifying the /etc/exports file on of the NFS server and resetting its mount daemon (mountd). (Both of these actions will probably require superuser privileges on the server.) You need to know the numeric IP address of the NFS server, and, if the server is not on a network directly connected to the machine on which you're installing or upgrading OpenBSD, you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest to the OpenBSD machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric IP address of the OpenBSD machine itself. Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're installing OpenBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing installation, go directly to the section on upgrading. If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your existing file system, and using them from there. To do that, you must do the following: Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere in your current file system tree. At a bare minimum, you must upgrade the "base" binary distribution, and so must put the "base29" set somewhere in your file system. If you wish, you can do the other sets, as well, but you should NOT upgrade the "etc" distribution; the "etc" distribution contains system configuration files that you should review and update by hand. Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next step in the upgrade process, actually upgrading your system. Preparing your System for OpenBSD Installation: ----------------------------------------------- OpenBSD/alpha requires the SRM console. Some alphas come with the ARC firmware instead (this is what Windows NT uses). It is fairly simple to replace the ARC firmware with the SRM version. You can get replacement firmware either from a firmware update CD or via ftp from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/. AXPPCI33 Motherboard notes: The 1994 version of the OEM guide has an incorrect pinout for the serial ports. The newer version from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/axppci/design_guide.ps.Z has a corrected pinout (as well as more information than the 1994 edition). Note that there are two flavors of PC serial connectors. If you have the wrong kind, you won't get any output from the serial console. Acquiring and updating firmware: As of May, 1997, the latest firmware version available for ftp is version 3.9. To update an alpha with an axppci33 motherboard from ARC firmware to SRM one would ftp to ftp.digital.com and download /pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/v3.9/decaxppci33/decaxppci33_v1_6.exe then copy it to a FAT-formatted (ie: DOS) floppy with the name FWUPDATE.EXE. Now that you have your new firmware on a floppy you just need to insert it into your machine's floppy drive and turn on the machine. To actually update the firmware you need to choose the "Supplementary menu" from the ARC console and then "Install new firmware". After fwupdate.exe is done loading from the floppy, enter "update srm" at the prompt and hit return. After the update is complete you may want to verify the update (if this was not done automatically) by entering "verify srm" at the prompt. Once this is done you can enter "exit" and cycle power on your machine. When it reboots you should be in the SRM console. Note that the procedure for updating SRM firmware from an existing version of the SRM console is different. Please see the README files that come with the firmware update for details. Using the SRM console: This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide on using the SRM firmware console. It should, however, give you enough information to boot OpenBSD/alpha. To see a list of devices connected to your alpha, you can use the "show device" command. For booting the devices you are interested in are "dva0" (the floppy drive) and "dka*" (the disk drives). You can set ROM variables by saying "set VARIABLE VALUE". Some variables you will want to set: auto_action Determines what happens when you turn power on, halt, or crash your machine. Valid values include "halt", "boot", and "restart". Most users will want to set this to "boot". bootdef_dev Default boot device (or list of devices). boot_file Name of the kernel to boot. If you don't set this "bsd" will be loaded. boot_osflags Flags to pass in to the kernel. For multiuser boot this needs to be set to "-a". booted_osflags Don't try to set this one directly. It will contain whatever flags the OS was last booted with. To set indirectly, boot with the -flags option, eg: "b dka0 -flags a" will boot into multi-user and set booted_osflags to "a". To see a list of all variables on your machine use the "show" command with no arguments. On systems with no framebuffer supported, including all TurboChannel-based machines, OpenBSD/Alpha *must* be used with a serial console. Setting an Alpha system to use a serial console is system-specific. The procedure for most common hardware is: DEC 3000/[4-9]00's: Flip the appropriate switch on the back of the machine. DEC 3000/300 family machines: Boot the machine with the keyboard/mouse connector unplugged. AlphaStations, AXPpci systems and most others: Get to the SRM console prompt. Enter "set console serial", then enter "init" or cycle power. See your owner's manual for more details on how to set your machine to use a serial console. Alpha-related URL's: ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/ Alpha related documents, software and firmware upgrades. http://www.digital.com/info/semiconductor/alpha.htm Alpha processor and support chip information. http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/computers/udb-man.ps.gz The Multia Service manual, in postscript form. http://www.alphalinux.org Alpha linux notes with a good introduction to Alpha chips/systems. http://www.redhat.com/support/mailing-lists/ The linux axp-list mailing list is probably the best source of alpha hardware related info, there's a searchable archive too. http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/alpha/ Pointers to documentation and supported systems. Installing the OpenBSD System: ------------------------------ Installing OpenBSD is a relatively complex process, but if you have this document in hand and are careful to read and remember the information which is presented to you by the install program, it shouldn't be too much trouble. Before you begin, you should know the geometry of your hard disk, i.e. the sector size (note that sector sizes other than 512 bytes are not currently supported), the number of sectors per track, the number of tracks per cylinder (also known as the number of heads), and the number of cylinders on the disk. The OpenBSD kernel will try to discover these parameters on its own, and if it can it will print them at boot time. If possible, you should use the parameters it prints. (You might not be able to because you're sharing your disk with another operating system, or because your disk is old enough that the kernel can't figure out its geometry.) You should now be ready to install OpenBSD. The following is a walk-through of the steps you will take while getting OpenBSD installed on your hard disk. If any question has a default answer, it will be displayed in brackets ("[]") after the question. If you wish to stop the installation, you may hit Control-C at any time, but if you do, you'll have to begin the installation process again from scratch. Using Control-Z to suspend the process may be a better option, or at any prompt enter '!' to get a shell, from which 'exit' will return you back to that prompt (no refresh of the prompt though). If you are using the floppy29.fs floppy, type "boot dva0" and hit return when presented with the SRM console prompt. You should see info about the primary and secondary boot and then the kernel should start to load. It will take a while to load the kernel from the floppy, most likely more than a minute. If some action doesn't eventually happen, or the spinning cursor has stopped and nothing further has happened, either your boot floppy is bad or you are having hardware problems. Either you have a bad boot floppy (in which case you should try another) or your alpha is not currently supported by OpenBSD. If you are booting from the CD-ROM, type "show device" and hit return when presented with the SRM console prompt. You should see a list of devices; the SCSI devices will start with "DKA". Find the SCSI device that is your CD-ROM and enter "boot dka4 -fi 2.9/alpha/bsd", assuming that your CD-ROM was listed as DKA4* (substitute the SCSI id of your CD-ROM for the "4"). You should see info about the primary and secondary boot and then the kernel should start to load. If the kernel fails to load or the spinning cursor has stopped and nothing further has happened, you either have a hardware problem or your alpha is not currently supported by OpenBSD; try booting from a floppy instead. Once the kernel has loaded, you will be presented with the OpenBSD kernel boot messages. You will want to read them to determine your disk's name and geometry. Its name will be something like "sd0" or "wd0" and the geometry will be printed on a line that begins with its name. As mentioned above, you will need your disk's geometry when creating OpenBSD partitions. You will also need to know the device name to tell the install tools what disk to install on. If you cannot read the messages as they scroll by, do not worry -- you can get at this information later inside the install program. While booting, you will probably see several warnings. You should be warned that the kernel can't figure out what device it booted from and that no swap space is present. Do not be alarmed, these are completely normal. The first warning occurs because while OpenBSD/alpha can boot from the floppy drive, the kernel itself lacks a floppy driver. When you reach the prompt asking you for a shell name, just hit return. You will next be asked for your terminal type. If you are installing from a non-serial console, the default of "sun" is correct. If you are installing from a serial console you should choose the terminal type from amongst those listed. (If your terminal type is xterm, just use vt100). After entering the terminal type you will be asked whether you wish to do an "install" or an "upgrade". Enter 'i' for a fresh install or 'u' to upgrade an existing installation. You will be presented with a welcome message and asked if you really wish to install (or upgrade). Assuming you answered yes, the install program will then tell you which disks of that type it can install on, and ask you which it should use. The name of the disk is typically "sd0" for SCSI drives or "wd0" for IDE drives. Reply with the name of your disk. Next the disk label which defines the layout of the OpenBSD file systems must be set up. The installation script will invoke an interactive editor allowing you to do this. Note that partition 'c' inside this disk label should ALWAYS reflect the entire disk, including any non-OpenBSD portions. If you are labeling a new disk, you will probably start out with an 'a' partition that spans the disk. In this case You should delete 'a' before adding new partitions. The root file system should be in partition 'a', and swap is usually in partition 'b'. It is recommended that you create separate partitions for /usr and /var, and if you have room for it, one for /home. For help in the disk label editor, enter '?' or 'M' to view the manual page (see the info on the ``-E'' flag). The swap partition (usually 'b') should have a type of "swap", all other native OpenBSD partitions should have a type of "4.2BSD". Block and fragment sizes are usually 8192 and 1024 bytes, but can also be 16384 and 2048 bytes. The install program will now label your disk and ask which file systems should be created on which partitions. It will auto- matically select the 'a' partition to be the root file system. Next it will ask for which disk and partition you want a file system created on. This will be the same as the disk name (e.g. "sd0") with the letter identifying the partition (e.g. "d") appended (e.g. "sd0d"). Then it will ask where this partition is to be mounted, e.g. /usr. This process will be repeated until you enter "done". At this point you will be asked to confirm that the file system information you have entered is correct, and given an opportunity to change the file system table. Next it will create the new file systems as specified, OVERWRITING ANY EXISTING DATA. This is the point of no return. After all your file systems have been created, the install program will give you an opportunity to configure the network. The network configuration you enter (if any) can then be used to do the install from another system using NFS, HTTP or FTP, and will also be the configuration used by the system after the installation is complete. If you select to configure the network, the install program will ask you for a name of your system and the DNS domain name to use. Note that the host name should be without the domain part, and that the domain name should NOT include the host name part. Next the system will give you a list of network interfaces you can configure. For each network interface you select to configure, it will ask for the IP address to use, the symbolic host name to use, the netmask to use and any interface-specific flags to set. The interface-specific flags are usually used to determine which media the network card is to use. The flags usually carry the following meaning: -link0 -link1 Use BNC (coaxial) port [default] link0 -link1 Use AUI port link0 link1 Use UTP (twisted pair) port After all network interfaces has been configured the install pro- gram will ask for a default route and IP address of the primary name server to use. You will also be presented with an opportunity to edit the host table. At this point you will be allowed to edit the file system table that will be used for the remainder of the installation and that will be used by the finished system, following which the new file systems will be mounted to complete the installation. After these preparatory steps has been completed, you will be able to extract the distribution sets onto your system. There are several install methods supported; FTP, HTTP, tape, CD-ROM, NFS or a local disk partition. To install from a tape, the distrib- ution sets must have been written to tape prior to running the installation program, either as tar images or as gzipped tar images. Note that installation from floppies is not currently supported. To install via FTP: To begin an FTP install you will need the following pieces of information. Don't be daunted by this list; the defaults are sufficient for most people. 1) Proxy server URL if you are using a URL-based ftp proxy (squid, CERN ftp, Apache 1.2 or higher). You need to define a proxy if you are behind a firewall that blocks outgoing ftp (assuming you have a proxy available to use). 2) Do you need to use active mode ftp? By default, ftp will attempt to use passive mode and fall back to an active connection if the server does not support passive mode. You only need to enable this option if you are connecting to a buggy ftp daemon that implements passive ftp incorrectly. Note that you will not be asked about active ftp if you are using a proxy. 3) The IP address (or hostname if you enabled DNS earlier in the install) of an ftp server carrying the OpenBSD 2.9 distribution. If you don't know, just hit return when asked if you want to see a list of such hosts. 4) The ftp directory holding the distribution sets. The default value of pub/OpenBSD/2.9/alpha is almost always correct. 5) The login and password for the ftp account. You will only be asked for a password for non-anonymous ftp. For instructions on how to complete the installation via ftp, see the section named "Common URL installations" below. To install via HTTP: To begin an HTTP install you will need the following pieces of information: 1) Proxy server URL if you are using a URL-based http proxy (squid, CERN ftp, Apache 1.2 or higher). You need to define a proxy if you are behind a firewall that blocks outgoing http connections (assuming you have a proxy available to use). 2) The IP address (or hostname if you enabled DNS earlier in the install) of an http server carrying the OpenBSD 2.9 distribution. If you don't know, just hit return when asked if you want to see a list of such hosts. 3) The directory holding the distribution sets. There is no standard location for this; You should use the directory specified along with the server in the list of official http mirror sites that you received in step 3. For instructions on how to complete the installation via http, see the section named "Common URL installations" below. To install from tape: In order to install from tape, the distribution sets to be installed must have been written to tape previously, either in tar format or gzip-compressed tar format. You will also have to identify the tape device where the distribution sets are to be extracted from. This will typically be "nrst0" (no-rewind, raw interface). Next you will have to provide the file number of the set that is to be extracted. Note that the file number starts at 1, which is the first file written to the tape, unless you have created a bootable tape, in which case the file number starts at 3. The install program will not automatically detect whether an image has been compressed, so it will ask for that information before starting the extraction. To install from CD-ROM: When installing from a CD-ROM, you will be asked which device holds the distribution sets. This will typically be either "cd0" or "acd0". Next you will be asked which partition on the CD-ROM the distribution is to be loaded from. This is normally partition "a". Next you will have to identify the file system type that has been used to create the distribution on the CD-ROM, this can be either FFS or ISO CD9660. The OpenBSD CD distribution uses the CD9660 format. You will also have to provide the relative path to the directory on the CD which holds the distribution, for the alpha this is "2.9/alpha". For instructions on how to complete the installation from the CD-ROM distribution, see the section named "Common file system installations" below. To install from a NFS mounted directory: When installing from a NFS-mounted directory, you must have completed network configuration above, and also set up the exported file system on the NFS server in advance. First you must identify the IP address of the NFS server to load the distribution from, and the file system the server expects you to mount. The install program will also ask whether or not TCP should be used for transport (the default is UDP). Note that TCP only works with newer NFS servers. You will also have to provide the relative path to the directory on the file system where the distribution sets are located. Note that this path should not be prefixed with a '/'. For instructions on how to complete the installation from the CD-ROM distribution, see the section named "Common file system installations" below. To install from a local disk partition: When installing from a local disk partition, you will first have to identify which disk holds the distribution sets. This is normally "wdN" or "sdN" where N is a number 0 through 9. Next you will have to identify the partition within that disk that holds the distribution, this is a single letter between 'a' and 'p'. You will also have to identify the type of file system residing in the partition identified. Currently, you can only install from partitions that has been formatted as the Berkeley fast file system (ffs). You will also have to provide the relative path to the directory on the file system where the distribution sets are located. Note that this path should not be prefixed with a '/'. For instructions on how to complete the installation from the a local disk partition, see the next section. Common file system installations: The following instructions are common to installations from local disk partitions, NFS mounted directories and CD-ROMs. A list of available distribution sets will be listed. You may individually select distribution sets to install or enter `all' to install all of the sets (which is what most users will want to do). You may also enter `list' to get a file list or `done' when you are done selecting distribution sets. You may also use wildcards in place of a file name, e.g. `*.tgz' or even `base*|comp*'. It is also possible to enter an arbitrary filename and have it treated as a file set. Once you have selected the file sets you want to install and entered `done' you will be prompted to verify that you really do want to extract file sets. Assuming you acquiesce, the files will begin to extract. If not, you will be given the option of installing sets via one of the other install methods. Common URL installations: Once you have entered the required information, the install program will fetch a file list and present a list of all the distribution sets that were found in the specified directory. (If no valid sets were found, you will be notified and given the option of unpacking any gzipped tar files found or getting a file list if none were found.) At this point you may individually select distribution sets to install or enter `all' to install all of the sets (which is what most users will want to do). You may also enter `list' to get a file list or `done' when you are done selecting distribution sets. You may also use wildcards in place of a file name, e.g. `*.tgz' or even `base*|comp*'. It is also possible to enter an arbitrary filename and have it treated as a file set. Once you have selected the file sets you want to install and entered `done' you will be prompted to verify that you really do want to download and install the files. Assuming you acquiesce, the files will begin to download and unpack. If not, you will be given the option of installing sets via one of the other install methods. When all the selected distribution sets has been extracted, you will be allowed to select which time zone your system will be using, all the device nodes needed by the installed system will be created for you and the file systems will be unmounted. For this to work properly, it is expected that you have installed at least the "base29", "etc29", and "bsd" distribution sets. Congratulations, you have successfully installed OpenBSD 2.9. When you reboot into OpenBSD, you should log in as "root" at the login prompt. You should create yourself an account and protect it and the "root" account with good passwords. You should have got a mail from the install program we recommend you to read, it contains answers to basic questions you might have about OpenBSD (like setting up your system, installing packages, getting more information about OpenBSD, sending in your dmesg output and more). This you can do by running mail and then just enter "1" to get the first message. You quit mail by entering "q". Some of the files in the OpenBSD 2.9 distribution might need to be tailored for your site. We recommend you run: man afterboot which will tell you about a bunch of the files needing to be reviewed. If you are unfamiliar with UN*X-like system administration, it's recommended that you buy a book that discusses it. Upgrading a previously-installed OpenBSD System: ------------------------------------------------ Be warned that upgrades may not be well supported currently for the alpha port. To upgrade OpenBSD 2.9 from a previous version, start with the general instructions in the section "Installing OpenBSD". Boot from the miniroot or the installation floppy. When prompted, select the (U)pgrade option rather than the (I)nstall option at the prompt in the install process. The upgrade script will ask you for the existing root partition, and will use the existing filesystems defined in /etc/fstab to install the new system in, and also preserve files in `/etc' which you are likely to have customized since a previous installation. Getting source code for your OpenBSD System: -------------------------------------------- Now that your OpenBSD system is up and running, you probably want to get access to source code so that you can recompile pieces of the system. A few methods are provided. If you have an OpenBSD CD, the source code is provided. Otherwise, you can get the pieces over the Internet using ANONCVS, CTM or FTP. For more information, see http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html http://www.openbsd.org/ctm.html http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html Using online OpenBSD documentation: ----------------------------------- Documentation is available if you first install the manual distribution set. Traditionally, the UN*X "man pages" (documentation) are denoted by 'name(section)'. Some examples of this are intro(1), man(1), apropos(1), passwd(1), and passwd(5). The section numbers group the topics into several categories, but three are of primary interest: user commands are in section 1, file formats are in section 5, and administrative information is in section 8. The 'man' command is used to view the documentation on a topic, and is started by entering 'man [section] topic'. The brackets [] around the section should not be entered, but rather indicate that the section is optional. If you don't ask for a particular section, the topic with the least-numbered section name will be displayed. For instance, after logging in, enter man passwd to read the documentation for passwd(1). To view the documentation for passwd(5), enter man 5 passwd instead. If you are unsure of what man page you are looking for, enter apropos subject-word where "subject-word" is your topic of interest; a list of possibly related man pages will be displayed. Adding third party software; ``packages'' and ``ports'': ------------------------------------------------------- As complete as your OpenBSD system is, you may want to add any of several excellent third party software applications. There are several ways to do this. You can: 1) Obtain the source code and build the application based upon whatever installation procedures are provided with the application. 2) Use the OpenBSD ``ports'' collection to automatically get any needed source file, apply any required patches, create the application, and install it for you. 3) Use the OpenBSD ``package'' collection to grab a pre-compiled and tested version of the application for your hardware. If you purchased the OpenBSD CD-ROM you already have several popular ``packages'', and the ``ports'' collection. Instructions for installing applications from the various sources using the different installation methods follow. If emacs is to be installed it should be installed first as it creates the ``info'' directory file that may be modified by other applications. You should also refer to the packages(7) manual page. Installing applications from the CD-ROM package collection: The OpenBSD CD-ROM ships with several applications pre-built for various hardware architectures. The number of applications vary according to available disk space. Check the directory 2.9/packages/alpha to see which packages are available for your hardware architecture. That directory will be on the same CD-ROM containing the OS installation files for your architecture. To install one or more of these packages you must 1) become the superuser (root) 2) mount the appropriate CD-ROM 3) use the ``pkg_add'' command to install the software Example (in which we use su(1) to get superuser privileges, thus you have to be in group "wheel", see the manual page for su(1)). $ su Password: # mkdir -p /cdrom # mount /dev/cd0a /cdrom # pkg_add /cdrom/2.9/packages/alpha/ # # umount /cdrom Package names are usually the application name and version with .tgz appended, e.g. emacs-20.3.tgz Installing applications from the ftp.openbsd.org package collection: All available packages for your architecture have been placed on ftp.openbsd.org in the directory pub/OpenBSD/2.9/packages/alpha/ You may want to peruse this to see what packages are available. The packages are also on the OpenBSD FTP mirror sites. See http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html for a list of current ftp mirror sites. Installation of a package is very easy. 1) become the superuser (root) 2) use the ``pkg_add'' command to install the software ``pkg_add'' is smart enough to know how to download the software from the OpenBSD ftp server. Example: $ su Password: # pkg_add ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/2.9/packages/alpha/emacs-20.3.tgz Packages available include (at least): ImageMagick-4.2.0.tgz m4-1.4.tgz Xaw3d-1.3.tgz mm-2.7.tgz aalib-1.2.tgz mpeg_lib-1.2.1.tgz afm-1.0.tgz mpeg_play-2.4.tgz autoconf-2.13.tgz netpbm-19940301.tgz bash-2.03.tgz netpipes-4.1.1-export.tgz bison-1.25.tgz nmh-1.0.tgz bzip2-0.9.0c.tgz pgp-2.6.3-intl.tgz compface-1.0.tgz pgp-2.6.3-usa.tgz cucipop-1.31.tgz pine-4.10.tgz dejagnu-1.3.tgz png-1.0.3.tgz egcs-1.1.2.tgz psutils-1.17-a4.tgz emacs-20.3.tgz psutils-1.17-letter.tgz enscript-1.6.1.tgz screen-3.7.6.tgz ethereal-0.5.1.tgz sharutils-4.2.tgz expect-5.28.tgz sniffit-0.3.5.tgz fetchmail-4.7.9.tgz freetype-1.2.tgz gettext-0.10.35.tgz tar-1.12.tgz ghostscript-5.10.tgz tcl-8.0.5.tgz gimp-1.1.4.tgz tcsh-6.08.00.tgz glib-1.2.1.tgz teTeX-0.4.tgz glimpse-4.1.tgz tiff-3.4.tgz gmake-3.77.tgz tk-8.0.5.tgz gnuplot-3.7.tgz transfig-3.2.1.tgz gtk+-1.2.1.tgz unzip-5.40.tgz gv-3.5.8.tgz viewfax-2.3.tgz id-utils-3.2.tgz wget-1.5.3.tgz idled-1.16.tgz xcolors-1.3.tgz iozone-2.01.tgz xfig-3.2.2.tgz ircii-2.8.2-epic3.004.tgz xntp3-5.93e-export.tgz ispell-3.1.20.tgz xpaint-2.5.5.tgz jove-4.16.tgz xpdf-0.80.tgz jpeg-6b.tgz xphoon-91.9.18.tgz lesstif-0.88.0.tgz xspread-2.1.tgz libslang-1.2.2.tgz xv-3.10a.tgz Note: these packages may not exist for all architectures; other packages may be added. Some packages are only available via ftp. Installing applications from the CD-ROM ports collection: The CD-ROM ``ports'' collection is a set of Makefiles, patches, and other files used to control the building and installation of an application from source files. Creating an application from sources can require a lot of disk space, sometimes 50 megabytes or more. The first step is to determine which of your disks has enough room. Once you've made this determination read the file README.ports on CD-ROM 2 to see how to copy or mount the ports directory. To build an application you must: 1) become the superuser (root) 2) have network access, or obtain the actual source files by some other means. 3) cd to the ports directory containing the port you wish to build. To build samba, for example, where you'd previously copied the ports files into the /usr/ports directory: cd /usr/ports/net/samba 4) make 5) make install 6) make clean Installing applications from the OpenBSD ports collection: See http://www.openbsd.org/ports.html for current instructions on obtaining and installing OpenBSD ports. You should also refer to the ports(7) manual page. Installing other applications: If an OpenBSD package or port does not exist for an application you're pretty much on your own. The first thing to do is ask ports@openbsd.org if anyone is working on a port -- there may be one in progress. If no luck there you may try the FreeBSD ports or NetBSD package collection. If you are on an i386 based machine it is quite possible that the FreeBSD port, if one exists, will work for you. If you can't find an existing port try to make your own and feed it back to OpenBSD. That's how our ports collection grows. Some details can be found at http://www.openbsd.org/porting.html with more help coming from the mailing list, ports@openbsd.org. Administrivia: -------------- There are various mailing lists available via the mailing list server at . To get help on using the mailing list server, send mail to that address with an empty body, and it will reply with instructions. There are also two OpenBSD Usenet newsgroups, comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.announce for important announcements and comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.misc for general OpenBSD discussion. To report bugs, use the 'sendbug' command shipped with OpenBSD, and fill in as much information about the problem as you can. Good bug reports include lots of details. Additionally, bug reports can be sent by mail to: bugs@OpenBSD.ORG Use of 'sendbug' is encouraged, however, because bugs reported with it are entered into the OpenBSD bugs database, and thus can't slip through the cracks. As a favor, please avoid mailing huge documents or files to the mailing lists. Instead, put the material you would have sent up for FTP somewhere, then mail the appropriate list about it, or, if you'd rather not do that, mail the list saying you'll send the data to those who want it.