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13 <i>Open</i><b>BSD</b></a>
20 OpenBSD/i386 runs on the standard PCs and clones, with a wide variety
21 of processors, I/O bus architectures and peripherals supported.
26 <h3 id="history"><strong>History:</strong></h3>
29 The OpenBSD/i386 port has been present since the inception of the project.
30 Over the years, more and more hardware support has been written
31 specifically for OpenBSD (such as the cryptographic accelerator drivers),
32 or adapted from FreeBSD and NetBSD.
36 <h3 id="status"><strong>Current status:</strong></h3>
39 It can be expected to install and run with minimal difficulty on most current
41 Machines using custom BIOS (such as older proprietary PCs, laptops, and some
42 specialized server machines) may cause problems.
45 X Window System support is available for most graphics cards, using
46 the X.Org server. As with other free operating systems, it is highly recommended
47 that Nvidia cards are avoided since this vendor continues to show tremendous
48 resistance towards releasing information that would allow X.Org to support their
52 Due to the increased usage of <a href="amd64.html">OpenBSD/amd64</a>, as well
53 as the age and practicality of most i386 hardware, only easy and critical
54 security fixes are backported to i386. The project has more important things
59 <h3 id="hardware"><strong>Supported hardware:</strong></h3>
64 All CPUs compatible with the Intel Pentium or later, with Intel-compatible
65 hardware floating point support should work.
70 OpenBSD/i386 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor) systems,
71 including multi-chip, multi-core and/or hyperthreading designs.
72 To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (<code>bsd.mp</code>) is
73 included with the installation file sets.
75 <h3>Unsupported Hardware:</h3>
78 New hardware is constantly being released, some of which may lack support.
79 Your <a href="donations.html">donation of time, hardware, or documentation</a>
80 can accelerate this support!
84 <h3 id="multiboot"><strong>Installation with other operating systems:
88 OpenBSD/i386 can be installed to share the system disks with other operating
89 systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows or Linux, using the MBR/partition table
90 scheme, and an optional boot selector program.
91 Everyday operation is trouble free, but setup requires care, and several
92 operating systems, such as Windows 95, are known to be careless about
93 pre-existing MBR information.
96 Also, some laptop computers use a specific partition as suspend-to-disk
97 storage, which should not be clobbered.
100 More details on this process can be found in the
101 <a href="faq/faq4.html">Installation Guide</a> and
102 <a href="faq/faq14.html">Disk Setup Manual</a>.
107 <strong>Getting and installing OpenBSD/i386:</strong>
111 The latest supported OpenBSD/i386 release is
112 <a href="75.html">OpenBSD 7.5</a>.
114 <a href="https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.5/i386/INSTALL.i386">
115 OpenBSD/i386 installation instructions</a>.
118 Snapshots are made available from time to time, in
119 <a href="https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386">this location</a>
121 <a href="ftp.html">mirrors</a>.
123 <a href="https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386/INSTALL.i386">
124 OpenBSD/i386 snapshot installation instructions</a> as well.
127 There are several installation media provided:
130 <li><strong>CD image</strong> (install75.iso)
132 The CD ISO provides an <i>El Torito</i> no-emulation boot image
133 that includes almost all OpenBSD drivers.
134 This also includes minimal USB support (storage devices and keyboard).<br>
135 For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
136 <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK_CD?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK_CD</a>
137 kernel configuration file.
138 <li><strong>Disk image</strong> (miniroot75.img)
140 The same installer as the CD ISO, but in a form suitable for creating bootable
141 hard drives or USB flash drives.
142 <li><strong>Floppy</strong> (floppy75.img)
144 This 1.44MB floppy image contains the most common drivers.
145 It is designed to cover the most typical PC. As a general rule, you will
146 find that the missing drivers are ones which need large microcodes to run,
147 such as for rare SCSI cards, gigabit ethernet cards, or RAID devices.<br>
148 For the latest list of drivers available on this image, take a look at the
149 <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/RAMDISK?rev=HEAD">RAMDISK</a>
150 kernel configuration file.
