intro
—
introduction to special files and hardware support
This section describes the special files, related driver functions, and
networking support available in the system. In this part of the manual, the
SYNOPSIS section of each configurable device gives a sample specification for
use in constructing a system description for the
config(1) program. The
DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the console and/or in
the system error log /var/log/messages due to errors
in device operation; see
syslogd(8) for more
information.
This section contains both devices which may be configured into
the system and network related information. The networking support is
introduced in
netintro(4).
This section describes the hardware supported by
NetBSD/cobalt. Software support for these devices
comes in two forms. A hardware device may be supported with a character or
block device driver, or it may be used within the networking
subsystem and have a network interface driver. Block and
character devices are accessed through files in the file system of a special
type; see mknod(8). Network
interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess communication
facilities provided by the system; see
socket(2).
A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration
time and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
into the system. When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration
facilities in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the
software support for it. If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
time it is not accessible at any time afterwards. To enable a device which
did not autoconfigure, the system must be rebooted.
The autoconfiguration system is described in
autoconf(4). A list of
the supported devices is given below.
The following systems are supported:
The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of the system.
Devices are indicated by their functional interface. Not all supported devices
are listed.
- gt
- PCI bridge
- com
- serial communications interface
PCI devices are supported through the
pci(4) bus and associated
device drivers.
This cobalt intro
appeared in NetBSD
2.0.