2 FreeBSD Release 4.0-SNAP
4 This is a 4.0-CURRENT release SNAPshot of FreeBSD, an active
5 development branch which is not expected to produce a release for
6 some time. This line of development branched from the 3.x line
7 on January 20, 1999; that branch will see continuing releases and
8 some features of 4.0 will be back-ported.
10 Any installation failures or crashes should be reported by using the
11 send-pr command (those preferring a Web-based interface can also see
12 http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html).
14 For information about FreeBSD and the layout of the 4.0-RELEASE
15 directory (especially if you're installing from floppies!), see
16 ABOUT.TXT. For installation instructions, see the INSTALL.TXT and
19 For the latest of these 4.0-current snapshots, you should always see:
21 ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD
23 If you wish to get the latest post-3.x-RELEASE technology.
27 1. What's new since the 3.1/4.0 branch
32 2. Supported Configurations
42 4. Upgrading from previous releases of FreeBSD
44 5. Reporting problems, making suggestions, submitting code
48 1. What's new since the 3.1/4.0 branch
49 --------------------------------------
50 All changes described here are unique to the 4.0 branch unless
51 specifically marked as [MERGED] features.
56 The VM system's anonymous storage subsystem (the ``swap pager'') has
57 been completely revamped.
59 An emulator for SVR4 binaries has been added.
61 Support has been added for direct access to NTFS filesystems.
69 The timezone database has been updated to catch all of the recent changes
70 in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Central and South America.
71 The timezone data files now contain a magic number allowing for easy
74 The f77 emulation via f2c has been updated to a current version.
77 2. Supported Configurations
78 ---------------------------
79 FreeBSD currently runs on a wide variety of ISA, VLB, EISA and PCI bus
80 based PC's, ranging from 386sx to Pentium class machines (though the
81 386sx is not recommended). Support for generic IDE or ESDI drive
82 configurations, various SCSI controller, network and serial cards is
85 What follows is a list of all peripherals currently known to work with
86 FreeBSD. Other configurations may also work, we have simply not as yet
87 received confirmation of this.
92 WD1003 (any generic MFM/RLL)
93 WD1007 (any generic IDE/ESDI)
97 Adaptec 1535 ISA SCSI controllers
98 Adaptec 154x series ISA SCSI controllers
99 Adaptec 174x series EISA SCSI controller in standard and enhanced mode.
100 Adaptec 274X/284X/2920C/294x/2950/3940/3950 (Narrow/Wide/Twin) series
101 EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI controllers.
102 Adaptec AIC7850, AIC7860, AIC7880, AIC789x, on-board SCSI controllers.
104 AdvanSys SCSI controllers (all models).
106 BusLogic MultiMaster controllers:
108 [ Please note that BusLogic/Mylex "Flashpoint" adapters are NOT yet supported ]
110 BusLogic MultiMaster "W" Series Host Adapters:
111 BT-948, BT-958, BT-958D
112 BusLogic MultiMaster "C" Series Host Adapters:
113 BT-946C, BT-956C, BT-956CD, BT-445C, BT-747C, BT-757C, BT-757CD, BT-545C,
115 BusLogic MultiMaster "S" Series Host Adapters:
116 BT-445S, BT-747S, BT-747D, BT-757S, BT-757D, BT-545S, BT-542D, BT-742A,
118 BusLogic MultiMaster "A" Series Host Adapters:
121 AMI FastDisk controllers that are true BusLogic MultiMaster clones are also
124 DPT SmartCACHE Plus, SmartCACHE III, SmartRAID III, SmartCACHE IV and
125 SmartRAID IV SCSI/RAID controllers are supported. The DPT SmartRAID/CACHE V
126 is not yet supported.
128 SymBios (formerly NCR) 53C810, 53C810a, 53C815, 53C820, 53C825a,
129 53C860, 53C875, 53C875j, 53C885, 53C895 and 53C896 PCI SCSI controllers:
131 Data Technology DTC3130 (all variants)
132 Diamond FirePort (all)
135 Tekram DC390W, 390U and 390F
139 QLogic 1020, 1040, 1040B and 2100 SCSI and Fibre Channel Adapters
141 DTC 3290 EISA SCSI controller in 1542 emulation mode.
143 With all supported SCSI controllers, full support is provided for
144 SCSI-I & SCSI-II peripherals, including hard disks, optical disks,
145 tape drives (including DAT and 8mm Exabyte), medium changers, processor
146 target devices and CDROM drives. WORM devices that support CDROM commands
147 are supported for read-only access by the CDROM driver. WORM/CD-R/CD-RW
148 writing support is provided by cdrecord, which is in the ports tree.
150 The following CD-ROM type systems are supported at this time:
151 (cd) SCSI interface (also includes ProAudio Spectrum and
153 (matcd) Matsushita/Panasonic (Creative SoundBlaster) proprietary
154 interface (562/563 models)
155 (scd) Sony proprietary interface (all models)
156 (acd) ATAPI IDE interface
158 The following drivers were supported under the old SCSI subsystem, but are
159 NOT YET supported under the new CAM SCSI subsystem:
161 Tekram DC390 and DC390T controllers (maybe other cards based on the
164 NCR5380/NCR53400 ("ProAudio Spectrum") SCSI controller.
166 UltraStor 14F, 24F and 34F SCSI controllers.
168 Seagate ST01/02 SCSI controllers.
170 Future Domain 8xx/950 series SCSI controllers.
172 WD7000 SCSI controller.
174 Adaptec 1510 series ISA SCSI controllers (not for bootable devices)
175 Adaptec 152x series ISA SCSI controllers
176 Adaptec AIC-6260 and AIC-6360 based boards, which includes the AHA-152x
177 and SoundBlaster SCSI cards.
179 [ Note: There is work-in-progress to port the AIC-6260/6360 and
180 UltraStor drivers to the new CAM SCSI framework, but no estimates on
181 when or if they will be completed. ]
183 Unmaintained drivers, they might or might not work for your hardware:
185 Floppy tape interface (Colorado/Mountain/Insight)
187 (mcd) Mitsumi proprietary CD-ROM interface (all models)
191 Allied-Telesis AT1700 and RE2000 cards
193 AMD PCnet/PCI (79c970 & 53c974 or 79c974)
195 SMC Elite 16 WD8013 ethernet interface, and most other WD8003E,
196 WD8003EBT, WD8003W, WD8013W, WD8003S, WD8003SBT and WD8013EBT
197 based clones. SMC Elite Ultra. SMC Etherpower II.
199 RealTek 8129/8139 fast ethernet NICs including the following:
200 Allied Telesyn AT2550
201 Allied Telesyn AT2500TX
202 Genius GF100TXR (RTL8139)
203 NDC Communications NE100TX-E
206 Netronix Inc. EA-1210 NetEther 10/100
207 KTX-9130TX 10/100 Fast Ethernet
208 Accton "Cheetah" EN1027D (MPX 5030/5038; RealTek 8139 clone?)
209 SMC EZ Card 10/100 PCI 1211-TX
211 Lite-On 82c168/82c169 PNIC fast ethernet NICs including the following:
212 LinkSys EtherFast LNE100TX
213 NetGear FA310-TX Rev. D1
214 Matrox FastNIC 10/100
216 Macronix 98713, 98713A, 98715, 98715A and 98725 fast ethernet NICs
217 NDC Communications SFA100A (98713A)
218 CNet Pro120A (98713 or 98713A)
222 Winbond W89C840F fast ethernet NICs including the following:
225 VIA Technologies VT3043 "Rhine I" and VT86C100A "Rhine II" fast ethernet
226 NICs including the following:
227 Hawking Technologies PN102TX
230 Texas Instruments ThunderLAN PCI NICs, including the following:
231 Compaq Netelligent 10, 10/100, 10/100 Proliant, 10/100 Dual-Port
232 Compaq Netelligent 10/100 TX Embedded UTP, 10 T PCI UTP/Coax, 10/100 TX UTP
233 Compaq NetFlex 3P, 3P Integrated, 3P w/ BNC
234 Olicom OC-2135/2138, OC-2325, OC-2326 10/100 TX UTP
235 Racore 8165 10/100baseTX
236 Racore 8148 10baseT/100baseTX/100baseFX multi-personality
238 ASIX Electronics AX88140A PCI NICs, including the following:
242 DEC EtherWORKS III NICs (DE203, DE204, and DE205)
243 DEC EtherWORKS II NICs (DE200, DE201, DE202, and DE422)
244 DEC DC21040, DC21041, or DC21140 based NICs (SMC Etherpower 8432T, DE245, etc)
245 DEC FDDI (DEFPA/DEFEA) NICs
247 Fujitsu MB86960A/MB86965A
249 HP PC Lan+ cards (model numbers: 27247B and 27252A).
251 Intel EtherExpress 16
252 Intel EtherExpress Pro/10
253 Intel EtherExpress Pro/100B PCI Fast Ethernet
255 Isolan AT 4141-0 (16 bit)
258 Novell NE1000, NE2000, and NE2100 ethernet interface.
262 3Com 3C503 Etherlink II
264 3Com 3c505 Etherlink/+
266 3Com 3C507 Etherlink 16/TP
268 3Com 3C509, 3C579, 3C589 (PCMCIA), 3C590/592/595/900/905/905B PCI and EISA
269 (Fast) Etherlink III / (Fast) Etherlink XL
271 3Com 3c980 Fast Etherlink XL server adapter
273 Toshiba ethernet cards
275 Crystal Semiconductor CS89x0-based NICs, including:
278 PCMCIA ethernet cards from IBM and National Semiconductor are also
281 Note that NO token ring cards are supported at this time as we're
282 still waiting for someone to donate a driver for one of them. Any
288 o ATM Host Interfaces
289 - FORE Systems, Inc. PCA-200E ATM PCI Adapters
290 - Efficient Networks, Inc. ENI-155p ATM PCI Adapters
292 o ATM Signalling Protocols
293 - The ATM Forum UNI 3.1 signalling protocol
294 - The ATM Forum UNI 3.0 signalling protocol
295 - The ATM Forum ILMI address registration
296 - FORE Systems's proprietary SPANS signalling protocol
297 - Permanent Virtual Channels (PVCs)
299 o IETF "Classical IP and ARP over ATM" model
300 - RFC 1483, "Multiprotocol Encapsulation over ATM Adaptation Layer 5"
301 - RFC 1577, "Classical IP and ARP over ATM"
302 - RFC 1626, "Default IP MTU for use over ATM AAL5"
303 - RFC 1755, "ATM Signaling Support for IP over ATM"
304 - RFC 2225, "Classical IP and ARP over ATM"
305 - RFC 2334, "Server Cache Synchronization Protocol (SCSP)"
306 - Internet Draft draft-ietf-ion-scsp-atmarp-00.txt,
307 "A Distributed ATMARP Service Using SCSP"
309 o ATM Sockets interface
314 AST 4 port serial card using shared IRQ.
316 ARNET 8 port serial card using shared IRQ.
317 ARNET (now Digiboard) Sync 570/i high-speed serial.
319 Boca BB1004 4-Port serial card (Modems NOT supported)
320 Boca IOAT66 6-Port serial card (Modems supported)
321 Boca BB1008 8-Port serial card (Modems NOT supported)
322 Boca BB2016 16-Port serial card (Modems supported)
324 Comtrol Rocketport card.
326 Cyclades Cyclom-y Serial Board.
328 STB 4 port card using shared IRQ.
330 SDL Communications Riscom/8 Serial Board.
331 SDL Communications RISCom/N2 and N2pci high-speed sync serial boards.
333 Stallion multiport serial boards: EasyIO, EasyConnection 8/32 & 8/64,
334 ONboard 4/16 and Brumby.
336 Specialix SI/XIO/SX ISA, EISA and PCI serial expansion cards/modules.
338 Adlib, SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, ProAudioSpectrum, Gravis UltraSound
339 and Roland MPU-401 sound cards. (snd driver)
341 Most ISA audio codecs manufactured by Crystal Semiconductors, OPTi, Creative
342 Labs, Avance, Yamaha and ENSONIQ. (pcm driver)
345 Matrox Meteor Video frame grabber
346 Creative Labs Video Spigot frame grabber
347 Cortex1 frame grabber
348 Hauppauge Wincast/TV boards (PCI)
350 Intel Smart Video Recorder III
351 Various Frame grabbers based on Brooktree Bt848 chip.
353 HP4020, HP6020, Philips CDD2000/CDD2660 and Plasmon CD-R drives.
359 X-10 power controllers
361 GPIB and Transputer drivers.
363 Genius and Mustek hand scanners.
365 Xilinx XC6200 based reconfigurable hardware cards compatible with
366 the HOT1 from Virtual Computers (www.vcc.com)
368 Support for Dave Mills experimental Loran-C receiver.
370 FreeBSD currently does NOT support IBM's microchannel (MCA) bus.
375 You may obtain FreeBSD in a variety of ways:
380 You can ftp FreeBSD and any or all of its optional packages from
381 `ftp.freebsd.org' - the official FreeBSD release site.
383 For other locations that mirror the FreeBSD software see the file
384 MIRROR.SITES. Please ftp the distribution from the site closest (in
385 networking terms) to you. Additional mirror sites are always welcome!
386 Contact freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org for more details if you'd like to
387 become an official mirror site.
389 If you do not have access to the Internet and electronic mail is your
390 only recourse, then you may still fetch the files by sending mail to
391 `ftpmail@ftpmail.vix.com' - putting the keyword "help" in your message
392 to get more information on how to fetch files using this mechanism.
393 Please do note, however, that this will end up sending many *tens of
394 megabytes* through the mail and should only be employed as an absolute
401 FreeBSD 3.0-RELEASE and 2.2.x-RELEASE CDs may be ordered on CDROM from:
404 4041 Pike Lane, Suite D
406 1-800-786-9907, +1-925-674-0783, +1-925-674-0821 (FAX)
408 Or via the Internet from orders@cdrom.com or http://www.cdrom.com.
409 Their current catalog can be obtained via ftp from:
411 ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/cdrom/catalog
413 Cost per -RELEASE CD is $39.95 or $24.95 with a FreeBSD subscription.
414 FreeBSD SNAPshot CDs, when available, are $39.95 or $14.95 with a
415 FreeBSD-SNAP subscription (-RELEASE and -SNAP subscriptions are entirely
416 separate). With a subscription, you will automatically receive updates as
417 they are released. Your credit card will be billed when each disk is
418 shipped and you may cancel your subscription at any time without further
421 Shipping (per order not per disc) is $5 in the US, Canada or Mexico
422 and $9.00 overseas. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American
423 Express or checks in U.S. Dollars and ship COD within the United
424 States. California residents please add 8.25% sales tax.
426 Should you be dissatisfied for any reason, the CD comes with an
427 unconditional return policy.
430 4. Upgrading from previous releases of FreeBSD
431 ----------------------------------------------
433 If you're upgrading from a previous release of FreeBSD, most likely
434 it's 3.0 and some of the following issues may affect you, depending
435 of course on your chosen method of upgrading. There are two popular
436 ways of upgrading FreeBSD distributions:
438 o Using sources, via /usr/src
439 o Using sysinstall's (binary) upgrade option.
441 [insert other notes here]
444 5. Reporting problems, making suggestions, submitting code.
445 -----------------------------------------------------------
446 Your suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are always
447 valued - please do not hesitate to report any problems you may find
448 (preferably with a fix attached, if you can!).
450 The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with
451 Internet mail connectivity is to use the send-pr command or use the CGI
452 script at http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html. Bug reports
453 will be dutifully filed by our faithful bugfiler program and you can
454 be sure that we'll do our best to respond to all reported bugs as soon
455 as possible. Bugs filed in this way are also visible on our WEB site
456 in the support section and are therefore valuable both as bug reports
457 and as "signposts" for other users concerning potential problems to
460 If, for some reason, you are unable to use the send-pr command to
461 submit a bug report, you can try to send it to:
463 freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org
465 Note that send-pr itself is a shell script that should be easy to move
466 even onto a totally different system. We much prefer if you could use
467 this interface, since it make it easier to keep track of the problem
468 reports. However, before submitting, please try to make sure whether
469 the problem might have already been fixed since.
472 Otherwise, for any questions or tech support issues, please send mail to:
474 freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org
477 Additionally, being a volunteer effort, we are always happy to have
478 extra hands willing to help - there are already far more desired
479 enhancements than we'll ever be able to manage by ourselves! To
480 contact us on technical matters, or with offers of help, please send
483 freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
486 Please note that these mailing lists can experience *significant*
487 amounts of traffic and if you have slow or expensive mail access and
488 are only interested in keeping up with significant FreeBSD events, you
489 may find it preferable to subscribe instead to:
491 freebsd-announce@FreeBSD.org
494 All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone wishing
495 to do so. Send mail to MajorDomo@FreeBSD.org and include the keyword
496 `help' on a line by itself somewhere in the body of the message. This
497 will give you more information on joining the various lists, accessing
498 archives, etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at
499 special interest groups not mentioned here, so send mail to majordomo
506 FreeBSD represents the cumulative work of many dozens, if not
507 hundreds, of individuals from around the world who have worked very
508 hard to bring you this release. For a complete list of FreeBSD
509 project staffers, please see:
511 http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/staff.html
513 or, if you've loaded the doc distribution:
515 file:/usr/share/doc/handbook/staff.html
520 The donors listed at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/donors.html
522 Justin M. Seger <jseger@freebsd.org> for almost single-handedly
523 converting the ports collection to ELF.
525 Doug Rabson <dfr@freebsd.org> and John Birrell <jb@freebsd.org>
526 for making FreeBSD/alpha happen and to the NetBSD project for
527 substantial indirect aid.
529 Peter Wemm <peter@freebsd.org> for the new kernel module system
530 (with substantial aid from Doug Rabson).
532 And to the many thousands of FreeBSD users and testers all over the
533 world, without whom this release simply would not have been possible.
535 We sincerely hope you enjoy this release of FreeBSD!