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99b86d5d | 1 | RELEASE NOTES |
a6632a1f | 2 | FreeBSD |
2742b299 | 3 | Release 1.1 |
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4 | |
5 | 1. Technical overview | |
6 | --------------------- | |
7 | ||
8 | FreeBSD is a freely available, full source 4.3 (+4.4 enhancements) BSD | |
9 | release for Intel i386/i486 (or compatable) based PC's. It is based | |
10 | heavily on Bill Jolitz's 386BSD 0.1, with additions from "the patchkit", | |
8157879c | 11 | NetBSD, CSRG, and the Free Software Foundation. |
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12 | |
13 | Many hundreds of bugs from the 386BSD 0.1 distribution were fixed, | |
14 | and many out-of-date pieces of software were upgraded to their current | |
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15 | releases in the GAMMA distribution. This 1.1 distribution fixes |
16 | many of the first-run problems our BETA and GAMMA users reported back | |
f82c2b3e | 17 | to us. |
a6632a1f | 18 | |
76cd42c2 JH |
19 | Additionally, many packages such as XFree86 2.1, xview 3.2, elm, nntp, |
20 | mh, InterViews and dozens of other miscellaneous utilities have been ported | |
21 | and are now available as add-ons. See then next section of this document | |
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22 | for more details. |
23 | ||
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24 | For a list of contributors, please see the files "CONTRIB.FreeBSD" and |
25 | "CONTRIB.386BSD", which should be bundled with your distribution. | |
a6632a1f | 26 | |
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27 | The core of FreeBSD does not contain DES code which would inhibit its |
28 | being exported outside the United States. There is an add-on package | |
29 | to the core distribution, for use only in the United States, that | |
30 | contains the programs that normally use DES. The auxilliary packages | |
76cd42c2 JH |
31 | provided separately can be used by anyone. A freely (from outside the U.S.) |
32 | exportable European distribution of DES for our non U.S. users also exists | |
33 | and is described in the FreeBSD FAQ. | |
e61a4b91 | 34 | |
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35 | |
36 | 2. Supported Configurations | |
37 | --------------------------- | |
38 | ||
39 | FreeBSD currently runs on a wide variety of ISA and EISA bus based | |
40 | PC's, ranging from 386sx to 486 class machines (though the 386sx is | |
d5637648 | 41 | not recommended). Support for generic IDE or ESDI drive configurations, |
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42 | various SCSI controller, network and serial cards is also provided. |
43 | ||
44 | Following is a list of all currently known disk controllers and | |
45 | ethernet cards known to work with FreeBSD. Other configurations may | |
46 | very well work, and we have simply not received any indication of | |
47 | this. | |
48 | ||
49 | ||
50 | 2.1. Disk Controllers | |
51 | ||
930b7c21 NW |
52 | WD1003 (any generic MFM/RLL) |
53 | WD1007 (any generic IDE/ESDI) | |
a6632a1f | 54 | |
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55 | Adaptec 154x series ISA SCSI controller (as long as you have less than |
56 | 16MB of main memory). | |
a6632a1f | 57 | |
f82c2b3e | 58 | Adaptec 174x series EISA SCSI controller in standard and enhanced mode. |
a6632a1f | 59 | |
e5e36938 | 60 | [Note that Buslogic was formerly known as "Bustec"] |
f82c2b3e | 61 | Buslogic 545S. |
2742b299 | 62 | Buslogic 445S VLB SCSI controller |
e5e36938 | 63 | Buslogic 742A and 747. |
602acdf1 JH |
64 | Please see special notes in /usr/src/KNOWNBUGS (filed under bt742a.c) for |
65 | details concerning possible buggy firmware and undocumented switch settings | |
66 | that may be necessary for proper operation of your controller. | |
a6632a1f | 67 | |
51a64151 | 68 | DTC 3290 EISA SCSI controller in 1542 emulation mode. |
f82c2b3e | 69 | |
8157879c | 70 | Ultra Store 14F and 34F. |
a6632a1f | 71 | |
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72 | With all supported SCSI controllers, full support is provided for |
73 | SCSI-I & SCSI-II peripherals, including Disks, tape drives (including | |
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74 | DAT) and CD ROM drives. Note: This and the mcd driver (Mitsumi CDROM |
75 | inteface card) is the only way a CD ROM drive may be currently | |
76 | attached to a FreeBSD system; we do not support SoundBlaster CDROM | |
77 | interface, or other "mini SCSI" adapters. | |
a6632a1f | 78 | |
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79 | Some controllers have limitations with the way they deal with >16MB of memory, |
80 | due to the fact that the ISA bus only has a DMA address space of 24 bits. | |
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81 | If you do your arithmetic, you'll see that this makes it impossible to do |
82 | direct DMA to any address >16MB. This limitation is even true of some | |
83 | EISA controllers (which are normally 32 bit) when they're configured to | |
84 | emulate an ISA card, which they then do in *all* respects. This problem | |
85 | is avoided entirely by IDE controllers (which do not use DMA), true EISA | |
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86 | controllers (like the UltraStor or Adaptec 1742A) and most VLB (local bus) |
87 | controllers. In these cases, the system will use "bounce buffers" to | |
88 | to talk to the controller, and is generally the default. | |
2742b299 | 89 | |
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90 | |
91 | 2.2. Ethernet cards | |
92 | ||
93 | SMC Elite 16 WD8013 ethernet interface, and most other WD8003E, | |
5d542169 DG |
94 | WD8003EBT, WD8003W, WD8013W, WD8003S, WD8003SBT and WD8013EBT |
95 | based clones. | |
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96 | |
97 | Isolan AT 4141-0 (16 bit) | |
98 | ||
99 | Isolink 4110 (8 bit) | |
100 | ||
65182a05 | 101 | Novell NE1000, NE2000, and NE2100 ethernet interface. |
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102 | |
103 | 3Com 3C503 Etherlink II | |
104 | ||
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105 | 3Com 3C509 Ethernet cards |
106 | ||
107 | Toshiba ethernet cards | |
108 | ||
5d542169 | 109 | SMC Elite Ultra |
95da515c | 110 | |
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111 | |
112 | 2.3. Misc | |
113 | ||
d5637648 | 114 | Various 2 and 4 port serial/parallel cards. |
a6632a1f | 115 | |
1aa8213d AC |
116 | Simple (AST-like) multiport serial cards. |
117 | ||
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118 | BOCA ATIO66 6 port serial card using shared IRQ. |
119 | ||
120 | STB 4 port card using shared IRQ. | |
121 | ||
95da515c | 122 | Mitsumi (all models) CDROM interface and drive. |
a6632a1f | 123 | |
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124 | Adlib, Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro, ProAudioSpectrum, Gravis UltraSound |
125 | and Roland MPU-401 sound cards. | |
126 | ||
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127 | FreeBSD currently does NOT support IBM's microchannel (MCA) bus, but |
128 | support is apparently close to materializing. Details will be posted | |
129 | as they develop. | |
a6632a1f | 130 | |
d5637648 | 131 | |
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132 | 3. Obtaining FreeBSD. |
133 | --------------------- | |
134 | ||
135 | You may obtain FreeBSD in a variety of ways: | |
136 | ||
137 | 1. FTP/Mail | |
138 | ||
139 | You can ftp FreeBSD and any or all of its optional packages from | |
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140 | `freebsd.cdrom.com' - the offical FreeBSD release site. |
141 | ||
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142 | For other locations that mirror the FreeBSD software see the file |
143 | MIRROR.SITES. Please ftp the distribution from the nearest site | |
144 | to you netwise. | |
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145 | |
146 | If you do not have access to the internet and electronic mail is your | |
147 | only recourse, then you may still fetch the files by sending mail to | |
148 | `ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com' - putting the keyword "help" in your message | |
149 | to get more information on how to fetch files from freebsd.cdrom.com. | |
150 | Note: This approach will end up sending many *tens of megabytes* | |
151 | through the mail, and should only be employed as an absolute LAST | |
152 | resort! | |
153 | ||
154 | ||
155 | 2. CDROM | |
156 | ||
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157 | FreeBSD may be ordered on CDROM from: |
158 | ||
159 | Walnut Creek CDROM | |
160 | 4041 Pike Lane, Suite D | |
161 | Concord CA 94520 | |
162 | 1-800-786-9907, +1-510-674-0783, +1-510-674-0821 (fax) | |
163 | ||
164 | Or via the internet from orders@cdrom.com. There current catalog can | |
165 | be obtained via ftp as ftp.cdrom.com:/cdrom/catalog. | |
a6632a1f | 166 | |
b7693172 | 167 | Cost is $39.95. Shipping (per order not per disc) is $5 in the US, Canada, |
f82c2b3e | 168 | or Mexico and $10.00 overseas. They accept Visa, Mastercard, American |
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169 | Express, and ship COD to the United States. California residents please |
170 | add 8.25% sales tax. | |
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171 | |
172 | Should you be dissatisfied for any reason, the CD comes with an | |
173 | unconditional return policy. | |
174 | ||
f82c2b3e | 175 | Note that Walnut Creek CDROM does NOT provide technical support for FreeBSD, |
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176 | you need to contact the FreeBSD team for that. Please see section 4 for |
177 | more information. | |
178 | ||
f82c2b3e | 179 | |
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180 | It should be noted, lest you get the wrong impression that "FreeBSD" |
181 | is anything but, that almost no one in the "core team" makes money | |
182 | from distributions or anything else connected with FreeBSD. We simply | |
183 | provide this information as a public service for those wishing to get | |
184 | their releases from somewhere other than the net (and the easier it | |
b5263fb6 | 185 | is for you to obtain our software, the happier we are). |
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186 | |
187 | ||
188 | 4. Reporting problems, making suggestions, submitting code. | |
189 | ----------------------------------------------------------- | |
190 | ||
191 | Your suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are always | |
192 | valued - please do not hesitate to report any problems you may find | |
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193 | (preferably with a fix attached if you can!). |
194 | ||
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195 | The prefered method to submit bug reports from a machine with internet |
196 | mail connectivity is to use the sendbug command. Bug reports will be | |
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197 | dutifully filed by our faithful bugfiler program and you can be sure |
198 | that we'll do our best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as | |
199 | possible. | |
200 | ||
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201 | If, for some reason, you are unable to use the sendbug command to |
202 | submit a bug report, you can try to send it to: | |
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203 | |
204 | FreeBSD-bugs@freefall.cdrom.com | |
205 | ||
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206 | |
207 | Otherwise, for any questions or suggestions, please send mail to: | |
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208 | |
209 | FreeBSD-questions@freefall.cdrom.com | |
210 | ||
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211 | Additionally, being a volunteer effort, we are always happy to have |
212 | extra hands willing to help - there are already far more enhancements | |
213 | to be done than we can ever manage to do by ourselves! To contact us | |
214 | on technical matters, or with offers of help, you may send mail to: | |
215 | ||
216 | FreeBSD-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com | |
217 | ||
2742b299 JH |
218 | Since these mailing lists can experience significant amounts of |
219 | traffic, if you've got slow or expensive mail access and you're | |
220 | only interested in keeping up with significant FreeBSD events, you may | |
221 | find it preferable to subscribe to: | |
222 | ||
223 | FreeBSD-announce@freefall.cdrom.com | |
224 | ||
225 | ||
2ba9604f JH |
226 | All but the FreeBSD-bugs groups can be freely joined by anyone wishing to |
227 | do so. Send mail to MajorDomo@freefall.cdrom.com and include the keyword | |
228 | `help' on a line by itself somewhere in the body of the message. This | |
229 | will give you more information on joining the various lists, accessing | |
230 | archives, etc. | |
231 | ||
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232 | |
233 | 5. Acknowledgements | |
234 | ------------------- | |
235 | ||
236 | FreeBSD represents the cumulative work of many dozens, if not | |
237 | hundreds, of individuals from around the world who have worked very | |
238 | hard to bring you this release. It would be very difficult, if not | |
239 | impossible, to enumerate everyone who's contributed to FreeBSD, but | |
240 | nonetheless we shall try (in alphabetical order, of course). If your | |
241 | name is not mentioned, please be assured that its omission is entirely | |
242 | accidental. | |
243 | ||
244 | ||
5acd5d1c | 245 | The Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG), U.C. Berkeley. |
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246 | |
247 | Bill Jolitz, for his extensive work with 386BSD. | |
248 | ||
249 | The FreeBSD "core" group: | |
250 | ||
52371e11 | 251 | Andrew A. Chernov |
ca2c7c4c | 252 | John Dyson |
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253 | David Greenman |
254 | Rodney W. Grimes | |
255 | Jordan K. Hubbard | |
256 | Scott Mace | |
257 | Andrew Moore | |
258 | Rich Murphey | |
a35120d4 | 259 | Geoff Rehmet |
a6632a1f | 260 | Paul Richards |
a6632a1f | 261 | Andreas Schulz |
a6632a1f | 262 | Nate Williams |
b3f9c066 | 263 | Garrett A. Wollman |
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264 | |
265 | ||
266 | Special mention to: | |
267 | ||
268 | Robert Bruce and Jack Velte of Walnut Creek CDROM, without | |
269 | whose help (and continuing support) this release would never | |
270 | have been possible. | |
271 | ||
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272 | Dermot McDonnell for his donation of a Toshiba XM3401B CDROM |
273 | drive. | |
274 | ||
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275 | The NetBSD group for their frequent assistance and commentary. |
276 | ||
277 | Additional FreeBSD helpers and beta testers: | |
278 | ||
279 | Gary Browing Jon Cargille | |
52371e11 JH |
280 | J.T. Conklin Chris Demetriou |
281 | Julian Elischer Bruce Evans | |
282 | Sean Eric Fagan Guy Helmer | |
95da515c JH |
283 | Jeffrey Hsu Terry Lambert |
284 | Gary Moyer Jaye Mathisen | |
285 | Curt Mayer L Jonas Olsson | |
286 | Chris Provenzano Dave Rivers | |
52371e11 JH |
287 | Guido van Rooij Steven Wallace |
288 | Rick Weldon Terry Williams | |
a6632a1f | 289 | |
b5263fb6 | 290 | And everyone at Montana State University for their initial support. |
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291 | |
292 | ||
293 | Thanks to everyone, especially those not mentioned, and we sincerely | |
294 | hope you enjoy this release of FreeBSD! | |
295 | ||
296 | ||
297 | The FreeBSD Core Group | |
298 | ||
9e4a36a9 | 299 | $Id: RELNOTES.FreeBSD,v 1.30 1994/05/05 14:28:37 jkh Exp $ |