--- title: "FreeBSD/i386 4.7-RELEASE Hardware Notes" sidenav: download --- ++++

The FreeBSD Documentation Project


Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Supported Processors and Motherboards
3 Supported Devices
3.1 Disk Controllers
3.2 Ethernet Interfaces
3.3 FDDI Interfaces
3.4 ATM Interfaces
3.5 Wireless Network Interfaces
3.6 Miscellaneous Networks
3.7 ISDN Interfaces
3.8 Multi-port Serial Interfaces
3.9 Audio Devices
3.10 Camera and Video Capture Devices
3.11 USB Devices
3.12 Miscellaneous

1 Introduction

This document contains the hardware compatability notes for FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE on the IA-32 hardware platform (also referred to as FreeBSD/i386 4.7-RELEASE). It lists devices known to work on this platform, as well as some notes on boot-time kernel customization that may be useful when attempting to configure support for new devices.

Note: This document includes information specific to the IA-32 hardware platform. Versions of the hardware compatability notes for other architectures will differ in some details.


2 Supported Processors and Motherboards

FreeBSD/i386 runs on a wide variety of ``IBM PC compatible'' machines. Due to the wide range of hardware available for this architecture, it is impossible to exhaustively list all combinations of equipment supported by FreeBSD. Nevertheless, some general guidelines are presented here.

Almost all i386-compatible processors are supported. All Intel processors beginning with the 80386 are supported, including the 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, and variants thereof, such as the Xeon and Celeron processors. (While technically supported, the use of the 80386SX is specifically not recommended.) All i386-compatible AMD processors are also supported, including the Am486, Am5x86, K5, K6 (and variants), Athlon (including Athlon-MP, Athlon-XP, Athlon-4, and Athlon Thunderbird), and Duron processors. The AMD Élan SC520 embedded processor is supported. The Transmeta Crusoe is recognized and supported, as are i386-compatible processors from Cyrix and NexGen.

There is a wide variety of motherboards available for this architecture. Motherboards using the ISA, VLB, EISA, AGP, and PCI expansion busses are well-supported. There is some limited support for the MCA (``MicroChannel'') expansion bus used in the IBM PS/2 line of PCs.

Symmetric multi-processor (SMP) systems are generally supported by FreeBSD, although in some cases, BIOS or motherboard bugs may generate some problems. Perusal of the archives of the FreeBSD symmetric multiprocessing mailing list may yield some clues.

FreeBSD will generally run on i386-based laptops, albeit with varying levels of support for certain hardware features such as sound, graphics, power management, and PCCARD expansion slots. These features tend to vary in idiosyncratic ways between machines, and frequently require special-case support in FreeBSD to work around hardware bugs or other oddities. When in doubt, a search of the archives of the FreeBSD laptop computer mailing list may be useful.


3 Supported Devices

$FreeBSD: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/hardware/common/dev.sgml,v 1.13.2.68 2002/09/19 22:56:09 bmah Exp $

This section describes the devices currently known to be supported by with FreeBSD on the IA-32 platform. Other configurations may also work, but simply have not been tested yet. Feedback, updates, and corrections to this list are encouraged.

Where possible, the drivers applicable to each device or class of devices is listed. If the driver in question has a manual page in the FreeBSD base distribution (most should), it is referenced here.


3.1 Disk Controllers

IDE/ATA controllers ( ata(4) driver)



Adaptec SCSI Controllers



Ultra-320 SCSI controllers based on the Adaptec AIC7901, AIC7901A, and AIC7902 Ultra320 controller chips ( ahd(4) driver)



Adaptec 2100S/32x0S/34x0S SCSI RAID controllers ( asr(4) driver)

Adaptec 2000S/2005S Zero-Channel RAID controllers ( asr(4) driver)

Adaptec 2400A ATA-100 RAID controller ( asr(4) driver)

Adaptec FSA family RAID controllers ( aac(4) driver)



AdvanSys SCSI controllers (all models, adv(4) and adw(4) drivers)

BusLogic MultiMaster ``W'' Series Host Adapters ( bt(4) driver):



BusLogic MultiMaster ``C'' Series Host Adapters ( bt(4) driver):



BusLogic MultiMaster ``S'' Series Host Adapters ( bt(4) driver):



BusLogic MultiMaster ``A'' Series Host Adapters ( bt(4) driver):



Note: BusLogic/Mylex ``Flashpoint'' adapters are not yet supported.

Note: AMI FastDisk controllers that are true BusLogic MultiMaster clones are also supported.

Note: The Buslogic/Bustek BT-640 and Storage Dimensions SDC3211B and SDC3211F Microchannel (MCA) bus adapters are also supported.

DPT SmartCACHE Plus, SmartCACHE III, SmartRAID III, SmartCACHE IV and SmartRAID IV SCSI/RAID controllers ( dpt(4) driver)

DPT SmartRAID V and VI SCSI RAID controllers ( asr(4) driver)



AMI MegaRAID Express and Enterprise family RAID controllers ( amr(4) driver)

Note: Booting from these controllers is supported. EISA adapters are not supported.



Mylex DAC960 and DAC1100 RAID controllers with 2.x, 3.x, 4.x and 5.x firmware ( mlx(4) driver)

Note: Booting from these controllers is supported. EISA adapters are not supported.



Mylex PCI to SCSI RAID controllers with 6.x firmware ( mly(4) driver)

Note: Compatible Mylex controllers not listed should work, but have not been verified.



3ware Escalade ATA RAID controllers ( twe(4) driver)



LSI/SymBios (formerly NCR) 53C810, 53C810a, 53C815, 53C825, 53C825a, 53C860, 53C875, 53C875a, 53C876, 53C885, 53C895, 53C895a, 53C896, 53C1010-33, 53C1010-66, 53C1000, 53C1000R PCI SCSI controllers, either embedded on motherboard or on add-on boards ( ncr(4) and sym(4) drivers)



NCR 53C500 based PC-Card SCSI host adapters (ncv driver)



TMC 18C30, 18C50 based ISA/PC-Card SCSI host adapters (stg driver)



Qlogic controllers and variants ( isp(4) driver)



DTC 3290 EISA SCSI controller in 1542 emulation mode.

Tekram DC390 and DC390T controllers, maybe other cards based on the AMD 53c974 as well ( amd(4) driver)

Workbit Ninja SCSI-3 based PC-Card SCSI host adapters (nsp driver)



Parallel to SCSI interfaces ( vpo(4) driver)



SCSI adapters utilizing the Command Interface for SCSI-3 Support (ciss driver)



Intel Integrated RAID Controllers (iir driver)



Promise SuperTrak ATA RAID controllers (pst driver)



LSI Logic Fusion/MP architecture Fiber Channel controllers (mpt driver)



With all supported SCSI controllers, full support is provided for SCSI-I, SCSI-II, and SCSI-III peripherals, including hard disks, optical disks, tape drives (including DAT, 8mm Exabyte, Mammoth, and DLT), medium changers, processor target devices and CD-ROM drives. WORM devices that support CD-ROM commands are supported for read-only access by the CD-ROM drivers (such as cd(4)). WORM/CD-R/CD-RW writing support is provided by cdrecord(1), which is a part of the sysutils/cdrtools port in the Ports Collection.

The following CD-ROM type systems are supported at this time:



The following drivers were supported under the old SCSI subsystem, but are not yet supported under the new CAM SCSI subsystem:



The following device is unmaintained:




3.2 Ethernet Interfaces

Adaptec Duralink PCI Fast Ethernet adapters based on the Adaptec AIC-6915 Fast Ethernet controller chip ( sf(4) driver)



Allied-Telesis AT1700 and RE2000 cards ( fe(4) driver)



Alteon Networks PCI Gigabit Ethernet NICs based on the Tigon 1 and Tigon 2 chipsets ( ti(4) driver)



AMD PCnet NICs ( lnc(4) and pcn(4) drivers)



SMC 83c17x (EPIC)-based Ethernet NICs ( tx(4) driver)



National Semiconductor DS8390-based Ethernet NICs, including Novell NE2000 and clones ( ed(4) driver)



NE2000 compatible PC-Card (PCMCIA) Ethernet and FastEthernet cards ( ed(4) driver)



RealTek RTL 8002 Pocket Ethernet ( rdp(4) driver)

RealTek 8129/8139 Fast Ethernet NICs ( rl(4) driver)



Lite-On 82c168/82c169 PNIC Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



Macronix 98713, 98713A, 98715, 98715A and 98725 Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



Macronix/Lite-On PNIC II LC82C115 Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



Winbond W89C840F Fast Ethernet NICs ( wb(4) driver)



VIA Technologies VT3043 ``Rhine I'' and VT86C100A ``Rhine II'' Fast Ethernet NICs ( vr(4) driver)



Silicon Integrated Systems SiS 900 and SiS 7016 PCI Fast Ethernet NICs ( sis(4) driver)



National Semiconductor DP83815 Fast Ethernet NICs ( sis(4) driver)



National Semiconductor DP83820 and DP83821 Gigabit Ethernet NICs ( nge(4) driver)



Sundance Technologies ST201 PCI Fast Ethernet NICs ( ste(4) driver)



SysKonnect SK-984x PCI Gigabit Ethernet cards ( sk(4) drivers)



Texas Instruments ThunderLAN PCI NICs ( tl(4) driver)



ADMtek Inc. AL981-based PCI Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)

ADMtek Inc. AN985-based PCI Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



ADMtek Inc. AN986-based USB Ethernet NICs ( aue(4) driver)



CATC USB-EL1210A-based USB Ethernet NICs ( cue(4) driver)



Kawasaki LSI KU5KUSB101B-based USB Ethernet NICs ( kue(4) driver)



ASIX Electronics AX88140A PCI NICs ( dc(4) driver)



DEC EtherWORKS II and III NICs ( le(4) driver)



DEC DC21040, DC21041, DC21140, DC21141, DC21142, and DC21143 based NICs ( de(4) driver)



DEC/Intel 21143 based Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



Davicom DM9100 and DM9102 PCI Fast Ethernet NICs ( dc(4) driver)



Conexant LANfinity RS7112 (MiniPCI) ( dc(4) driver)

Fujitsu MB86960A/MB86965A based Fast Ethernet NICs ( fe(4) driver)



Intel 82557- or 82559-based Fast Ethernet NICs ( fxp(4) driver)



Intel 82595-based Ethernet NICs ( ex(4) driver)



Intel 82586-based Ethernet NICs ( ie(4) driver)



3Com 3C5x9 Etherlink III NICs ( ep(4) driver)



3Com 3C501 8-bit ISA Ethernet NIC ( el(4) driver)

3Com Etherlink XL-based NICs ( xl(4) driver)



3Com 3C59X series NICs ( vx(4) driver)



Crystal Semiconductor CS89x0-based NICs ( cs(4) driver)



Megahertz X-Jack Ethernet PC-Card CC-10BT (sn driver)

Xircom CreditCard adapters (16 bit) and workalikes (xe driver)



National Semiconductor DP8393X (SONIC) Ethernet cards (snc driver)



Gigabit Ethernet cards based on the Level 1 LXT1001 NetCellerator controller ( lge(4) driver)



Ethernet and Fast Ethernet NICs based on the 3Com 3XP Typhoon/Sidewinder (3CR990) chipset ( txp(4) driver)



Gigabit Ethernet NICs based on the Broadcom BCM570x ( bge(4) driver)



Gigabit Ethernet NICs based on the Intel 82542 and 82543 controller chips ( wx(4), gx(4) and em(4) drivers), plus NICs supported by the Intel 82540EM, 82544, 82545EM, and 82546EB controller chips ( em(4) driver only)

Note: The wx(4) driver is deprecated.

Note: The em(4) driver is officially supported by Intel, but is only supported on the i386.



Myson Ethernet NICs (my driver)




3.3 FDDI Interfaces

DEC DEFPA PCI ( fpa(4) driver)

DEC DEFEA EISA ( fpa(4) driver)


3.4 ATM Interfaces

Efficient Networks, Inc. ENI-155p ATM PCI Adapters (hea driver)

FORE Systems, Inc. PCA-200E ATM PCI Adapters (hfa driver)

The ATM support in FreeBSD supports the following signaling protocols:



Support for the IETF ``Classical IP and ARP over ATM'' model is provided, compliant with the following RFCs and Internet Drafts:



Support for an ATM sockets interface is also provided.


3.5 Wireless Network Interfaces

NCR / AT&T / Lucent Technologies WaveLan T1-speed ISA/radio LAN cards ( wl(4) driver)

Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA and ISA standard speed (2Mbps) and turbo speed (6Mbps) wireless network adapters and workalikes ( wi(4) driver)

Note: The ISA versions of these adapters are actually PCMCIA cards combined with an ISA to PCMCIA bridge card, so both kinds of devices work with the same driver.



Aironet 802.11 wireless adapters ( an(4) driver)



Raytheon Raylink 2.4GHz wireless adapters ( ray(4) driver)



AMD Am79C930 and Harris (Intersil) based 802.11 cards (awi driver)




3.6 Miscellaneous Networks

Granch SBNI12 point-to-point communications adapters (sbni driver)



SMC COM90cx6 ARCNET network adapters (cm driver)




3.7 ISDN Interfaces

AcerISDN P10 ISA PnP (experimental)

Asuscom ISDNlink 128K ISA

ASUSCOM P-IN100-ST-D (and other Winbond W6692-based cards)

AVM



Creatix



Compaq Microcom 610 ISDN (Compaq series PSB2222I) ISA PnP

Dr. Neuhaus Niccy Go@ and compatibles

Dynalink IS64PPH and IS64PPH+

Eicon Diehl DIVA 2.0 and 2.02

ELSA



ITK ix1 Micro ( < V.3, non-PnP version )

Sedlbauer Win Speed

Siemens I-Surf 2.0

TELEINT ISDN SPEED No.1 (experimental)

Teles



Traverse Technologies NETjet-S PCI

USRobotics Sportster ISDN TA intern

Winbond W6692 based PCI cards


3.8 Multi-port Serial Interfaces

AST 4 port serial card using shared IRQ

ARNET serial cards ( ar(4) driver)



Boca multi-port serial cards



Comtrol Rocketport card ( rp(4) driver)

Cyclades Cyclom-Y serial board ( cy(4) driver)

STB 4 port card using shared IRQ

DigiBoard intelligent serial cards ( dgb(4) driver)



PCI-Based multi-port serial boards ( puc(4) driver)



SDL Communication serial boards



Stallion Technologies multiport serial boards



Specialix SI/XIO/SX multiport serial cards, with both the older SIHOST2.x and the new ``enhanced'' (transputer based, aka JET) host cards (ISA, EISA and PCI are supported) ( si(4) driver)


3.9 Audio Devices

Advance ( sbc(4) driver)



CMedia sound chips



Crystal Semiconductor ( csa(4) driver)



ENSONIQ ( pcm(4) driver)



ESS



ForteMedia fm801

Gravis ( gusc(4) driver)



Intel 443MX, 810, 815, and 815E integrated sound devices ( pcm(4) driver)

MSS/WSS Compatible DSPs ( pcm(4) driver)

NeoMagic 256AV/ZX ( pcm(4) driver)

OPTi 931/82C931 ( pcm(4) driver)

S3 Sonicvibes

Creative Technologies SoundBlaster series ( sbc(4) driver)



Trident 4DWave DX/NX ( pcm(4) driver)

VIA Technologies VT82C686A

Yamaha




3.10 Camera and Video Capture Devices

Brooktree Bt848/849/878/879-based frame grabbers ( bktr(4) driver)



Connectix QuickCam

Cortex1 frame grabber (ctx driver)

Creative Labs Video Spigot frame grabber (spigot driver)

Matrox Meteor Video frame grabber ( meteor(4) driver)


3.11 USB Devices

A range of USB peripherals are supported; devices known to work are listed in this section. Owing to the generic nature of most USB devices, with some exceptions any device of a given class will be supported, even if not explicitly listed here.

Note: USB Ethernet adapters can be found in the section listing Ethernet interfaces.

Host Controllers ( ohci(4) and uhci(4) drivers)



USB host controllers (PCI)



Hubs



Keyboards ( ukbd(4) driver)



Miscellaneous



Modems (umodem driver)



Mice ( ums(4) driver)



Printers and parallel printer conversion cables ( ulpt(4) driver)



Serial devices



Scanners (through SANE) ( uscanner(4) driver)



Storage ( umass(4) driver)



Handspring Visor and other PalmOS devices ( uvisor(4) driver)




3.12 Miscellaneous

FAX-Modem/PCCARD



Floppy drives ( fd(4) driver)

Genius and Mustek hand scanners

GPB and Transputer drivers

Keyboards including:



Loran-C receiver (Dave Mills experimental hardware, loran driver).

Mice including:



``PC standard'' parallel ports ( ppc(4) driver)

PC-compatible joysticks ( joy(4) driver)

PHS Data Communication Card/PCCARD



``PC standard'' 8250, 16450, and 16550-based serial ports ( sio(4) driver)

X-10 power controllers ( tw(4) driver)

Xilinx XC6200-based reconfigurable hardware cards compatible with the HOT1 from Virtual Computers (xrpu driver).


This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.

For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.



++++