--- title: "FreeBSD/i386 5.2-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 Serial Interfaces
3.9 Audio Devices
3.10 Camera and Video Capture Devices
3.11 USB Devices
3.12 IEEE 1394 (Firewire) Devices
3.13 Bluetooth Devices
3.14 Cryptographic Accelerators
3.15 Miscellaneous

1 Introduction

This document contains the hardware compatibility notes for FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE on the i386 hardware platform (also referred to as FreeBSD/i386 5.2-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 i386 hardware platform. Versions of the hardware compatibility 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. (However, FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE and later no longer support the 80386SX processor.) 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 take advantage of HyperThreading (HTT) support on Intel CPUs that support this feature. A kernel with the options SMP feature enabled will automatically detect the additional logical processors. The default FreeBSD scheduler treats the logical processors the same as additional physical processors; in other words, no attempt is made to optimize scheduling decisions given the shared resources between logical processors within the same CPU. Because this naive scheduling can result in suboptimal performance, under certain circumstances it may be useful to disable the logical processors with the the machdep.hlt_logical_cpus sysctl variable. It is also possible to halt any CPU in the idle loop with the machdep.hlt_cpus sysctl variable. The smp(4) manual page has more details.

FreeBSD will take advantage of Physical Address Extensions (PAE) support on CPUs that support this feature. A kernel with the PAE feature enabled will detect memory above 4 gigabytes and allow it to be used by the system. This feature places constraints on the device drivers and other features of FreeBSD which may be used; consult the pae(4) manpage for more details.

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.

Most modern laptops (as well as many desktops) use the Advanced Configuration and Power Management (ACPI) standard. FreeBSD supports ACPI via the ACPI Component Architecture reference implementation from Intel, as described in the acpi(4) manual page. The use of ACPI causes instabilities on some machines and it may be necessary to disable the ACPI driver, which is normally loaded via a kernel module. This may be accomplished by adding the following line to /boot/device.hints:

hint.acpi.0.disabled="1"

Users debugging ACPI-related problems may find it useful to disable portions of the ACPI functionality. The acpi(4) manual page has more information on how to do this via loader tunables.

ACPI depends on a Differentiated System Descriptor Table (DSDT) provided by each machine's BIOS. Some machines have bad or incomplete DSDTs, which prevents ACPI from functioning correctly. Replacement DSDTs for some machines can be found at the DSDT section of the ACPI4Linux project Web site. FreeBSD can use these DSDTs to override the DSDT provided by the BIOS; see the acpi(4) manual page for more information.


3 Supported Devices

$FreeBSD: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/hardware/common/dev.sgml,v 1.209 2003/12/07 00:54:22 bmah Exp $

This section describes the devices currently known to be supported by with FreeBSD on the i386 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. Information on specific models of supported devices, controllers, etc. can be found in the manual pages.

Note: Lists of specific, supported devices are gradually being removed from this document in order to reduce the amount of duplicated (and potentially out-of-date) information contained within. When this process is complete, the manual page for each driver should be consulted for the authoritative list of devices supported that particular driver.


3.1 Disk Controllers

IDE/ATA controllers ( ata(4) driver)



Adaptec AIC-6260 and AIC-6360 based boards ( aic(4) driver)

Adaptec AHA-154X ISA and AHA-1640 MCA SCSI controllers and compatibles ( aha(4) driver)

Adaptec AHA_174x series EISA SCSI controller in enhanced mode ( ahb(4) driver)

Adaptec AIC-7770, AIC-7850, AIC-7860, AIC-7870, AIC-7880, and AIC789x based SCSI host adapters ( ahc(4) driver)

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

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

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



BusLogic MultiMaster ``W'', ``C'', ``S'', and ``A'' Series Host Adapters ( bt(4) driver)

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)

Adaptec 21x0S/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)

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 DAC-family 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 AcceleRAID/eXtremeRAID family PCI to SCSI RAID controllers with 6.x firmware ( mly(4) driver)

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

LSI/Symbios (formerly NCR) 53C8XX and 53C10XX 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(4) driver)

TMC 18C30, 18C50 and 36C70 (AIC-6820) based ISA/PC-Card SCSI host adapters ( stg(4) 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(4) driver)

Adaptec AIC-7110 Parallel to SCSI interfaces ( vpo(4) driver)

Compaq Intelligent Drive Array Controllers ( ida(4) driver)

SCSI adapters utilizing the Command Interface for SCSI-3 Support ( ciss(4) driver)

Intel Integrated RAID Controllers ( iir(4) driver)

Promise SuperTrak ATA RAID controllers ( pst(4) driver)

IBM / Adaptec ServeRAID series ( ips(4) driver)

LSI Logic Fusion/MP architecture Fiber Channel controllers ( mpt(4) driver)

PCI SCSI host adapters using the Tekram TRM-S1040 SCSI chipset ( trm(4) 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 cam(4) 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)

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)

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

VIA Technologies VT3043 ``Rhine I'', VT86C100A ``Rhine II'', and VT6105/VT6105M ``Rhine III'' 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) driver)

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

DEC/Intel 21143 Fast Ethernet NICs and clones for PCI, MiniPCI, and CardBus ( 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 AX88172-based USB Ethernet NICs ( axe(4) driver)

RealTek RTL8150-based USB Ethernet NICs ( rue(4) driver)

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

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

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

Intel 82557-, 82258-, 82559-, 82550- or 82562-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(4) driver)

Xircom CreditCard adapters (16 bit) and workalikes ( xe(4) 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 ( gx(4) and em(4) drivers), plus NICs supported by the Intel 82540EM, 82544, 82545EM, and 82546EB controller chips ( em(4) driver only)

Myson Ethernet NICs ( my(4) driver)

Broadcom BCM4401 based Fast Ethernet adapters ( bfe(4) driver)

RealTek RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL8169S and RTL8110S based PCI Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet controllers ( re(4) 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 and fatm(4) drivers)

IDT NICStAR 77201/211-based ATM Adapters ( idt(4) driver)

FORE Systems, Inc. HE155 and HE622 ATM interfaces ( hatm(4) driver)

IDT77252-based ATM cards ( patm(4) driver)


3.5 Wireless Network Interfaces

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

Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11b wireless network adapters and workalikes using the Lucent Hermes, Intersil PRISM-II, Intersil PRISM-2.5, Intersil Prism-3, and Symbol Spectrum24 chipsets ( wi(4) driver)

Cisco/Aironet 802.11b wireless adapters ( an(4) driver)

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

AMD Am79C930 and Harris (Intersil) based 802.11b cards ( awi(4) driver)

Atheros AR5210, AR5211, and AR5212-based 802.11a/b/g network interfaces ( ath(4) driver)


3.6 Miscellaneous Networks

Cronyx-Sigma synchronous / asynchronous serial adapters ( cx(4) driver)

Granch SBNI12 point-to-point communications adapters ( sbni(4) driver)

Granch SBNI16 SHDSL modems ( sbsh(4) driver)

SMC COM90cx6 ARCNET network adapters (cm driver)



LAN Media Corp WAN adapters based on the DEC ``Tulip'' Fast Ethernet controller ( lmc(4) 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 Serial Interfaces

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

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 ( stl(4) and stli(4) drivers)

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)



Creative Technologies Sound Blaster Live! series (emu10k1 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.

Note: USB Bluetooth adapters can be found in Bluetooth section.

OHCI 1.0-compliant host controllers ( ohci(4) driver)

UHCI 1.1-compliant host controllers ( uhci(4) driver)

USB 2.0 controllers using the EHCI interface ( ehci(4) driver)

Hubs

Keyboards ( ukbd(4) driver)

Miscellaneous



Modems ( umodem(4) driver)



Mice ( ums(4) driver)

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



Serial devices ( ubsa(4), uftdi(4) and uplcom(4) drivers)

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

Storage ( umass(4) driver)



Audio Devices ( uaudio(4) driver)

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




3.12 IEEE 1394 (Firewire) Devices

Host Controllers ( fwohci(4) driver)

Serial Bus Protocol 2 (SBP-2) storage devices ( sbp(4) driver)


3.13 Bluetooth Devices

PCCARD Host Controllers ( ng_bt3c(4) driver)



USB Host Controllers ( ng_ubt(4) driver)




3.14 Cryptographic Accelerators

Accelerators based on the Hifn 7751, 7811, or 7951 chipsets ( hifn(4) driver)

Accelerators based on the SafeNet 1141 or 1741 cryptographic accelerator chipsets ( safe(4) driver)

Accelerators based on the Bluesteel 5501 or 5601 chipsets ( ubsec(4) driver)

Accelerators based on the Broadcom BCM5801, BCM5802, BCM5805, BCM5820, BCM 5821, BCM5822 chipsets ( ubsec(4) driver)


3.15 Miscellaneous

FAX-Modem/PCCARD



Floppy drives ( fdc(4) driver)

Genius and Mustek hand scanners

GPB and Transputer drivers

VGA-compatible video cards ( vga(4) driver)

Note: Information regarding specific video cards and compatibility with XFree86 can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/.



Keyboards including:



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

Pointing devices including:

Note: moused(8) has more information on using pointing devices with FreeBSD. Information on using pointing devices with XFree86 can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/.



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

PC-compatible joysticks ( joy(4) driver)

PHS Data Communication Card/PCCARD



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>.



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