From: Rob Kolstad (kolstad@uunet.uu.net) Subject: BSDI Q&A for BSD/386 Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Date: 1992-06-17 07:53:34 PST I have received many notes that have suggested that I post something like this to the net. I am loathe to put myself in a position of doing too much marketing via this newsgroup, but no longer can resist putting this out. (It is understood that it is a bit marketing-like, but that's what its original purpose was.) The mail forwarder at bsdi-info@bsdi.com can get your questions to someone who will answer them. RK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BSD/386 Operating System Version 0.5 Questions and Answers June, 1992 BSD/386 Version 0.4 is the pre-release version of BSDI's ground-breaking operating system for your PC or compatible. It includes features and capabili- ties from the Berkeley Computer System Research Group's Networking-II release in addition to MIT's X Window system and other software from a wide variety of sources. BSDI's operating system releases are unique in their offering of sup- ported base systems software with complete source code. We invite you to read these questions and answers to clarify the many features and benefits of BSDI's BSD/386. Features discussed below are either available now (in the 0.3.3 release), soon (in the 0.4 release), or in the production release (version 1.0) as noted. Note that BSD/386 is not a derivative of USL's UNIX System V or any other USL system. It is a different implementation of a base operating system and utilities that conforms to IEEE POSIX and other standards. Question: What is BSD/386? Answer: BSD/386 is a IEEE POSIX-compliant operating system for 386 and 486 PC-compatibles. It includes a wide range of functionality, a rich set of utilities, and the X11R5 window system. The product current- ly shipped by BSDI includes both the binaries and source code for the entire system. A future product may include only the binaries (at a lower price, of course). By early May, 1992, BSDI has shipped over 250 copies of BSD/386 ver- sion 0.3.3 to customers around the world. Version 0.4, the pre- release version, will be available by July, 1992. The production version, with a few more features and some extra functionality, will be available a few months later. Question: What hardware is required to run BSD/386? Answer: BSD/386 runs on 386 and 486 AT-compatible systems. You'll need 4 MB of memory for the base operating system or 8 MB (total) if you in- tend to use the X window system. Your PC will need a color VGA- or SVGA-compatible display for its console. Currently, the X window system requires a color display. You'll also need a PC keyboard and a 3.5" floppy drive and controller (BSD/386 boots via these flop- pies). BSD/386 does not currently support micro-channel architecture (MCA) peripherals. You'll need a hard-disk drive, at least 80 MB for the base operating system, preferably 100 MB. Future install procedures will enable use of smaller disks (if you omit certain functionality, e.g., emacs or on-line manual pages). If you wish to use X, add 60 MB (just over 40MB for binaries, the rest for swap space). To put the binaries and sources on the disk, you'll need at least 350MB. BSD/386 supports IDE, ESDI, RLL, and MFM hard disks on the ISA bus. If you have (or are soon to purchase) SCSI peripherals, BSD/386 sup- ports the Adaptec 1542B interface to SCSI devices. Almost any SCSI disk will work with BSD/386. BSD/386 is distributed on QIC-150 cartridges and Exabyte tapes. Currently, the OS supports SCSI QIC-150 (e.g., Maynard/Archive 2150S) drives and Exabyte 8 mm tape drives (again, only on Adaptec 1542B), and, on the ISA bus, the WangTek 5150PK QIC-02 drive and controller and the Everex EV-811, EV-831, and EV-833. BSD/386 can load software over your PC's Ethernet from a remote sys- tem that has a QIC-150 tape and supports the rsh protocol. Question: What hardware is supported under BSD/386? Answer: BSD/386 supports a wide variety of hardware. The 486DX includes floating point hardware on the chip and BSD/386 uses it. If you have a 387 or 287 (or equivalent) floating point chip, the operating system will take advantage of it. Otherwise, floating point opera- tions are emulated in software. BSD/386 supports almost all SCSI disks and tapes (via the Adaptec 1542B SCSI interface controller) BSD/386 supports up to 16MB of physical memory on all ISA machines; and more on some of them. The production release (Version 1.0) will support greater than 16 MB installed in EISA machines. BSD/386 supports several Ethernet controllers: Western Digital 8003 Ethernet/Starlan adapter, WD8003E, WD8003EBT, WD8003S, WD8003SBT, WD8013EBT, WD8013EP (WD EtherCard Plus), and the Novell NE2000. In 0.4, BSD/386 will support 3COM 3C507. BSD/386 supports standard COM ports and most serial mice. No mul- tiport cards are supported yet - but some are in the works. BSD/386 supports both VGA and SVGA displays for text mode. The X window system requires SVGA cards and enough memory for the virtual screen size desired (usually about 1 MB). Most ET3000 and ET4000 based cards are supported. Many more are on the way. Although all the cards listed below are supported, if you're looking to purchase an SVGA card for your system, we recommend purchasing an ET4000 based card such as the Diamond Speedstar for best results. SuperVGA Cards for X11r5 Max Res ChipSet -------------------------------------------------- Compuadd Hi-Rez card w/1meg 1024x768 ET4000 Diamond SpeedStar 1024x768 ET4000 EIZO MD-10 800x600 ET3000 GENOA 5300/5400 800x600 ET3000 GENOA 6400 800x600 GVGA Optima Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000 Orchid ProDesigner 800x600 ET3000 Orchid ProDesigner II/1024 1024x768 ET4000 Paradise VGA Professional 640x480 PVGA1A Paradise VGA 1024 640x480 WD90C00 Sigma Legend 1024x768 ET4000 STB PowerGraph w/1meg 1024x768 ET4000 Swan SVGA with VCO chip 1024x768 ET4000 TRICOM Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000 Trident TVGA 1024x768 TVGA8900C Question: Does BSD/386 require special hardware configurations? Answer: Until the production release, BSD/386 requires the following confi- guration: device port IRQ DRQ iomem ------------------------------------------ Floppy 0x3f0 6 2 1st hard disk 0x1f0 14 2nd hard disk 0x170 15 First com port 0x3f8 4 Second com 0x2f8 3 WD Ethernet 0x280 9/2 0x????? NE Ethernet ??? ?? 0x????? 3c Ethernet ??? ?? 0x????? Tape 0x300 5 1 Adaptec 1542B 0x330 11 5 See installation information for Ethernet installation. The 0.4 pre-release will include autoconfiguration code which will ease some of the above restrictions. Question: Can I run SCO UNIX applications on BSD/386? Answer: In the third quarter of 1992, BSD/386 is planned to support an en- vironment for running SCO UNIX SVR3.2 applications. Question: Can I run DOS applications on BSD/386? Answer: In the production release (Version 1.0), BSD/386 will support an en- vironment for running many DOS applications. Question: Since BSD/386 isn't DOS, how is it installed? How long does it take? Answer: BSD/386 boots to single user mode via a boot floppy. The running operating system then copies files from tape to the hard disk. Once the hard disk is loaded, BSD/386 can boot from there. Installation speed varies with the speed of peripherals, particularly the tape drive. The fastest tape drives reduce loading time for the base system and the X window system to under one hour. Question: Can I share a disk between BSD/386 and other operating systems? Answer: The production version of BSD/386 will support ``co-residency'' so that one hard disk can support many different OS's. Some customers will get co-residency in their 0.4 release (for testing purposes). Question: Can I share disk files between BSD/386 and MS-DOS? Answer: BSD/386 supports the popular mtools package for reading and writing DOS format filesystems (on both floppies and hard disks). Question: Does BSD/386 support floating point operations? Answer: BSD/386 supports floating point operations in hardware or, if no floating point hardware is available, through emulation in software. Question: What standards does BSD/386 support? Answer: The production release of BSD/386 supports the IEEE POSIX 1003.1 standard (though certification has not yet been completed). BSDI is tracking the IEEE POSIX 1003.2 standard as it evolves. BSD/386 net- working includes both the OSI and TCP/IP standards. BSDI's C com- piler supports ANSI C and all base operating system source programs contain ANSI-compliant headers. The X11R5 window system is a stan- dard window system from MIT. Question: What happens when the CSRG releases new software? Answer: BSDI plans to track Berkeley's releases very closely (including the upcoming 4.4 release). All Berkeley features will be incorporated into BSD/386. Question: What filesystems does BSD/386 support? Answer: BSD/386 supports the UFS filesystem (also known as the Fast Filesys- tem). An in-core filesystem (known as MFS) is also supported. The filesystem supports long file names and symbolic links. BSD/386 also includes NFS, the industry standard for file sharing. A special feature of BSD/386 enables NFS to use (optionally) the TCP/IP protocols so that it can reliably use low-speed or long-haul links. Question: How fast is BSD/386? Answer: BSD/386's speed depends, of course, on the underlying hardware. A 486-based system with 33 MHz clock and reasonable SCSI disks per- forms at about the same speed as a SPARCStation 1+. Question: Where did the compilers come from? Answer: The C and C++ compilers are derived from those distributed by the GNU project. In the 0.3.3 release, the compilers are both version 1.39. BSDI intends to ship version 1.40 in the production release. The production release will not contain the version 2.0 compilers; we hope to stabilize them for a future release. Question: How can a full source license cost $995? What about the USL license costs? Answer: BSD/386 is not System V. It is not based on any USL (formerly AT&T) product and includes no code derived from System V, System III, or any other USL product. Because BSD/386 is unencumbered by external licenses, BSDI can pass the savings along to you. Question: Is BSD/386 System V compatible? Answer: Beyond IEEE POSIX standards, the X11 window system, and the upcoming SCO compatibility mode, no special System V Release 4 compatibility is supplied. BSD/386 is very compatible with other Berkeley-based software environments (e.g., SunOS, Ultrix, and OSF/1). Question: Can I redistribute BSD/386 to my friends? Answer: Right now, BSDI prefers to distribute most domestic copies of BSD/386 directly through BSDI. Special licensing arrangements are available for VARs, OEMs, distributors, and educational institu- tions. In a word, the answer is ``no'', although you can redistri- bute many parts of it. The BSD/386 source code contains a number of modules written by BSDI to glue together the various components of the release. It also contains a large amount of freely redistributable code. You are free to redistribute those modules which are not marked as proprietary. Question: Can I redistribute BSD/386 to customers of my business? Answer: Vertical marketers and others may wish to distribute binary copies (or, more rarely, source copies) of BSD/386 as part of their pro- duct. Contact BSDI for pricing information. Question: Can I share modifications to BSD/386 code with my friends or custo- mers? Can I post the modifications to `the net'? Answer: Any software you develop using BSD/386 is yours to own, share, and/or sell as you choose. Of course, if it includes software which is proprietary to BSDI, we must ask you not to make the source available to anyone not having a BSDI source license. We feel that it's in everyone's best interests to make bug fixes and improvements available to the entire community. Therefore, customers are free to post reasonable diff's to the net (as long as the post doesn't con- tain too much BSDI proprietary code). Question: When will binary licenses be available? Answer: Current projections are that BSDI will offer binary-only licenses in the third quarter of 1992. Current thinking indicates that the binary-only license will cost half as much as a source license. Question: What extra-cost software is available for BSD/386? Answer: Motif will soon be available from a third-party vendor. Contact BSDI if your needs are immediate. Question: What documentation is provided with BSD/386? Answer: Complete release and installation documentation is supplied. The man pages are supplied online in both formatted and *roff source form. Question: What about support? Answer: BSDI prides itself on outstanding support. Customers have quick ac- cess to our support engineers and, when needed, our development en- gineers. Question: What if I buy BSD/386 and decide I don't need it? Answer: BSD/386 comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. Question: How do I report bugs? Answer: Report bug by sending electronic mail to problems@bsdi.com (the sendbug program uses this mechanism for bug reporting). If you do not have network access to send mail, call our service personnel. Question: How does BSDI help me if I have trouble? Answer: BSDI's telephone trouble desk generally operates during business hours (9 am Eastern Time through 5 pm Pacific Time). If you have a telephone support contract (or if you're still on your initial 60- day service period), call them for assistance. If you have an e- mail support contract, write them a note describing your problem. Question: Can I please buy separate support or separate upgrades? Answer: Currently, BSDI believes that it is important to supply customers with the best possible service. Obviously, we must distribute bug fixes to correct any problems that are found. BSDI is loathe to have to hang up the phone on someone who has a problem with their upgrade. For the time being, upgrades and service are bundled to- gether. Discussions are under way to enable unbundling of upgrades and support. Berkeley Software Design Int. 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(Australia) 1st Floor, 2 King Street Newtown NSW 2042 Australia Phone: +61 2 550 5014 Fax: + 61 2 519 2551 Email: enquiry@bsdi.oz.au BSDI Bulgaria Digital Systems Neofit Bozveli 6 Varna - 9000 Bulgaria Tel/Fax: +359 52 234540 Email: daniel@danbo.bg BSDI World Headquarters Berkeley Software Design, Inc. 3110 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 580 Falls Church, VA 22042 USA Toll Free: +1 800 800 4BSD Phone: +1 703 204 8086 Fax: +1 703 204 8087 Email: bsdi-info@bsdi.com Berkeley Software Design, Inc. reserves the right to change or modify any of the product or service specifications or features described herein without no- tice. This product summary is for information only and BSDI makes no express or implied representations or warranties in this summary. BSD/386, BSDI, and the BSDI logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Berkeley Software Design, Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products and services of, their respective owners. (c) 1992 Berkeley Software Design, Inc. All Rights Reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- /\ Rob Kolstad Berkeley Software Design, Inc. /\/ \ kolstad@bsdi.com 7759 Delmonico Drive / / \ 719-593-9445 Colorado Springs, CO 80919