Return to BSD News archive
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!cs.utexas.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!rice!news.Rice.edu!rich From: rich@Rice.edu (& Murphey) Subject: Re: 386BSD - novice questions - hardware requirements In-Reply-To: messina@netcom.com's message of 16 Dec 92 19:41:17 GMT Message-ID: <RICH.92Dec16215721@superego.Rice.edu> Sender: news@rice.edu (News) Reply-To: Rich@rice.edu Organization: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University References: <1992Dec16.194117.26101@netcom.com> Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:57:21 GMT Lines: 54 >>>>> In article <1992Dec16.194117.26101@netcom.com>, messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes: Tony> I've read all the articles back that I could retrieve, but I only Tony> found an attempt to create a faq, so I decided to ask a few novice Tony> questions here. I have an unopened 386BSD compact disc with GNU Tony> Software distribution, X, a.s.o. I realize that installation notes Tony> are on the disc, but I haven't purchased the machine for it yet and do Tony> not have the compact disc drive. Without it, I am not sure what Tony> hardware to purchase... If any of the more experienced 386BSD users Tony> could answer the questions below, I would appreciate it: Tony> 1. I am planning to purchase 340 MB drive and split it in half between Tony> OS/2 and 386BSD. Will it be enough? How much space does it Tony> require? Can it be installed on the same drive as OS/2? Tony> 2. Is Adaptec 1542B supported? Yes, the 0.1 release supports the Adaptec 1542B. Tony> 3. Is 16 MB of memory sufficient to run X comfortably? Yes, 16Mb is plenty for X. The only time I've seen significant swapping with 16Mb is when running X, several emacs and compiliing large C++ source files at the same time. Tony> 4. Does it support dumb/intelligent serial terminal multiport cards? Chris Demetriou's com driver does. Tony> 5. I would like to buy Diamond SpeedStar 24X with the WD chipset. Is Tony> this card supported? It's a long story actually.... Xfree86 does not support any Diamond card designed after the Diamond Speedstar+. This is due Diamond's unusual policy (among SVGA vendors) of providing all technical details on programming the clock synthesizer only under a non-disclosure agreement. Since XFree86 is distributed in source form we can't agree to non-disclosure. All attempts to work this out have been rejected by Diamond, so we are no longer trying to get information from them, nor will we accept code contributions to support their boards, as long as these policies remain. Actix and Orchid have been very active in making sure that we have all the information we need. So there is no reason to bother with Diamond, for a chipset that no one else is using, with anti-freeware policies. Tony> 6. I know EISA would be preferrable, but I can't afford it. Is there Tony> any point in even bothering with ISA bus? Will it be very slow? Tony> 7. Of the three (for those who use them all or two of them) - which Tony> one seems most stable: Coherent/Linux/386BSD? Tony> Thanks, Tony> Tony Rich