Re: boot_config(8) man page issue; and possibly openbsd.org/report.html
On 1/24/21 4:02 PM, Andrew Easton wrote: ...> The boot_config(8) man page reads: The Ethernet card is not detected at boot because the kernel configuration does not match the physical hardware configuration, e.g. wrong IRQ in OpenBSD/i386. [...] UKC> find ne [...] 25 ne1 at isa0 port 0x300 size 0 iomem -1 iosiz 0 irq 10 drq -1 drq2 -1 flags 0x0 [...] ne1 seems to match the configuration except it uses IRQ 5 instead of IRQ 10. [...] UKC> change ne1 [...] irq [10] ? 5 ... The sentence "ne1 seems to match the configuration except it uses IRQ 5 instead of IRQ 10" has two ways of being interpreted: (1) the kernel configuration is using IRQ 5 and (2) the hardware configuration is using IRQ 5. ...ISA devices and drivers are complicated and stunningly inconsistent. IF the developers want to improve this, I would suggest something maybe more along the lines of: "The ne(4) driver recognizes a card at port 300 as ne1, but expects an IRQ of 10. If your card is actually at port 300, IRQ 5, you can adjust the driver as follows:" [...example...] Realistically, however, you aren't likely to be very successful with OpenBSD on an ISA machine; the people who know how to deal with ISA cards try not to, and the hw that /requires/ them is very slow for modern OpenBSD. (I recently gave up on an old, faithful P90 I've used for many years because it just took too long to just boot, and even it has PCI slots where NICs "just work"). Also, you are generally better off moving the HW to match OpenBSD's expectations rather than moving OpenBSD to the HW, as that will make your next upgrade discouraging. I'm almost more of the opinion that this section should be removed rather than tuned up -- I don't think ISA cards should be encouraged, I don't know that hw that can use ISA cards should be encouraged, I certainly wouldn't recommend changing the OS to match the card (though yes, sometimes it is required if you really insist on using hardware that requires it). A lot can be written about how to use an ne(4) ISA card with OpenBSD, a lot can be written about ep(4), ec(4), we(4), but they can all be summed up as, "here's a nickel kid, get yourself a less old computer". Nick.
boot_config(8) man page issue; and possibly openbsd.org/report.html
Hello everyone, it appears that there may be a way to misinterpret the man page for boot_config(8) in the state of commit 0b249e2164be2385bc6a5e82814435649b2b06e0 Date: Sun Jan 24 10:21:43 2021 + on the github openbsd src mirror. The problem description is under the headline "Issue". There is a realistic chance that I am misunderstanding something. If this is the case, what further measures can I take to narrow down the problem? === Issue === The boot_config(8) man page reads: [quote] The Ethernet card is not detected at boot because the kernel configuration does not match the physical hardware configuration, e.g. wrong IRQ in OpenBSD/i386. [...] UKC> find ne [...] 25 ne1 at isa0 port 0x300 size 0 iomem -1 iosiz 0 irq 10 drq -1 drq2 -1 flags 0x0 [...] ne1 seems to match the configuration except it uses IRQ 5 instead of IRQ 10. [...] UKC> change ne1 [...] irq [10] ? 5 [\quote] Note, that the line that is longer than 72 characters in this email is also longer than 72 characters in the original manual page. I selfishly chose a more accurate quote of the manual page over breaking the line. Plese let me know, in case this is a serious problem. Maybe https://www.openbsd.org/report.html should be augmented to refer to this specific quotation problem, in case it is important enough to document properly. The sentence "ne1 seems to match the configuration except it uses IRQ 5 instead of IRQ 10" has two ways of being interpreted: (1) the kernel configuration is using IRQ 5 and (2) the hardware configuration is using IRQ 5. After having misunderstood the sentence by assuming meaning (1) and noticing the inconsintency with the other relevant lines in the above quote of the man page, I suggest clarifying the sentence like so (change marked with square brackets): "ne1 seems to match the configuration except it [is supposed to use] IRQ 5 instead of IRQ 10" . One even more explicit option is: "ne1 [in the kernel configuration] seems to match [the hardware] configuration except [for the IRQ being used. The kernel currently uses IRQ 10 and the hardware uses IRQ 5, so the kernel configuration needs to be adjusted to match the hardware configuration.]" I want to thank the tireless efforts which have gone and are currently going into maintaining the exceptionally high documentation standards of OpenBSD. In case my suggestions above are overly pedantic, I sincerely apologize. === Affected Man Page File === /share/man/man8/boot_config.8 in commit 0b249e2164be2385bc6a5e82814435649b2b06e0 Date: Sun Jan 24 10:21:43 2021 + Thank you very much for your time. Kind regards, Andrew Easton
