Hardware Setup

Before you begin, verify that OpenBSD supports your hardware. You’ll find the supported hardware list for the most recent version of OpenBSD on the platform-specific pages of the OpenBSD website (http://www.OpenBSD.org/i386.html for i386 and http://www.OpenBSD.org/amd64.html for amd64), listing hardware that has been verified to work by the OpenBSD team.

If you find that your hardware isn’t listed, it might still run OpenBSD. In fact, a lot of unsupported hardware will run OpenBSD perfectly, but not all hardware has been tested, simply because the OpenBSD team doesn’t have access to all hardware ever manufactured. If you’re worried about a particular device, search the mailing list archives to see if it’s supported.

The hardware compatibility lists frequently identify devices by chipset, not by vendor or model. The chipset is the actual hardware name, not the model name, which can cause a bit of confusion because, after all, when you buy a computer, the network card is frequently listed as a “gigabit Ethernet,” not as an “Intel PRO/1000MT Dual Port Server Adapter model PWLA8492MT.” To make matters worse, many vendors use identical hardware under a separate brand or model name or use different hardware under the same brand or model name. For example, Linksys sold many different network card models under the model name EtherLink. (Fortunately, this issue mostly applies to the lower end of the market, and OpenBSD almost always supports these older chipsets.)

Even if you’re not sure that you hardware is supported, you can still try installing OpenBSD to see what happens. The boot messages will offer a lot of information about the hardware you have.