FreeBSD supports EIDE and SCSI drives (with a compatible controller; see the next section), and all drives using the original "Western Digital" interface (MFM, RLL, ESDI, and of course IDE). A few ESDI controllers that use proprietary interfaces may not work: stick to WD1002/3/6/7 interfaces and clones. Which SCSI controllers are supported?

See the complete list in the . Which CD-ROM drives are supported by FreeBSD?

Any SCSI drive connected to a supported controller is supported.

The following proprietary CD-ROM interfaces are also supported: Mitsumi LU002 (8bit), LU005 (16bit) and FX001D (16bit 2x Speed). Sony CDU 31/33A Sound Blaster Non-SCSI CD-ROM Matsushita/Panasonic CD-ROM ATAPI compatible IDE CD-ROMs

All non-SCSI cards are known to be extremely slow compared to SCSI drives, and some ATAPI CDROMs may not work.

As of 2.2 the FreeBSD CDROM from Walnut Creek supports booting directly from the CD. Does FreeBSD support ZIP drives?

FreeBSD supports the SCSI ZIP drive out of the box, of course. The ZIP drive can only be set to run at SCSI target IDs 5 or 6, but if your SCSI host adapter's BIOS supports it you can even boot from it. I don't know which host adapters let you boot from targets other than 0 or 1... look at your docs (and let me know if it works out for you).

ATAPI (IDE) Zip drives are supported in FreeBSD 2.2.6 and later releases.

FreeBSD 3.0-STABLE contains support for the parallel Zip However, you will need to build a new kernel with support for ppbus (Parallel Port Bus) in order to use the Zip. See the LINT configuration file for examples.

Also check out , and . Does FreeBSD support JAZ, EZ and other removable drives?

Apart from the IDE version of the EZ drive, these are all SCSI devices, so the should all look like SCSI disks to FreeBSD, and the IDE EZ should look like an IDE drive.

I'm not sure how well FreeBSD supports changing the media out while running. You will of course need to dismount the drive before swapping media, and make sure that any external units are powered on when you boot the system so FreeBSD can see them.

See . Which multi-port serial cards are supported by FreeBSD?

There is a list of these in the section of the handbook.

Some unnamed clone cards have also been known to work, especially those that claim to be AST compatible.

Check the man page to get more information on configuring such cards. I have an unusual bus mouse. How do I set it up?

FreeBSD supports the bus mouse and the InPort bus mouse from such manufactures as Microsoft, Logitech and ATI. The bus device driver is compiled in the GENERIC kernel by default. If you are building a custom kernel with the bus mouse driver, make sure to add the following line to the kernel config file: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 vector mseintr

The bus mouse usually comes with an dedicatd interface card. It may allow you to set the port address and the IRQ number other than shown above. Refer to the manual of your mouse and the man page for more information. How do I use my PS/2 (``mouse port'' or ``keyboard'') mouse?

If you're running a post-2.2.5 version of FreeBSD, the necessary driver, psm, is included and enabled in the kernel. The kernel should detect your PS/2 mouse at boot time.

If you're running a previous but relatively recent version of FreeBSD (2.1.x or better) then you can simply enable it in the kernel configuration menu at installation time, otherwise later with -c at the boot: prompt. It is disabled by default, so you will need to enable it explicitly.

If you're running an older version of FreeBSD then you'll have to add the following lines to your kernel configuration file and compile a new kernel: device psm0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" conflicts tty irq 12 vector psmintr

See the if you've no experience with building kernels.

Once you have a kernel detecting psm0 correctly at boot time, make sure that an entry for psm0 exists in /dev. You can do this by typing: cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV psm0

when logged in as root. Is it possible to make use of a mouse in any way outside the X Window?

If you are using the default console driver, syscons, you can use a mouse pointer in text consoles to cut & paste text. Run the mouse daemon, moused, and turn on the mouse pointer in the virtual console: moused -p /dev/xxxx -t yyyy vidcontrol -m on

Where xxxx is the mouse device name and yyyy is a protocol type for the mouse. See the man page for supported protocol types.

You may wish to run the mouse daemon automatically when the system starts. In version 2.2.1, set the following variables in /etc/sysconfig. mousedtype="yyyy" mousedport="xxxx" mousedflags="" In versions 2.2.2 or later, set the following variables in /etc/rc.conf. moused_type="yyyy" moused_port="xxxx" moused_flags=""

Staring from FreeBSD 2.2.6, the mouse daemon is capable of determining the correct protocol type automatically unless the mouse is a relatively old serial mouse model. Specify ``auto'' as the protocol to invoke automatic detection.

When the mouse daemon is running, access to the mouse needs to be coordinated between the mouse daemon and other programs such as the X Window. Refer to on this issue". How do I cut and paste text with mouse in the text console?

Once you get the mouse daemon running (see ), hold down the button 1 (left button) and move the mouse to select a region of text. Then, press the button 2 (middle button) or the button 3 (right button) to paste it at the text cursor.

In versions 2.2.6 and later, pressing the button 2 will paste the text. Pressing the button 3 will ``extend'' the selected region of text. If your mouse does not have the middle button, you may wish to emulate it or remap buttons using moused options. See the man page for details. My mouse has a fancy wheel and buttons. Can I use them in FreeBSD?

The answer is, unfortunately, ``It depends.'' These mice with additional features require specialized driver in most cases. Unless the mouse device driver or the user program has specific support for the mouse, it will act just like a standard two, or three button mouse. How do I use the mouse/trackball/touchpad on my laptop?

Please refer to . And check out on the Mobile Computing page. What types of tape drives are supported?

FreeBSD supports SCSI, QIC-36 (with a QIC-02 interface) and QIC-40/80 (Floppy based) tape drives. This includes 8-mm (aka Exabyte) and DAT drives. The QIC-40/80 drives are known to be slow.

Some of the early 8-mm drives are not quite compatible with SCSI-2, and may not work well with FreeBSD. Does FreeBSD support tape changers?

FreeBSD 2.2 supports SCSI changers using the device and the command. The details of how you actually control the changer can be found in the man page.

If you're not using or some other product that already understands changers, remember that they're only know how to move a tape from one point to another, so you need to keep track of which slot a tape is in, and which slot the tape currently in the drive needs to go back to. Which sound cards are supported by FreeBSD?

FreeBSD supports the SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, SoundBlaster 16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, AdLib and Gravis UltraSound sound cards. There is also limited support for MPU-401 and compatible MIDI cards. Cards conforming to the Microsoft Sound System specification are also supported through the pcm driver.

Which network cards does FreeBSD support?

See the section of the handbook for a more complete list. I don't have a math co-processor - is that bad?

In general this will not cause any problems, but there are circumstances where you will take a hit, either in performance or accuracy of the math emulation code (see the section ). In particular, drawing arcs in X will be VERY slow. It is highly recommended that you buy a math co-processor; it's well worth it.

What other devices does 2.X support?

See the for the list of other devices supported. Does FreeBSD support power management on my laptop?

FreeBSD supports APM on certain machines. Please look in the keyword. Workarounds for specific hardware problems

This section contains workarounds for specific hardware problems encountered by our users. Micron systems hang at boot time

Certain Micron motherboards have a non-conforming PCI BIOS implementation that causes grief when FreeBSD boots because PCI devices don't get configured at their reported addresses.

Disable the "Plug and Play Operating System" flag in the BIOS to work around this problem. More information can be found at I have a newer Adaptec controller and FreeBSD can't find it.

The newer AIC789x series Adaptec chips are supported under the CAM SCSI framework which made it's debut in 3.0. Patches against 2.2-STABLE are in . A CAM-enhanced boot floppy is available at . In both cases read the README before beginning.