Installing OpenBSD 3.2 on a Sony Vaio C1VE Laptop

By Simon Moore; March 04, 2003

A little while ago I decided to install OpenBSD on my Sony Vaio C1VE laptop, so that I could run it as a server. Yes, a server. It may seem crazy, but I wasn't really using the laptop anymore and it does make a great home server: it is small, quiet and produces very little heat. Ideal for leaving switched on in my study.

I chose OpenBSD 3.2 due to its reputation for security and because I wanted a simple, clean distribution that was an easy place to start from.So first I bought a copy of OpenBSD 3.2. And then I tried to install it…

The first obvious problem is that I could not do an install directly from the CD. Every time that I tried to boot from the CD resulted in a kernel panic: I think it is reasonable to say that the Sony PCMCIA CD-ROM (PCGA-CD51) does not work under OpenBSD 3.2. So I used the utilities on the CD to generate a laptop boot diskette and then tried to install from that using the Sony USB floppy disk drive (PCGA-UFD5): this did work.

The next problem was how to access the install software, as it is normally on the CD. I can run NFS on my home network, so an obvious solution was to mount the CD via NFS. Unfortunately, the Sony supplied ethernet card (a Xircom CardBus Ethernet II 10/100) does not work under OpenBSD 3.2. So I invested in a new 3Com ethernet card (a 3Com Megahertz 10/100 LAN CardBus PC Card) which does work. And then I found that the laptop boot diskette (floppyC32.fs) don't include support for NFS :(

Luckily OpenBSD provides for an FTP install, and now that I had a working network card this proved to be trivial. The OpenBSD install dialogues are simple, fast to use and performing an FTP install was a breeze (though a little slow in comparison to a normal CD-ROM install).

And the result is one nicely working Sony Vaio C1VE running OpenBSD 3.2, as demonstrated by dmesg:

@ 0xfdf30/176 (9 entries)
pcibios0: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:07:0 ("Intel 82371FB PCI-ISA" rev 0x00)
pcibios0: PCI bus #1 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0x14000 0xdc000/0x4000!
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Transmeta Virtual Northbridge" rev 0x00
"Transmeta Mem1" rev 0x00 at pci0 dev 0 function 1 not configured
"Transmeta Mem2" rev 0x00 at pci0 dev 0 function 2 not configured
pcib0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0 "Intel 82371AB PIIX4 ISA" rev 0x02
pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1 "Intel 82371AB IDE" rev 0x01: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: <IC25N030ATDA04-0>
wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 28615MB, 16383 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 58605120 sectors
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2
uhci0 at pci0 dev 7 function 2 "Intel 82371AB USB" rev 0x01: irq 9
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0
uhub0: vendor 0x0000 UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
"Intel 82371AB Power Mgmt" rev 0x03 at pci0 dev 7 function 3 not configured
vendor "Texas Instruments", unknown product 0x8021 (class serial bus, subclass Firewire, rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 8 function 0 not configured
yds0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0 "Yamaha 754" rev 0x00: irq 9
ac97: codec id 0x414b4d02 (Asahi Kasei AK4543)
ac97: codec features headphone, 18 bit DAC, 18 bit ADC, AKM 3D
audio0 at yds0
vendor "Kawasaki", unknown product 0xff01 (class multimedia, subclass miscellaneous, rev 0x01) at pci0 dev 11 function 0 not configured
cbb0 at pci0 dev 12 function 0 "Ricoh 5C475 PCI-CardBus" rev 0x80: irq 9
vga1 at pci0 dev 13 function 0 "ATI Rage P/M" rev 0x64
wsdisplay0 at vga1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: <PC speaker>
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16
opl0 at yds0: model OPL3
midi1 at opl0: <DS-1 integrated Yamaha OPL3>
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
cardslot0 at cbb0 slot 0 flags 0
cardbus0 at cardslot0: bus 1 device 0 cacheline 0x0, lattimer 0x20
pcmcia0 at cardslot0
biomask 4200 netmask 4200 ttymask 5202
pctr: user-level cycle counter enabled
dkcsum: wd0 matched BIOS disk 80
root on wd0a
rootdev=0x0 rrootdev=0x300 rawdev=0x302
WARNING: / was not properly unmounted
xl0 at cardbus0 dev 0 function 0: 3Com 3c575C-TX Ethernet: irq 9 address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
ukphy0 at xl0 phy 0: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy0: OUI 0x00c000, model 0x0000, rev. 0
uhub1 at uhub0 port 1
uhub1: Silitek IBM USB HUB KEYBOARD, class 9/0, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 2
uhub1: 3 ports with 2 removable, bus powered
uhidev0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
uhidev0: Silitek IBM USB HUB KEYBOARD, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 3, iclass 3/1
ukbd0 at uhidev0: 8 modifier keys, 6 key codes
wskbd1 at ukbd0 mux 1
wskbd1: connecting to wsdisplay0
uhidev1 at uhub1 port 3 configuration 1 interface 0
uhidev1: Microsoft Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical\M-., rev 1.10/1.21, addr 4, iclass 3/1
ums0 at uhidev1: 3 buttons and Z dir.
wsmouse1 at ums0 mux 0
XXX Sony MSC
umass0 at uhub0 port 2 configuration 1 interface 0
XXX Sony MSC
umass0: Sony USB Memory Stick Slot, rev 1.10/1.31, addr 5
umass0: using UFI over CBI-I
scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets
probe(umass0:1:0): Check Condition on opcode 0x12
SENSE KEY: Not Ready
ASC/ASCQ: Medium Not Present
syncing disks... done
rebooting...
OpenBSD 3.2-stable (GENERIC) #0: Sun Nov 24 04:36:37 GMT 2002
root@jeeves.my.domain:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
cpu0: Transmeta TMS5600 ("GenuineTMx86" 586-class) 596 MHz
cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,CMOV,SER,MMX
real mem = 385380352 (376348K)
avail mem = 351268864 (343036K)
using 4278 buffers containing 19369984 bytes (18916K) of memory
mainbus0 (root)
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+(84) BIOS, date 01/24/01, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfd870
apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.2
apm0: battery life expectancy 100%
apm0: AC on, battery charge high, charging
pcibios0 at bios0: rev. 2.1 @ 0xfd870/0x790
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev. 1.0 @ 0xfdf30/176 (9 entries)
pcibios0: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:07:0 ("Intel 82371FB PCI-ISA" rev 0x00)
pcibios0: PCI bus #1 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0x14000 0xdc000/0x4000!
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Transmeta Virtual Northbridge" rev 0x00
"Transmeta Mem1" rev 0x00 at pci0 dev 0 function 1 not configured
"Transmeta Mem2" rev 0x00 at pci0 dev 0 function 2 not configured
pcib0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0 "Intel 82371AB PIIX4 ISA" rev 0x02
pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1 "Intel 82371AB IDE" rev 0x01: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: <IC25N030ATDA04-0>
wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 28615MB, 16383 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 58605120 sectors
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2
uhci0 at pci0 dev 7 function 2 "Intel 82371AB USB" rev 0x01: irq 9
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0
uhub0: vendor 0x0000 UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
"Intel 82371AB Power Mgmt" rev 0x03 at pci0 dev 7 function 3 not configured
vendor "Texas Instruments", unknown product 0x8021 (class serial bus, subclass Firewire, rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 8 function 0 not configured
yds0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0 "Yamaha 754" rev 0x00: irq 9
ac97: codec id 0x414b4d02 (Asahi Kasei AK4543)
ac97: codec features headphone, 18 bit DAC, 18 bit ADC, AKM 3D
audio0 at yds0
vendor "Kawasaki", unknown product 0xff01 (class multimedia, subclass miscellaneous, rev 0x01) at pci0 dev 11 function 0 not configured
cbb0 at pci0 dev 12 function 0 "Ricoh 5C475 PCI-CardBus" rev 0x80: irq 9
vga1 at pci0 dev 13 function 0 "ATI Rage P/M" rev 0x64
wsdisplay0 at vga1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: <PC speaker>
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16
opl0 at yds0: model OPL3
midi1 at opl0: <DS-1 integrated Yamaha OPL3>
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
mpu at yds0 not configured
cardslot0 at cbb0 slot 0 flags 0
cardbus0 at cardslot0: bus 1 device 0 cacheline 0x0, lattimer 0x20
pcmcia0 at cardslot0
biomask 4200 netmask 4200 ttymask 5202
pctr: user-level cycle counter enabled
dkcsum: wd0 matched BIOS disk 80
root on wd0a
rootdev=0x0 rrootdev=0x300 rawdev=0x302
xl0 at cardbus0 dev 0 function 0: 3Com 3c575C-TX Ethernet: irq 9 address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
ukphy0 at xl0 phy 0: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy0: OUI 0x00c000, model 0x0000, rev. 0
uhub1 at uhub0 port 1
uhub1: Silitek IBM USB HUB KEYBOARD, class 9/0, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 2
uhub1: 3 ports with 2 removable, bus powered
uhidev0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
uhidev0: Silitek IBM USB HUB KEYBOARD, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 3, iclass 3/1
ukbd0 at uhidev0: 8 modifier keys, 6 key codes
wskbd1 at ukbd0 mux 1
wskbd1: connecting to wsdisplay0
uhidev1 at uhub1 port 3 configuration 1 interface 0
uhidev1: Microsoft Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical\M-., rev 1.10/1.21, addr 4, iclass 3/1
ums0 at uhidev1: 3 buttons and Z dir.
wsmouse1 at ums0 mux 0
XXX Sony MSC
umass0 at uhub0 port 2 configuration 1 interface 0
XXX Sony MSC
umass0: Sony USB Memory Stick Slot, rev 1.10/1.31, addr 5
umass0: using UFI over CBI-I
scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets
probe(umass0:1:0): Check Condition on opcode 0x12
SENSE KEY: Not Ready
ASC/ASCQ: Medium Not Present