Issues Installing NetBSD on a PineBook Pro
01-04-2021, 11:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2021, 12:39 AM by BronzeBeard.)
Pinebook Pro is probably not the best platform to get your feet wet in BSD. Installation and setup is much smoother on X86 at the moment. And you're limited to mainly NetBSD at the moment if you're looking for an easy install.
That being said, non-X86 arches is where NetBSD shines, and is the main reason I purchased one.
I currently run -Current. The drivers for Pinebook Pro are up-to-date on it, and wifi works. But the downside is, you'll have to build everything yourself from source OR use hackish methods to get NetBSD 9.1 binaries to work.
Anyway, I run from an SD. Here is how I do it:
-Download Image from armbsd.org
-Put in your sd card.
-Open up terminal on your linux machine.
-Double check the device name of your sd card. lsblk
-sudo dd if=Name_Of_The_NetBSD_Image_File.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=4M status=progress
-Reboot
NetBSD will boot up. You might get a fuzzy monitor, if so, turn it off and turn it back on.
-NetBSD will growfs on the sd card.
-Then you'll be at login prompt.
-Root is the user name. No password.
At this point, I suggest passwd to change your root password.
Then 'useradd -m username' a new user.
Then 'passwd username' to change the password
Then 'usermod -G wheel username' to give your username su power.
Then exit out of root, log in to your user account.
type in startx to boot up x.
SU up a terminal.
Use vi to edit your wpa_supplicant: https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/how_to...upplicant/
If you're on 9.1, edit your pkg_paths for pkg-add: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/cha...oot-pkgsrc
If you're on -Current download pkgsrc: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/getting.html I suggest using CVS to get the newest sources. The Image will have compile issues with some packages if you use the ftp tarballs. You may run into compile issues anyway, and get frustrated with how slow PBP is with compiling big stuff.
There is a hackish solution for using 9.1 binaries on -Current, see the other thread on here for how.
If you were looking to not use an SD card, I would try installing it like Manjaro is suggested to be installed. Wget the image while running an OS from the SD card. Then DD that image to your device.
Good luck! And remember, don't take BSD's current state on PBP as an indicator how good or frustrating BSD is. All four BSD are absolutely awesome OSs on supported platforms. PBP support should get better as time progresses.
I forgot to reply to the actual question though... Sorry:
Where did you get the netbsd image from?
Did you sha check the image?
Did you properly dd the sd card?
I would try re-imaging the sd card again, and possibly trying a different sd card.
That being said, non-X86 arches is where NetBSD shines, and is the main reason I purchased one.
I currently run -Current. The drivers for Pinebook Pro are up-to-date on it, and wifi works. But the downside is, you'll have to build everything yourself from source OR use hackish methods to get NetBSD 9.1 binaries to work.
Anyway, I run from an SD. Here is how I do it:
-Download Image from armbsd.org
-Put in your sd card.
-Open up terminal on your linux machine.
-Double check the device name of your sd card. lsblk
-sudo dd if=Name_Of_The_NetBSD_Image_File.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=4M status=progress
-Reboot
NetBSD will boot up. You might get a fuzzy monitor, if so, turn it off and turn it back on.
-NetBSD will growfs on the sd card.
-Then you'll be at login prompt.
-Root is the user name. No password.
At this point, I suggest passwd to change your root password.
Then 'useradd -m username' a new user.
Then 'passwd username' to change the password
Then 'usermod -G wheel username' to give your username su power.
Then exit out of root, log in to your user account.
type in startx to boot up x.
SU up a terminal.
Use vi to edit your wpa_supplicant: https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/how_to...upplicant/
If you're on 9.1, edit your pkg_paths for pkg-add: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/cha...oot-pkgsrc
If you're on -Current download pkgsrc: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/getting.html I suggest using CVS to get the newest sources. The Image will have compile issues with some packages if you use the ftp tarballs. You may run into compile issues anyway, and get frustrated with how slow PBP is with compiling big stuff.
There is a hackish solution for using 9.1 binaries on -Current, see the other thread on here for how.
If you were looking to not use an SD card, I would try installing it like Manjaro is suggested to be installed. Wget the image while running an OS from the SD card. Then DD that image to your device.
Good luck! And remember, don't take BSD's current state on PBP as an indicator how good or frustrating BSD is. All four BSD are absolutely awesome OSs on supported platforms. PBP support should get better as time progresses.
I forgot to reply to the actual question though... Sorry:
Quote:However, when I inserted the SD card into the PineBook, it ignored the microSD card and just went ahead to boot Manjaro.
Where did you get the netbsd image from?
Did you sha check the image?
Did you properly dd the sd card?
I would try re-imaging the sd card again, and possibly trying a different sd card.
