How to install OpenBSD on the PBP?

[BenniTec]

Hi,

I have tried all day to install OpenBSD 7.2, 6.9 and 6.7 on my Pinebook Pro.
When I flash the installer*.img or miniroot*.img onto my usb-stick or SD card
and apply the necessary dtb and u-boot patching described in https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.2/...TALL.arm64,
the PBP starts into boot(8) and no matter what I try (eg. `set tty fb0` and/or `boot /bsd.rd` and/or `machine dtb ...`)
I get a flashing screen and nothing happens.

1: Do I need to buy a serial cable to install it or am I doing something wrong?
2: Does anyone have a working installer or image that works without a serial cable?
3: Is there some other way of installing it instead, eg. over ssh with an ethernet adapter (Pinephone USB-C dongle)?

[evantaylor]

Hi,

I have tried all day to install OpenBSD 7.2, 6.9 and 6.7 on my Pinebook Pro.
When I flash the installer*.img or miniroot*.img onto my usb-stick or SD card
and apply the necessary dtb and u-boot patching described in https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.2/...TALL.arm64,
the PBP starts into boot(8) and no matter what I try (eg. `set tty fb0` and/or `boot /bsd.rd` and/or `machine dtb ...`)
I get a flashing screen and nothing happens.

1: Do I need to buy a serial cable to install it or am I doing something wrong?
2: Does anyone have a working installer or image that works without a serial cable?
3: Is there some other way of installing it instead, eg. over ssh with an ethernet adapter (Pinephone USB-C dongle)?

My understanding is that it won't boot visually to the display until after your install is complete.  So you need to use the Serial/3.5mm jack adapter and switch the audio out to serial mode.

This was beyond my level of interest once I realized someone premade some FreeBSD images:

https://personalbsd.org

FreeBSD runs reasonable well, would love it if someone got a more user-friendly OpenBSD installer image working, but if you're ok using a WiFi Dongle and wanna do BSD, I'd start at the above link.

[evantaylor]

Hi,

I have tried all day to install OpenBSD 7.2, 6.9 and 6.7 on my Pinebook Pro.
When I flash the installer*.img or miniroot*.img onto my usb-stick or SD card
and apply the necessary dtb and u-boot patching described in https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.2/...TALL.arm64,
the PBP starts into boot(8) and no matter what I try (eg. `set tty fb0` and/or `boot /bsd.rd` and/or `machine dtb ...`)
I get a flashing screen and nothing happens.

1: Do I need to buy a serial cable to install it or am I doing something wrong?
2: Does anyone have a working installer or image that works without a serial cable?
3: Is there some other way of installing it instead, eg. over ssh with an ethernet adapter (Pinephone USB-C dongle)?

My understanding is that it won't boot visually to the display until after your install is complete.  So you need to use the Serial/3.5mm jack adapter and switch the audio out to serial mode.

This was beyond my level of interest once I realized someone premade some FreeBSD images:

https://personalbsd.org

FreeBSD runs reasonable well, would love it if someone got a more user-friendly OpenBSD installer image working, but if you're ok using a WiFi Dongle and wanna do BSD, I'd start at the above link.

Out of curiosity, I tried this guide:

https://tomscii.sig7.se/2022/02/Guide-to...inebookPro

It works flawlessly, but you need to prepare the eMMC, load everything on to a fat32 thumb drive, etc. and wait a while on reboots once firmware is updated.

I got 7.2 working fine in about an hour.

---

had to do doas date pool.ntp.org to get packages to install for some reason (ntpd wasn't updating), but otherwise got XFCE4, wifi, the display/uvideo all working.