Issues Installing NetBSD on a PineBook Pro
01-15-2021, 10:04 AM
Glad to see more people trying out NetBSD. It's a wonderful, simple *nix operating system.
As mentioned by KC9UDX, use the `sysctl` command to change brightness.
'sysctl -a | grep light' to find the option and if I remember correctly it's called `hw.pwmbacklight0.level`
then to change the value `sysctl -w hw.pwmbacklight0.level=<value>`.
As for audio, use the mixerctl command:
`mixerctl -a` to list options and `mixerctl -w` to overwrite current value e.g. `mixerctl -w outputs.master=80`.
For battery and thermal status use the envstat command.
All of the commands mentioned above are already included in the system.
If you plan to watch videos on your PineBook Pro, I would recommend getting a -Current kernel (you can still use a 9.1 userland for binary packages - just replace the kernel). With recent scheduler changes, NetBSD on RK3399 systems now always prefer the faster 2.0 GHz cores, Mesa LLVMpipe is also enabled wich makes 1080p a lot faster for many things. 1080p 30fps and 720p 60fps plays smoothly.
However, it's worth noting that there's no panfrost/lima support yet, so no 3D acceleration which unfortunately means minor screen tearing and shorter battery life for graphic intense tasks.
Lastly, I would recommend unitedbsd.com - welcoming BSD community with quite a lot of NetBSD users and a few NetBSD developers.
As mentioned by KC9UDX, use the `sysctl` command to change brightness.
'sysctl -a | grep light' to find the option and if I remember correctly it's called `hw.pwmbacklight0.level`
then to change the value `sysctl -w hw.pwmbacklight0.level=<value>`.
As for audio, use the mixerctl command:
`mixerctl -a` to list options and `mixerctl -w` to overwrite current value e.g. `mixerctl -w outputs.master=80`.
For battery and thermal status use the envstat command.
All of the commands mentioned above are already included in the system.
If you plan to watch videos on your PineBook Pro, I would recommend getting a -Current kernel (you can still use a 9.1 userland for binary packages - just replace the kernel). With recent scheduler changes, NetBSD on RK3399 systems now always prefer the faster 2.0 GHz cores, Mesa LLVMpipe is also enabled wich makes 1080p a lot faster for many things. 1080p 30fps and 720p 60fps plays smoothly.
However, it's worth noting that there's no panfrost/lima support yet, so no 3D acceleration which unfortunately means minor screen tearing and shorter battery life for graphic intense tasks.
Lastly, I would recommend unitedbsd.com - welcoming BSD community with quite a lot of NetBSD users and a few NetBSD developers.
