NetBSD

[Lumat]

I spent way too much time on my Pinebook Pro and hesitate installing NetBSD till these issues are resolved

• support for wifi
  
• bootable from micro sd - http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/20...06438.html
  

Could anyone running NetBSD review it, please? I'm super curious about the current state!


By the way, if we flash u-boot-pinebook-pro-2020.01.rc5nb2.tgz onto the eMMC card, can it boot Linux off an SD card?

This is what I did without deactivating eMMC switch.

I updated u-boot in PBP's original Debian to boot Linux from sdcard.

I booted Linux from sdcard.

Then thanks to mrgtweentythree I was able to dd NetBSD to eMMC from sdcard running Linux using u-boot he uploaded and Jared's instructions in NetBSD website.

I booted NetBSD from eMMC.

I cannot boot Linux from sdcard anymore but that's ok for me since I want to run BSD only.

I am wireless using a Ralink RT5390 USB wifi adapter.

I hope this helps.

[mrgtwentythree]

I cannot boot Linux from sdcard anymore but that's ok for me since I want to run BSD only.

I am wireless using a Ralink RT5390 USB wifi adapter.

i will be investigating how to have the emmc uboot boot from sd so that we can also have that feature enabled. probably not for a couple of weeks..

we hope to have the builtin wifi working sooner than later.

[gillham]

Wow there is a lot of complicated stuff going on here to boot NetBSD!
I believe you can boot without all of the opening the lid business if you want.

Download a -current arm64.img.gz
Decompress arm64.img.gz
Then dd arm64.img to an SD card
On the first partition (fat32 boot partition) copy dtb/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb to the root of the boot fat32 partition
Insert SD in PineBook Pro (if not using the builtin Linux to 'dd' etc)
Power on.

NetBSD came right up for me, expanded the root file-system and rebooted to normal multi-user.  Of course it used the u-boot off the eMMC, but that didn't bother me.  The printed label on the Pine Book Pro that says "Linux Laptop" bothers me more.

I did compile the u-boot out of sysutils and will put that on my SD too so I can wipe the eMMC if I like and still boot, but for my initial testing I didn't want to make it too complicated.

Thanks @mrgtwentythree  and @jmcneill for making this work so easily.

[erchache2000]

New page for netbsd was created by Jared on

http://www.armbsd.org/arm/

Now i'm trying to boot from sd card but I can't, blank screen only on both versions, 9 and current.

Perhaps do I need to switch emmc disable on motherboard? https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2...06438.html

[evantaylor]

New page for netbsd was created by Jared on

http://www.armbsd.org/arm/

Now i'm trying to boot from sd card but I can't, blank screen only on both versions, 9 and current.

Perhaps do I need to switch emmc disable on motherboard? https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2...06438.html

My sd card booted without issue today.  Did not turn off EMMC.  Used the sd card image from:

http://www.armbsd.org/arm/

Didn't need to mess with boot or do anything but the basic dd flash.

[Luke]

I added NetBSD to the wiki: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo...ase#NetBSD

[erchache2000]

New page for netbsd was created by Jared on

http://www.armbsd.org/arm/

Now i'm trying to boot from sd card but I can't, blank screen only on both versions, 9 and current.

Perhaps do I need to switch emmc disable on motherboard? https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2...06438.html

My sd card booted without issue today.  Did not turn off EMMC.  Used the sd card image from:

http://www.armbsd.org/arm/

Didn't need to mess with boot or do anything but the basic dd flash.

I will try to reflash it

Perhaps my system don't burn it right.

[schultzor]

I just tried burning the `-current` image from armbsd.org (202001272250Z) to an SD card and haven't had luck booting it yet.

[gillham]

Have you copied the dtb to the root of the first partition?

Once you've written out the NetBSD image via 'dd' the first partition is fat32 and labeled as 'NETBSD' so on the factory image it should mount in /media/<youruserid>/NETBSD. If you're using a different machine, then just mount the first partition and adjust appropriately.

Basically it appears the default Linux u-boot can't boot the NetBSD media with the device tree blob under dtb/rockchip. If you copy it to the root of the fat32 boot file-system it should boot fine with the factory Linux image still on the eMMC.

$ cp /media/$USER/NETBSD/dtb/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb /media/$USER/NETBSD/

If you're powering on with the NetBSD SD inserted and the power light goes off after a few seconds (and the capslock / numluck might flash later too) then it is likely to be this problem as that is the behavior I see on my PineBook Pro.

[schultzor]

Have you copied the dtb to the root of the first partition?

Once you've written out the NetBSD image via 'dd' the first partition is fat32 and labeled as 'NETBSD' so on the factory image it should mount in /media/<youruserid>/NETBSD.  If you're using a different machine, then just mount the first partition and adjust appropriately.

Basically it appears the default Linux u-boot can't boot the NetBSD media with the device tree blob under dtb/rockchip.  If you copy it to the root of the fat32 boot file-system it should boot fine with the factory Linux image still on the eMMC.

$ cp /media/$USER/NETBSD/dtb/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb /media/$USER/NETBSD/

If you're powering on with the NetBSD SD inserted and the power light goes off after a few seconds (and the capslock / numluck might flash later too) then it is likely to be this problem as that is the behavior I see on my PineBook Pro.

yep, this fixed it, thanks!