NetBSD on the Pinebook Pro in August 2022 - or not?

[KC9UDX]

I don't know what goes on in the Linux world.  I surmise that Manjaro now comes with a U-Boot that is incompatible with NetBSD.

I bought another PinebookPro.  I have a microSD card with NetBSD 9.0 on it that I used as sort of a rescue boot for my other PinebookPro (which runs NetBSD 9.1).  I know that it works because I booted the old PBP with it, to make an image of the eMMC, so that I could make the new PBP a clone of the old one.  Booting this new PBP with the microSD card works for less than 20 seconds, and then the display turns off.  I have yet to open this PBP up to use the serial console, but I don't expect that will help, because NetBSD does start to boot.  I see that the PBP image of NetBSD has been withdrawn from armbsd.org, and I expect that is due to this problem.

I suppose it may be possible to install a different Linux on a microSD card in order to re-flash the eMMC with my original PBP NetBSD image.  But I wonder if I will run into some other trouble and effectively brick the PBP.  Is Manjaro booting via SPI ROM?  I'm not very ambitious about experimenting because I don't have my other PBP running NetBSD to fall back on.

---

Well it seems I can answer my own question. My microSD card may have gone corrupt.

I followed the first three instructions here https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/ins...g_sysinst/
and then copied rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb from /dtb/rockchip to both /dtb and / (because I don't recall which is the proper place), and now have a bootable microSD with NetBSD.

The actual first command used was

Code:

dd if=arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=1M conv=sync

arm64.img is from evbarm/aarch64
the Pinebook Pro U-Boot was found here https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packag...4/9.0/All/

[untitled]

I tried to install NetBSD HEAD and it seems to render Pinebook Pro unbootable when I halt/reboot the system. Not sure what it does exactly, but looks like it puts the CPU into some weird state that it cannot continue operation. What helps is to disconnect battery over night, then plug in and it's bootable again.

[KC9UDX]

What I found is that the instructions above don't make a bootable U-boot. When I first tried NetBSD, before we had (or perhaps before I knew about) the working images on armbsd.org (no longer available) I had to manually copy the U-Boot from a working Linux. It looks like I might have to do that again.

[untitled]

What I found is that the instructions above don't make a bootable U-boot.  When I first tried NetBSD, before we had (or perhaps before I knew about) the working images on armbsd.org (no longer available) I had to manually copy the U-Boot from a working Linux.  It looks like I might have to do that again.

Good advice is to actually burn u-boot to SPI.

[KC9UDX]

What I found is that the instructions above don't make a bootable U-boot.  When I first tried NetBSD, before we had (or perhaps before I knew about) the working images on armbsd.org (no longer available) I had to manually copy the U-Boot from a working Linux.  It looks like I might have to do that again.

Good advice is to actually burn u-boot to SPI.

I've always wanted to do that.  But, as I can scarcely get one to work on SD and eMMC, I don't dare flash one that might not work to SPI ROM.

[alchemist]

Hi!,

I installed Tow-Boot on SPI. It seems better than distro's implementations.
You can try it live (from sd-card) then burn it on SPI.

I don't use *BSD but seems tow-boot support them.

[KC9UDX]

I installed Tow-Boot on SPI. It seems better than distro's implementations.
You can try it live (from sd-card) then burn it on SPI.

I don't use *BSD but seems tow-boot support them.

I may try it.  But I'd like to get something working first.  As I have no time to deal with it for a while, I'm mostly waiting for a working bootable image to resurface.