NetBSD

[mrgtwentythree]

I must miss something.

I assume you fail booting NetBSD off an SD card, but you can boot Linux from there, can't you? So, why not boot Linux from an SD card and flash from there NetBSD onto the eMMC?

I am in same situation. So this is good idea. I am gonna try booting Linux from sdcard as rescue and if that works installing NetBSD on eMMC.

no, i booted netbsd from SD and installed netbsd on emmc.

using the not-recommended open lid while back cover is off method, i had disabled emmc via switch 24, with a bootable netbsd sd image installed.  about 10 seconds after power up, i moved switch 24 back to enabled position.  this was after booting started, but before the netbsd kernel itself is running.  this allowed sd boot while emmc will be visible to netbsd, where you can dd arm64.img and reboot and let it resize etc.

by "not-recommended" i mean that many reports of broken hinge or hinge connector when moving the lid when the back plate is off. i spent about 30 seconds to slowly raise just enough to access the power button -- so the front edge was maybe 8-10cm (3-4") away from the keyboard. i was very careful and gentle with this process, and it appears to have been successful.

however, the idea of booting linux from sd (since it has a compatible with the emmc uboot bootable image), and using that to write netbsd arm64.img to the emmc sounds workable to me, and it won't require opening up the machine if it succeeds.

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Where can we get rksd_loader.img without NetBSD system? Thanks!

you could build the netbsd package on any platform, i hope.  that would be generic using pkgsrc-on-linux or whatever info, please see pkgsrc.org.

alternatively, i've uploaded a copy of the most recent package here:


https://www.netbsd.org/~mrg/u-boot-pineb...rc5nb2.tgz

this has the 4 "normal" output files:
- idbloader.img (tpl/spl)
- u-boot.itb (u-boot itself)
- rksd_loader.img (first two combined for sd/emm)
- rkspi_loader.img (first two combined for SPI)