How to install NetBSD on a libreboot system =========================================== This section relates to preparing, booting and installing NetBSD on your libreboot system, using nothing more than a USB flash drive (and *dd*). They've only been tested on a librebooted ThinkPad X60. It is expected that you use text mode in libreboot (txtmode images), for the early boot process in NetBSD. **Suspend/hibernate is broken, according to at least 1 user.** Thanks go to ioxcide in [this Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/BSD/comments/53jt70/libreboot_and_bsds/) for the initial instructions. - [Prepare the USB drive (in NetBSD)](#prepare) - [Installing NetBSD without full disk encryption](#noencryption) - [Installing NetBSD with full disk encryption](#encryption) - [Booting](#booting) - [Configuring Grub](#configuring_grub) - [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) [Back to previous index](./) **This section is only for the GRUB payload. For depthcharge (used on CrOS devices in libreboot), instructions have yet to be written in the libreboot documentation.** netbsd.iso is the installation image for NetBSD. Adapt the filename accordingly, for your version of NetBSD. Prepare the USB drive (in NetBSD) --------------------------------- [This page](https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/how_to_install_netbsd_from_an_usb_memory_stick/) on the NetBSD website shows how to create a NetBSD bootable USB drive from within NetBSD itself. You should use the *dd* method documented there. Prepare the USB drive (in FreeBSD) ---------------------------------- [This page](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-pre.html) on the FreeBSD website shows how to create a bootable USB drive for installing FreeBSD. Use the *dd* on that page. You can also use the same instructions with a NetBSD ISO image. Prepare the USB drive (in LibertyBSD or NetBSD) ----------------------------------------------- If you downloaded your ISO on a LibertyBSD or NetBSD system, here is how to create the bootable NetBSD USB drive: Connect the USB drive. Check dmesg:\ $ dmesg | tail Check to confirm which drive it is, for example, if you think its sd3:\ **$ disklabel sd3** Check that it wasn't automatically mounted. If it was, unmount it. For example:\ $ doas umount /dev/sd3i dmesg told you what device it is. Overwrite the drive, writing the NetBSD installer to it with dd. For example:\ $ doas netbsd.iso of=/dev/rsdXc bs=1M; sync You should now be able to boot the installer from your USB drive. Continue reading, for information about how to do that. Prepare the USB drive (in GNU+Linux) ------------------------------------ If you downloaded your ISO on a GNU+Linux system, here is how to create the bootable NetBSD USB drive: Connect the USB drive. Check dmesg:\ $ dmesg Check lsblk to confirm which drive it is:\ **$ lsblk** Check that it wasn't automatically mounted. If it was, unmount it. For example:\ $ sudo umount /dev/sdX* **# umount /dev/sdX*** dmesg told you what device it is. Overwrite the drive, writing your distro ISO to it with dd. For example:\ $ sudo dd if=install60.fs of=/dev/sdX bs=8M; sync **# dd if=netbsd.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=8M; sync** You should now be able to boot the installer from your USB drive. Continue reading, for information about how to do that. Installing NetBSD without full disk encryption ---------------------------------------------- You might have to use an external USB keyboard during the installation. Press C to access the GRUB terminal. grub> knetbsd -r sd0a (usb0,netbsd1)/netbsd grub> **boot** It will start booting into the NetBSD installer. Follow the normal process for installing NetBSD. Installing NetBSD with full disk encryption ------------------------------------------- TODO Booting ------- Press C in GRUB to access the command line: grub> knetbsd -r wd0a (ahci0,netbsd1)/netbsd grub> **boot** NetBSD will start booting. Yay! Configuring Grub ---------------- If you don't want to drop to the GRUB command line and type in a command to boot NetBSD every time, you can create a GRUB configuration that's aware of your NetBSD installation and that will automatically be used by libreboot. On your NetBSD root partition, create the **/grub** directory and add the file **libreboot\_grub.cfg** to it. Inside the **libreboot\_grub.cfg** add these lines: **default=0 timeout=3 menuentry "NetBSD" {\     knetbsd -r wd0a (ahci0,netbsd1)/netbsd\ }\ ** The next time you boot, you'll see the old Grub menu for a few seconds, then you'll see the a new menu with only NetBSD on the list. After 3 seconds NetBSD will boot, or you can hit enter to boot. Troubleshooting =============== Most of these issues occur when using libreboot with coreboot's 'text mode' instead of the coreboot framebuffer. This mode is useful for booting payloads like memtest86+ which expect text-mode, but for NetBSD it can be problematic when they are trying to switch to a framebuffer because it doesn't exist. In most cases, you should use the vesafb ROM images. Example filename: libreboot\_ukdvorak\_vesafb.rom. won't boot\...something about file not found --------------------------------------------- Your device names (i.e. usb0, usb1, sd0, sd1, wd0, ahci0, hd0, etc) and numbers may differ. Use TAB completion. 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