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| How to install NetBSD on x86 GNU GRUB payload |
This page 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 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 OpenBSD or NetBSD)
If you downloaded your ISO on a OpenBSD 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.
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 GNU Boot.
On your NetBSD root partition, create the /grub directory and add
the file gnuboot_grub.cfg to it. Inside the
gnuboot_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
According to the Libreboot project at a time when it was still fully free, most of the issues occur when using 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, accodring to Libreboot at the time, it can be problematic when they are trying to switch to a framebuffer because it doesn't exist.
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.