Installing OpenBSD on the NanoPi R2S plus

Once I figured out which files to write to the SD card for the NanoPi R2S plus and in what order for #netbsd, installing #openbsd was a breeze.

The second 1G network card is working—the very one that #FreeBSD doesn't recognize ;)

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Installing OpenBSD on the NanoPi R2S plus

Pardon the French, but fuck I love #NetBSD.

Had a long train ride home, so SSH’d into my Shonen Jump box at home, then into my old Solaris box, then my Pentium 1. It all still works, and it’s wonderful. Wanted to try something, built a little chroot, done. It’s all so predictable and consistent and wonderful.

And… increasingly rare.

—
* My old Sun box. Which at some point ran Solaris/SunOS. You know what I mean.

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟱/𝟮𝟱 (Valuable News - 2026/05/25) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/valuable-news-2026-05-25/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Nah hear me out, there is no way cats are real.
#NetBSD

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Photograph of an old Acer Aspire One netbook displaying the Wikipedia article about cats. It's running NetBSD on ctwm. The xeyes applet is open, and there is a window in the third workspace that just says "GAY SEX"

Tomorrow I am going to install 10.1 again and follow above guide again. If it will not work, then...I do not know.

BTW OpenBSD advantage is that AMD GPU works out of box, disadvantage is "mediocre" support of non-FFS file systems.

This took a really long time :)
The instructions at https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/rockchip/ don't work—they don't mention uboot.img and trust.bin—so I got them from FreeBSD, though they're probably available in #NetBSD somewhere too :)

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Netbsd boot on Nanopi R2S Plus

Happy #BrothersDay from the sibling who runs on absolutely everything (yes, even the family toaster)! 🚩🍞

Taking a moment to send some love to my Unix-like family today:

To FreeBSD 😈: Thanks for always bringing the heavy-lifting and server muscle. Nobody I’d rather share a kernel subsystem or network stack with! 💪

To OpenBSD 🐡: My brilliantly paranoid sibling. Don't worry, I double-checked the locks, audited the code, and closed the blinds before posting this. Stay secure! 🔒

And a special shoutout to our loud, monolithic cousin, Linux 🐧! You might be everywhere these days, but we still love having you at the FOSS family barbecue. Just leave some market share for the rest of us, okay? 🍔

Here’s to the entire open-source community. No matter what kernel you're running, we're all pushing the ecosystem forward together! 🧡

#NetBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #Linux #FOSS #OpenSource #Unix #BrothersDay #RunBSD

This is so damn cool, cloning the #Sun3/60, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpl1q2uuks4

#sunmicrosystems #m68k #sunos #netbsd

I heavily hacked syndaemon to work on #NetBSD. It uses an entirely different mechanism to disable the touchpad. It sets a sysctl parameter for the pms driver that sets the touchpad sensitivity so low that nothing registers, lol. In order to accomplish this, you have to run it as root. It's a terrible hack and it took me longer than I would like to admit.

https://codeberg.org/thezerobit/syndaemon-netbsd/src/branch/main/README.txt

This officially resolves my biggest gripe with NetBSD on my laptop.

NetBSD on Raspberry Pi 3 (edited)

Raspberry Pi 3 is the best device which I can find. WiFi and GPU work.

#netbsd

Happy Weekend! In a few hours, Open Source Conference 2026 Japan in #Nagoya will be held at the Fukiage Hall in Chikusa Ward:

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/

One of their talks is from the Nagoya #BSD Users Group, and seems to target #NetBSD in particular. That sounds pretty awesome, and definitely one of the ones I'm going to attend.

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/session/2296979

I wonder what the chances are I'll find anyone from Fedi in there? Anyone feeling like dropping by "boring city" on a Saturday? :P

#OSC2026 #OpenSource #Conference

The requirements are pretty low:

• NO IPv4
• min. IPv6 /48 subnet routed
• Network (ARIN/RIPE/…) should be personalized (netname, abuse,..)
• Optionally: BYOIP
• ARPA delegation for the net to my nameservers
• min. 2x 500G disk space (SATA SSD or better)
• min. 48G memory per node
• bandwidth doesn’t really matter (100Mbit is fine)
• Remote MGMT to systems

#bsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #openindiana #education #learning #opensource

@bpl you will generally see your email at https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-install/index.html if not do reach out to team on IRC #netbsd-code @netbsd

I have announced the winner of the third weekly giveaway:

https://retroedgetech.substack.com/p/unexpected-xfce-thinkcentre-tiny

#Linux #NetBSD #computer #giveAway #TinyMiniMicro #xfce

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity! 🌱

A diverse ecosystem is a strong ecosystem. In the tech world, NetBSD brings vital diversity by proving that clean, portable, and secure code can run on virtually any architecture. This adaptability keeps computing open and accessible to everyone.

Let's keep the digital ecosystem diverse. Consider supporting the NetBSD Foundation today by contributing code, writing documentation, or making a donation! 💻🚩
#NetBSD #BiodiversityDay #OpenSource #TechDiversity #FOSS #RetroComputing #Sustainability #Linux #RunBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD

@thezerobit

Is this on X ? If so try adding the text from the file noted below to your "/etc/X11/xorg.conf". This helped me with #netbsd #x11 Mouse handling.

curl 'gopher://sdf.org/0/users/jmccue/downloads/netbsd_Xmouse.txt' > mouse.txt

the text after sdf.org is : 0/users/jmccue/downloads/netbsd_Xmouse.txt

My #1 issue with #NetBSD on my Thinkpad is the trackpad handling. The program `syndaemon` isn't available probably because NetBSD does trackpad / mouse handling a bit differently than other operating systems. (It's a program that disables the trackpad while typing. Without it, I'm constantly getting erroneous movements with my palms while typing.)

Anyways, I'm looking to port it to NetBSD and have it just disable the unified trackpad/mouse device while typing.

@justine

I think it's great that you pursue the problem consistently until a solution is found.
#OpenBSD is enjoyable, even the installer is well thought out.
However, it's not my first choice personally.
At the moment I mainly use #FreeBSD, less #Linux, and I keep an eye on OpenBSD. I would like to test #NetBSD and NixOS more thoroughly when I have time, for now I'm very satisfied with FreeBSD.

@rqm

It certainly looks like it, doesn't it? Especially as that looks like the output of the dot.profile from the miniroot/ramdisc.

See the INSTALL notes. Installation over a serial console assumes 9600 BPS, and there's an explicit stty that forces that just after echoing that line.

#NetBSD

The BSD community here on the Fediverse has been inspiring to me and learning more about Unix has made me feel that computers and software can be exciting and enjoyable to use again. I want to learn more about alternative operating systems, I want to see discussions and fun projects on the Fediverse and instead of just lurking or scrolling endless to find those things, why not just make it myself?

#30DayBSDChallenge #runbsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd

If anyone else wants to participate, I will be starting this June 1st. Each week there will be a “challenge”. The rules are simple.

• Have fun trying out an alternative OS and learning something new
• Use a BSD distribution for the month of June as your primary computer device
• Complete the Weekly Challenge posts
• Post about your experience using the hashtag #30DayBSDChallenge

#runbsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd

Inspired by the YouTube channel LTT’s latest “30 day” switch to Linux challenge, for the month of June, I am doing a 30 day challenge to switch to FreeBSD. I currently dual boot Debian and Windows but I have been “daily driving” Linux for over 10 years now. I want to learn more about how operating systems work, and FreeBSD with its Linux binary compatibility and support for wine means it could possibly become the only OS on my desktop.

#30DayBSDChallenge #runbsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd

@bpl https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/116537862178252362

#NetBSD is clear on policy noAI will be accepted in source. That's why we need to fund the foundation

But at the end of day I am hypocrite because I need Fish Linux for y*-dlp and gov websites.
#noAI

Trying to boot #NetBSD 11RC4 / hpcarm on the iPaq H3600. Looks promising but it suddenly switches over to garbage output -- is this a baud rate issue (suddenly it decides to swap to a different baud rate?) or something else? See screenshot attached:
#RunBSD

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Screenshot of console output for, NetBSD 11.0_RC4 (INSTALL_IPAQ) #0: Tue May 12 04:23:51 UTC 2026 mkrepro@mkrepro.NetBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/hpcarm/compile/INSTALL_IPAQ

@joel

OK, the toasters will have to wait for #netbsd 11.

And then, we dial all the toasters to 11!

Had to finish my #NetBSD 11.0 RC3 test write-up after upgrading some machines to RC4 this week, so this post has straddle marks.

https://jspath55.blogspot.com/2026/05/netbsd-11-rc3-heat-rc4-and-more.html

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #search #searchengine #frogfind #NetBSD #Links #unix #lynx #unix

Catch of the Day: The text terminal on NetBSD lives! 🐧

Hey Retro Fans!

Many of us use FrogFind on graphical systems like Windows 95 or Mac OS 9. But at its core, FrogFind is a text-first project. Just how well this works was proven to us today by this guest:

Links 2.8 on NetBSD!

Among the BSD operating systems (the purist cousins of Linux), NetBSD is legendary for its portability. It's not for nothing that the NetBSD community's motto is: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" Whether on old toasters, a Sega Dreamcast, or obscure server hardware—NetBSD just runs.

The fact that someone today opens a terminal under NetBSD and fires up the text-based browser "Links" (a direct relative of Lynx) to search the web via FrogFind is pure command-line romance. No flashing banners, no intrusive JavaScript, just lightning-fast, raw text on one of the cleanest UNIX derivatives in the world.

Stay purist and keep hacking on the shell!
Your FrogFind Team 🐸

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NetBSD

@joel

ESPECIALLY the toasters!!!

Wait... We are talking about #OpenBSD here, not #NetBSD!! 🤓

multidisplay hack for #OpenBSD, #NetBSD xenodm/xdm.

#!/bin/ksh

# Define variables at the top for easy access
readonly MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION="--right-of"

# find list of connected monitors to span
monitors=$(xrandr --query | awk '/[^s]connected/{print $1}')

# the first monitor found will be the primary
primary=$(echo "$monitors" | head -n 1)

# initialize the xrandr command
xrandr_cmd="xrandr --output $primary --auto --primary"

# loop through the displays, assigning them --auto and MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION with randr
previous=$primary
for monitor in $monitors
do
    if [ "$monitor" != "$primary" ]; then
        xrandr_cmd+=" --output $monitor --auto $MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION $previous"
        previous=$monitor
    fi
done

# Execute the composed xrandr command
eval "$xrandr_cmd"

could drop in to your Xsetup_0 file. written in ksh, should work in OpenBSD’s ksh and NetBSD’s ksh.

@thezerobit

From what I’ve briefly looked into, it might even be possible to set up a root filesystem with ZFS on #netbsd. I’m not sure what the comments about memory usage are referring to—I have several VPS instances, as well as some home machines running on #OrangePi with 512MB of RAM, and they all run perfectly fine with ZFS on FreeBSD.

I think I’ll try to see how NetBSD ZFS performs in real-world conditions with 512MB🤣

https://wiki.netbsd.org/zfs

@veer66 #pkgsrc works on a number of different operating systems, including Linux and MacOS. You don't have to run #NetBSD to use pkgsrc 🤘

I've made more progress with getting #NetBSD running and mostly usable on my Thinkpad T580. I started a document with my notes on how to set up a usable desktop. Some of this information is missing from the NetBSD Guide, Wiki, and FAQ & HOWTOs pages. Some of it was buried deep in man pages, or found by extensively searching pkgsrc repository. https://codeberg.org/thezerobit/public_notes/src/branch/main/netbsd_notes.md

I have yet to figure out how to automatically disable the touchpad while typing.

Yesterday I updated my laptop to #NetBSD 11 RC4. Went smooth. After I upgraded #pkgsrc to 2026Q1 using pkg_chk. It was the first time I managed to upgrade pkgsrc packages using this tool without problems! 🥳

I'm upgrading #NetBSD on my laptop to the latest RC (11.0 RC4) in this coffee shop, soaking up all the Wi-Fi bandwidth downloading source sets which I didn't realize are not on the install image but need to be downloaded on the fly.

Casually reading The UNIX Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike. I've been Linuxing for nearly 30 years, so it's not like I'm a stranger to this environment, but it's nice to peruse one of its sacred texts.
#UNIX #BSD

@bentsukun Is there something wrong with Postfix in RC4? #NetBSD

NetBSD 11 RC4 is here! Huge thanks to all the devs getting this ready for the final release.

Quick reminder since we are almost halfway through the year: The NetBSD Foundation needs our help to keep things running. If you appreciate clean code, software freedom, and an OS that literally runs on anything, OS which rejects A.I. slop, please consider making a donation. Let's help them hit their 2026 goals!
Grab the RC: https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_11_0_rc4_available
Support the foundation: https://www.netbsd.org/donations/
#NetBSD #FOSS #OpenSource #antiaislop #Linux

#NetBSD 11.0 RC4 just dropped!

"We found a few more issues to fix in RC4, and also updated a lot
of bundled third party code due to security issues, including
OpenSSH, OpenSSL, Postfix, bind, xz and more.

"We would love to release this state as 11.0 soonish and hope no big
fallout will be found in this RC."

https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-11.0_RC4/

Open Source Conference Japan in #Nagoya coming up on 23rd of May!

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/

Mostly Linux, but also a #NetBSD booth set up as well!

#OSPN #OpenSourceConference #Japan #OpenSource

#Linux users who haven't tried #NetBSD yet will be haunted by these tonight:

And we get a new #Slackware kernel today (5.15.206) to correct the very last CVE from #DirtyFrag - nothing published on the web site yet, but I suspect that's the one.

Also: one more Linux kernel update or zero day and I will seriously consider moving to #OpenBSD or #NetBSD for good...