How sucky is OpenBSD installation for the first time? I managed to boot up my old laptop (An 1.8ghz Acer from 2008-ish?), and I thought I’d give OpenBSD a crack on it. What do I need to be looking out for, coming from a MacOS / Linux background?

Posted in: s/OpenBSD

💀 requiem

May 14 · 3 weeks ago · 👍 norayr

9 Comments ↓

😎 decant · May 15 at 00:42:

Not very sucky sucky at all! You mostly answer yes/no questions. For first timer, it is the easiest to choose automatic disk partition and use HDCP for network connection which are the default. After install and reboot, read ifconfig(8) pf.conf(5) pkg_info(1), pkg_add(1) and install some software, and edit ~/.xession. since you came from linux/osx background, maybe install bash.

😎 decant · May 15 at 00:56:

also run pcidump(8) and pcidevs(8) after installation to see what hardware you have. intel and full MAC broadcom wifi cards are better supported. athn(4) works ok too. I did use urtwn(4) for a while, not very stable. nvdia cards are big no no, amdgpu(4) is a massive driver. I run intel(4) which runs flawlessly. oh, turn off intel rapid storage and try poke TPM setting if you have problem booting/installing

💀 requiem [OP] · May 15 at 06:32:

Thank you! These are great pointers. It seems like a familiar but slightly different ecosystem, it will be an interesting learning experience!

😎 decant · May 15 at 08:36:

Oh no! I made some typos! patch follows --.xession ++.xsession --pcidevs(8) ++usbdevs(8)

💀 requiem [OP] · May 18 at 11:28:

So I gave it a go. I got really stuck with what seems to be some bug with `radeondrm` — it boots fine but as soon as it loads the video driver the display just crashes. I can get FreeBSD to run fine with what I assume to be just vesa. But I really would prefer OpenBSD, it seems more ... "elegant" somehow? Any tips on what I could do to overcome the `radeondrm` problem?

— Here's a recording of what happens. (Link expires 25 May 2024)

😎 decant · May 31 at 02:22:

Try diable amdgpu, Scott Lowe wrote this 20 years ago, but should still work the same way:

Boot from the OpenBSD 3.8 boot CD image (I pointed the virtual CD-ROM drive in the VM directly to the corresponding ISO image).

At the OpenBSD boot> prompt, type “-c” (without quotes) and press Enter. This takes you into User Kernel Config, or UKC.

At the UKC prompt, type “disable pcn” to disable the pcn driver.

Type “quit” at the next UKC prompt to exit the kernel config and proceed with the boot process. If you watch the boot process, you will see OpenBSD load the le driver and identify the virtual NIC as le1.

😎 decant · May 31 at 02:29:

but surely a 2008 laptop should run the Radeon(4) driver?? I think amdgpu(4) is for newer cards.

😎 decant · May 31 at 02:32:

oh I misread you, try disable radeon

💀 requiem [OP] · May 31 at 08:59:

Yeah, in the end I did, but still couldn’t get it to work. I couldn’t get it to run X11. FreeBSD seems to work as long as I do not enable the radeon drivers. I think Video Ram is toast on the card.