---
title: 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)

**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.

Copyright © 2016 Leah Rowe <info@minifree.org>\
Copyright © 2016 Scott Bonds <scott@ggr.com>\
This page is available under the [CC BY SA 4.0](../cc-by-sa-4.0.txt)
