NetBSD - A little guide for newcomers

pfr

pin Did that, but without setting up the MBR it wouldn't boot. I though, of course, I've just wiped the entire drive, I need to setup the MBR ... So I did that, leaving 1gb either side of the partition for wear leveling. I wonder if this is the issue? Does the MBR partition need to begin at the first mb on the drive? Sorry for terrible pic

pfr I would try leaving space for wear leveling at the end of the disk only. I'm not that well informed on this to give any sort of recommendations but, I usually leave 5-10% at the end.
I could be wrong but, I think the initial Mb of the disk are needed...

The MBR is not located in a partition; it is located at a first sector of the device (physical offset 0), preceding the first partition.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

pfr

pin that's hopefully the solution! will attempt a fresh install again tonight!

EDIT: Yep, that fixed it.
FYI, I also fixed the error message I was getting with DHCPv6, just added noipv6rs to /etc/dhcpcd.conf

EDIT:
Finally up and running (again) with the most current 9-stable img. Here's hoping I don't bork this one!
On a positive note, the experience has been helpful in learning a bit more about the system. I've even written myself a personalised installation guide addressing all of the difficulties I encountered, should I ever need to reinstall again.

Cheers again @pin for your help, that beer is still on offer should you decide to take it up 👍️

Updated 😉

snufkin I have a question for you if you don't mind?

Not at all, I know what the problem is and can help you fixing it if you want to stay on spectrwm.
i3 is also available if you want that instead.

I don't have time to explain this right now but, if you really want to stay on spectrwm I can provide the details in a few hours, most likely by lunch time around here.

snufkin

I'm super happy that I found out about NetBSD and about this guide!

Always a pleasure to hear from an happy user.

My system is up and running with spectrwm but I have a question for you if you don't mind?

Once you're happy with your system, I'd recommend backing-up your config files.
They will be very usefull if you ever run into trouble 😉

I'm quite new to tiling window managers and I've only configured i3wm before.

I've never used i3 myself but its available if you prefer it.

It seems like there is a config file laying somewhere because most things are working.

Default config files can be found in /usr/pkg/share/examples/spectrwm

I've created a .spectrwm.conf in my ~/ directory with some minor tweaks.

spectrwm is actually rather simple to configure but, by default the keybinding are on a different file.
This can be confusing for new users. Look at line 91 in the default spectrwm.conf file, it reads
keyboard_mapping = ~/.spectrwm_us.conf

Now you can either use this or copy all the keybindings and paste them at the end of the main config file.
After this delete the keyboard_mapping line quoted above and you will have a single config file, much easier to handle IMO.

What confuses me is that I don't have a spectrwm.conf in /etc.

See above, these are in /usr/pkg/share/examples/spectrwm

conky is installed and I created ~/.conkyrc file containing some minor configuration. Also I pointed this fom my ~/.spectrwm.conf file.

I don't use conky but, this seems correct.
Btw, as you might have noticed I'm now running frankenwm instead. But, if you are new to tiling, I wouldn't recommend it just yet as configuration is done at compile time.

On my top bar it says " total exceptions1, first exception: could not find xlock"

By default spectrwm calls xlock, you need to change this.

but xlock is not in my ~/.spectrwm.conf file and I've installed slock. What am I doing wrong?

Look at line 96 of the default config
program[lock] = xlock

Did you change this to slock?

Been stuck with this for hours now :/

As said, one config file is much easier to handle 😉
I could dig out mine but, I've done so many changes to the keybindings so they would match awesomewm's since it was the first WM I used, that it would be just confusing to you.
Tell you what, I'll fix a default one for you...soon.

snufkin Please fetch .spectrwm.conf here and move it into place, i.e. ~/.spectrwm.conf.
Its now calling slock by default. Please be aware that you should review every line and adjust it to your needs.
For example, bar_font, I have no clue what fonts you have installed and want to use. Also note that some lines are commented out, I don't know your screen resolution 😁 enable according to your needs.
I've picked MOD4 as the modifier and enabled 9 workspaces, read the documentation man spectrwm and adjust accordingly.

Hope it helps 😉

snufkin It was spectrwm related, so... you're welcome 😉

snufkin I need to fiddle some more with things like icons in status bar,

You mean something like this?

If so, check the details here

flfederation

Although I am new to BSD, I found the FreeBSD and OpenBSD installers pretty intuitive. NetBSD installer wasn't all bad, but it took a couple tries and wasn't as cooperative with backing out of things that didn't work (dhcp setup for example).

Then when I first booted, it said "heap full".

I looked that up, and the top result was "NetBSD Problem Report #47855: heap full on second boot ..." gnats.netbsd.org/47855

after login and an immediate shutdown -p now the second boot fails with: 12719640 + 620248 + 620840 [859008+571747]=0xfaeee0 heap full (0x68c7c+32768)

It says: "Booting from the boot prompt with boot hd0a:netbsd works. After removing the rndseed entry in boot.cfg from the normal boot option it boots fine."

I dropped to the prompt next time and typed:

boot hd0a:netbsd

Vi didn't like the Insert key on my keyboard (I set it in the installer, I've had problems with vi and this keyboard before) so I redid /boot.cfg using echo and > and >> after making a copy. Now it boots!

joany

Hi. Just found this forum and i saw you where Swedish 🥳 I got a thinkpad x220. Its seems my laptop is missing something. Fn keys doesn't work. It runs hot.. etc.. I read there is a thinkpad driver. But my skills with drivers is very limited. Where do i start to find the cure?

joany Hej 😉
Many use ThinkPads and hopefully someone will notice your post here.
Myself, I only have HPs and wouldn't know about it.
As for the Fn-keys, what DE/WM are you using? When I was using spectrwm the keys were mapped but needed to be assigned in the config file, e.g. bind[raise_volume] = XF86AudioRaiseVolume.
Now on frankenwm, I need to map and assign the keys, as they are not mapped either, e.g. { 0 , 0x1008ff11, spawn, {.com = voldowncmd}},, so it depends on your GUI.

joany

pin Hi. Thanks for responding, im using xfce. I look in to key bindings👍.. But how do i se if a certain driver is loaded? Most of the articles i found talks about compiling your own kernal. 🤔

joany Honestly, I know there's a command to display the running kernel loaded drivers but, I just can't remember it right now 🙁 It has even been mentioned in one of the threads in this forum...
Alternative, check the generic kernel configuration file, it will tell you.
As said, I don't own a ThinkPad but, among others, @JuvenalUrbino, @pfr and @nia do...

joany

pin Thanks, more stuff to check. Maybe i should get myself a HP 🤭🤭

joany Maybe i should get myself a HP

I got used to them but some can be tricky and need a bit of teaching to boot in EFI mode.
My Void Linux HP is set-up in EFI mode with a GPT partition table but, my NetBSD one is on legacy mode with an MBR partition scheme.

Hopefully one of the ThinkPad owners can help you out, otherwise reading about it may do.

nia

@joany Running estd might help the "running hot" part. The sound hotkeys are designed to work outside X11 but within X11 it's thought that they're supposed to be managed by the window manager, so they're left unbound.

All of the drivers for the x220 are included in the GENERIC kernel and will thus be loaded by default. On NetBSD you do not typically load drivers...

joany

nia Thank a million.. 😄😄😄 Ive been googling many hours about thinkpad stuff.. Fantastic forum thanks @pin and @nia

mrkrisprolls

@pin Thanks a lot for putting these guidelines together.
I have an HP EliteBook 840 G1 that might turn orange soon 😇 My only concern being the wireless adapter, an infamous Broadcom BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n,....

mrkrisprolls My only concern being the wireless adapter, an infamous Broadcom BCM43228

Mine also had a broadcom chip but, as I got it from a dump, I looked for an Intel chip on another machine and swapped the cards 😁

Now, I do have access to an HP with a broadcom card. It runs Windows 10 and it's not mine but, I've booted NetBSD on it ~~and wifi works fine.~~ I'll check the model when I get my hands on it and let you know.

Else, swapping chips is damn easy and, since you have the same model as me, you know already that the BIOS will accept the Intel card.
You can buy one online for $30 - $40.
I'll also let you know exactly which one I have.

Check back in a few hours 😉

mrkrisprolls
My chip,

$ pcictl pci0 list | grep network
000:25:0: Intel I218-LM Ethernet Connection (ethernet network, revision 0x04)
002:00:0: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 WiFi (miscellaneous network, revision 0x34)

From the HP with the broadcom card,

$ pcictl pci0 list | grep network
000:25:0: Intel I218-LM Ethernet Connection (ethernet network, revision 0x04)
002:00:0: Broadcom BCM43228 Dualband 802.11 (miscellaneous network)

This is the same card as you have but, ifconfig only shows the ethernet connection and the loopback device, no wifi driver 🙁
I must have tried it on another machine and not on this one, sorry.

The good news is, the Intel chip is cheeper then when I last looked at it. I don't know where in the world you are located but, I've found used cards starting at $3.
Just search for it locally 😉

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