I moved to Oman for the at least one year and my main computers remained at home. I was given Lenovo ThinkPad T530 laptop (i7-3520M, 8GB RAM, Toshiba 500GB HDD and Windows 8) for working and personal purposes. As Windows is not my favourite operating system for personal purposes I decided to install NetBSD into it too. However, I didn’t want to touch my internal hard drive because it had some sensitive information and it was configured for work. Because of this I bought external hard drive (WD Elements Portable, 1TB, USB3). Part of it I will be used for back-up purposes but 100GB was dedicated for NetBSD (not much but I don’t plan to store much data in it).

I’ve already moved to current branch in my main PC at home. Unfortunately it didn’t went very well and I’ve never managed to write article about the problems (who cares anyway if I can’t provide solutions to fix them?). I decided to use current branch here too mainly because of better hardware support and (at least partial) USB3 support. This installation was a little bit unusual for me because it had been the first installation into external USB hard drive for me (though I’ve made installations into USB sticks) and I also used a raw installation image written into USB stick instead of CD image (I hadn’t a free CD). NetBSD project provides raw images for amd64 and i386 architectures (*.img). You can write them with dd utility in Unix like systems. Windows has various GUI based tools. I’ve used Win32 Disk Imager. You just need to be sure that the selected disk is the one you want to write NetBSD image to. This operation will definitely erase all your data from that into USB connected storage so be careful. NetBSD 6(.1) doesn’t have any support for USB3 controllers as far as I know. The current branch (upcoming 7 release) added some support it seems. You can find xhci devices in dmesg. I successfully booted system setup from USB stick plugged into USB3 port (stick is USB2 device) and installed system into WD elements portal which is “USB3 device” without any problems at all (though it might be that NetBSD or BIOS downgrades it to USB2). The system booted into console successfully too. Most of hardware seems to be supported (by dmesg).

My further steps include configuration of one bootloader for Windows and NetBSD (currently I need to switch disk drives in BIOS). Secondly, I need to try to setup wifi (I’ve never done this in NetBSD before too), desktop environment (including X.org), pkgsrc, NetBSD kernel source with cvs updating option and some development tools. It will take a while because internet speed is low in here and I’ll need to compile lots of software but I hope to have fully functional system in two weeks (if X.org won’t have issues because I don’t know what is current situation of Intel drivers in NetBSD). I am not sure if I’ll keep you updated about my adventures but I may write another post if I’ll do something more unusual and useful for others. dmesg for your pleasure:

dmesg

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

NetBSD 6.99.28 (GENERIC) #0: Fri Jan 17 01:07:46 UTC 2014
builds@b41.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/HEAD/amd64/201401170020Z-obj/home/builds/ab/HEAD/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC
total memory = 7888 MB
avail memory = 7643 MB
timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
timecounter: Timecounter “i8254” frequency 1193182 Hz quality 100
LENOVO 24296KG (ThinkPad T530)
mainbus0 (root)
ACPI: RSDP 0xf0120 000024 (v02 LENOVO)
ACPI: XSDT 0xdaffe170 0000BC (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: FACP 0xdafe7000 00010C (v05 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: DSDT 0xdafe9000 00FF55 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: FACS 0xdaf5a000 000040
ACPI: SLIC 0xdaffd000 000176 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000001)
ACPI: TCPA 0xdaffc000 000032 (v02 PTL LENOVO 06040000 LNVO 00000001)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdaffb000 000408 (v01 LENOVO TP-SSDT2 00000200 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdaffa000 000033 (v01 LENOVO TP-SSDT1 00000100 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdaff9000 000797 (v01 LENOVO SataAhci 00001000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: HPET 0xdafe5000 000038 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: APIC 0xdafe4000 000098 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: MCFG 0xdafe3000 00003C (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: ECDT 0xdafe2000 000052 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: FPDT 0xdafe1000 000064 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: ASF! 0xdafe8000 0000A5 (v32 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: UEFI 0xdafe0000 00003E (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: UEFI 0xdafdf000 000042 (v01 PTL COMBUF 00000001 PTL 00000001)
ACPI: MSDM 0xdafde000 000055 (v03 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdafdd000 000CB5 (v01 PmRef Cpu0Ist 00003000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdafdc000 000A83 (v01 PmRef CpuPm 00003000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: UEFI 0xdafdb000 0002A6 (v01 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: DBG2 0xdafda000 0000E9 (v00 LENOVO TP-G4 00002550 PTL 00000002)
ACPI: All ACPI Tables successfully acquired
cpu0 at mainbus0 apid 0: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz, id 0x306a9
cpu1 at mainbus0 apid 1: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz, id 0x306a9
cpu2 at mainbus0 apid 2: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz, id 0x306a9
cpu3 at mainbus0 apid 3: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz, id 0x306a9
ioapic0 at mainbus0 apid 2: pa 0xfec00000, version 0x20, 24 pins
acpi0 at mainbus0: Intel ACPICA 20131218
acpi0: X/RSDT: OemId <LENOVO,TP-G4 ,00002550>, AslId acpiecdt0 at acpi0: ACPI Embedded Controller via ECDT
ACPI: SSDT 0xdae3a018 000A01 (v01 PmRef Cpu0Cst 00003001 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0x0 000A01 (v01 PmRef Cpu0Cst 00003001 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdae3ba98 000303 (v01 PmRef ApIst 00003000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0x0 000303 (v01 PmRef ApIst 00003000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0xdae39d98 000119 (v01 PmRef ApCst 00003000 INTL 20061109)
ACPI: SSDT 0x0 000119 (v01 PmRef ApCst 00003000 INTL 20061109)
acpi0: SCI interrupting at int 9
timecounter: Timecounter “ACPI-Fast” frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
hpet0 at acpi0: high precision event timer (mem 0xfed00000-0xfed00400)
timecounter: Timecounter “hpet0” frequency 14318180 Hz quality 2000
acpiec0 at acpi0 (EC, PNP0C09-0): using acpiecdt0
MEM (PNP0C01) at acpi0 not configured
acpilid0 at acpi0 (LID, PNP0C0D): ACPI Lid Switch
acpibut0 at acpi0 (SLPB, PNP0C0E): ACPI Sleep Button
acpivga0 at acpi0 (VID): ACPI Display Adapter
acpiout0 at acpivga0 (LCD0, 0x0400): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout0: brightness levels: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
acpiout1 at acpivga0 (CRT0, 0x0100): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout2 at acpivga0 (DVI0, 0x0300): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout3 at acpivga0 (DVI1, 0x0301): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout4 at acpivga0 (DVI2, 0x0302): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout5 at acpivga0 (DVI3, 0x0303): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout6 at acpivga0 (DVI4, 0x0304): ACPI Display Output Device
acpiout7 at acpivga0 (DVI5, 0x0305): ACPI Display Output Device
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout1
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout2
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout3
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout4
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout5
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout6
acpivga0: unknown output device acpiout7
acpivga0: connected output devices:
acpivga0: 0x0400 (acpiout0): Unknown Output Device, head 0
SIO (PNP0C02) at acpi0 not configured
attimer1 at acpi0 (TIMR, PNP0100): io 0x40-0x43 irq 0
pcppi1 at acpi0 (SPKR, PNP0800): io 0x61
midi0 at pcppi1: PC speaker
sysbeep0 at pcppi1
pckbc1 at acpi0 (KBD, LEN0071) (kbd port): io 0x60,0x64 irq 1
pckbc2 at acpi0 (MOU, LEN0015) (aux port): irq 12
TPM (SMO1200) at acpi0 not configured
acpibat0 at acpi0 (BAT0, PNP0C0A-0): ACPI Battery
acpibat0: SANYO LION rechargeable battery
acpibat0: granularity: low->warn 0.001 Wh, warn->full 0.001 Wh
acpiacad0 at acpi0 (AC, ACPI0003-0): ACPI AC Adapter
WGSH (LEN0078) at acpi0 not configured
thinkpad0 at acpi0 (HKEY, LEN0068)
acpiwmi0 at acpi0 (WMI1, PNP0C14-1): ACPI WMI Interface
acpiwmibus at acpiwmi0 not configured
acpiwmi1 at acpi0 (WMI2, PNP0C14-2): ACPI WMI Interface
acpiwmibus at acpiwmi1 not configured
acpitz0 at acpi0 (THM0)
acpitz0: levels: critical 103.0 C, passive cooling
ACPI: Enabled 4 GPEs in block 00 to 3F
ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, While evaluating Sleep State [\_S1_] (20131218/hwxface-646)
ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, While evaluating Sleep State [\_S2_] (20131218/hwxface-646)
attimer1: attached to pcppi1
pckbd0 at pckbc1 (kbd slot)
pckbc1: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard
pms0 at pckbc1 (aux slot)
pms0: Synaptics touchpad version 7.2
pms0: Passthrough, Palm detect
pckbc1: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1
pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, rd/mult, wr/inv ok
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x0154 (rev. 0x09)
vga0 at pci0 dev 2 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x0166 (rev. 0x09)
wsdisplay0 at vga0 kbdmux 1: console (80×25, vt100 emulation), using wskbd0
wsmux1: connecting to wsdisplay0
drm at vga0 not configured
xhci0 at pci0 dev 20 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e31 (rev. 0x04)
xhci0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 16
xhci0: xHCI version 1.0
usb0 at xhci0: USB revision 2.0
vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e3a (miscellaneous communications, revision 0x04) at pci0 dev 22 function 0 not configured
puc0 at pci0 dev 22 function 3: Intel 7 Series KT (com)
com2 at puc0 port 0: ioaddr 0x50b0, interrupting at ioapic0 pin 19
com2: ns16550a, working fifo
wm0 at pci0 dev 25 function 0: PCH2 LAN (82579LM) Controller (rev. 0x04)
wm0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 20
wm0: PCI-Express bus
wm0: FLASH
wm0: Ethernet address
ihphy0 at wm0 phy 2: i82579 10/100/1000 media interface, rev. 3
ihphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
ehci0 at pci0 dev 26 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e2d (rev. 0x04)
ehci0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 16
ehci0: EHCI version 1.0
usb1 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0
hdaudio0 at pci0 dev 27 function 0: HD Audio Controller
hdaudio0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 22
hdafg0 at hdaudio0: Realtek ALC269
hdafg0: DAC00 2ch: Speaker [Built-In] hdafg0: DAC01 2ch: HP Out [Jack] hdafg0: ADC02 2ch: Mic In [Jack] hdafg0: ADC03 2ch: Mic In [Built-In] hdafg0: 2ch/2ch 32000Hz 44100Hz 48000Hz 88200Hz 96000Hz 192000Hz PCM16 PCM20 PCM24 AC3
audio0 at hdafg0: full duplex, playback, capture, independent
hdafg1 at hdaudio0: Intel product 2806
hdafg1: DP00 8ch: Digital Out [Jack] hdafg1: DP01 8ch: Digital Out [Jack] hdafg1: DP02 8ch: Digital Out [Jack] hdafg1: 8ch/0ch 48000Hz PCM16*
ppb0 at pci0 dev 28 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e10 (rev. 0xc4)
ppb0: PCI Express 2.0 x1 @ 5.0Gb/s
ppb0: link is x1 @ 2.5Gb/s
pci1 at ppb0 bus 2
pci1: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, wr/inv ok
sdhc0 at pci1 dev 0 function 0: vendor 0x1180 product 0xe823 (rev. 0x04)
sdhc0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 16
sdhc0: SD Host Specification 3.0, rev.5
sdhc0: using DMA transfer
sdmmc0 at sdhc0 slot 0
ppb1 at pci0 dev 28 function 1: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e12 (rev. 0xc4)
ppb1: PCI Express 2.0 x1 @ 5.0Gb/s
ppb1: link is x1 @ 2.5Gb/s
pci2 at ppb1 bus 3
pci2: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, wr/inv ok
iwn0 at pci2 dev 0 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x0085 (rev. 0x34)
iwn0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 17
iwn0: MIMO 2T2R, MoW, address
iwn0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
iwn0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
iwn0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ppb2 at pci0 dev 28 function 2: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e14 (rev. 0xc4)
ppb2: PCI Express 2.0 x1 @ 5.0Gb/s
pci3 at ppb2 bus 4
pci3: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, wr/inv ok
ehci1 at pci0 dev 29 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e26 (rev. 0x04)
ehci1: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 23
ehci1: EHCI version 1.0
usb2 at ehci1: USB revision 2.0
ichlpcib0 at pci0 dev 31 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e55 (rev. 0x04)
timecounter: Timecounter “ichlpcib0” frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
ichlpcib0: 24-bit timer
ichlpcib0: TCO (watchdog) timer configured.
ahcisata0 at pci0 dev 31 function 2: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e03 (rev. 0x04)
ahcisata0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 19
ahcisata0: 64-bit DMA
ahcisata0: AHCI revision 1.30, 6 ports, 32 slots, CAP 0xdf30ff65<SXS,EMS,PSC,SSC,PMD,ISS=0x3=Gen3,SCLO,SAL,SALP,SSS,SMPS,SNCQ,S64A>
atabus0 at ahcisata0 channel 0
atabus1 at ahcisata0 channel 1
atabus2 at ahcisata0 channel 4
ichsmb0 at pci0 dev 31 function 3: vendor 0x8086 product 0x1e22 (rev. 0x04)
ichsmb0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 18
iic0 at ichsmb0: I2C bus
isa0 at ichlpcib0
tpm0 at isa0 iomem 0xfed40000-0xfed44fff irq 7: device 0x0000104a rev 0x4e
acpicpu0 at cpu0: ACPI CPU
acpicpu0: C1: FFH, lat 1 us, pow 1000 mW
acpicpu0: C2: FFH, lat 80 us, pow 350 mW
acpicpu0: P0: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 35000 mW, 2901 MHz, turbo boost
acpicpu0: P1: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 35000 mW, 2900 MHz
acpicpu0: P2: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 33218 mW, 2800 MHz
acpicpu0: P3: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 31812 mW, 2700 MHz
acpicpu0: P4: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 28743 mW, 2500 MHz
acpicpu0: P5: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 27087 mW, 2400 MHz
acpicpu0: P6: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 25796 mW, 2300 MHz
acpicpu0: P7: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 24202 mW, 2200 MHz
acpicpu0: P8: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 21425 mW, 2000 MHz
acpicpu0: P9: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 20234 mW, 1900 MHz
acpicpu0: P10: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 19072 mW, 1800 MHz
acpicpu0: P11: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 17625 mW, 1700 MHz
acpicpu0: P12: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 16509 mW, 1600 MHz
acpicpu0: P13: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 14056 mW, 1400 MHz
acpicpu0: P14: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 12724 mW, 1300 MHz
acpicpu0: P15: FFH, lat 10 us, pow 11711 mW, 1200 MHz
acpicpu0: T0: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 100 %
acpicpu0: T1: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 88 %
acpicpu0: T2: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 76 %
acpicpu0: T3: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 64 %
acpicpu0: T4: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 52 %
acpicpu0: T5: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 40 %
acpicpu0: T6: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 28 %
acpicpu0: T7: I/O, lat 1 us, pow 0 mW, 16 %
coretemp0 at cpu0: thermal sensor, 1 C resolution
acpicpu1 at cpu1: ACPI CPU
acpicpu2 at cpu2: ACPI CPU
coretemp1 at cpu2: thermal sensor, 1 C resolution
acpicpu3 at cpu3: ACPI CPU
timecounter: Timecounter “clockinterrupt” frequency 100 Hz quality 0
timecounter: Timecounter “TSC” frequency 2893591480 Hz quality 3000
xhci0: xhci_new_device up 0xfffffe810e169d30 portno 0
xhci0: xhci_new_device hub 0xfffffe810e574c48
xhci0: xhci_new_device hub 0x0
xhci0: xhci_new_device rhport 0
xhci0: xhci_open addr 0 depth 0 port 0 speed 3
uhub0 at usb0: NetBSD xHCI Root Hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 0
uhub0: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
xhci0: xhci_open addr 0 depth 0 port 0 speed 3
acpiacad0: AC adapter online.
uhub1 at usb1: vendor 0x8086 EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 3 ports with 3 removable, self powered
uhub2 at usb2: vendor 0x8086 EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2: 3 ports with 3 removable, self powered
ahcisata0 port 1: device present, speed: 1.5Gb/s
ahcisata0 port 0: device present, speed: 3.0Gb/s
xhci0: root_hub 0x0
ld0 at sdmmc0:
ld0: 1938 MB, 984 cyl, 64 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 3970048 sectors
ld0: 4-bit width, bus clock 25.000 MHz
wd0 at atabus0 drive 0
wd0:
wd0: drive supports 16-sector PIO transfers, LBA48 addressing
wd0: 465 GB, 969021 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 976773168 sectors
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5 (Ultra/100)
wd0(ahcisata0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5 (Ultra/100) (using DMA)
atapibus0 at atabus1: 1 targets
cd0 at atapibus0 drive 0: cdrom removable
cd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33)
cd0(ahcisata0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33) (using DMA)
uhub3 at uhub2 port 1: vendor 0x8087 product 0x0024, class 9/0, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 2
uhub3: single transaction translator
uhub4 at uhub1 port 1: vendor 0x8087 product 0x0024, class 9/0, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 2
uhub4: single transaction translator
uhub4: 6 ports with 6 removable, self powered
uhub3: 8 ports with 8 removable, self powered
umass0 at uhub3 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
umass0: Western Digital Elements 10A8, rev 2.10/10.42, addr 3
umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
uhidev0 at uhub4 port 2 configuration 1 interface 0
sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: <WD, Elements 10A8, 1042> disk fixed
uhidev0: Logitech USB Receiver, rev 2.00/24.00, addr 3, iclass 3/1
ukbd0 at uhidev0: 8 modifier keys, 6 key codes
sd0: fabricating a geometry
sd0: 931 GB, 953837 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1953458176 sectors
sd0: fabricating a geometry
wskbd1 at ukbd0 mux 1
wskbd1: connecting to wsdisplay0
uhidev1 at uhub4 port 2 configuration 1 interface 1
uhidev1: Logitech USB Receiver, rev 2.00/24.00, addr 3, iclass 3/1
uhidev1: 8 report ids
ums0 at uhidev1 reportid 2: 16 buttons, W and Z dirs
wsmouse1 at ums0 mux 0
uhid0 at uhidev1 reportid 3: input=4, output=0, feature=0
uhid1 at uhidev1 reportid 4: input=1, output=0, feature=0
uhid2 at uhidev1 reportid 8: input=1, output=0, feature=0
uhidev2 at uhub4 port 2 configuration 1 interface 2
uhidev2: Logitech USB Receiver, rev 2.00/24.00, addr 3, iclass 3/0
uhidev2: 33 report ids
uhid3 at uhidev2 reportid 16: input=6, output=6, feature=0
uhid4 at uhidev2 reportid 17: input=19, output=19, feature=0
uhid5 at uhidev2 reportid 32: input=14, output=14, feature=0
uhid6 at uhidev2 reportid 33: input=31, output=31, feature=0
umodem0 at uhub3 port 4 configuration 1 interface 1
umodem0: Lenovo H5321 gw, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 4, iclass 2/2
umodem0: data interface 2, has CM over data, has break
umodem0: status change notification available
ucom0 at umodem0
umodem1 at uhub3 port 4 configuration 1 interface 3
umodem1: Lenovo H5321 gw, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 4, iclass 2/2
umodem1: data interface 4, has CM over data, has break
umodem1: status change notification available
ucom1 at umodem1
umodem2 at uhub3 port 4 configuration 1 interface 9
umodem2: Lenovo H5321 gw, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 4, iclass 2/2
umodem2: data interface 10, has CM over data, has break
umodem2: status change notification available
ucom2 at umodem2
ugen0 at uhub4 port 3
ugen0: Auth Biometric Coprocessor, rev 1.10/0.01, addr 4
ugen1 at uhub4 port 4
ugen1: Broadcom Corp BCM20702A0, rev 2.00/1.12, addr 5
uvideo0 at uhub4 port 6 configuration 1 interface 0: Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd. Integrated Camera, rev 2.00/5.18, addr 6
video0 at uvideo0: Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd. Integrated Camera, rev 2.00/5.18, addr 6
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
pad0: outputs: 44100Hz, 16-bit, stereo
audio1 at pad0: half duplex, playback, capture
boot device: sd0
root on sd0a dumps on sd0b
root file system type: ffs
wsdisplay0: screen 1 added (80×25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 2 added (80×25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 3 added (80×25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 4 added (80×25, vt100 emulation)

Several days ago NetBSD project released new security/bugfix versions from 6.1 and 6.0 branches (6.1.2 and 6.0.3 accordingly). Release notes can be found here and here. You can download them from various netbsd mirrors or using torrents. As always give it a try.

NetBSD 6.1.1 was released today. It is a first security/bugfix release for 6.1 branch. Release notes can be found here. And of course, download it for your platform from NetBSD mirrors.

NetBSD 6.1 release was just announced. It is the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. You can download it using torrents or from various ftp/http or other services mirrors. The complete list of changes is here. Major ones can be found in release announcement. Download it, upgrade your system, test it on the new one and enjoy. If you like the project then consider to make some donations.

NetBSD 6.0.2 was also released at the same time. It is the second security/bugfix update of the NetBSD 6.0 release branch. The complete list of changes can be found here.

6.1 release is closing in and I finally decided to move from 6.0.1 to 6.1_RC4 on my main computer. I use gpt partitioned disc so I can’t use installation CD directly. The only way is to update from binary sets or source manually. I always use binary sets (it is just easier and faster) whose can be downloaded separately from ftp server or retrieved from installation CD <arch>/binary/sets folder. Once you have them you need to decide whose ones you want to extract. I usually extract all except X.org ones (though I may change this pratice in the future too because it seems that these packages are better supported than modular X.org from pkgsrc) and etc.tgz. Then you need to run etcupdate -s <arch>/binary/sets/etc.tgz (and merge or fix configuration files in /etc) and postinstall scripts. Usually everything should go smoothly and after reboot you will have upgraded system. The only problem can be updated userland which will require to update most of your applications (recompile and/or reinstall them). This situation was the case between 6.0.1 and 6.1 RC4. I downloaded the current pkgsrc but I had some problems with recompilation of some GNOME packages. More or less I solved them (except gvfs). I also recompiled kernel with my bge patch and I finally had absolutely upgraded system from kernel to applications.

dmesg

NetBSD project announced the forth release candidate of 6.1 version. It is planned to be be the final RC before official release. You can download it here. All changes between 6.0 and 6.1 RC4 can be found here, specific ones in release announcement. Test it and send a feedback to project developers.

From my point of view this release won’t fix my problems with bge NIC in Asrock X79 motherboard (I will need to patch driver manually), however, this release should help to solve various ACPI issues for motherboards with old VIA chipsets (like CN400 /VT8237R) and some AMD systems. One motherboard will work fine for the first time since 2008 when I actually have bought it. Of course, there are lot of other fixes and changes which doesn’t affect me to much but might be useful for other users.

Last week both NetBSD and Intel Pentium celebrated their 20 years “birthday”. On March 21st 1993 the project had its first commit to CVS. The first Intel Pentium CPUs were released the day after on March 22. Pentium trademark currently lost it power to Core one but it is still used as less powerful line than their Core counterparts (though based on the same architecture). My first computer had Intel Pentium 200 MHz with MMX instructions around 1998, however I’ve used Windows 95 and 98 at that time. My initial introduction into NetBSD world came much later and it wasn’t very pleasant (I destroyed my partition table just before bachelor thesis had been completed). Nevertheless I started to use it more and more often. Currently NetBSD coexists as major OS with Fedora Linux and it is used in some other environments. You can also read this interesting article about key NetBSD history facts.

What is more, NetBSD 6.1 Release Candidate 2 was released last week too. You can download it at http://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-6.1_RC2/ or some other mirrors. Changes between RC1 and RC2 are described at official release announcement. If you can, please, test it on your systems and provide a feedback to the project developers in any form :).

The NetBSD developers don’t slow the pace. Several days ago NetBSD 6.1 Release Candidate 1 was released. This release will be the first feature update for for the NetBSD 6 branch. I was rather busy lately so I hadn’t tried it yet. Nevertheless nobody is stopping you from doing so. New features include much better support for Raspberry Pi and other ARM platforms, additional device support in various drivers, NPF improvements and bugfixes and so on. You can read a complete list of changes here.

I haven’t used NetBSD for some time because not so long ago I had tried to install Fedora 18 Alpha recklessly and I had lost all my partitions in disk drive. After this event I have decided to give a chance for PC-BSD  briefly. Unfortunately it haven’t met my expectations so eventually I’ve made a decision to return to my default configuration – Fedora Linux and NetBSD.

Firstly I have installed Fedora 17 which had created GPT partitioned disk by default (I even hadn’t noticed before I tried to install NetBSD). Unfortunately NetBSD sysinst doesn’t support GPT discs right now so I made a little headache for myself. I looked for the information and found that there was GSoC project to create GPT aware booloader for BIOS systems several years ago. My system has UEFI and Fedora uses grub2 bootloader. Because of this I decided to go by a little bit another route but instructions on how to install and use that bootloader were helpful anyway. I also found this page which describes how to configure grub2 to load NetBSD kernel. Generally if you want to boot NetBSD on gpt disc with grub2 (UEFI system) you need configure grub2 bootloader to boot NetBSD kernel from your Linux system and manually create gpt partition, extract NetBSD kernel and binary sets into that partition from NetBSD boot CD (or other media). Then some small configuration of fstab, ttys and rc.conf and you are ready to go. I booted system successfully on the first try, however my mistakes took three more evenings before I could actually use the system (I skip them this time).

Steps I took:
1. Firstly I booted into Fedora and configured my grub2. vi /etc/grub.d/40_custom (of course use su or sudo to get root privileges before) and
added lines:
menuentry “NetBSD” {
insmod ufs2
set root=(hd0,gpt2)
knetbsd /netbsd –root=hd0b
}

hd0b is the second partition. dk1 worked also. Then I ran grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg to make changes into effect.
2. Rebooted and loaded the system installer (sysinst) from NetbSD boot CD. Chose utility menu and ran /bin/sh.
3. Used gpt show /dev/wd0 to see how my disc was partitioned. I had BIOS boot partition, 1xunused ext4 partition and 1xFedora system partition (ext4 too). Utility also shows a start sector and the size of all partitions and partition indexes.
4. I delete unused ext4 partition (which was dk1) with gpt remove -i1 /dev/wd0, where i was a partition index and created a new one gpt add -i1 -b -s -t ffs /dev/wd0. and was taken from gpt show information. ffs creates BSD4.2 partition.
5. Formatted the partition: newfs -O2 /dev/rdk1.
6. Mounted it: mount /dev/dk1 /mnt.
7. Went to amd64/binary/sets directory in the installation disc (amd64 directory depends on architecture you install, it can be i386 or other). Extracted the kernel first: tar –gunzip -C /mnt -xpvf netbsd-GENERIC.gz. Later I extracted other sets that I had needed (base, comp, misc and others). Don’t forget to add -p parameter (preserve permissions) as you will run in problems shortly otherwise.
8. chroot /mnt (you can use vi and other system applications).
9. Created /etc/fstab and configured /etc/ttys (examples are below).
10. Changed RC_CONFIGURED to yes in /etc/rc.conf. Also added WSCONS=YES and HOSTNAME value.
11. Rebooted and chose NetBSD. It booted successfully but root didn’t have password, passwd didn’t work and “warning: no /dev/console” message appeared (also some other related errors). To fix that I went to /dev folder and ran ./MAKEDEV all (or at least wscons). I rebooted one more time (though that might be unnecessary).
12. That is all. I created a new user and NetBSD was fully functioning.

I also created one more partition for swap (gpt add -i3 -t swap -b -s /dev/wd0). Look for gpt man page if you need more information.

Examples:
fstab:
/dev/dk1 / ffs rw 1 1
/dev/dk3 none swap sw,dp 0 0
kernfs /kern kernfs rw
ptyfs /dev/pts ptyfs rw
procfs /proc procfs rw
/dev/cd0a /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto

P.S. you need to create /kern, /proc and /cdrom directories manually before mounting them (chmod 555). Other directory structure was created while I was extracting binary sets. If your manually created user has a problem to access /tmp you can change its permissions to 775 from root (user should be in wheel group).

ttys:
<...>
console “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt100 on secure
constty “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt100 off secure
ttyE0 “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt220 off secure
ttyE1 “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt220 on secure
ttyE2 “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt220 on secure
ttyE3 “/usr/libexec/getty Pc” vt220 on secure
tty00 “/usr/libexec/getty std.9600” unknown off secure
<...>

There are a lot of text in this article but actually it takes about 15-20 minutes to install the system on Core i7 system if you are doing everything correctly from the start. The most time consuming actions are files extracting and writing fstab file. So you shouldn’t be afraid to try it if you have some space left in your HDD and have enough confidence that you won’t ruin everything :).