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OpenBSD 6.1 has been released. The short version points out the addition of syspatch (which should make upgrading easier one of these years). The long version notes, among other things, support for ARM64, which includes, if you're a thrill-seeker, the ability to run OBSD on a Raspberry Pi 3 which seems relatively cool. Or at least cheap.
And of course, there's a new song.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by ledow on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:35AM (12 children)
Does OpenBSD run on RPi?
Well... the article tells the story.
Sort of.
The boot has to be half from SD card, half from USB, because the BSD doesn't have a driver for the SD card slot. And the USB doesn't work for all USB drives as he demonstrates.
The in-built wifi doesn't work, so you have to plug in a BSD-compatible USB wifi plug.
He used a GPIO interface as a serial terminal at 3.3v to actually get it to work, rather than the HDMI because only uBoot uses the HDMI for output, not the BSD kernel.
The ported software packages aren't available because they haven't set it up, so you have the base OS and whatever you can compile yourself (compiling on RPi is not a chore, it's "fast enough" without being too stupid).
Then he has to manually partition, being careful of the RPi's necessary firmware FAT32 partition.
I think we're a way away from saying "it's usable" rather than "it's technically possible if you're prepared to put in a LOT of effort and accept many limitations".
Honestly, as he was just using it for a remote temperature sensor, I'd have just booted the default Linux image and then connected to it. It would have booted, used all the hardware, and offered out the same sensor over the same connection.
Doing it using BSD just seems to be struggling against the tide at the moment.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Thursday April 13 2017, @11:18AM (1 child)
NetBSD 7.1 is said to have support for the Raspberry Pi Zero.
https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-7/NetBSD-7.1.html [netbsd.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by ledow on Thursday April 13 2017, @12:25PM
NetBSD 7 has almost complete support for all the RPi boards:
https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/raspberry_pi/#index8h1 [netbsd.org]
Which is what makes the OpenBSD stuff laughable.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13 2017, @03:11PM (9 children)
Who cares? You're describing an edge case scenario.
RPi has historically been blob drivers catered to specific kernels of Linux. That makes it difficult to work with. You can't even use blob-free Linux at the moment on the Pi. It is a work in progress, just like OpenBSD's Pi port.
Unless you write code, use Linux for the Pi. That's the only operating system it was intended to be used with.
OpenBSD as a standard amd64 desktop works fine.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by julian on Thursday April 13 2017, @03:39PM (8 children)
There's also RISC OS [riscosopen.org]
RISC OS is a new and different OS for the Pi. It isn't Linux, it isn't Unix, it isn't based on any other OS. It's the first ARM OS, begun in 1987 by the team who designed the original ARM processor. It's also a descendant of the OS used on the early 1980s BBC Micro... those who remember the BBC Micro might find some of its commands familiar. BBC BASIC is only a few keypresses away.
More info [raspberrypi.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Thursday April 13 2017, @05:11PM (7 children)
What will RISC OS give that BSD won't?
(Score: 2) by julian on Thursday April 13 2017, @05:51PM (6 children)
What will BSD give you that Linux won't? There's no point to any of this except that it's interesting to some people, and we can.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:15PM (3 children)
I'm curious as to RISC OS. That's why I ask. I think you read in other intentions that isn't there.
(Score: 2) by julian on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:24PM (2 children)
There really isn't much point to it. It's technically primitive, outdated, insecure, and incompatible with most software. You can run an OS on the Rpi that isn't descended from either the Windows or *nix families, that's about it.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:57PM (1 child)
Is there any architectural lessons to be learned?
(Score: 2) by julian on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:29PM
It's mainly just of historical significance, because of its connection to ARM and Acorn Computers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:24PM
No systemd?
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday April 13 2017, @11:14PM
What will BSD give you that Linux won't?
Freedom from ther init system Which Must Not Be Mentioned, for one thing.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.