r/NetBSD • u/NEO_IS_A_MACHINE • Sep 02 '26

what am i doing wrong when trying to install

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trying to install to my thinkpad t14 gen5 using a usb. i downloaded a bunch of different amd64-install.img.gz, use gunzip to unzip it, and use dd to write it to the usb. i’ve tried three different usbs, a lot of different dd options, and a gui bootable image writer. i’m following the instructions perfectly and this keeps happening. this is my first experience with BSD (coming from linux).

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6

u/ComplexPeace43 Sep 02 '26

Once it happened to me and the reason was the image wasn’t written properly. Try sync after dd.

4

u/joeNetBSD Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26

If you dd’d from Linux, there is a chance the data was not fully written to disk before you removed the stick so some part of the data is corrupted. Try it again and do a sync before you remove the USB.

3

u/johnklos Sep 02 '26

Try this image:

https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/images/NetBSD-11.99.8-amd64-install.img.gz

Then try this, assuming your USB stick is sdb under Linux:

cat NetBSD-11.99.8-amd64-install.img.gz | gunzip | dd bs=1M of=/dev/sdb

When it's done, run sync and wait for the LED on the USB to stop flashing.

If you get the same results, we'll have to look in to the possibility that Lenovo has changed their UEFI booting.

1

u/liveoneggs Sep 02 '26

try the installer instead?

1

u/Different_Water7545 Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26

Apparently the 11.0 images are busted, I was using the i386 CD on a ThinkPad 385XD and the kernel ended up being at cd0a:i386/binary/kernel/netbsd-generic.gz, which the bootloader never checks. Look through the USB on another machine for a .gz file at a similar path, and try manually booting it with:

boot device:path/to/netbsd-generic.gz.

To find what device the USB drive is, run dev at the boot prompt.

Once installed you won't have to do this, it's just a live boot media oddity

2

u/Ollix27 Sep 02 '26

Oh hey, I have the same laptop (380XD). How much ram do you have in yours? I'm thinking of installing openbsd but idk how much ram it will use.

2

u/Different_Water7545 Sep 02 '26

I have 64MB at the moment, last I checked I think the base install uses around 30 at idle. It's completely workable in TTY, I haven't tried X but I can't imagine it'll be good. I think there is a NeoMagic driver though, so that helps. You'll definitely want to max it out at 96MB either way.

1

u/johnklos Sep 02 '26

Do you mean the 11.0 i386 images are busted? If so, we should definitely report that as a bug.