Oct 4, 2026, 6:03 PM@netbsd still failing. Why the hell is this being so difficult? Am I hitting a stupid gotcha?
- Oct 4, 2026, 6:03 PM
Replies
Oct 4, 2026, 6:10 PM@techokami It's hard to tell what's really happening without more information, which image you're using, which boot method, etc.
- Oct 4, 2026, 6:13 PM
@netbsd I am using the USB boot method (from the guide: 2.2.6.1. Booting the install system from USB) with NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img (so, not the BIOS one). The command I used to write the image was `sudo dd if=NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img of=/dev/sdd1 bs=1M status=progress conv=sync`
The USB stick is an AData UV350, which is what I had lying around. 32GB 
Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 6:21 PM@techokami @netbsd oh, I hit the very same problem recently. It should be /dev/sdd and not /dev/sdd1 in your example.
Modern firmware is too smart and finds the bootloader, but the bootloader won't find the partition table otherwise.
Though in my case it was a typo
- Oct 4, 2026, 6:22 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd mothcompute just suggested that in a private branch, just did that now and am going to try again
- Oct 4, 2026, 6:24 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd well that's more like it
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 6:26 PM
@techokami @netbsd hooray!
Disk imaging is genuinely hard. I personally prefer tools that have a graphical interface because it helps me to visualise what and where I write. But it is what it is with dd :(
- Oct 4, 2026, 6:35 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd okay next question: how do I get my wifi configured from here to start downloading and installing all the things I am missing?
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 6:58 PM
@techokami @netbsd
sysinst- configure - network, and it hopefully should show you the network card. If it can, then you can add binary packages from the very same menu - Oct 4, 2026, 7:00 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd it only shows my wired ethernet, which I can't use because the router is downstairs. oh no
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:00 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd PLEASE tell me that tethering my phone will work on NetBSD...
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:02 PM
@techokami @netbsd android? it should, according to https://man.netbsd.org/urndis.4
plzupgrademeplzupgrademe@fedi.txw.caOct 4, 2026, 7:02 PM@techokami @nina_kali_nina @netbsd if you have a USB-C to Ethernet (you may, because it could be many of those little wannabe laptop docking dongles) you might be able to plug your ethernet into it, and then have it access your phones data connection just using the ethernet support to bootstrap you
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:05 PM
@plzupgrademe @netbsd @nina_kali_nina I don't own such a thingy :( but I can plug my phone into my computer via USB, will that let me tether?
- plzupgrademeplzupgrademe@fedi.txw.caOct 4, 2026, 7:05 PM
@techokami @netbsd @nina_kali_nina not sure I’d be confident it can talk to an ethernet, but @nina_kali_nina mentioned it may be supported so worth a try, best way to find out is to plug it in and give it a go
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:11 PM
@plzupgrademe @netbsd @nina_kali_nina tethered, got interwebs, this is still bad and cursed, someone needs to port the driver from OpenBSD to NetBSD
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:20 PM
@plzupgrademe @netbsd @nina_kali_nina okay new issue: I don't have pkgin and after entering in the exact commands from the official install document, pkg_add does not see pkgin in the repo...?
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:24 PM
@plzupgrademe @netbsd @nina_kali_nina ugh there was a missing part of the path -_-
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:26 PM
@plzupgrademe @netbsd @nina_kali_nina FINALLY getting stuff installed to make this relatively useful
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:30 PM
@techokami good job! The learning curve can be quite a bit intense (I still don't quite grok how disk subsystem/wedges work), but the docs are wonderful, and there are plenty kind people around who can advise stuff
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:36 PM
@nina_kali_nina @plzupgrademe @netbsd currently getting all the packages for KDE downloaded (what? I need something safe and familiar!) and this is going to take a while :blobfoxdeadinside:
really do NOT like CTWM. At all. Why do I have to have the cursor on the window to keep it focused? Also why is the only editor out of the box vi????? And there is no visible settings for anything
- Oct 4, 2026, 7:40 PM
@nina_kali_nina @plzupgrademe @netbsd okay critical issue, how do I make KDE Plasma (or ANY ENVIRONMENT) be used at login
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:42 PM
@techokami actually ed is the standard text editor but I'm pretty sure you won't enjoy it lol. NetBSD is very UNIX like and very true to the roots and KISS principles.
I'm not a very big fan of ctwm myself, precisely for the reason you explained; I like that xfce4 comes as a ready made desktop on NetBSD and OpenBSD, but my heart belongs to jwm (for now). Especially that xfce4 is getting sloppy
- Oct 4, 2026, 10:29 PM
@techokami @nina_kali_nina @plzupgrademe
it's controlled by the ClickToFocus/SloppyFocus settings in ctwmrc, but the answer is that mouse focus is traditional for unix. We ship xedit too for a simple text editor in base.
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:29 PM
@techokami as I mentioned, sysinst can configure pkgin for you, it's pretty convenient!
- Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:01 PM
@techokami it is worth reading through dmesg output, for starters. It might be that your WiFi card isn't supported :(
@netbsd - Oct 4, 2026, 7:03 PM
@nina_kali_nina @netbsd it's a Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200, PCI 8086:2723:8086:0084
OpenBSD has a driver but apparently NetBSD does not??? - Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbtOct 4, 2026, 7:28 PM
@techokami that does happen, unfortunately. But it means there's a driver with compatible source license at least
@netbsd 
Jeffovereducatedredneck@bitbang.socialOct 4, 2026, 6:28 PM@techokami @netbsd Ok, I asked what OS are you running for the dd command so I could tell if you got the block device right. /dev/sdd1 looks like Linux (of some sort). That's dd'ing the image to the first partition rather than the whole device. IIRC, you need /dev/sdd there. It's also wise to check dmesg to make sure the USB is detecting as sdd when you plug it in.
- Jeffovereducatedredneck@bitbang.socialOct 4, 2026, 6:15 PM
@techokami @netbsd What dd command are you running on what OS? The blocksize (bs=...) parameter just controls how much gets written at a time, I usually use bs=$((8192*1024)) (8MiB) just to make sure I'll quickly fill kernel buffers and modest size caches if any exist on the device. The bs parameter should not effect what actually gets written to the thumb drive.
What machine are you trying to install to?
At the boot prompt what does devpath report? (I think that's the right option)
