Re: Installing NetBSD on Jetson Nano

[Dan MacDonald <allcoms%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hi Jason

Thanks for your feedback.

So it sounds like I may be able to get away with writing the Tegra
u-boot to the arm64 image, once I have an image that includes the
tegra210-p3450-0000.dtb I require.

I have seen tegra210-p3450-0000.dtb on one of the NetBSD FTP sites. I
don't suppose I might be able to copy that dtb onto the NetBSD 9.2
arm64 image and expect it to work? I'd rather not have to but I
presume I'm going to have to build the latest NetBSD from source in
order to get an image that includes this dtb. Is there a guide to
building the aarch64 port of NetBSD 10 anywhere?

I'm hoping Jared will see this and be able to give exact instructions
so we can get this process documented either on the NetBSD Tegra page
or on the NetBSD wiki. The NetBSD web site could really do with a
overhaul- there seems to be lots of vital info missing and it looks
like a relic from the 90s.

On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 10:37 PM Jason Mitchell <jmitchel%bigjar.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> On 1/19/22 4:43 AM, Dan MacDonald wrote:
> > I've not been able to find any instructions or confirmation that it is
> > possible to install NetBSD on the Jetson Nano other than a NetBSD
> > mailing list post from Jared McNeil saying that I would need to use
> > the tegra210-p3450-0000.dtb:
> >
> > http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2020/01/31/msg006479.html
> >
> > I’ve tried the NetBSD 9.2 evbarm-aarch64 image and it wouldn’t boot
> > for me, likely because it doesn't include the tegra210-p3450-0000.dtb.
> >
> > Would I need to build NetBSD 10 from source to install it on my Jetson
> > Nano or are there pre-built NetBSD arm64 images somewhere that do
> > include the required dtb and u-boot? I don't think the Jetson Nano
> > supports UEFI.
> >
> > Recent versions of Jetpack (the reference OS for Jetson devices) and
> > Armbian let me boot straight from USB 3. Might this also be possible
> > with NetBSD or will I only be able to boot from MicroSD?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> Hello,
>
>      From what I understand the boot process for ARM devices goes like this:
>
> 1) Device power on
>
> 1b) There could be a step here if there's some nvidia specific code on
> the SPI flash or in ROM
>
> 2) Load u-boot from SPI flash or boot device*
>
> 3) Load EFI code on the DOS partition and execute it
>
> 4) The EFI code looks for a kernel on an FFS partition and executes it.
>
>      The questions I don't know the answer to are:
>
> 1) Does the Jetson Nano have u-boot installed in SPI flash?
>
> 2) If u-boot is present on the boot media and in SPI flash which is
> loaded first?
>
> 3) Where does the Jetson expect u-boot to be on the boot drive
>
>      It looks like you're using a generic image which probably doesn't
> have u-boot on it. There's a package in pkgsrc (and also in pkgsrc-wip)
> containing u-boot for the Jetson nano (sysuttils/u-boot-jetson-nano). If
> you downloaded that you could copy it onto a microSD card that contained
> the base NetBSD ARM image (arm64.img.gz). I thought the package would
> print the dd command necessary to install the u-boot file, but it
> doesn't look like it does. I think:
>
>      dd if=u-boot of=/dev/*disk* seek=64     is the command for other
> platforms.
>
>      To boot NetBSD off of a USB device I'm nearly certain you'll need
> to load u-boot into the SPI flash. Maybe the Jetson will look for u-boot
> on a USB device , I don't know.
>
>      My understanding of this is incomplete, but hopefully this will
> shed some light on the subject.
>
> HTH,
>
> Jason M.
>
> * u-boot lives in unallocated space between the MBR and the DOS
> partition starting at 0x8000 on the disk (at least on some ARM chips)
>