RPI4 install trip report

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

I'm trying to install NetBSD 10.0_RC3 on an 8 GB RPI4.  I was hoping to
do this without a serial cable or display.  I am finding the
installation instructions at

  releasedir/evbarm64-el/INSTALL.html

a little confusing.   I have previously installed earmv7hf-el on RPI3,
but long enough ago it's all paged out.

I took

  /usr/obj/gdt-10/releasedir/evbarm64-el/binary/gzimg/arm64.img.gz

from my build area, used zcat > /tmp/n10.img to uncompress it, and then

  dd if=/dev/n10.img of=/dev/rsd0d bs=1m

to write it (from NetBSD 10 amd64) onto a new samsung 64GB
fast/high-endurance card.

I then mounted the two partitions as msdos and ffs, and

  added a creds.txt to the msdos one

  just looked at the ffs one

unmounted.  I put the card in the RPI4, connected a cat5 from RPI4 to a
unifi switch, and a canakit 3.5A usb-c supply.  I got the red light, and
some blinks of green, and then solid red.  I see green and amber both on
the ethernet.  The switch reports GbE, with 400 KB TX and 21.9 KB RX.

While in earlier times I saw nothing in dhcpd logs, now I see an address
and I can ping it.

I connected a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable to a monitor (that I know works
on displayport), and flipping to HDMI gets me a blank screen but with a
signal.  I am expecting console boot messages to be there and login:,
even though I don't have a keyboard hooked up.

I tried to ssh, but despite the creds file and having the pubkey, I get
asked for a pw.

My next steps are

  - try a USB keyboard
  - pull the card and recheck creds.txt and if my account was put in
    passwd and if the authorized keys is ok and read the ssh logs


All in all this was more confusing than expected and I think would be
even worse for someone not used to doing this sort of thing.

Not intended to be a complaint, just that it might be useful to know how
someone sort of new (because they forgot the last install) experienced
it.