Re: Can't boot NetBSD from SDcard via UEFI on Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB D0) - sdmmc1: couldn’t enable card: 60

[Tim McIntosh <tmcintos%eskimo.com@localhost>]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your reply.

> On Jan 2, 2026, at 11:53 AM, Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost> wrote:
> 
> Tim McIntosh <tmcintos%eskimo.com@localhost> writes:
> 
>>> On Jan 2, 2026, at 2:12 AM, Nick Hudson <nick.hudson%gmx.co.uk@localhost> wrote:
> 
>>> USB or NVME (via hat) storage is best for root anway.
>> 
>> Good to know. I wish I had known this before I spent money on the SD
>> card and official case. I was hoping to avoid external storage or
>> using a HAT since it won’t fit in the case with fan + lid
>> <https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=370927>. I could try
>> using a USB SD card adapter if that is expected to work.
>> 
>> Perhaps someone with access could update the wiki page so that others
>> aren’t misled into spending time/money on something that’s not
>> expected to work? The current page gives the strong impression that
>> using an SD card is the preferred approach and should be expected to
>> work.
> 
> Nick said "best", not "using an SD card will fail after 24h".  Lots of
> people use uSD cards on NetBSD RPI.  I am doing so on 2x RPI3 and a
> RPI4, although two of them have a USB SSD for the parts that are written
> often.
> 
> As I understand it, the problem is not that uSD doesn't work, but that
> such cards have lower longevity than SSDs.  They are also slower.
> all bs=128k
> 
> RPI4 
>  ld1 214433792 bytes transferred in 11.430 secs (18760611 bytes/sec)
>  sd0 918421504 bytes transferred in 5.700 secs (161126579 bytes/sec) (Samsung T7)
> 
> 
> If your goal is to have a machine with a case and not much else, and you
> want to use a uSD, that's an ok thing to do in my view.  It really
> depends on if you want a RPI or if you are trying to turn a RPI into a
> real computer.

Are you aware of anyone successfully booting one of the recent NetBSD builds from a uSD card in the internal uSD slot of a D0 RPI5? Or from an external USB-to-uSD card adapter? Could you confirm that using a uSD card as root via external USB-to-SD card adapter is a supported use case that is expected to work?

I received the RPI5 board as a gift, so I had no real planned use case for it. My immediate goal was just to try it out to see where things stand with NetBSD on RPI5, with minimum time/capital investment. I had an interest in potentially contributing to NetBSD development on RPI5, though the prospects of that are looking bleak from what I've read thus far, given the situation with lacking documentation, etc. I really didn't expect to hit this type of snag so early in the installation process while following the official instructions.

> 
> How about you try it, and report back?

If the suggestion here is to try an external USB-to-SD card adapter, that's not something I can try immediately (otherwise, I would've already tried it).

Unfortunately, the only USB SD card adapter that I have is a USB-C type, so it's not viable for this experiment. I would have to go purchase a USB-A to SD card adapter, which I have no other use for. This isn't the way I had intended to use the RPI5 in the long term, and given my experience with using the internal slot, if it's not definitely expected to work, I'd rather not spend the money/effort on it. I originally only had a few hours to take a look at this, and had optimistically expected that I could get through a basic installation in that time.

In any case, I'm traveling this weekend, so it will be some time before I can attempt any further experiments.

Thanks,
Tim