Re: Can't bootNetBSD 11 on RaspberryPi 4 from SDCARD - black screen (HDMI)

[Ramiro Aceves <ea1abz%gmail.com@localhost>]

El 15/10/26 a las 18:55, Steve Rikli escribió:
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 06:27:52PM +0200, Piotr Kolasiński wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 06:14:58PM +0200, Piotr Kolasiński wrote:
> >   Correction
> >   Of course I've downloaded NetBSD 11:
> >   https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/arm/NetBSD-11.0-release/NetBSD-11-aarch64--generic.img.gz
>
> For HDMI monitors to work on rpi4 I believe you'll also need to add UEFI
> firmware to the NetBSD boot image.  Otherwise it's only serial console.


Yes, I confirm that. It has been always an "obscure" subject on the documentation.

https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/raspberry_pi/

it does not tell anything about NetBSD 11. On NetBSD 10 it states:

"RPI4 general support (UEFI firmware required)"

What does "general support" mean?

Without HDMI monitor you can use the serial console or blindly entering the RPi4
using ethernet and following this chapter:

"Enabling ssh for installation without any console"

a bit tricky but works fine.


> At least, that was the case when I started with NetBSD 10 on my rpi4b,
> same behavior you get: i.e. the HDMI monitor "woke up", but blank display.
>
> Last time I added RPI4 UEFI firmware from here to get started:
>      https://github.com/pftf/RPi4

I had problems with pftf UEFI versions 1.51 and 1.52, so I am using now version 1.50 and it is working just
fine with NetBSD 11.0 on the RPi4. Solid rock (ethernet network,  WIFI not tested).



Good luck.
Ramiro.


> You would unpack the bundle into the msdos partition created by the
> NetBSD img on your sysdisk.
>
> Cheers,
> sr.