Re: Can't boot NetBSD from eMMC storage on rock64?

[Steve Rikli <sr%genyosha.net@localhost>]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2026 at 09:33:54AM +1100, matthew green wrote:
> Matthias Geiger writes:
> >
> > I have a spare rock64 I want to run NetBSD on. I downloaded 
> > https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/arm/NetBSD-11.0-release/NetBSD-11-aarch64--rock64.img.gz
> > from armbsd.org, extracted the image, and flashed it to the eMMC storage 
> > from PINE64 with dd. However, I don't get any output at all on the HDMI 
> > port.
> >
> > Did I miss something here? Is HDMI not supported yet on this board?
> >
> > Unfortunately I don't have a Serial-to-USB cable at hand to debug this 
> > in-depth; would appreciate any pointers.

Can you tell if the system may actually be booting, even blind? E.g.
from DHCP server logs and hopefully responding to ping or similar?

In my initial experiments with rpi4 I was fortunate to have a serial
port available, so I sympathize with your no-monitor plight.

> i have never tried hdmi here, and it doesn't work indeed.  i get
> nothing in both u-boot or netbsd.  i suspect there is both work
> to do in both.  netbsd says:
> 
> [     1.000004] rkdrm0 at simplebus0
> [     1.000004] rkdrm0: error: no display interface ports configured
> [     1.000004] rkdrm0: error: couldn't register DRM device: -6
> 
> for me.  i'll try figure out something, but we'll see..

Perhaps a more general question...

Is it (still?) necessary to install u-boot board-specific files into the
NetBSD image for Rock?  I.e. from these Installation section examples:

  https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/rockchip/#index3h1

  http://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-11.0/evbarm-aarch64/INSTALL.html#Installation%20for%20Armv7%20and%20AArch64%20devices%20with%20U-Boot

I don't have a PINE or Rock yet (just rpi4) but it seems like some of
these sbc gadgets want u-boot (or UEFI) files added to the NetBSD
sysdisk image at some point, and I don't know if it's included in the
modern downloadable NetBSD img files these days.

Cheers,
sr.