and so continues the noble *nix tradition of supporting new hardware... well, some of it anyway
I found it funny that the missing pcie storage hat support had a reason, but the wifi issue is just 'doesn't work'. I wonder if it's a totally unexplored problem.
NVMe hats work in OpenBSD, it's NVMe boot that doesn't work at present. It still needs support added to the U-Boot firmware, which OpenBSD uses here. Raspbian and other Linux distros are typically booted differently on this hardware (Linux kernel image is loaded directly by the GPU, not joking.)
Also, Wi-Fi is supported on some Raspberry Pi 5 models, with the bwfm(4) Broadcom driver. It's just the later D0 hardware stepping that doesn't, C1 works fine.
https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=175526487704135&w=2
I believe Ethernet may also be working via the cad(4)/Cadence driver, but I don't have the hardware to test it.
Different chip I would assume.
Yup, a different BCM2712 chip
Neat! I didn't know OpenBSD had any Raspberry Pi support, anyone around with any experience? I have an extra 4 or to and "do stuff with OpenBSD" has been on my list for a while.
Yes. I run my mail server on a Raspberry Pi 4 on OpenBSD. Aside from having to flash an SD card (and having the install program install the sets to… itself) everythhing works exactly as you expect on any other OpenBSD install. You can’t really stray far outside the list of supported hardware unless you plan to roll things yourself, however. Eg, I’ve discovered that Waveshare carrier boards for the CM4 are hit or miss. NetBSD has much more comprehensive support for Raspberry Pis and the various accoutrements.
Pretty excited about Pi 5 support!
Couple of caveats:
1. Last I tried about 9mo. ago on a Pi 4, you still need 3rd party firmware to make use of >3gb RAM. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that to work.
2. Even though the full image has the complete software set, the installer can't see it; you have to either use the network (I have a datacap, it's a pain point with FOSS sometimes), or load another drive with the sets.
Heads-up: OpenBSD does not yet support power-saving on anything Arm64. The CPU will be running at full throttle the entire time, which will be a showstopper in some cases.
Not true, CPU frequency scaling (apmd, cpu.setperf/perfpolicy) is supported on many ARM machines, including the ThinkPad X13s, Apple M1/M2 Silicon, Raspberry Pi 4 (but may depend on whether using EDK2 or U-Boot firmware).
Support for Snapdragon X Elite machines was added as recently as last month, even..
Besides reading documentation, before installing, you should ensure you have:
- Latest firmware installed (much easier to upgrade them from Linux)
- UEFI.
>The active cooler (fan) doesn't work because of missing pwm/clock drivers (some work is in-progress).
Wait what? How is this the OS's sole role?
What is the mcu the rpi5 has onboard even for?
> How is this the OS's sole role?
Embedded Design.
A PWM driver (or a hardware timer) will handle the nanosecond-to-nanosecond wait states and counts, but the OS has to still setup the hardware timer to send the right PWM wave down to the system.
Besides, the OS should have some degree of custom fan controls for any modern computer, embedded or not. My PC can control all of my fans for example.