So #OpenBSD is the winner for "most things work."

I was pleasantly surprised that #FreeBSD recognized the Atheros WiFi chip. Disappointed that X didn't work, even after xorg.conf hackery.

Maybe I could have hacked away to get X11 working on #NetBSD, but I'm not optimistic.

I can't remember the last time I had to mess with xorg.conf for real ... has to be 15+ years ago.

Latest #BSD tests on the Acer Aspire E15 (about 13-year-old Intel laptop):

#NetBSD: Install works. Atheros WiFi NOT working, Edimax N150 does work. X11 starts but is unusable

#FreeBSD: Install works. Atheros WiFi does work. X11 does not work at all

#OpenBSD: Install works. Atheros WFi NOT working, Edimax N150 does work, X11 works

"i did literally nothing"

#unix_surrealism #netbsd #comic #fediart #mastoart #runbsd

Alt...

That feeling when all of a sudden every girl in school wants to go out with you. "is this a prank?"

Yay! After some tweaking on ITK, I now have GNU Health & Medical Imaging compiled and running on NetBSD 11. Happy hacking ❤️ 🩺
#OpenScience #GNUHealth #RunBSD #NetBSD #DICOM #ITK #Aliza

Alt...

XFCE desktop running on NetBSD shows a DICOM viewer (Aliza) displaying lumbar spine magnetic resonance series as the main window, with the GNU Health client login on top, in the right area.

Yay! I now have GNU Health & Medical Imaging compiled and running on NetBSD 11 ❤️ 🩺
#OpenScience #GNUHealth #RunBSD #NetBSD #DICOM #ITK #Aliza

Alt...

XFCE desktop running on NetBSD shows a DICOM viewer (Aliza) with a cervical spine magnetic resonance as the main window, with the GNU Health client login in the lower right area.

@rqm @soapdog @chadmccullough @toxy

https://pkgsrc.se/

#pkgsrc #NetBSD #SmartOS

NetBSD may have found a new role: The AI-free FOSS OS https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/10/13/netbsd-may-have-found-a-new-role-the-ai-free-foss-os/5302818

#ai #llm #bsd #netbsd

It's nice to see so many eyeballs on NetBSD these days so a quick heads up

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-updating.html

35.2 is outdated for CURRENT with up-to-date sysbuild(1) and sysupgrade(8) packages.

The Machine Architecre is set in

it defaults to AMD64. 
If one wants to build for AARCH64 the line has to be changed to

MACHINES="evbarm64"

The _sysupgrade(8)_ line would look like this:
```doas sysupgrade auto ~/netbsd/release/evbarm-aarch64```
However sybuild ends up creating _xz(1)_ compressed distro sets and sysupgrade expects tgz ones.
So to make it work

cd ~/netbsd/release/evbarm-aarch64/binary/sets/
xz -d *.tar.xz && gzip *.tar
doas pkgin install rename
rename -s/.tar.gz/.tgz/s *.tar.gz
md5 *.tgz > MD5
sha512 *.tgz > SHA512

Haven't tested with NetBSD-11-RELEASE but I assume it's the same.
btw: Why isn't the _git_ capable sysbuild default?
_cvs(1)_ is so gods damn slow.

*I have the _doas_ package installed
#netbsd #aarch64

Alt...

output of fastfetch uname -a cc -v on a NetBSD CURRENT AARCH64 VM

I've heard only now that #NetBSD raised organically more than $100,000 - it wasn't a headline in the news like with the Omarchy scheme... I don't even use NetBSD currently, I prefer OpenBSD for its stance on security, but I think NetBSD also have tremendous importance and deserve support. It's important to have increasingly bettet #noAI alternatives to Linux.

PARADE STRUGGLES TO VICTORY DESPITE DISGRACEFUL SCENES

#content_review #netbsd @netbsd #art #comic #runbsd #unix_surrealism

Alt...

Funhole Content Review NETBSD 'Just war or immoral rebellion?' a: "I only asked it to rephrase some of the sentences." b: "No." How to convince yourself to use ctwm? "We only did it so you would stop talking about the toaster!" Fact Check: Is it really true that someone drew a picture on a computer without talking to it? ALL BOTS ARE STILL BASTARDS and 3 other short stories VETERANS OF THE BSD WARS: Top 7 ways to start a religious schism 50% OFF POCKET DAEMONS COUPON (valid prescription required) DOUBLE THE DONATIONS TO YOUR PROJECT WITH THIS ONE TRICK!

@washbear I wonder when the Necromancers will unearth

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_NetBSD

I'd rather have that then

https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/alpinebsd/

#netbsd #noai #gentoo #alpinebsd

@nickzoic

… and now it is 2026, and there have been more than 3 BSDs for over 20 years. (-:

http://jdebp.info/FGA/BSDs-for-Linux-users/

I did actually think of expanding upon this point, because one of the errors frequently made is to try to classify the BSDs into "the X one, the Y one, and the Z one". It's a whole Hell of a lot more complicated than that, and there aren't just three of them.

@fak3r @chadmccullough

#NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #RunBSD #MidnightBSD #GhostBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #MirBSD #HardenedBSD #PCBSD

@chadmccullough

#NetBSD is the future 💪

#NeverSlop

Looks like some people are playing Necromancer and looking into a project that passed almost 25 years ago...

https://wouter.pages.debian.net/webwml/ports/netbsd/

Thank you AI

#debian #netbsd #antiai

Following some naughty (not) remarks from here, I went to another gallery of the #ThinkCentre rabbit hole.

Quick and dirty look at #FreeBSD, #NetBSD and #OpenBSD power usage on the AMD powered M715q.

#RunBSD
https://www.tumfatig.net/2026/m715q-power-usage-and-the-bsdes/

#NetBSD, take 2...
So with that "new" WiFi adapter, I now have solid internet without tethering in NetBSD. Hooray!
But now I got a new issue. I've got my big 27TB disk turned into a ZFS setup, and I tar'd a copy of my home directory into it, so that I could unpack it into my NetBSD home directory and get all my dotfiles and whatnot. (Said "whatnot" also includes the CDE and Motif source code so that I can build them and use them!)
I just... don't have a goddamn clue as to how to make the zfs command *SEE* that wd1 has a valid ZFS pool and thus let me mount it. (there's also mounting wd0 as NTFS, but we can deal with that later?) I tried looking up information, but all I got was a copy of the man page for zfs and it doesn't explain anything. Halp? @netbsd

I've just finished the vtfontcvt(1) workalike for my version of Unscii, and built my first vt(4) fonts directly on non-FreeBSD systems.

I installed them in the various kvt realizers across my machines, and they all seemed to like the new font files.

GNU Unifont has definitely grown since Unscii started a decade ago. It does not even fit in 2 vt font files any more.

https://github.com/jdebp/unscii/tree/2.1.1f

There's a noddy hex2yaff in there as well.

#Unscii #Debian #NetBSD #FreeBSD #Unifont

BSD Conference

Hey folks! Are you a BSD aficionado? On Saturday 7 November we will be having a one-day BSD conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands For those whom don't speak Dutch, no worries - the main language is English

It will be a day full of fun, hacking, a talk or two and if you are up for: beers afterwards, downstairs

Sounds like a good day that you want to join? Well, love to have you over!

You will need to get your ticket before November, due to the lunch orders (vegetarian and vegan options are there!).

Checkout the website, get your ticket and perhaps submit a talk.

See you there!?

#OpenBSD #SecBSD #HardenedBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #DragonflyBSD #RUNBSD #EvenMyMotherRunsBSD

Also we are out of colours! Anyone have some to spare? :D

Alt...

NetBSD with the ctwm window manager. Palemoon browser showing www.nrk.no wi try low colour depth. UI elements are mostly yellow which is wrong. Terminal window in foreground showing a whole lotta swappin' goin' on.

Alt...

Three terminal windows: one showing bpytop, revealing a maxed-out CPU. Another showing top - it agrees. Third showing an ongoing build process with CC invocations.

@MaddieM4 @glitzersachen

I also wrote it up in a different way. The boot(8) manual for non-x86 was written to be an overview and pointers to other manual pages. The FGA is a slightly different approach.

http://jdebp.info/FGA/freebsd-boot-process.html

There are similar ideas on #NetBSD , although the names of things aren't the same. The FGA touches on the multiple stages thing. The reality of course is tha most of that goes away with #EFI.

#Bootstrap #FreeBSD

#Bootstrap #EFI #UEFI #FreeBSD

@MaddieM4 @glitzersachen

Would reading some proposed #FreeBSD doco help?

* http://jdebp.info/Proposals/freebsd-boot-manual-page.html

I wrote that for someone who observed that man boot was xyr goto, and it didn't exist on non-x86 architectures in FreeBSD.

#Bootstrap #EFI #UEFI #NetBSD

@washbear @MaddieM4

Good heavens!

That is amazing.

I'll see what I can do likewise for the first section on "installing the boot manager", then. (-:

In case you didn't spot it with diff, there are a handful of lines at the top that are there to define a non-standard character entity that the #NetBSD Guide has that WWW browsers do not. They make it viewable on the WWW with a plain browser, and aren't meant for the #NetBSDGuide.

Now I have to update the Proposals page!

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟭𝟬/𝟭𝟮 (Valuable News - 2026/10/12) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/valuable-news-2026-10-12/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟭𝟬/𝟭𝟮 (Valuable News - 2026/10/12) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/valuable-news-2026-10-12/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

@glitzersachen @MaddieM4

In fairness, it is explained. It is explained in boot(8). The fun part is that the explanation there is as out of date as the #NetBSD Guide is. And of course there's no clue even to look at that manual page in the Guide.

#NetBSDGuide

@MaddieM4

/usr/mdec does get a whole 3 words in hier(7). (-:

Is there no mention of mdec in the #NetBSD Guide?

Hmmm.

This looks like another thing in chapter 22 that needs fixing.

If you pass a NetBSD person at all, please tell them that someone has some improvements to the Guide for them.

* http://jdebp.info/FGA/BSDs-for-Linux-users/guid-partition-table.html

#GPT #DiscPartitioning #Bootstrap

@florian

Welcome to #NetBSD.

Hmm... The H3 processor used in the Banana Pi M2 Zero has pins for Ethernet.

What if I solder an RJ45 connector to them? I wonder if #NetBSD supports this network controller built into the H3 (H2+).🤔

Alt...

Banana Pi M2 Zero schematic; the arrow points to the Ethernet pins.

OKAY! Fucking finally. It was like pulling teeth to figure out where the EFI stuff for NetBSD even was. I knew if I could find that, I could copy it where it needed to go for rEFInd to detect it.

Well it was in `/usr/mdec/`, so if you're trying to multi-boot #NetBSD, hot tip to look in there for the stuff that needs copying into your EFI partition. Good grief.

Special question for the #netbsd folks: has anyone already managed to get the Raspberry Pi Pico C/C++ SDK running under NetBSD? I haven't tried yet, but I have a bit of a feeling that it might be a bumpy road...

Advanced Programming in the #UNIX Environment

Week 5: make(1)

Let's take a look at how the make(1) utility can be used to help us selectively build our code project. You don't need much to get started -- built-in default suffix rules make this easy -- but with time you can build complex build frameworks (see, e.g., #NetBSD's #pkgsrc system). We'll leave the question whether or not make(1) is Turing-complete for another day...

https://youtu.be/WLTuUtj7LPw

@thalia

I took aim at something that may be as old as 54-year-old software this year, which is notorious for having retained very old behaviour.

I'm going to get a machine that has enough oomph to compile #NetBSD from source on, and do a NetBSD patch, to go along with the others, at some point.

It doesn't really count as #retrocomputing when one is patching current GNU #coreutils and relatively recent FreeBSDs, though. (-:

http://jdebp.info/Softwares/dd-with-getopt.html

#dd #getopt #FreeBSD

Day 29

Enjoying a cup of ☕ and reading the feeds with this fine piece of software:

https://codeberg.org/newsraft/newsraft

#40DaysOfNetBSD #NetBSD #RunBSD

Everything seems to be working fine on my NetBSD laptop, but yesterday I realised that the microphone isn’t working (although it is recognised)! It’s not a big problem as I never use it, but I’d still like to sort it out.
I’ll look into it over the next few days...

#bsd #netbsd #bsdunix #unix #unixITA #unixitalia #guuf #guufxmpp #guufITA #linux #linuxITA #linuxitalia

@xiaotuolu
It might be worth reading about the #NetBSD minimal kernel.🤣

https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/439-netbsd-performance-and-power-management-tweaks

Linus alternative universe
#Linux #NetBSD #noai #nollm #antiai #noslop #RunBSD

Hey,

Does #NetBSD work on #Ventoy? I'd like to check it out.

Well, everything seems to be working. Time to break it! 🤣

I had planned to experiment with a read-only setup on the SD card, but since #netbsd expands the SD card partition to the maximum size on the first boot, I’ll have to repartition on the fly now to isolate the littlefedi data into a separate read-write partition.

@netbsd I humbly submit this little guy. "Of course it runs NetBSD!"

#netbsd

Alt...

Sketchbook page with two drawings of little runners with flags. The bottom one has been colored orange with marker and looks like a little computer box with horns.

I also like the option to encrypt the disk in the installer. I'm pretty sure #FreeBSD does this too. Not sure about #NetBSD.

Day 28

Created `.bash_profile` and `.bashrc` and switched the interactive shell for my non-root user from sh to bash.

#Bash #40DaysOfNetBSD #NetBSD #RunBSD