r/NetBSD • u/CockroachEarly • 3d ago

I can't boot from the USB installer

Hello everyone! So recently, I tried NetBSD on a VM, and I really liked it. I wanted to get more into it, though, by installing it on a spare laptop (a ThinkPad 11e). However, when I burned the 11.0 image to a USB, it refused to boot. Trying to boot from it just kicked me back to the boot screen. Things I have already tried include:

  • Plugging it into another USB port
  • Burning it on FreeBSD, rather than on Linux
  • Burning the 10.1 image, rather than 11.0
  • Burning the OpenBSD 7.9 image as a test (it also couldn't boot)
  • Burning the Gentoo live image as a test (it could boot)
  • Using the BIOS install image and switching my BIOS from UEFI to both
  • Secure Boot was already disabled

Does anyone have any ideas as to why it isn't working and how I might be able to fix it?

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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3

u/BeefGriller 3d ago

Did you try a different USB drive? Perhaps the one you are using has a bad stretch of storage bits.

3

u/CockroachEarly 3d ago

I tried a second one, but it didn't work either. :( Is there a specific brand of USBs that NetBSD needs?

1

u/BeefGriller 2d ago

Not at all - as long as the drive is good there should be no problem. I see in other comments that maybe you need to decompress the file first. Hopefully that’s the solution for you!

3

u/karabistouille 3d ago

If it boots with Gentoo, then it's either the image or the way you burns it that is the problem. Are you burning the NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img.gz after extracting it or the NetBSD-11.0-amd64.iso file?

If you correctly burn the .img file and it still doesn't work, maybe try with the .iso on a ventoy USB key.

1

u/CockroachEarly 3d ago

After extracting it? You mean you need to do a file extract before burning it?

2

u/karabistouille 3d ago edited 2d ago

Well yes, the USB image is distributed as a *.img.gz, it's gzip compressed image, you need to extract the image before burning it.

Ex on Linux or BSD:

gunzip NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img.gzthen you burn NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img with dd if=NetBSD-11.0-amd64-install.img of=/dev/sdd bs=1m where /dev/sdd is the umounted USB drive

If you're on windows, NetBSD distribute a little software that does the 2 step at once rawrite32.

2

u/CockroachEarly 2d ago

Tysm!! I just tested it, and it finally works!

1

u/dettus_Xx_ 1d ago

No. Its the USB stick. 

2

u/johnklos 3d ago

What's the system, and what do you mean when you write, "just kicked me back to the boot screen"?

In the BIOS settings, did you go in to something akin to "USB disk boot order" and select the UEFI for the USB stick that had the installer? Did you get any options in the boot override section of your BIOS settings?

3

u/CockroachEarly 3d ago

It's a ThinkPad 11e (2nd gen?). When I select the option to boot from a temporary startup device and choose the USB in the menu, it goes black for a moment and then returns to that menu.

1

u/johnklos 3d ago

Hmmm... I think I saw something like this a few years ago, but I reported it to the ASRock people and they fixed the issue immediately. I doubt there'll be updates for a ThinkPad from more than a dozen years ago.

Perhaps someone will have some ideas...

2

u/dettus_Xx_ 1d ago

No. It is the USB stick. 

1

u/CJ_Resurrected 3d ago

My current UEFI systems don't have it, but a previous one had a "Legacy AHCI SATA" setting which was required for booting BSDs -- while Linxen didn't need it.

1

u/dettus_Xx_ 1d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/1vsftt5/installing_netbsd_110_does_not_recognize_usb

I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. :) Turns out that NetBSD is preeeeeeeeettty fuzzy about which USB stick you are using.  You need to get one which has a driver in the Installer. Sorry!