NetBSD install on Intel skylake PC?

[dchmelik]

When do you think NetBSD may have (stable version) support for Intel Skylake APUs (CPU with GPU) for their GPUs? Those allow a few monitors at once, though in one framebuffer. So, I use two with system-/logic-/main-/mother-board's display ports, but unlike Slackware GNU/Linux, NetBSD only turns on what I consider my secondary (DVI, not VGA) monitor (unless only VGA is connected) when it really should use both (I suspect KDE does, but I prefer primary monitor for command-line, which I use much on pure, non-GUI, terminals, ttys.) I started with classic *BSD 20 years ago, and NetBSD almost that long ago, and have wanted to switch back for desktop for 10+ years, just realized my reason for switching back to Slackware, a few years before that, was support for other hardware I don't use since 10+ years ago... yet now I also need proper i6700k APU's GPU support before switching back (or dual-boot)... and hopefully (as with Slackware) not requiring UEFI rather than BIOS mode (don't want EFI partition for something I don't use.)

[shep]

I keep trying NetBSD and currently installed 7.1 with 2017Q3 binary packages. My biology background says a little diversity is a good thing. The base install is fine but pkgsrc is currently very buggy Most of the major DE's have missing dependencies (xfce4 meta-pkg) and some binary packages that were built with older dependencies crash at start up. If you are looking to fix things or want to try build a light weight system from source you may be able to get it to work. If on the other hand you want a DE/Office suite/Graphics, etc you are are likely to spend alot of time and not have much to show for it.

Also, OpenBSD supports more recent intel video chips

[bashrules]

Originally Posted by dchmelik

When do you think NetBSD may have (stable version) support for Intel Skylake APUs (CPU with GPU) for their GPUs?

I try (skylake pentium G4400) ... and I'm about to give up:

- My machine has an i219 phy which the developer can't complete https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-n...msg006094.html. I don't know how close this is phy is tied to skylake in generall. For now, I reuse an old NE2000 10Mb/s card from the attic.

- I'm not sure about the best cpu flags for pkgsrc. The pkgsrc guide https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/configuring.html suggests to consult devel/cpuflags. This program suggests -march=native which is only supported by gcc on linux.

- the intel xorg driver does not detect my cpu's HD510 chipset

[10909.085] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Integrated Graphics Chipsets:
        i810, i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 854, 852GM/855GM, 865G,
        915G, E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM,
        Pineview G, 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33,
        GM45, 4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43
[ 10909.085] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) HD Graphics: 2000-6000
[ 10909.085] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics: 5100, 6100
[ 10909.085] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics: 5200, 6200, P6300
[ 10909.085] (--) Using wscons driver on /dev/ttyE4 in pcvt compatibility mode (version 3.32)
[ 10909.112] (EE) No devices detected.
[ 10909.112] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[ 10909.112] (EE) no screens found(EE)

I tried netbsd 8's snapshot with its xserver as well as the modular x server from pkgsrc-2017Q3.

Perhaps I need some intel binary blobs https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/...g-binary-blobs?

Anyone had more luck?

[darktrym]

NetBSD 9 branch also use the drm subsystem based on Linux 3.14 + patches.
Maybe with the wrapper shim it becomes easier to port later versions but currently you can only use your skylake graphics with the vesa driver.

[bashrules]

Originally Posted by darktrym

NetBSD 9 branch also use the drm subsystem based on Linux 3.14 + patches.

. In 2020, I will be able to run NetBSD on my current system.

BTW: from where did you learn this? FreeBSD has a nice wiki https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics - NetBSD has none AFAIK.

Originally Posted by darktrym

Maybe with the wrapper shim it becomes easier to port later versions but currently you can only use your skylake graphics with the vesa driver.

NetBSD is awesome on old iron. This is more true than ever. Whenever skylake is old iron, NetBSD will run on it. Quite frustrating.

[dchmelik]

I'd suspect by now it might work from current/development/testing NetBSD branch, but after also using FreeBSD more, I'm using it for desktop, and would use NetBSD for many of the architectures FreeBSD doesn't run on... so I'm no longer trying to find out in this case...