# FreeBSD Desktop for RK3399 SBC



## SleepWalker (Jul 8, 2020)

Hello to all !

I want to share the news.
After the release of U-Boot 2020.07, HDMI video works.
It can be seen.

Links to test boot images.

XFCE Desktop

FreeBSD-aarch64-13.0-DESKTOP-Pinebook-Pro-20210101.img.xz

Live VIDEO

update 2021.01.04


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## Mjölnir (Jul 9, 2020)

Hi SleepWalker ,

1st: Congratulations!  IMHO ARM should be a 1st tier architecture on FreeBSD, the trend goes up consistently for >decade now and will continue to do so.

Could you give a short status review of FreeBSD@RockPro, or else point me to where I can read some?
I'm tempted to choose a Pine64 RockPro SBC to build a small low-power SOHO NAS, see this thread.  Successfully getting a desktop up & running is a good indicator that the most basic issues are solved.  How about ZFS?  Any issues with that?  Naturally, bhyve is not available, are there any alternatives on ARM?  IIRC, the RockPro has hardware support for virtualization, correct?  Likewise: hardware crypto.  The chip has it, does FreeBSD support it?  Any other pitfalls?

I know choosing a x86 (fanless) mini-server for that is currently much safer, but I'm curious enough to at least try my 1st steps on ARM w/ such a (small? maybe not) personal project.  If it fails, I have a desktop or playground for ARM development, which any _nerd_ should have


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## SleepWalker (Jul 11, 2020)

Hi Mjollnir.

FreeBSD for ARM is growing fast enough.
Key issues are discussed here. Mail List

Building a NAS on an ARM platform with ZFS support is real.
I am currently porting FreeNAS to aarch64 and use Khadas EDGE-V
as a prototype, simply because it’s easier for me to get it than Pine64 ROCKPro64. They are both built on the Rockchip RK3399.

For myself, as a NAS, I chose Helios64 from Kobol Team also on Rockchip RK3399. He has 4G RAM, two Eth 1G & 2,5G, 5 SATA.

I highly recommend  take note to this complete solution.
And it already almost runs FreeBSD.

Here is the boot log
https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=5555

I am sure that I will finish porting FreeNAS to it in the near future.


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## Mjölnir (Jul 11, 2020)

Are the two A72 not used?  From your dmesg:

```
cpu4: <Open Firmware CPU> on cpulist0
cpu4: Nominal frequency 600Mhz
cpufreq_dt4: <Generic cpufreq driver> on cpu4
cpufreq_dt4: Not attaching as cpu is not present
device_attach: cpufreq_dt4 attach returned 6
```
You could save some mem by disabling 2/3 of # virtual consoles, but I guess you have more important issues to solve.


> I highly recommend take note to this complete solution.
> And it already almost runs FreeBSD.


What I like about this board: it has two ethernet NICs and plenty of SATA ports.  This justifies the higher price compared to the Pine64.  And this makes sense: the case has a UPS built in!  I found only one existing commercial vendor who has that, Buffalo.  How much is the case + PSU + add. items (cables etc.)?  I guess the total is outside of my budget; but taking into account e.g. the UPS, I might have to re-evaluate my calculations when comparing to refurbished or home-grown x86-based solutions (thought of buying an old laptop and connect a small array - laptops have a built-in UPS, too).
I'm a little bit disappointed on the idle power consumption.  Decent x86 solutions are not worse, but (currently) offer more flexibility, e.g. virtualization.


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## SleepWalker (Jul 16, 2020)

Hello to all !

Updated links to boot images.
Added test bootable image for PineBook Pro.
Added Google CROME!


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## pbp_jackd (Aug 25, 2020)

SleepWalker said:


> Hello to all !
> 
> Updated links to boot images.
> Added test bootable image for PineBook Pro.
> Added Google CROME!



Hi, I would be interested to test the image you have for the PineBook Pro. The link however leads only to the pine main page. Would you mind sharing a link that directly points to the image ?


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## mark_j (Aug 28, 2020)

pbp_jackd said:


> Hi, I would be interested to test the image you have for the PineBook Pro. The link however leads only to the pine main page. Would you mind sharing a link that directly points to the image ?


The images are in the links in the first post.


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## Samuel Venable (Aug 28, 2020)

I'm  downloading the pinebook pro image right now! Thank you so much!!

Edit:

Wrote it to a micro sd card and it is inserted. However I get a green blinking power light and nothing on the screen. Are there steps to get it working?


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## mark_j (Aug 29, 2020)

Samuel Venable said:


> I'm  downloading the pinebook pro image right now! Thank you so much!!
> 
> Edit:
> 
> Wrote it to a micro sd card and it is inserted. However I get a green blinking power light and nothing on the screen. Are there steps to get it working?


Check on the mailing list.


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## ScarFez (Oct 7, 2020)

I noticed the file http://dev.kubsu.ru/images/FreeBSD-aarch64-13.0-DESKTOP-Pinebook-Pro-20200722.img.xz has been removed. Any chance of a new image ?


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## ScarFez (Oct 7, 2020)

mjollnir said:


> What I like about this board: it has two ethernet NICs and plenty of SATA ports.



Say, which board is that ?


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## Mjölnir (Oct 8, 2020)

ScarFez said:


> Say, which board is that ?


I was refering to Kobol's Helios64 mini-NAS that was mentioned by SleepWalker in the 3rd post.  Also note the other board (Khadas Edge V) mentioned there.


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## ScarFez (Oct 9, 2020)

ScarFez said:


> I noticed the file http://dev.kubsu.ru/images/FreeBSD-aarch64-13.0-DESKTOP-Pinebook-Pro-20200722.img.xz has been removed. Any chance of a new image ?



Thanks for reinstating the image file.

I reckon it is known that the built in keyboard is not working and there seems to be quite some usb issues, and ofcourse, the WiFi...
And the A72's seems not enabled

Any idea when there might be some updated image ?


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## mnd999 (Oct 22, 2020)

SleepWalker said:


> Hello to all !
> 
> Updated links to boot images.
> Added test bootable image for PineBook Pro.
> Added Google CROME!



Just tried your helios64 image, seems to work pretty well. Did you build that off the FreeBSD source tree or is there more to it? I'm guessing you have some custom config / device trees - if so is it visible somewhere? I'm kinda curious as to how you built this.


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## Samuel Venable (Oct 27, 2020)

I would like to verify when I tried it, it wasn't booting because of something i did i shouldn't have on my end - the pinebook pro image im guessing works fine because of what other people are reporting. I'm in the process of fixing my pinebook pro because i found out you can't dd an image to the machine itself, you are supposed to only boot from microsd if you want a different OS, and i ended up breaking my micro sd reader because i replaced the original os it came with.

Sorry for the false alarm.


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## SleepWalker (Nov 1, 2020)

mnd999 said:


> Just tried your helios64 image, seems to work pretty well. Did you build that off the FreeBSD source tree or is there more to it? I'm guessing you have some custom config / device trees - if so is it visible somewhere? I'm kinda curious as to how you built this.


To build images, I use modified crochet tools.


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## ludensen (May 2, 2021)

For people interested in or considering taking part in the 2nd production-batch of the Helios64:
Alex, co-host on the "Self-Hosted" podcast made a review in their episode 33 (~2 min. in). He touches on production quality, small HW-issues, SW-support (mostly linux and a brief mention of ZFS) and at the end a small performance-review (~20 min. in) - spoiler alert: It's no speed demon ;-) and (at that time) lacked support for HW-encoding/-decoding. - But ~30W power-consumption at full tilt 

This video from SleepWalker's blog (though not Helios64 - only one NIC) is probably very indicative of the (lacking) speed...


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## ebike (Jul 4, 2021)

SleepWalker 
Hi, Do you have a recent image for the Edge-V ..


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## SleepWalker (Jul 6, 2021)

ebike said:


> SleepWalker
> Hi, Do you have a recent image for the Edge-V ..


New images can be downloaded from my website.


			PersonalBSD.org » Downloads


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## evantaylor (Aug 30, 2021)

SleepWalker said:


> New images can be downloaded from my website.
> 
> 
> PersonalBSD.org » Downloads


Sleepwalker, thank you so much.  The keyboard/Mouse crash issue is eliminated on latest Pinebook Pro image as well.

Setting up my own XFCE4 environment on my PBP today for general use now.


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## darkmode (Sep 29, 2021)

SleepWalker said:


> Hi Mjollnir.
> 
> FreeBSD for ARM is growing fast enough.
> Key issues are discussed here. Mail List
> ...




SleepWalker 
How did the FreeNAS (or even better TrueNAS) build turn out?

I was just about to embark with my RockPi 4c before discovering your post. Would love to know what came of it. Hopefully get a clone of the project files to build it myself as well.

Thanks!


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