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Raspberry Pi 5 support (OpenBSD)

154 pointsby brynetyesterday at 9:03 PM22 commentsview on HN

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bootloadtoday at 4:31 AM

“WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 5 Model B "d0" boards doesn't work.”

OBSD reports

> “The 4GB and 8GB variants of Raspberry Pi 5 are built around two key chips: the RP1 I/O controller, developed here at Raspberry Pi and providing the interfacing capabilities of the platform; and BCM2712C1, a 16nm application processor built by our friends at Broadcom. BCM2712C1 is a hugely complex and powerful device, with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 application processor running at 2.4GHz, and the latest iteration of the VideoCore multimedia platform. Alongside the features required to power a Raspberry Pi, it also contains functionality intended to serve other markets, which we don’t need. This ‘dark silicon’ is permanently disabled in the chips we use, but takes up die space, and therefore adds cost. The new D0 stepping strips away all that unneeded functionality, leaving only the bits we need.”

This is what Eben Upton reported on 19th Aug 2024. [0] and Geoff Geerling makes a comment on chip revisions. [1]

> “Steppings are basically chip revisions where they don't change functionality, and usually just fix bugs, or tweak the layout. But even tiny design changes could have unintended consequences.”

So the dark silicon removal step from BCC1 to BCD0, a cost cutting measure, killed wifi? Damn, I was hoping to use this for a obsd firewall.

Cf:

[0] <https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/2gb-raspberry-pi-5-on-sale-...>

[1] < https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/new-2gb-pi-5-has-33-s...>

webdevveryesterday at 11:18 PM

and so continues the noble *nix tradition of supporting new hardware... well, some of it anyway

show 2 replies
colechristensenyesterday at 9:36 PM

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.

show 5 replies
drnick1today at 2:51 AM

Out of curiosity, why would you prefer OpenBSD over Linux on a Pi?

show 1 reply
snvzzyesterday at 11:59 PM

>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?

show 1 reply