Re: NetBSD 9.0 & MBR, X, etc

[Clay Daniels <clays.shell%SDF.ORG@localhost>]

On Wed, 19 Feb 2020, Clay Daniels wrote:>
> I have found that the only way it works for me is to use MBR. not GPT. Anyone 
> have any luck with a GPT installation?

To answer my own question, it makes sense to run NetBSD on MBR as NetBSD's 
default partiton manager is apparently  fdisk, and I don't see gpart 
offered.

Anyway, I have an up and running install of NetBSD on a M2 ssd, using the 
whole drive. I have a spinning disk drive that runs Windows 10 & Freebsd 
dual-boot using Rod Smith's refind boot manager. This works ok, but refind 
does not pick up the mbr drive, as it's strictly uefi. Oh well, it works 
for me to boot the ssd with NetBSD by monkeying with the bios boot order.

So I'm sitting here writing this email from my NetBSD install. I don't 
have X installed yet, but I can ssh into my email server and use good old 
Alpine from the console.

I have experimented with setting up X, but have not been successful yet. 
Simply running startx did not bring up the TWM window manager. 
The instructions in the NETBSD Guide, Chap. 9. X, give a different xinitrc 
than the one I find pre-installed in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. I backed up, 
re-installed NetBSD  and I'm going to do more research. The nice thing for 
me is I have an extra old computer right next to this newer one that lets 
me look up info.

All in all, I'm having fun with this new NetBSD 9.0.