Peter N. M. Hansteen
@winlundn@infosec.exchange I wonder, does #openbsd suffer from similar problems? I always found their installer to be the sanest (see eg my own "Recent and not so recent changes in OpenBSD that make life better (and may turn up elsewhere too)" --2021 vintarge -- https://nxdomain.no/~peter/recent-and-not-so-recent_changes_in_openbsd_that_make_life_better.html but keep in mind the Multibooting FAQ part https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting of course)
Recent and not so recent changes in OpenBSD that make life better (and may turn up elsewhere too)

Jun 25 at 1:50pmWeb
Show threadJdeBPJun 25

@pitrh @winlundn

It does. I recently had a similar experience with #OpenBSD trying and failing to get it to just install onto a partition on the same disc that the installer was bootstrapped from.

#NetBSD's installer won.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/114607784909156050

JdeBP (@JdeBP@mastodonapp.uk)

The #RaspberryPi hurdle that #OpenBSD fell at was its installer. Despite it presenting two different partition table editors, I couldn't persuade it to just simply use the already existing single UFS volume that was already there. It just does not seem to cater for the idea that one might want to install to the same removable DASD that one is using, with boot, system, and swap as already defined. It either led me down a path where it zapped the existing partition table, and all of the install files, or demanded that there be another solid-state medium to install to. Which is sad, because a Pi with just a TF card and a single purpose is still a significant use case. Whereas in NetBSD's sysinst, choosing to install to the same system is the first option on its third menu, after picking the installer language and choosing to install. This is a 2 horse race being comfortably won by #NetBSD, currently. I've not tried #FreeBSD yet. #PartitionTables

Mastodon App UK
Show threadJanJun 25
@JdeBP @pitrh @winlundn this ist a RaspberryPi only Problem maybe. Never Had any issues one x86 with #openbsd and i used many unconventinal setups
Show threadJdeBPJun 25

@jan @pitrh @winlundn

Nothing to do with it being a Pi, and everything to do with the #OpenBSD installer just not having a discernable path where one can stick an EFI-partitioned removable device in with an ESP and the installer on it, and install to free space on the rest of that self-same device. There's nothing at all Pi-specific about that.

It had several different paths that led to it starting by wiping itself and the install source files off the disc.