Bryan Steele Sep 1, 2025

Initial support for the Raspberry Pi 5 is heading to #OpenBSD/arm64 -current snapshots soon, with some caveats. ​

kettenis@ modified www/arm64.html: Add Raspberry Pi 5.

mglocker@ modified src/distrib/arm64/*: Add Raspberry Pi 5 Model B support for RAMDISK.

Known issues:

  • Booting from PCIe storage HATs doesn't work because of missing U-Boot support.
  • WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 5 Model B "d0" boards doesn't work.
  • The active cooler (fan) doesn't work because of missing pwm/clock drivers (some work is in-progress).

ok kettenis@, deraadt

EDIT: Some info I've gleaned, bwfm(4) WiFi should work for C1 stepping rpi5 boards, just not the later D0 stepping, also nvme(4) hats work for storage just not for booting yet (U-Boot support not ready). Ethernet should be cad(4) for the onboard Cadence chipset.

EDIT2: Pi 5 support was included in OpenBSD 7.8, albeit serial console only (no glass console).

Show threadknowmercySep 1, 2025
@brynet I can attest that it works well. I had great luck with it on one pi5 and then went out and bought another. Probably one of the more useful arm64 boards I have now. On to the projects!
Show threadscrottie (he/him/them)Oct 20
@knowmercy @brynet Any idea if setting sysctl hw.setperf / apm -A automatic performance adjustment is implemented? I have a HiFive2 where the clock seems to be fixed (at 500mhz if I remember) and it was overheating at 100F ambient.
Show threadknowmercyOct 20
@scrottie @brynet Those features will depend highly on the drivers available in each board. Unfortunately you cannot think about this from "does arm64 support this" and you have to think about it a board and a driver at at time. I've no idea what works on a HiFive2 board. The fans took some doing to get working on the pi5, but now that it's done it works great.
Show threadscrottie (he/him/them)Oct 20

@knowmercy

> Unfortunately you cannot think about this from "does arm64 support this" and you have to think about it a board and a driver at at time.

Not asking for a generalization. I know there are hardware revs with the Pi5 with some chip version changes (brynet mentioned WiFi), but I was asking about *your* Pi5 *you* just said you "had great luck with".

Sorry, I could have been more explicit -- if you try to do `apm -H` and `apm -L`, do *you* get an error? Does your `sysctl hw.setperf` change?

Show threadscrottie (he/him/them)
@knowmercy To clarify, I'm reluctant to try to use my HiFive2 for what I wanted to, so I'm gathering info on the Pi5.
Oct 20 at 1:39pmWeb
Show threadknowmercyOct 20

@scrottie Okay, I think I see what you're asking. I am not certain on this, but I think the firmware is currently managing the cpu scaling and we do not have drivers implemented to control, or retrieve values. I have been building kernels and ports on it that take multiple hours. The cpu freq is not reported by anything right now.

If you are concerned about the different revisions of the board, I have multiple boards. Currently two of them span different revisions and I cannot see any difference in their performance.

I'll make one clarifying point about the wifi... bwfm is intended to manage channels in the firmware. If you try to set a channel manually it may or may not stick. I have successfully passed traffic with my pi5 acting as a WAP but I usually have to configure it multiple times. The onboard antenna is not suitable for regular use IMO.

Show threadscrottie (he/him/them)Oct 20
@knowmercy Thank you for your comments and taking time to answer. * And apparently for your work on this!
Show threadknowmercyOct 20
@scrottie Hopefully it was helpful. I was far less involved in doing anything with the pi5.