This is a practical walkthrough for installing NetBSD 11 as a desktop system on a Raspberry Pi 4, motivated by curiosity about an open-source operating system the author sees as free of AI-generated code. The process starts on Linux: download and flash the arm64 image to a microSD card, then copy Raspberry Pi UEFI firmware files onto its boot partition so the Pi can start NetBSD. In the UEFI menu, make the SD card the first boot option. After the initial boot resizes the root filesystem, set passwords and create a regular user.
A key fix is needed for Wi-Fi: although NetBSD detects the Pi’s wireless driver, it cannot configure the adapter because the expected NVRAM filename is missing. Creating a symbolic link to the Raspberry Pi 4’s existing NVRAM file makes the interface available; rc.conf and wpa_supplicant settings then enable connection to an access point. The guide goes on to enable binary package installation with pkgin, install common utilities, and start X11 with NetBSD’s basic ctwm window manager. For a fuller desktop, it details installing dependencies and building NsCDE, a CDE-inspired environment based on fvwm, then configuring its launch and adding replacements for missing volume-control and file-manager apps. It also suggests Dillo as a lightweight browser.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
Zebkit packages Chromium’s browser engine as a library that applications can link directly. It aims to provide a slim, cross-platform way to add browser capabilities without running a separate browser runtime. (github.com)
Office Engine processes up to 500 million CSV rows in a browser tab using about 1 GB of RAM, with no row limit, dependencies, or server. It also supports viewing and editing DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files in the browser. (github.com)
Gleam is a simple functional language that compiles to the Erlang VM or JavaScript and interoperates with Erlang and Elixir. Its approachable syntax and Rust-like feel make it appealing to try. (nchagnet.eu)
glibc’s malloc handles small allocations with internal bookkeeping, reducing costly system calls to the kernel. It can obtain heap space by moving the program break with brk, within a process address space that also contains code, libraries, and the stack. (benmandrew.com)
Ginux is an independent Rust-first kernel built in 11 days using human-directed AI engineering; it boots selected Linux programs and a Rocky Linux userspace with systemd. The research prototype has limited hardware and compatibility, lacks an independent security audit, and is not production-ready. (zenodo.org)
VM/370 Community Edition modernizes IBM’s classic VM/370 operating system with years of community fixes and added features. You can run it easily in Docker or Podman, while real mainframes offer an option that demands far more space, money, and expertise. (rbanffy.github.io)
Today's best Hacker News stories, summarized and screenshotted, one email a day.