OpenBSD/arm64

OpenBSD arm64

OpenBSD/arm64 is a port of OpenBSD to various 64-bit ARM based systems.

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Current status

The current target platforms are Allwinner A64/H5/H6/H616, Amlogic G12B/SM1, AMD Opteron A1100, Ampere eMAG/Altra, Apple M1/M2, Marvell ARMADA 3K/7K/8K, Rockchip RK3328/RK3399/RK356x, Broadcom BCM2837/BCM2711 (Raspberry Pi 3/4) Qualcomm Snapdragon 7x/8x and Socionext SCA11.

The install media includes firmware required to boot the Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4.

The Raspberry Pi boards require closed but redistributable files on the system disk to load into the VC4 GPU which starts the ARM cores. By default the boot ROM on Raspberry Pi 3 and older versions on Raspberry Pi 4 will only try to load these files off an SD card. To load the firmware off the SD card and have the root disk on USB after installing OpenBSD, reboot and interrupt U-Boot before the timeout expires and instruct U-Boot to prefer USB over the SD card:

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
U-Boot> setenv boot_targets usb0 mmc0 pxe dhcp
U-Boot> saveenv
U-Boot> boot

Some Raspberry Pi models that do not work with the included U-Boot (e.g. Raspberry Pi 400) can instead be booted using EDK2-based UEFI firmware. The simplest way to use this is to install the firmware on an SD card and install the OS on USB.

Apple systems need to have a UEFI environment installed before OpenBSD can be booted. This can be done by running the Asahi Linux installer. Afterwards you can boot the installer from a USB device connected to one of the ports on the machine.

Ampere eMAG, Ampere Altra and AMD Opteron systems come with a UEFI firmware in ROM and can boot off SATA or USB devices without board specific boot files on the system disk.

Most other machines load their firmware from the boot media and require additional steps to create bootable install media. See the OpenBSD/arm64 snapshot installation instructions for further details.

Supported hardware

OpenBSD/arm64 runs on the following hardware:

Allwinner A64/H5/H6/H616
- Pine64 Pine 64/64+
- Pine64 H64
- Pine64 Pinebook
- NanoPi A64
- Orange Pi PC2
- Orange Pi Zero Plus
- Orange Pi Zero2
AMD Opteron A1100 (Seattle)
- AMD Seattle Development Board
- SoftIron OverDrive 1000
- SoftIron OverDrive 3000
Amlogic G12B/SM1
Ampere eMAG
- Lenovo ThinkSystem HR330A
- Lenovo ThinkSystem HR350A
Ampere Altra
- GIGABYTE R152-P30/31/32
- GIGABYTE E252-P30/31
- GIGABYTE R272-P30/31/32/33
Apple M1/M2
- Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
- Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
- Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
- Apple iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021)
- Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro/Max, 2021)
- Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, M1 Pro/Max, 2021)
- Apple Mac Studio (M1 Max/Ultra, 2022)
- Apple Mac mini (M2, 2023)
- Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)
- Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)
- Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023)
- Apple Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023)
- Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M2 Pro/Max, 2023)
- Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, M2 Pro/Max, 2023)
- Apple Mac Studio (M2 Max/Ultra, 2023)
Broadcom BCM2837/BCM2711
Cix CD8180
- Radxa Orion O6 (*)
Marvell ARMADA 3K
Marvell ARMADA 7K/8K
- SolidRun/Marvell MACCHIATObin
NXP i.MX 8M Quad/Mini/Plus
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7cx (SC7180/SC7180P)
- Acer Aspire One
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 (SC8280XP)
- Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1
- Microsoft Windows Dev Kit 2023
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (X1E80100)
- ASUS Vivobook S 15 (*)
- HONOR MagicBook Art 14 Snapdragon (*)
- HP OmniBook X 14 (*)
- Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (*)
- Lenovo Thinkpad T14s Gen 6 (*)
- Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (*)
Rockchip RK3328/RK3399(pro)
Rockchip RK3566/RK3568
Rockchip RK3588
Socionext SC2A11
- Socionext SynQuacer-E Developerbox

(*) Support added after OpenBSD 7.6 was released

In general, other boards/machines that use one of the SoCs listed above will work as well, as long as UEFI firmware (e.g. U-Boot or EDK II firmware) is available. Both device trees and ACPI are supported. An updated device tree may have to be supplied to make OpenBSD usable.

Ethernet

bse(4) integrated Broadcom GENET 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet on Raspberry Pi 4
dwge(4) integrated Synopsys DesignWare GMAC 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet on Rockchip RK3399
dwxe(4) integrated Allwinner EMAC 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet on Allwinner A64/H5/H6/H616
msk(4) integrated Marvell Yukon-2 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet on OverDrive 1000
mue(4) integrated Microchip LAN75xx/LAN78xx 10/100/Gigabit USB Ethernet on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
mvneta(4) integrated Marvell ARMADA Ethernet on Marvell ARMADA 3K
smsc(4) integrated SMSC LAN95xx 10/100 USB Ethernet on Raspberry Pi 3

802.11 wireless

bwfm(4) on Raspberry Pi 3/4/400, Pinebook Pro, and Apple M1/M2
qwx(4) on Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

Storage

ahci(4) on AMD Opteron A1100, Ampere eMAG, Marvell 7K/8K and SynQuacer-E
bcmsdhost(4) on Raspberry Pi 3
dwmmc(4) on Rockchip RK3328/RK3399/RK356x
rkpcie(4) on Rockchip RK3399
sdhc(4) on Marvell ARMADA 3K/7K/8K, Rockchip RK3399 and Raspberry Pi 4
sximmc(4) on Allwinner A64/H5/H6/H616

USB

dwctwo(4) on Raspberry Pi 3
ehci(4) on Allwinner A64/H5/H6/H616 and Rockchip RK3328/RK3399/RK356x
xhci(4) on Amlogic G12A/B, Ampere eMAG, Apple M1/M2, Marvell ARMADA 3K/7K/8K, Overdrive 1000, Raspberry Pi 4, Qualcomm SC7180/SC7180P/SC8280XP, Rockchip RK3399/RK356x and SynQuacer-E

No real time clock: Many of the arm64 devices do not have a battery-backed real time clock, but ntpd(8) should be able to compensate.

Getting and installing OpenBSD/arm64:

The latest supported OpenBSD/arm64 release is OpenBSD 7.6. Here are the OpenBSD/arm64 installation instructions.

Snapshots are made available from time to time, in this location as well as on a few mirrors. Here are the OpenBSD/arm64 snapshot installation instructions as well.