GNU Boot – How to install OpenBSD on x86 GNU GRUB payload

Return to index

This guide was written for OpenBSD 6.1 and/or LibertyBSD 6.1 at a time where Libreboot was still fully free and where LibertyBSD 6.0 was still maintained. At that time the this guide was meant to be easily adapted for other versions of OpenBSD.

OpenBSD is not a fully free softrware operating system / distribution and so the GNU Boot project can’t force its contributors to test GNU Boot with OpenBSD.

Because of that this page is only meant for people already Using OpenBSD. See the BSD index page for more details about how GNU Boot deals with this issue and the way forward to a better support for BSD systems in GNU Boot.

If you already use OpenBSD and want an encrypted install, use SeaBIOS instead of GRUB and go here: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html (official installation guide, which says how to use encryption)

GRUB supports booting OpenBSD kernels directly. However, you’re better off simply using the SeaBIOS payload; BSD works well with BIOS or UEFI setups.

GRUB is acceptable for booting unencrypted BSD installations. However, encrypted BSD installations will probably require the use of SeaBIOS/Tianocore.

install61.fs is the installation image for OpenBSD 6.1. Adapt the filename accordingly, for a different OpenBSD version.

## Prepare the USB drive in OpenBSD

[link]

If you downloaded your ISO on an OpenBSD system, here is how to create the bootable OpenBSD USB drive:

Connect the USB drive and check the system message buffer:

dmesg | tail

Check to confirm which drive it is, for example, if you think it’s `sd3`:

disklabel sd3

Check that it wasn’t automatically mounted. If it was, unmount it:

doas umount /dev/sd3i

Now write the OpenBSD installer to the drive with `dd`:

doas dd if=install60.fs of=/dev/rsdXc bs=1M; sync

You should now be able to boot the installer from your USB drive. Continue reading, for information about how to do that.

## Prepare the USB drive (in NetBSD)

[link]

This page on the NetBSD website shows how to create a NetBSD bootable USB drive from within NetBSD itself. You should use the `dd` method documented there. This will also work with the OpenBSD image.

## Prepare the USB drive (in FreeBSD)

[link]

This page on the FreeBSD website shows how to create a bootable USB drive for installing FreeBSD. Use the `dd` on that page. You can also use the same instructions with a OpenBSD ISO image.

## Prepare the USB drive (in GNU+Linux)

[link]

If you downloaded your ISO on a GNU+Linux system, here is how to create the bootable OpenBSD USB drive:

Connect the USB drive. Check dmesg:

dmesg

Check lsblk to confirm which drive it is:

lsblk

Check that it wasn’t automatically mounted. If it was, unmount it. For example:

sudo umount /dev/sdX* umount /dev/sdX*

dmesg told you what device it is. Overwrite the drive, writing your distro ISO to it with dd. For example:

sudo dd if=install61.fs of=/dev/sdX bs=8M; sync dd if=install61.fs of=/dev/sdX bs=8M; sync

You should now be able to boot the installer from your USB drive. Continue reading, for information about how to do that.

## Installing OpenBSD without full disk encryption

[link]

Press C in GRUB to access the command line:

grub> kopenbsd (usb0,openbsd1)/6.1/amd64/bsd.rd grub> boot

It will start booting into the OpenBSD installer. Follow the normal process for installing OpenBSD.

## Installing OpenBSD with full disk encryption

[link]

If you are using SeaBIOS, OpenBSD’s bootloader will be chainloaded automatically and everything will just work.

## Booting

[link]

Press C in GRUB to access the command line:

grub> kopenbsd -r sd0a (ahci0,openbsd1)/bsd grub> boot

OpenBSD will start booting.

## Configuring Grub

[link]

If you don’t want to drop to the GRUB command line and type in a command to boot OpenBSD every time, you can create a GRUB configuration that’s aware of your OpenBSD installation and that will automatically be used by GNU Boot.

On your OpenBSD root partition, create the `/grub` directory and add the file `gnuboot_grub.cfg` to it. Inside the `gnuboot_grub.cfg` add these lines:

default=0 timeout=3

menuentry “OpenBSD” { kopenbsd -r sd0a (ahci0,openbsd1)/bsd }

If your OpenBSD installation uses a GPT scheme, use the `gpt4` partition instead of `openbsd1`.

The next time you boot, you’ll see the old Grub menu for a few seconds, then you’ll see the a new menu with only OpenBSD on the list. After 3 seconds OpenBSD will boot, or you can hit enter to boot.

# Troubleshooting

[link]

According to the Libreboot project at a time when it was still fully free, most of the issues occur when using coreboot’s ‘text mode’ instead of the coreboot framebuffer. This mode is useful for booting payloads like memtest86+ which expect text-mode, but for OpenBSD, accodring to Libreboot at the time, it can be problematic when they are trying to switch to a framebuffer because it doesn’t exist.

## Won’t boot…something about file not found

[link]

Your device names (i.e. usb0, usb1, sd0, sd1, wd0, ahci0, hd0, etc) and numbers may differ. Use TAB completion.

Markdown file for this page: https://gnu.org/software/gnuboot/web/docs/bsd/openbsd.md