NetBSD Problem Report #60872

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Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:12:07 +0000 (UTC)
From: entikan@tilde.pink
Reply-To: entikan@tilde.pink
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: Pinebook Pro: Cannot install to harddrive using sysinst, "ar: ./netbsd.ub: Not found in archive" 
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X-From4GNATS: "entikan@tilde.pink via gnats" <gnats-admin@NetBSD.org>

>Number:         60872
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       Pinebook Pro: Cannot install to harddrive using sysinst, "ar: ./netbsd.ub: Not found in archive"
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    martin
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Oct 13 20:15:00 +0000 2026
>Last-Modified:  Sat Oct 17 15:55:00 +0000 2026
>Originator:     birddessert
>Release:        10.2 & 11.0
>Organization:
>Environment:
NetBSD arm64 11.0 NetBSD 11.0 (GENERI64) #0: Thu Jul 32 15:23:12 UTC 2026 mkrepo@mkrepo.NetBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/evbarm/compile/GENERIC64 evbarm
>Description:
Steps I took to encounter:

I create a bootable SD (on Arch Linux) like so: dd if=NetBSD-11-aarch64--pinebook-pro.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M conv=sync

I boot NetBSD on my Pinebook Pro using Tow-Boot and log in as root. Everything is fine, I can get online using a wifi dongle. I wanted to install it to my emmc, so I used sysinst -> Install NetBSD to hard disk and use the defaults on the MMC. Everything seems to work but when it gets to "progress -zf /usr/INSTALL/kern-GENERIC64.tar.xz tar --chroot -xpf - `./netbsd.ub`" it stops with error "ar: ./netbsd.ub: Not found in archive". The resulting install is not found on boot.

Logix on irc told me it's more usual to simply download the image and boot that (so I'll try simply dd'ing the image to the eMMC). But they kindly asked me to file this as my first bug and here it is.

>How-To-Repeat:
I've noticed the fastest way to hit the problem in sysinst is to use "c: Re-install sets or install additional sets" and only setting the Kernel set to YES (rest NO). Then the error is hit almost immediately.

>Fix:

>Release-Note:

>Audit-Trail:

Responsible-Changed-From-To: install-manager->martin
Responsible-Changed-By: martin@NetBSD.org
Responsible-Changed-When: Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:32:21 +0000
Responsible-Changed-Why:
I'll fix it


From: Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/60872: Pinebook Pro: Cannot install to harddrive using
 sysinst, "ar: ./netbsd.ub: Not found in archive"
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2026 17:50:17 +0200

 On Tue, Oct 13, 2026 at 08:15:00PM +0000, entikan@tilde.pink via gnats wrote:

 > I boot NetBSD on my Pinebook Pro using Tow-Boot and log in as root.
 > Everything is fine, I can get online using a wifi dongle. I wanted to
 > install it to my emmc, so I used sysinst -> Install NetBSD to hard disk
 > and use the defaults on the MMC. Everything seems to work but when it
 > gets to "progress -zf /usr/INSTALL/kern-GENERIC64.tar.xz tar --chroot
 > -xpf - `./netbsd.ub`" it stops with error "ar: ./netbsd.ub: Not found
 > in archive". The resulting install is not found on boot.

 Can you please show what

 	sysctl hw.model

 says on your machine? Sysinst would expect

 	hw.model = netbsd,generic-acpi

 but it seems like your machine did provide a different identification,
 so sysinst things you are booting from u-boot w/o EFI.

 All my own aarch64 machines do use EFI and have hw.model like above,
 but I don't know if we support exceptions. Otherwise we could #ifdef
 the whole selection and always assume EFI for 64bit CPUs.

 Or maybe this is a "Tow-Boot" issue? Does it pass the proper dtb to
 the kernel?

 Martin

>Unformatted:

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