Share your ARM64/AARCH64 experience for FreeBSD

Mainly for setting up ARM 64-bit (ARM64/AARCH64) architecture systems which Single Board Computers (SBC's) or miniboards use. In my case, it's a Raspberry Pi 4.
rasp-hw.jpg

This case is under $10 and fits in a front shirt pocket. The MicroSD card didn't fit with the board into the hard case at first, so I had to cut the slot to be larger (on the underside, not shown in the image). The GPIO pins can be used for internal components as well, like cooling fans. This one uses USB-C, and a micro-HDMI cable for connections. It has wifi, Bluetooth and a wired ethernet port. There's a few more components, which you can see the specs for any particular model online. This is funny, because this is the first computer that I could almost put together at a fast food table, after buying it.

rasp-bootload.jpg

This system will let you download a bootstrap through an Internet connection, then you can install an Operating System to MicroSD or a flashdrive, from either the Internet or through one of those disks. That's handy when you don't have a flashcard reader or access to another computer to download an operating system.
rasp-os.jpg
The screen that lets you choose an OS from the Internet, or from an img on your MicroSD or USB drive.

The Linux distributions which were readily available were slow on the desktop, and intensive programs like Firefox or gaming applications crashed easily on this. This means it's a case use for BSD's.

This is the first part of the basic setup of a Raspberry Pi for others to see, and to continue to install FreeBSD. On mine, I may go with a desktop BSD like Fugu-ita dedicated on the MicroSD card. Then, I'll use the usbdrives to experiment with FreeBSD and other operating systems.

When looking for images to install to boards like this, look for ARM64, AARCH64 or Raspberry in the downloads. They're the same architecture with the exception that some are for more specialized boards within the ARM64 category.

At this point, share your experience with ARM64/AARCH64 SBC's (mini computers) including Raspberry Pi's on FreeBSD. I intend to do this later from this initial starting point. How do you use FreeBSD on your mini ARM64 computer?
 
How do you use FreeBSD on your mini ARM64 computer?
Look you can download this FreeBSD image, burn to a USB flash drive and put into your Raspberry Pi 4B,3B,or 400 Keyboard and boot that image.
It was asking what you do with FreeBSD on an SBC, not how to install it. That information is more detail on installing it, which is ok. Some install instructions for FreeBSD on an SBC, more details on Raspberry Pi 4, was already hinted above.

For further information, I looked up that Raspberry Pi 5 doesn't have the over Internet bootloader and install capabilities that Raspberry Pi 4 has, as described above. Not sure if this is true. I haven't seen an image for Raspberry Pi 5 from FreeBSD, and don't know if the ARM image for Raspberry Pi 4 would work on it. Information on these and other SBC boards would be good for discussion too.

GhostBSD examples can be at:
Thread those-of-you-who-have-used-ghostbsd-please-share-your-experience.83989. It's good to be aware that GhostBSD can be installed on an SBC though. There's something to learn about GhostBSD in comparison to FreeBSD in terms of available drivers and systems. For other specific BSD examples for comparison to FreeBSD: https://forums.freebsd.org/tags/share-bsd-experience/. A thread could be started for SBC (ARM and Risc) mini computers for all other BSD's in comparison to FreeBSD.

It's about what cool projects and other tasks people do with FreeBSD on an SBC, including Raspberry Pi. Which hatboards, GPIO projects, accessories. Also caveats.

One example of a caveat would be which power supplies are used for your SBC. For instance, Raspberry Pi 4 uses USB-C for power, and Raspberry Pi 3 may need a USB-B connection. However these connections need a higher output rating than typical USB connectors.

Edit: a post was moved to GhostBSD related thread, which is listed in this post.
 
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Generally speaking, I love FreeBSD on ARM64. My only regret is not having more enterprise arm systems in my homelab, though I'm building a nice cluster at work. Here's a short list of my fbsd/arm focus, ranging from personal work on embedded systems engineering to ${megaCorpCDN} architect projects.

MakeModelQuantityPurpose
SolidRun / NXPHoneycomb LX2160a1SDN & TLS Traffic-Manager/Content-Director
SolidRun / NXP
Honeycomb LX2160a
1Poudriere building arm64 versions of FreeBSD, HardenedBSD, GhostBSD
Gigbyte / AmpereAltra EMAG 80-Core, 1TB RAM, ConnectX-5 100G6HCI nodes in a private cloud
NanoPiR4SE2dev/test
NanoPiR5S2dev/test/clustering
NanoPiR6S3dev/test/clustering
RPiCM4 / various carrier boards3dev/test/clustering
RPiCM4 / TuringPi 22
dev/test/clustering
 
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