Creating a Raspberry Pi FreeBSD image for RPI 500 Keyboard or RPI5, or a weather station image for RPI3B

Creating a Raspberry Pi FreeBSD image for RPI 500 Keyboard or RPI5 5GB

UEFI Arm64 image from here:

GITHUB worproject/rpi5-uefi/releases    April 24, 2025 Version 0.3 is latest version

https://petermoulding.com/raspberry_pi/raspberry_pi_500_boot_options

RPI3B  Weather station FreeBSD Foundation build:  

https://freebsdfoundation.org/raspberry-pi-weather-display-on-freebsd/

https://freebsdfoundation.org/?s=raspberrypi 

 https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm64    FreeBSD Arm64  wiki information

https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry%20Pi%205  Raspberry Pi 5 FreeBSD image instructions

https://freebsdfoundation.org/project/headless-mode-out-of-the-box/   Use as OTG virtual images

https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry%20Pi%205


Setting up FreeBSD on a Raspberry Pi 5

You will need

 

  • Does any USB Ethernet adapter work with Nintendo Switch?
    Almost all USB Ethernet adapters (including the official Hori adapter  HORI USA manual for NSW-004U) use a chipset called AX88179. If your adapter has this chipset then it will work, and be exactly the same experience as anyone else who has one. Of note: USB 3.0 does not increase performance with an Ethernet adapter on the Switch, unfortunately.Dec 10, 2018

USB Ethernet Adapter https://cabletimetech.com/blogs/knowledge/what-is-a-usb-to-ethernet-adapter-is-it-good-to-use#:~:text=Make%20sure%20that%20the%20adapter,this%20speed%20for%20optimal%20performance. 

youtube.com 3 different Ethernet to USB adapters tested

Steps to follow

  • Download a FreeBSD image for Raspberry Pi. Go to FreeBSD download page. Click on the link to "RPI (3/4)" (don't worry about it not being for the Pi 5). (20250824: use one of these following images:

 FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz

FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz

FreeBSD-15.0-PRERELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz )

 [kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$ man unzip
[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$ ls -l
total 1224
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel 1252807 Aug 22 21:09 RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$ unzip -t RPi5*.zip
Archive:  RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
   testing: config.txt               OK
   testing: bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb      OK
   testing: RPI_EFI.fd               OK
No errors detected in compressed data of RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip.
[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$

[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$ unzip -l RPi5*.zip
Archive:  RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
 Length      Date    Time    Name
---------  ---------- -----   ----
     331  2024-03-15 20:46   config.txt
   76038  2024-03-15 20:46   bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb
 2031616  2024-03-15 20:46   RPI_EFI.fd
---------                     -------
 2107985                     3 files
[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$



  • Connect an ethernet cable to one of the USB ports with the USB to ethernet cable USB Dongle.  Like a Nintendo Switch wired Ethernet Dongle to USB connector NSW-004U UPC 8 73124 00606  3
  • Turn on the Raspberry Pi.
  •  
  • FreeBSD Unzip manual page https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=unzip&sektion=1   bsdunzip 
  • Linux command:  man unzip
[kliktel@kliktel-pc Rpi5]$ ls -lh ; unzip -j RPi5*.zip; ls -lh
total 1.2M
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel 1.2M Aug 22 21:09 RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
Archive:  RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
 inflating: config.txt               
 inflating: bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb      
 inflating: RPI_EFI.fd               
total 3.3M
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel  75K Mar 15  2024 bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel  331 Mar 15  2024 config.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel 1.2M Aug 22 21:09 RPi5_UEFI_Release_v0.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 kliktel kliktel 2.0M Mar 15  2024 RPI_EFI.fd


Known To Work

Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Rev 1.0 8Gbytes RAM I (PaulFloyd) have been using it for development work since February 2024, using FreeBSD 14.1 and then 14.2. Primarily this has been using ssh to connect from my amd64 FreeBSD workstation.

Known Limitations

  • Fan runs at full speed.
  • No wifi.
  • Ethernet only via USB, uses up one USB port.
  • Network occasionally fails to start.
  • Boot loader rpi5-uefi is known to not work with RPI5 16GB.

Future Development

Unfortunately, since Feb 4, 2025 the worproject/rpi5-uefi GitHub repo has been marked as archived and read-only. Presumably that means that there will be no further development done there, and thus no more bug fixes or enhancements.

CategoryHowTo

arm/Raspberry Pi 5 (last edited 2025-05-03T00:32:05+0000 by GrahamPerrin)

 



Location: Forest Grove, OR 97116, USA

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