Post #1148410

2026-04-12 06:43 UTC

One of my many sidequests is to try to get #NetBSD running on one of my #Psion Series 5mx machines. But I have a few issues/thoughts: I'm struggling to find instructions on how to do this. (Can you help, @netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org ?)Because I can't find any instructions (granted, I was very tired when I tried last night), I'm a little worried that no one has tried this for quite some time.Both of my 5mx units and my working S5 are refusing to read any of my seven Compact Flash cards. Including the one that the netBook uses to boot. I have no idea how to fix that, and I don't really want to buy another 5mx as they ain't cheap.The winning 5mx will get a RAM upgrade to 32MB. (Yes, that's doable.) If I can get something working, then that will encourage others in the #PsionCommunity to try. So we might actually get people running a modern OS on Series 5 machines. Also, as there are a good number of programmers in that community, we might get more eyes on the code. Finally, if that all works out, then it might be possible to get it running on the (currently unsupported) netBook, too. #Psion5mx #retrocomputing

Replies (5)

@netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-04-14 11:19

@thelastpsion@oldbytes.space I have the hardware and can send you the bootloader & related files when our infra is back online. Last time I tried (2022 or so?) there was a problem booting.

Open ##1148408
@FrankauLux@mastodon.social 2026-04-12 07:11

@thelastpsion have you thought about less resources-hungry unix-like systems ? I'm thinking about fuzix and the like ?

Open ##1647218
@tj@altelectron.org.uk 2026-04-12 08:41

@thelastpsion @netbsd i tried around 2016 and couldn’t get it to work there was an issue with the epoch launcher and I couldn’t get a tool chain That’s not actually so recent….

Open ##1647224
@WiteWulf@cyberplace.social 2026-04-12 09:20

@thelastpsion a word of warning re. NetBSD and older hardware. I recently tried (and succeeded) to run it on my old VAX. The NetBSD org continues to build and upload up to date versions of the distribution for many, many old platforms without actually testing them. Just because it’s on the FTP/WWW site doesn’t mean it will work. You may have to go back to a (much) older version to find one that actually boots.

Open ##1647227
@gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-04-12 13:14

@thelastpsion salivating, living vicariously through your adventures

Open ##1647231