From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 21 14:58:20 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4AD48106564A for ; Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:58:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.gurvich@verizon.net) Received: from vms173003pub.verizon.net (vms173003pub.verizon.net [206.46.173.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 305968FC12 for ; Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:58:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.gurvich@verizon.net) Received: from Lucifer ([71.249.92.114]) by vms173003.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr 3 2006)) with ESMTPA id <0K2T002V1IWWFBL4@vms173003.mailsrvcs.net> for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:58:09 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:58:08 -0400 From: David Gurvich In-reply-to: <457AE580-C0BB-4AB8-856C-188AC3E40E70@identry.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-id: <20080621105808.7b81d500@Lucifer> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.4.0 (GTK+ 2.12.9; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit References: <457AE580-C0BB-4AB8-856C-188AC3E40E70@identry.com> Subject: Re: New to FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:58:20 -0000 Hello, I have installed FreeBSD on a server and on a laptop. The laptop is more important in indicating some of the changes in FreeBSD. After all, you need graphics, wireless, sound, etc. for a good experience. All of these currently are and have been issues for both Linux and FreeBSD. I actually am using FreeBSD on a laptop that had Debian installed. There were too many issues with hardware on an older laptop that, from everything I found, should have worked well. Problems with suspend/resume, graphics card, wireless, and sound. I had been reading about improvements in FreeBSD and decided to try it. There were no issues with sound, graphics, and minor suspend/resume. Wireless did not work in 6.3, but was simple in 7.0. I had to add 5 lines to loader.conf, 3 to rc.conf, and create a wpa_supplicant.conf file. All done. My only remaining issue was initial desktop configuration of kde/kdm. That brought me to DesktopBSD and PC-BSD. Both worked well enough, though PC-BSD is better. I've had to update the kernel to 7.0 to get wireless working, non-trivial but simple.