Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2025 07:00:02 +0000 From: "Steven Harms (High-Security Mail)" <sgharms@stevengharms.com> To: "freebsd-current@freebsd.org" <freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org> Subject: i915kms for Meteor Lake: realistic timeline sought for support Message-ID: <yYjd8i17yrIW70a5dTrjxRat2O8AJVaerxJg_HLRNERUR0zszH4_yeuZbW1mNSACh81Hrkzxs0mMaV149CS5CDBsVr0JQqH1_qT7vVleVr8=@stevengharms.com>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] Folks, TL;DR: After being told my cheap and old laptop wasn’t any good for performance-demanding FreeBSD work (e.g. building VSCode), I bought a new laptop. But… * it uses Meteor Lake chipset * thus does not work in 14.2/3 * is thus only likely to be supported in the near future on 15.0-CURRENT (with even an MFC looking fraught) * and presently is not working on current HEAD I didn’t realize this chip was such a complicator. My research suggests that supporting this change is Really Hard (tm). The related issues/branches seem to be in a state of high churn, force-push, and inconsistent signal, so I’m not sure how to estimate a timeline to leaving a pure-VT experience.* In the most earnest way possible and with humility and in full and total reverence for and gratitude toward souls whose brilliance lets them write *video drivers*: Should I return this computer and wait until 15.0-RELEASE? And how can I know that the video hardware will be supported then/when I buy an alternative? My return window closes shortly so a decision is pressing. *OR* Is Meteor Lake support just a moment away and my services as an early adopter would be appreciated — FWIW: I’ve run all the experimental code to contribute test data. Either way, perhaps my experience helps us all see the value of the Foundation’s investment in project-laptop — and maybe that’s a good thing to share. My experience is what a lot of eager, would-be adopters are running into out of the gate, and many of them wouldn’t have the *ahem* decades of Unix use that I have under my belt to even reason about what’s going wrong. Steven (Longer) I started out with FreeBSD on a spare laptop I had laying around to see if I liked it enough to keep it. I did! Working through the quirks was something I valued enough to document for others[0]. But when I tried to build VSCode I was laughed out of the building politely informed that my old machine wasn't really feasible as a platform[1]. Fair enough. So I bought a new Asus Zenbook. I opted for Intel (not NVidia) graphics for ease. I expected the i915kms driver to work[2]. After struggling to get iwlwifi working (including building a custom usb installer with the requisite firmware and module code), I got to a 14.3 system with network. Awesome. I then tried to build the drm-kmod module again, as I'd done before [3]. Obviously, this winds up not working due to firmware and a host of other concerns. This drove me to 15.0-CURRENT where I’ve been since in a pure-VT existence. I've been tracking the work around drm-kmod[4] in proj-laptop and it seems stalled based on drm-kmod[5].The release schedule[6] suggests, as I read it, that I might be waiting until December for a stable 15.0 release. *: TBH, VT-only is not horrible, as I grew up on x86’s dialing up to a SCO terminal and I’ve always had a love for European teletext services and Minitel. It’s awesome for focus... But for what I paid, I’d like to be able to load a graphical environment, sleep on lid close, or not have to rely on my mouse-less tmux-or-die skills just to get through the day. [0]: https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/ [1]: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/vscode-extremely-long-build-builds-linux-on-the-way.97740/ [2] https://www.freshports.org/graphics/drm-kmod [3]: https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/installation/part-2-power-management/ [4]: https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/47 [5]: https://github.com/freebsd/drm-kmod/pull/332 [6]: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/schedule/ --- Public Key: 22BE39E2FA68D8BA8DC4B43A55A16D8CE2B036DE Messages from this account are considered the best-secured and most reliable. Send information regarding health, wealth, or requiring higher standards of security to this address. Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email. [-- Attachment #2 --] <html><head></head><body><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Folks, </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> TL;DR: After being told my cheap and old laptop wasn’t any good for performance-demanding FreeBSD work (e.g. building VSCode), I bought a new laptop. But… </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> * it uses Meteor Lake chipset </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> * thus does not work in 14.2/3 </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> * is thus only likely to be supported in the near future on 15.0-CURRENT (with even an MFC looking fraught) </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> * and presently is not working on current HEAD </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <span style="; ; ; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;">I didn’t realize this chip was such a complicator. My research suggests that supporting this change is Really Hard (tm). </span>The related issues/branches seem to be in a state of high churn, force-push, and inconsistent signal, so I’m not sure how to estimate a timeline to leaving a pure-VT experience.* In the most earnest way possible and with humility and in full and total reverence for and gratitude toward souls whose brilliance lets them write *video drivers*: </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Should I return this computer and wait until 15.0-RELEASE? And how can I know that the video hardware will be supported then/when I buy an alternative? <span style="; ; ; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;">My return window closes shortly so a decision is pressing.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">*OR*</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Is Meteor Lake support just a moment away and my services as an early adopter would be appreciated — FWIW: I’ve run all the experimental code to contribute test data. </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div style="unicode-bidi: plaintext; ; outline: currentcolor; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; ; ;" dir="auto"> <br style="unicode-bidi: plaintext; ;"> </div><div style="unicode-bidi: plaintext; ; outline: currentcolor; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; ; ;" dir="auto">Either way, perhaps my experience helps us all see the value of the Foundation’s investment in project-laptop — and maybe that’s a good thing to share. My experience is what a lot of eager, would-be adopters are running into out of the gate, and many of them wouldn’t have the *ahem* decades of Unix use that I have under my belt to even reason about what’s going wrong. <br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><div style="unicode-bidi: plaintext; ; outline: currentcolor; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; ; ;" dir="auto"><br></div> <div style="unicode-bidi: plaintext; ; outline: currentcolor; ; font-style: normal; ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; ; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; ; ;" dir="auto"> Steven <br> </div> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">(Longer)<br></div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> I started out with FreeBSD on a spare laptop I had laying around to see if I liked it enough to keep it. I did! Working through the quirks was something I valued enough to document for others[0]. But when I tried to build VSCode I was <s></s> <s>laughed out of the building</s> politely informed that my old machine wasn't really feasible as a platform[1]. Fair enough. So I bought a new Asus Zenbook. I opted for Intel (not NVidia) graphics for ease. I expected the i915kms driver to work[2]. </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> After struggling to get <span style="text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">iwlwifi working (including building a custom usb installer with the requisite firmware and module code), I got to a 14.3 system with network. Awesome. I then tried to build the drm-kmod module again, as I'd done before </span>[3]. Obviously, this winds up not working due to firmware and a host of other concerns. This drove me to 15.0-CURRENT where I’ve been since in a pure-VT existence. </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> I've been tracking the work around drm-kmod[4] in proj-laptop and it seems stalled based on drm-kmod[5].The release schedule[6] suggests, as I read it, that I might be waiting until December for a stable 15.0 release. </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> *: TBH, VT-only is not horrible, as I grew up on x86’s dialing up to a SCO terminal and I’ve always had a love for European teletext services and Minitel. It’s awesome for focus... But for what I paid, I’d like to be able to load a graphical environment, sleep on lid close, or not have to rely on my mouse-less tmux-or-die skills just to get through the day. <br> </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [0]: <span><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/">https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/</a></span>; </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [1]: <span><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/vscode-extremely-long-build-builds-linux-on-the-way.97740/">https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/vscode-extremely-long-build-builds-linux-on-the-way.97740/</a></span>; </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [2] <span><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://www.freshports.org/graphics/drm-kmod">https://www.freshports.org/graphics/drm-kmod</a></span>; </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [3]: <span><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/installation/part-2-power-management/">https://stevengharms.com/longform/my-first-freebsd/installation/part-2-power-management/</a></span>; </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [4]: <a style="font-family: "San Francisco", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px;" href="https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/47">https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/47</a>; </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [5]: <span><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://github.com/freebsd/drm-kmod/pull/332">https://github.com/freebsd/drm-kmod/pull/332</a></span>; </div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></div> <div dir="auto" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> [6]: <a style="font-family: "San Francisco", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px;" href="https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/schedule/">https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/schedule/</a>; </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <br> </div> <div class="protonmail_signature_block" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="protonmail_signature_block-user"> <div> --- <br> </div> <div> <br> </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Public Key: <a title="22BE39E2FA68D8BA8DC4B43A55A16D8CE2B036DE" href="https://22BE39E2FA68D8BA8DC4B43A55A16D8CE2B036DE"><span>22BE39E2FA68D8BA8DC4B43A55A16D8CE2B036DE</span></a>; <br> </div> <div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"> <br> </div> <div> Messages from this account are considered the best-secured and most reliable. 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