From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 27 18:00:15 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0EAFCA83 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:00:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.26]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B2A4A34C2 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:00:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: from slackbox.erewhon.home (slackbox.xs4all.nl [83.162.243.5]) by smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id s7RI04Ik053368; Wed, 27 Aug 2014 20:00:05 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: by slackbox.erewhon.home (Postfix, from userid 1001) id A4E0A12559; Wed, 27 Aug 2014 20:00:04 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 20:00:04 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: "Don O'Hara" Subject: Re: TL-WN722N support on FreeBSD. Message-ID: <20140827180004.GA4450@slackbox.erewhon.home> Mail-Followup-To: Don O'Hara , Polytropon , atar , "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" References: <53FC60AB.1060805@qeng-ho.org> <1EE2934C-DA78-451F-B86A-93A9C55B9C56@gmail.com> <2ACC59D6-251B-4FF7-A275-C81408D6BB48@gmail.com> <1409070456.4218.7.camel@lenzinote.lenzicasa> <5811EA5F-C819-4D1B-8D39-7C47E46FFF05@gmail.com> <20140827112209.89d0bbdb.freebsd@edvax.de> <244A8655-63FB-46E9-85AB-6E8BC4CF8199@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="a8Wt8u1KmwUX3Y2C" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <244A8655-63FB-46E9-85AB-6E8BC4CF8199@gmail.com> X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: Polytropon , atar , "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:00:15 -0000 --a8Wt8u1KmwUX3Y2C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > On Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:39:56 +0300, atar wrote: > >> So you give me additional reason to stay with Linux and > >> not to migrate to FreeBSD since even a basic wireless > >> adapter which came with your Sony isn't supported by > >> FreeBSD. To be honest, I don't know if your Sony wireless > >> adapter is supported by Linux, but in general, I think > >> linux is more flexible and supports more devices than > >> FreeBSD (and more than all the rest of *BSD variations). > >=20 > > Of course this is a problem in FreeBSD, and it's a known > > problem. There is a workaround (which isn't really helpful > > afterwards, but beforehand): First check if the hardware > > is supported, then buy it. Especially wireless devices > > are subject to the tricky game of "driver lottery". You > > will have more luck with Linux in this regards, as it > > covers hardware with working drivers more than any other > > operating system does, and usually, it keeps the support > > for devices that "Windows" has long dropped (if you happen > > to insist on using specific hardware, such as video grabber > > cards, DVB sticks, sound cards or other "non-mainstream" > > equipment). > >=20 > > Up to this point, I was always lucky with the hardware I > > purchased: FreeBSD's support for WLAN components was > > excellent. For off-the-shelf no-name WLAN cards it is in my experience often difficult= to tell which chipset is used inside. There have even been instances where manufacturers switch the chipset to something completely different without changing the part number! In cases like this I tend to download and unpack the windoze driver from the manufacturer's website. If you look through the configuration files for the driver install (.inf, IIRC) you can generally tell which chipset is used. Or you can buy a slightly more expensive brand name card for which you *kno= w* drivers exist and save yourself a lot of time. > > I've been using IBM / Lenovo, Dell, Siemens- > > Fijutsu and Sony laptop hardware, and FreeBSD did not > > have any trouble getting the buildin hardware to work. > > Still there are models which cause problems: Some of > > them use chipsets not supported by current drivers, others > > just use f*cked up ACPI implementations, and others > > delegate hardware functionality to proprietary drivers > > which make the actual devices "appear" and "work", and > > as you will guess, those are only available for specific > > versions of "Windows". Like winprinters. Blegh! > > It depends on you if you want to: > >=20 > > a) purchase other hardware to replace what is > > not supported, > >=20 > > b) relapse to using Linux which supports your > > hardware, or > >=20 > > c) accept that it's not working and make a better > > choice next time you buy something. :-) If I'm buying a PC or laptop I tend to go to a shop with a FreeBSD DVD or memstick and ask if I can try booting the machine in question from it. Then the dmesg output tells me what works and what doesn't. Smaller shops can generally build PC's and sometimes laptops to order with components that you specify. That is generally what I do. > > FreeBSD isn't exactly blazing fast in this regards, but to me, never > > buying "the newest" for having "the newest" for few weeks (instead buyi= ng > > "good" in order to have "good" for several years), it doesn't really > > matter, so my opinion doesn't matter much. Definitely agree. Never buy the latest generation hardware! You pay top dol= lar (especially for CPUs) and the difference to the previous generation that is probably better supported by FreeBSD is generally not really significant. These days the biggest speedup for a computer is probably to use an SSD ins= tead of an HDD. But since GELI doesn't support TRIM yet, and I consider encrypti= on a must have for my own data in case of theft, I'll wait for a while. Of course using a relatively small unencrypted SDD for the OS with an encrypted HDD f= or data would be a solution for that. Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://rsmith.home.xs4all.nl/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 5753 3324 1661 B0FE 8D93 FCED 40F6 D5DC A38A 33E0 (keyID: A38A33E0) --a8Wt8u1KmwUX3Y2C Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJT/hykAAoJEED21dyjijPg8mEP/jAbREXoC6mVmnNM2F86745x 98Ga+FtBy4uW82rn0BlQpl1NzJKi0HGCWhZicWZDU+uxI6xhe0UvvtUzH1BUkeG5 b+BRh/PQIeyUS94JOrX03OypUDslvJp/Aqwk9XDgTPA8pNEKYYteG2HHunQKTia+ tNN+Xv9+Jooo7j67IRBhbXlB7gIQAcUbJWU1C3nMop+ZHkkU68+nie/grEihlzPd mj9AXXMxsEQxIxp8o7gOLxlBP35qNKUZj/Y4PiGVpWawp7HPzBr3VEIquMRb0+cQ Ng8csH0Pe1hUtSyXoPC3SxVbOebLo4+9aGVksTlGTQfNYmT/dTLbh87NgUUZgkkL hn/Y69YTTgxhawbe31DW3C4uzdfizowL2GNyeKpIE6LJ8m3E3GNJg0LRNjBJNhnz 75qjbOJC+96jaDbOwRmyMBRHjV4T0TIWKHXAzXrSTBnMvMnezoGdvkVoo4vUy9cd uYs/fVdADRp3xUr8GzTB9wV7jRZk9lfJysWb0hfYPobByYPU+QgOcmM1PobIQI2E aCVW4EHF9PxRSGCzzcuhY/KDPFKBO2zNiJoECcC75vcuYCn6Bxe1AVTOpIPhP8px BErtuGS5rRX+81MPiHQxpjvqUN8F8HxI28bAr3QGWXv/xzPEJGAubK9dinC/gJCv NZTXyEeku4gKrtqf2luh =z6Q7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --a8Wt8u1KmwUX3Y2C--