Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 10:52:09 -0330 From: "Jonathan Anderson" <jonathan@FreeBSD.org> To: "Torfinn Ingolfsen" <torfinn.ingolfsen@getmail.no> Cc: freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Dell hardware for FreeBSD Message-ID: <BD3850F0-169A-4563-8313-14BBB4C6E956@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <20171210161836.3df0801184f7f1452cd20d3e@getmail.no> References: <011B9ECF-C9B1-4B6A-A503-E160D3F4279F@icloud.com> <20171210161836.3df0801184f7f1452cd20d3e@getmail.no>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 10 Dec 2017, at 11:48, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > On Sat, 09 Dec 2017 21:29:43 -0600 > Mark Schofield <markscho65@icloud.com> wrote: > >> Hi All >> >> I am looking to buy a new Dell laptop and wanted to put FreeBSD on >> it, but was unsure which one is supported. I am looking at a non >> touchscreen version that to put on it with 8gb ram. Link below >> >> http://pilot.search.dell.com/Linux >> >> >> Will FreeBSD install on one of these. > > FreeBSD will install. But - Intel Graphics for newer chipsets (like > those used with 7th generation Intel Core cpus) will very likely not > work out of the box. Also, some of the hardware inside the laptop > might be unsupported (no FreeBSD driver), for example the wireless > (there has been lots of progress here lately, with both iwn and iwm > drivers, so it might work). I tried to buy a Dell XPS for FreeBSD a year or two ago. It was a beautiful machine with a really nice screen, but after going down the wireless rabbit hole and looking at NDIS wrapping support, I decided that life is too short and that my local Best Buy has a great return policy. :) These days it looks like Dell is using Atheros devices from a company called "Killer", and that chipset may not be supported in FreeBSD yet: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/63080/ > There have been reports that people have got Intel Graphics working > with the drm-next-kmod[1] port, but I haven't tried this, so YMMV. The graphics stuff has really been coming along (at least with my hardware, which is — admittedly — a bit out-of-date). I think that, on Dell hardware, wireless support might be a bigger blocker. Also watch out for notebooks with touchpads that run over i2c instead of USB: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-mobile/2016-March/013370.html Such devices apparently work in some contexts with the ig4 driver: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D3068 https://reviews.freebsd.org/D3351 However, YMMV. :) > In general, buying a new laptop to use a FreeBSD desktop machine today > is difficult, both because the vendors / shops seldoms lists all > technical specifications - you have to do all research yourself, and > because > many "Linux-supported" products from well known vendors like Dell and > others use proprietary drivers in Linux to be able to claim Linux > support. Practically speaking, I think there are two approaches to buying a FreeBSD notebook: 1. copy somebody else's machine specs exactly (tends to lead to lots of people using the same slightly-stale ThinkPad, but it works), or 2. buy locally from a store with a good return policy, try it with a live USB environment, return, repeat. I followed the second approach with my most recent FreeBSD notebook purchase (a year or two ago) and I'm fairly pleased with the third notebook I found (an HP Spectre x360). The Intel wireless works (no 802.11ac support yet, but the card does work with iwm7265Dfw), the Intel graphics work with drm-next, the touchscreen did work at least once (though not at the moment) and the SD card support is... hahahahaha, one doesn't expect such luxuries to work with FreeBSD. :) However, I did have to go through the buy/test/return cycle more time than was really convenient. Jon -- Jonathan Anderson jonathan@FreeBSD.org
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?BD3850F0-169A-4563-8313-14BBB4C6E956>