What does not work very good on FreeBSD

.exe files. 🤯

Anything that is not FreeBSD's niche, for example, new generation games. It's not FreeBSD's fault, but it doesn't work well.
 
BobSlacker said:
Suspend, Hibernation, Resume
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I think laptops in general -- WiFi, backlit keyboards, battery management, latest video chips -- though I admire those who struggle for the cause. Given the challenge, I just go with what ever works on the hardware and install FreeBSD as a VM. However my notebook just died, and I'm going to have to re-visit the strategy. FrameWork hardware, I think.
 
jbo said:
Wireless interfaces
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That is the only big downside I have personally experienced: Tried to use a FreeBSD server as a WiFi access point. It actually kinda sorta worked, badly. The fact that it worked at all mislead me into believing it might be fixable with a little configuration and tuning elbow grease. Alas, the wireless software stack was just too broken in too many places to make it workable.

But the flipside is: The availability and first-class support for ZFS makes it all worth it again. In the last few weeks, I've come to grips that with the downgrade of 32-bit i386 support, I'm going to have to reinstall the OS on my home server to move to amd64 (same hardware). Maybe I should use the opportunity to switch to a more common operating system, like Debian or Arch? But then I looked at the gyrations I'd have to do to get ZFS running, and remembered the attitude problems the Linux community (meaning Linus) has towards ZFS, and decided that for a server machine, FreeBSD remains the best solution, based on the strength of ZFS.
 
hitest said:
Netflix does not work on FreeBSD( just an observation- don't shoot the messenger). :)
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That's because of proprietary DRM (widevine) for which we don't get FreeBSD support/binaries.
There are ways to work around it by running a web browser through Linuxulator: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/linuxulator-how-to-install-brave-linux-app-on-freebsd-13-0.78879/

vermaden also has us covered: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2021...art-27-configuration-netflix-signal-telegram/
 
Video was never a problem for me on FreeBSD - just compile FFMPEG and VLC from ports, with EVERYTHING turned on, even for dependencies.

As for what doesn't work on FreeBSD: Zoom, scanning, wifi (Big one!).

Changing user agent on a browser so that I can get my banking info - that seems to be a matter that takes hours of research to resolve. Well, this one is same on Linux, so I don't care too much.
 
The only thing I can think of that is the fault of the FreeBSD' OS per se is Wi-Fi. Even with working drivers, the FreeBSD Wi-Fi stack is horribly outdated and practically useless. I now cannot connect to my university's Wi-Fi because it dropped support for older connections, so i do not even see the Wi-Fi network to connect to. I can make it work with net/wifibox, but that is a crazy workaround that has its own drawbacks.

Everything else is either a problem with vendor-supplied drivers, lack of software being ported, or bad software design (here's looking at you, multimdedia/obs-studio for only working with pulseaudio).

Based on that, the FreeBSD project seems to not be very good at convincing vendors to write drivers for hardware (I'm talking about big vendors for major hardware like NICs and video cards, not every esoteric inkjet printer and fingerprint reader), and not so good for recruiting volunteers to port programs over.
 
jardows said:
I now cannot connect to my university's Wi-Fi because it dropped support for older connections, so i do not even see the Wi-Fi network to connect to. I can make it work with net/wifibox, but that is a crazy workaround that has its own drawbacks.
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Is that because the Wifi requires a particular security protocol?

Wifi is one of the things that works really well for me on FreeBSD. I have a TP-Link TL-WN725N USB Wireless adapter - it's tiny, works on all major operating systems. Just need the below line in /boot/loader.conf on FreeBSD 13 or newer.
Code: 
if_rtwn_usb_load="YES"

How do you get dotnet sdk working on FreeBSD?
Alain De Vos said:
I have two vscode & dotnet.
All the rest works fine.
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taiwan740 said:
Is that because the Wifi requires a particular security protocol?

Wifi is one of the things that works really well for me on FreeBSD. I have a TP-Link TL-WN725N USB Wireless adapter - it's tiny, works on all major operating systems. Just need the below line in /boot/loader.conf on FreeBSD 13 or newer.
Code: 
if_rtwn_usb_load="YES"

How do you get dotnet sdk working on FreeBSD?
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It is because they have blocked access by any clients operating in a, b, or g mode. Maybe even n mode, I can't quite remember. Since all our laptops are ordered with Intel Wi-Fi cards, they only operate at max 54g Wi-Fi speeds, and thus are blocked from access. Using wifibox has proven problematic for network connections in other virtual machines, so it make it a mess right now.

802.11ac was approved in 2008, and released in 2013, and FreeBSD still cannot natively operate with that standard? This should be a "must have" feature for FreeBSD 15 (should have been for 14, but too late now).
 
jardows said:
802.11ac was approved in 2008, and released in 2013, and FreeBSD still cannot natively operate with that standard? This should be a "must have" feature for FreeBSD 15 (should have been for 14, but too late now).
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It will be space-year 2032 and 802.11ac will still be wasted on the UK's terrible home internets ;)

The iwlwifi Linux shim layer is still quite new on FreeBSD but I imagine that things will suddenly start to progress quickly once it matures and it can keep in closer sync with the implementation on Linux.
 
taiwan740 said:
Is that because the Wifi requires a particular security protocol?

Wifi is one of the things that works really well for me on FreeBSD. I have a TP-Link TL-WN725N USB Wireless adapter - it's tiny, works on all major operating systems. Just need the below line in /boot/loader.conf on FreeBSD 13 or newer.
Code: 
if_rtwn_usb_load="YES"

How do you get dotnet sdk working on FreeBSD?
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There are two sources :
github.com

Releases · sec/dotnet-core-freebsd-source-build

Collection of script to build .NET Core under FreeBSD OS (with binary releases) - sec/dotnet-core-freebsd-source-build
github.com github.com
or
github.com

Releases · Thefrank/dotnet-freebsd-crossbuild

Bash script and patches for building dotNET for FreeBSD under Linux - Thefrank/dotnet-freebsd-crossbuild
github.com github.com
cfr
 
There's some noise that NVidia GPUs don't play well with FreeBSD any more. Well, as an AMD fanboi, I just 🍿 , and offer up my help for recent AMD cards.

jardows : 802.11ac works fine, you just need an Intel-branded WiFi card in the laptop. It's what I have in mine. Going from one hotspot to another - that's the real issue for me. DHCP and wpa_supplicant.conf are a pain. I tried # bsdconfig wireless - and while it works, that's only because I spent hours establishing myself at a couple wifi hotspots. If I were to go to a wifi hotspot I never used before - I have to spend a few hours all over again establishing myself.

On Discord, I'm discovering that people are not exactly willing to spend the time troubleshooting and learning. I kind of do agree that end result should be 'easily and quickly connecting to the hotspot', but I do have a hard time agreeing to assign blame to a specific software component or to documentation - especially when lack of expertise in the area is painfully obvious.
 
astyle said:
There's some noise that NVidia GPUs don't play well with FreeBSD any more.
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I cannot confirm that. Both my workstations (at home & at the office) are using Nvidia GPUs (one Quadro P5000, one a GTX 1080 Ti). Both of them have been working 100% reliably over the years without any issues using the official Nvidia drivers available from ports.

Again, in case Nvidia is reading: Thank you very much for officially supporting FreeBSD!

I'll gladly keep purchasing hardware form vendors officially supporting FreeBSD.
 
tankist02 said:
Multimedia keys on my Logitech keyboard.
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forums.freebsd.org

Howto: Enabling multimedia keys, gamepads/joysticks for desktop; usbhid

Enabling usbhid usbhid gives the ability to use newer advanced hid drivers. The ability to use usbhid must be turned on from /boot/loader.conf: hw.usb.usbhid.enable="1" Then, load the driver through /etc/rc.conf: kld_list="usbhid" Turning this module on from /boot/loader.conf won't work. Once...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
forums.freebsd.org

HOWTO: Using multimedia keys from uhid(4) devices

Hello, People that have keyboard with multimedia keys such as "Play" "Volume up" and so on may encounter problems if these keys are not detected by xev. In fact there are two ways to use these keys, a lot of manufacturers usually set these keys are simple keys with a special code that you can...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
 
Advice please: I have to travel for a few months with an ASUS Vivobook D1502YA Ryzen, which comes with 802.11ac wifi.
(BTW, I've had ASUS devices in the past and they were always reliable - so this is not a complaint about ASUS).
Given that 802.11ac seems to have become a difficult issue for FreeBSD, what are my best / easiest options to use plug in controllers etc?
Many thanks.
 
Advice please (2): As already said, I have to travel for a few months with an ASUS Vivobook D1502YA Ryzen.
That has Windows pre-installed, and aside from the problems of the 802.11ac wifi (previous question), what is the best way to load FreeBSD?
I could re-size the current Windows partitions, or delete them - or even run FreeBSD from a USB.
If I delete the Windows partitions, would I have to re-install the system Windows on its own partition, or is there a way of installing it in a VM?
(Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but that configuration worked well for me on an old desktop for years).
Personally, somehow, I dislike Windows; it seems counter-intuitive, and sometimes it is very, very slow.
Kinda trapped with good, but unsupported hardware and poor options.
Many thanks to those who offer advice to an awkward question.
 
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