non-x86 based laptops running FreeBSD

asp5 · #1 August 3rd, 2012, 00:49

Hi all,

I'm looking for a non-x86 based laptop, which can run FreeBSD without any problems. Should preferably do alignment checking by default, a big-endian machine is plus too. Please let me know if there are any laptops available with these requirements. Should be capable of running FreeBSD with little effort.

Thanks,
asp5.

pkubaj · #2 August 3rd, 2012, 01:51

What about old Macs?

asp5 · #3 August 3rd, 2012, 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkubaj

What about old Macs?

I do not have anything on my mind. I'm not against Macs. I'm looking for the options available in Laptop form factor. I've seen few Sparc machines with Solaris (not sure if FreeBSD can be run on them with little effort), I've seen a mips machine again not sure if we can have FreeBSD on this. So I wanted to get info from people who use FreeBSD and have seen FreeBSD running on such machines in Laptop form-factor. If I have a few options available, then I can pick one that has similar configuration and can get it for a cheaper price

.

Thanks,
asp5.

**wblock@** · #4 August 3rd, 2012, 04:16

Mac PPC is probably the best-supported non-x86 architecture. There is some support for ARM and MIPS, but it is not really general-purpose, more aimed at specific devices (usually embedded).

**SirDice** · #5 August 3rd, 2012, 12:41

Keep in mind that ARM, SPARC, MIPS and PPC are Tier 2 platforms. If you want full FreeBSD support you're pretty much stuck with i386 or AMD64.

roddierod · #6 August 3rd, 2012, 13:24

Well...if you want to go vintage and you want to search for a black dog in the night and you want to run an older version of FreeBSD, look for a laptop by Tadpole, I've seen an Alpha based version but I think it was a prototype so not sure how many are out there. Tadpole also made the SPARC books.

Crivens · #7 August 3rd, 2012, 14:40

I have seen that the Leemote is supported by OpenBSD, so it should not be impossible to get it working with FreeBSD.
Still waiting for some source for the 4-core notebook, but it might be a fine machine.

Ogham · #8 August 3rd, 2012, 17:22

I was on the brink of purchasing the Yeeloong notebook for use with OpenBSD, until I found out that the battery life is only approximately 1.5 hours

Excluding the battery they seem great, a completely blob-free machine!

I seem to remember reading that porting OpenBSD to it was quite a lot of work, I think there were quite a lot of processor related bugs/quirks that needed to be ironed out.

vermaden · #9 August 3rd, 2012, 19:48

@asp5

There was time then even SPARC was available as laptop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCbook

Could You please elaborate why You have such need to omit x86/amd64 as laptop?

asp5 · #10 August 3rd, 2012, 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by vermaden

@asp5

There was time then even SPARC was available as laptop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCbook

Could You please elaborate why You have such need to omit x86/amd64 as laptop?

I will be involved to work on a non-x86 based machine (which, most likely, is going to be a ppc), So just getting myself used to the architecture. Sure I can use Emulators (emulators/qemu-devel, for example), considered this option, but some spare change why not get a machine itself. So why not get a machine which has a different arch (I like collecting hardware, have few ARMs, ones with no MMUs and others that have them, a P4 machine, i7 machine etc...

lying around the house). I haven't used any other architecture than the x86 based as a heavy duty machines before. So a good chance to try something new.

asp5 · #11 August 5th, 2012, 21:59

Hi,

Thanks for all the info/suggestions/views above. I'm getting the Apple Powerbook G4 (1.67 GHz). Before I install FreeBSD on the machine, I would like to get info about the process. I'm currently looking at FreeBSD Powerpc page and also this page. Is there any info on quirks that I need to remember before installation or is it just the same as installing on i386 arch. Do any other BSDs have support for the ppc, on FreeBSD it is a tier 2 platform. Which BSDs have relatively better support for the architecture.

Thanks.

ChalkBored · #12 August 6th, 2012, 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by asp5

Hi,

Do any other BSDs have support for the ppc, on FreeBSD it is a tier 2 platform. Which BSDs have relatively better support for the architecture.

Thanks.

http://netbsd.org/ports/macppc/models.html

http://openbsd.org/macppc.html

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