Hello!
I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet by getting to the point as quickly as possible.
- I've decided to install FreeBSD 12.2 on my main laptop.
I have substantial experience with different Linux distributions, pfSense, OPNsense and FreeNAS as well as Windows Server (2016), so I'm not new to the OS game. I've also played around with straight FreeBSD quite a lot so I'm familiar with the basics and then some. I decided to install FreeBSD on my laptop to take advantage of 'ZFS on root', Boot Environments, security, jails and other advantages over Linux.
- I've gotten far, having successfully installed my favorite desktop, Xfce4, but I'm having some issues ironing out the remaining kinks. I'm not
expecting my experience be as perfect as with say Ubuntu but I need to make my laptop cooperate enough to enable normal workflow.
The laptop in question is a (2016) Lenovo ThinkPad E560 with:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U 2C4T CPU @ 2.30GHz
with integrated Intel HD 520 graphics
2x 8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1600 MT/s SODIMM
15.6" FullHD IPS LED LCD display
Lenovo BIOS from 2017
Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (PCIe)
Sunrise Point-LP [Intel] HD Audio (PCIe)
Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 3165
Intel Ethernet Connection I219-V
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB
Realtek RTS522A PCI Express Card Reader
Again, I don't expect this laptop to have amazing support for every multimedia key and obscure little feature, quite the opposite - I'm content to have it work just well enough to suit my needs -, but I do need to have SOME things:
I need a usable track/touchpad, some function keys (to regulate screen brightness, volume at least) and some kind of power management, allowing the machine to spin down while not under load and also allowing me to put it so sleep when need be. I also need a basic sound output via the inbuilt speakers as well as the 3.5mm (headphone) jack. I would also like to use a USB printer & scanner or two and have the ability to spin up virtual machines via bhyve, VirtualBox and have them pass through (at least) USB. I can live without the card reader and I can deal with the "reboot" command not executing a real reboot, instead forcing me to shutdown an restart manually. I'm hoping that's not too much to ask as otherwise I might be forced to retract to Linux.
I ask you, good people of FreeBSD forums, to tell me what further information (if any) would you like me to provide. /etc/rc.conf? /boot/loader.conf?
Thank you very much,
ceteris
Bonus question:
To avoid opening a second thread, I'll simply add a related question to this one: I've been trying to set up a home server, consisting of 2 virtual switches, a pfSense bhyve VM and multiple jails (NFS server, Plex, mail server etc.) with an Intel i5-650, 8GB DDR3, 2 Intel GbE NICs and a bunch of HDDs. While jail configuration went on without incident (iocage), setting up
a pfSense virtual machine using 'vm-bhyve' hit a wall: The pfSense VM I manage to install via vm-bhyve (using the pfSense.iso and without VNC/graphics support) seems to only briefly communicate with the network and the console provided by vm-bhyve is useless. I understand I might/should be installing the pfSense.img version of the OS but I don't know how to do it in vm-bhyve. The switches created via "vm switch create xyz" seem to work well with ordinary FreeBSD 12.x guests but my install of pfSense (latest version) barely assigns a WAN IP address DHCP and then vanishes. I've tried using both "virtio-net" and "e1000" type virtual NICs but all to no avail. Previously, on Debian/Proxmox, I used OpenvSwitch to facilitate networking so I'm inclined to do so again but I'd like to give the incorporated FreeBSD/vm-bhyve bridging solution a chance before denouncing it all together as I trust it to be good (enough). I'd like to have my FreeBSD host spin up the pfSense VM immediately after boot to have it serve the jails which should wake immediately after. || Again, thank you very much. FreeBSD is a gem of an OS so I would love to use it whenever I can.
I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet by getting to the point as quickly as possible.
- I've decided to install FreeBSD 12.2 on my main laptop.
I have substantial experience with different Linux distributions, pfSense, OPNsense and FreeNAS as well as Windows Server (2016), so I'm not new to the OS game. I've also played around with straight FreeBSD quite a lot so I'm familiar with the basics and then some. I decided to install FreeBSD on my laptop to take advantage of 'ZFS on root', Boot Environments, security, jails and other advantages over Linux.
- I've gotten far, having successfully installed my favorite desktop, Xfce4, but I'm having some issues ironing out the remaining kinks. I'm not
expecting my experience be as perfect as with say Ubuntu but I need to make my laptop cooperate enough to enable normal workflow.
The laptop in question is a (2016) Lenovo ThinkPad E560 with:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U 2C4T CPU @ 2.30GHz
with integrated Intel HD 520 graphics
2x 8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1600 MT/s SODIMM
15.6" FullHD IPS LED LCD display
Lenovo BIOS from 2017
Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (PCIe)
Sunrise Point-LP [Intel] HD Audio (PCIe)
Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 3165
Intel Ethernet Connection I219-V
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB
Realtek RTS522A PCI Express Card Reader
Again, I don't expect this laptop to have amazing support for every multimedia key and obscure little feature, quite the opposite - I'm content to have it work just well enough to suit my needs -, but I do need to have SOME things:
I need a usable track/touchpad, some function keys (to regulate screen brightness, volume at least) and some kind of power management, allowing the machine to spin down while not under load and also allowing me to put it so sleep when need be. I also need a basic sound output via the inbuilt speakers as well as the 3.5mm (headphone) jack. I would also like to use a USB printer & scanner or two and have the ability to spin up virtual machines via bhyve, VirtualBox and have them pass through (at least) USB. I can live without the card reader and I can deal with the "reboot" command not executing a real reboot, instead forcing me to shutdown an restart manually. I'm hoping that's not too much to ask as otherwise I might be forced to retract to Linux.
I ask you, good people of FreeBSD forums, to tell me what further information (if any) would you like me to provide. /etc/rc.conf? /boot/loader.conf?
Thank you very much,
ceteris
Bonus question:
To avoid opening a second thread, I'll simply add a related question to this one: I've been trying to set up a home server, consisting of 2 virtual switches, a pfSense bhyve VM and multiple jails (NFS server, Plex, mail server etc.) with an Intel i5-650, 8GB DDR3, 2 Intel GbE NICs and a bunch of HDDs. While jail configuration went on without incident (iocage), setting up
a pfSense virtual machine using 'vm-bhyve' hit a wall: The pfSense VM I manage to install via vm-bhyve (using the pfSense.iso and without VNC/graphics support) seems to only briefly communicate with the network and the console provided by vm-bhyve is useless. I understand I might/should be installing the pfSense.img version of the OS but I don't know how to do it in vm-bhyve. The switches created via "vm switch create xyz" seem to work well with ordinary FreeBSD 12.x guests but my install of pfSense (latest version) barely assigns a WAN IP address DHCP and then vanishes. I've tried using both "virtio-net" and "e1000" type virtual NICs but all to no avail. Previously, on Debian/Proxmox, I used OpenvSwitch to facilitate networking so I'm inclined to do so again but I'd like to give the incorporated FreeBSD/vm-bhyve bridging solution a chance before denouncing it all together as I trust it to be good (enough). I'd like to have my FreeBSD host spin up the pfSense VM immediately after boot to have it serve the jails which should wake immediately after. || Again, thank you very much. FreeBSD is a gem of an OS so I would love to use it whenever I can.