Solved 1st time installing, is there a non-free version?

[Ytre]

Hei all.

i´m a Debian Sid user since 1997 and i´ll give FreeBSD a try and would like to install it on a another partition on my Thinkpad X1 Carbon 5th gen. As i know from Debian is it not it possible to use the normal Debian network.iso for the installation because of the wifi chip in this Thinkpad. So it works only with the Debian non-free.iso with the special non-free driver for the wifi chip
# lspci
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 88)

My question is:
Is it possible to use the normal "FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso" to install it on these Thinkpad? The reason behind: I can use only wifi, not the NIC. It is important that wifi works immediately so that the system can then be updated and the required software can be installed.

regards
Michael from Norway

 

[bsduck]

Welcome!

Like most Linux distributions but unlike Debian, FreeBSD images include non-free firmware, so it should work.

FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

Unless you explicitly want to install from a DVD, I'd rather use FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img, which is meant for USB sticks.

 

[VladiBG]

iwm(4)

www.freebsd.org

 

[grahamperrin]

It's usually fine to write FreeBSD's so-called DVD images to USB sticks.

… explicitly want to install from a DVD …

FreeBSD bug 257347 – Outdated directions to use standard optical media (CDs, DVDs) for installation of FreeBSD – I might draft a PR for this next year.

 

[Ytre]

I've used dd for copy the DVD iso to my usb-stick. Finally there was no problem to install it on my Thinkpad and wifi was working out of the box with the driver iwm. But first only 2.4Ghz, not with 5Ghz

thanks for helping me. I'm sure I'll coming back later with more questions

 

[Phishfry]

Welcome to FreeBSD.
I wanted to emphasize one passage from the iwm driver man page.

Currently, iwm only supports 802.11b and 802.11g modes

The work on the iwm driver adding 802.11ac cards is recent. So I am not sure if the manual is correct.
I thought there was 802.11n support for these newer Intel 8xxx cards.

Regardless the speed will not be as quick as you might have experienced on Linux. Work in progress though.

 

[grahamperrin]

… Work in progress though.

2021 in Review: Software Development – FreeBSD Foundation

freebsdfoundation.org

From yesterday's blog post:

… For the latest state of development, follow the freebsd-wireless mailing list. …

– that is:

FreeBSD Mailing lists: subscription for freebsd-wireless

lists.freebsd.org

Hint: you can browse without subscribing. In particular: yesterday's post from developer Bjoern A. Zeeb (thanks to yjqg6666 for the pointer). He mentions MFCs to 13, which might mean nothing to a newcomer (welcome, Ytre!), here's a log of what's merged from CURRENT to stable/13:

• <https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/?h=stable/13>

MFC partially explained: <https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/glossary/#_m>

• CURRENT is sometimes also known as main, sometimes also known as head.

Also:

WiFi/Iwlwifi - FreeBSD Wiki

More generally:

Technology Roadmap

https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/technology-roadmap/ Enjoy.

forums.freebsd.org