Dream Setup

shkhln said:
You are in different regions. It's going to be at least 30% more expensive in Europe anyway.
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That's not an issue. (while it would be nice to fit in the given price range, it's not necessary). As I said, I'm hell-bent on getting a working 'portable' pc running FreeBSD, I just need to know if it'll work.
 
Jose said:
I've ordered a Frame.work laptop. I'll report my experiences here if it ever arrives.

I've never had a problem running Freebsd on a computer I built even back when I couldn't always afford good parts. Some particular things might not work, like accelerated graphics, the latest WI-FI standard, the shiniest Linux desktop bloatware, etc., but I've always wound up with a workable computer.
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Please do report back. I've been fencesitting on one of these myself.

jda
 
If your AMD or Intel is too new on an otherwise supported architecture, make and model series, chances are, it will be supported in a year to a few years. If it's too much money, don't chance that. There's a lot from a few years back that works well.

By the time Motherboards and CPU's come down in price, provided they're the correct architecture, and model brand, they're usually supported by then. CPU's can usually be switched out. If an old computer has an 32bit processor, those can be switched out. Usually CPU's for way older boards not supplied in physical stores have to be ordered online. They claim they're brand new, but I suspect they're not, but the point is, I want an upgrade on a CPU to make an old motherboard better.

I'm not very knowledgable about upgrading laptops, but they seem less upgradeable when looking at the inside.
 
sidetone said:
If your AMD or Intel is too new on an otherwise supported architecture, make and model series, chances are, it will be supported in a year to a few years. If it's too much money, don't chance that. There's a lot from a few years back that works well.

By the time Motherboards and CPU's come down in price, provided they're the correct architecture, and model brand, they're usually supported by then. CPU's can usually be switched out. If an old computer has an 32bit processor, those can be switched out. Usually CPU's for way older boards not supplied in physical stores have to be ordered online. They claim they're brand new, but I suspect they're not, but the point is, I want an upgrade on a CPU to make an old motherboard better.

I'm not very knowledgable about upgrading laptops, but they seem less upgradeable when looking at the inside.
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Okay, let's assume for a moment that you have to buy a laptop that can run FreeBSD (and has a WORKING wifi adapter preferably one using the 802.11 gen 5 or 6 protocol),
what would you recommend? Forget the previous requirements this time, just your recommendation for a FreeBSD compatible laptop that has a working wifi adapter and some form of GPU that can handle the res 1920x1080 on a Xorg-based DE and has a working sound card. It can be a cheap, old one, but specifics, please ;) I get your point, nothing too new :)
 
Sam0000 said:
OMG!!! Wow, will this actually work with FreeBSD???
I mean, according to https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.0R/hardware/#proc

So considering the fact that this baby has an i7-11800H it should be compatible, right?
But then I looked at the RTX 3050 Ti, and I'm starting to have doubts as to whether it's supported:
From https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/x11/#x-config:
From https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/FreeBSD-x86_64/465.19.01/README/supportedchips.html
I could not find the RTX 3050 Ti listed :(, I'm guessing this means it's a no go, right?
+ I'm not sure about the model of the wifi adapter, I couldn't find it listed :(
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Ahhh, I was just providing a counter-example to what shkhln was saying. For your case, I'd recommend going with Nvidia RTX 2000 series. It looks like you did your homework, now it's time to put that knowledge to good use by finding a usable laptop that checks the boxes for your list.
 
To the opening poster:

Sam0000 said:
… I am asking for SPECIFICS, not the general names of brands …
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With apologies: I thought first of the previously mentioned Framework. Then, the hardware database.

Sam0000 said:
The second laptop wouldn't even boot after the install, but it was such an old piece of junk that …
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Argentum said:
FreeBSD works almost on anything. Even if some exotic part …

You can only expect problems with most recent and expensive pieces of high-end hardware.
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In a parallel universe: we have non-exotic two-year old hardware, from the second largest PC vendor, that FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE can not boot.

An operating system that will not boot is a problem; is not a dream setup.

Geezer said:
… statistically improbable. …
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See above ;-)
 
Sam0000 said:
just your recommendation for a FreeBSD compatible laptop that has a working wifi adapter and some form of GPU that can handle the res 1920x1080 on a Xorg-based DE and has a working sound card.
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I am was reasonably happy with the X1 Carbon (3rd gen). It all generally works.

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops/Thinkpad_X1_Carbon

Compared to the much older ThinkPads (i.e the X220, X61, etc), the build quality was pretty poor (though still possibly better than many other brands) so I tend to keep to older but it should satisfy your requirements.

By now the 4th and 5th gen are probably working well too. I recall a FreeBSD Foundation announcement was that they were specifically going to work on the X1 Carbon support too. So 7th gen is probably quite close by now.

https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2019-07-2019-09.html#Improving-laptop-support
 
grahamperrin said:
To the opening poster:



With apologies: I thought first of the previously mentioned Framework. Then, the hardware database.





In a parallel universe: we have non-exotic two-year old hardware, from the second largest PC vendor, that FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE can not boot.

An operating system that will not boot is a problem; is not a dream setup.



See above ;-)
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I know FreeBSD is not perfect, but I feel such a strange magnetic pull towards UNIX operating systems, I can't help myself.
It's a moth to lit-bulb-in-the-dark attraction, it started with hating windows (for a lot of things, in fact it would be easier to list only the reasons why I used it in the first place: driver support and games games games) and developed into a fascination with the entire UNIX philosophy and its kernel. Now, the more I study the kernel the more interesting i find it. After realizing that I've had enough of windows (and that linux does have some driver support as well as games (supertux XD)) I made the transition to arch linux, but I don't know, maybe it was something about systemd that threw me off, or maybe it was the fact that linux is really more of a kernel than a full blown os and something was missing?? I don't know, but FreeBSD feels like home, especially the community, I mean you guys are amazing! It's been a couple of days since a newbie like myself posted something, and this thread has been viewed over 500 times! Plus the docs are great. Considering all that, buying hardware for the system is totally worth it (especially since I'm the type of person which could spend all day in a hardware store looking at computer parts, checking their benchmarks, and noting down interesting configurations). As it stands now, I'm harassing people (kindly :) ) to get access to their hardware to check if their setup works on the live USB and also test their wifi card speed XD, because one thing that I've learned is that just because something is listed in the supported hardware notes, doesn't mean it would make it to a is-supported-and-works-quite-well hardware list :)
But I'LL BE BACK once I find something that is truly 'worthy' of a dream setup XD =) ;) to post the specs.
 
Sam0000 said:
… I am hell-bent on getting a fully working laptop … Dedicated GPU (preferably nvidia, NOT integrated, and NOT some weird hybrid autobot …
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A fully working portable computer should sleep, and wake from sleep.

My (very) limited experience with NVIDIA – Quadro K1100M (GK107GLM) – was failure to wake; <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=257456#c32>.

… driver problems …
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In fairness, I never successfully experimented with hybrid graphics – <https://forums.FreeBSD.org/threads/81493/post-525755> – if I had done so, then maybe the ZBook would have woken from sleep (using the Intel HD Graphics 4600?) and I could have described myself as free from driver problems.
 
Not intended to be a comprehensive list of bugs. I included 257722 only because it was nearby (linked from 255072).

I sometimes see suggestions to not expect support for computers that are less than one year old; words to that effect.

My point, with bugs such as 255072 (legacy boot) and 255073 (UEFI boot):
  • a better generalisation might be, at least two years old.
With a standard warranty period of one year, an HP computer might be two years out of warranty before it can boot a RELEASE of FreeBSD. Not quite a dream setup :cool:

This is not to criticise the efforts of developers of FreeBSD.

July 2019, with added emphasis:

… The FreeBSD Foundation would like to ensure that running FreeBSD on contemporary hardware, including laptops, remains viable. To that end we plan to purchase the latest generation of one or more of a family of laptops preferred by members of the FreeBSD community, evaluate the existing state of hardware support, and implement missing hardware support where possible.

As the first laptop for this project we have selected a 7th Generation Lenovo X1 Carbon. …
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There's a potential flaw to this logic:
  • if members of the FreeBSD community prefer laptops that are more likely to run FreeBSD, then support for other (no less important) laptops may be increasingly marginalised.
 
grahamperrin said:
Thanks,



– do you have a model in mind?

Insight UK range, sorted by best-selling – that's not me promoting Insight, it's simply a site with which I'm familiar. #2 and #5 best-selling HP notebooks are amongst the models with FreeBSD boot failures (bug 255073).
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yeah, HP Omen Advantage Edition 16.1"... ? I'm on West Coast US. Blew a truckload of $ on a GPU, though (talked about that in a different thread), so that laptop is on hold until next year... The reason I'm drooling is the RX 6600m discrete gpu in it. Dunno if it's available in the UK market yet.
 
grahamperrin said:
  • if members of the FreeBSD community prefer laptops that are more likely to run FreeBSD, then support for other (no less important) laptops may be increasingly marginalised.
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They have to focus somewhere because resources are severely limited. Are you suggesting they focus on laptops that are not preferred by the Freebsd community?
 
grahamperrin said:
No.
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I think after all there are two schools of philosophy - first (I would call it old school) which says that one should pick a right hardware to run his/her application; second which says that an application should run on all hardware. In this respect the operating system with user-land and ports is an application.

Personally I am an old school person (maybe this is also related to my birth date ;)).
 
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