For information purposes only, this post is about my personal experience installing FreeBSD 14.4 and 15 on my two laptops: a Dell G15 (13th Gen Intel Core i5) with Hybrid Graphics / Advanced Optimus (Intel Graphics + GeForce RTX 3050) and a basic Dell Inspiron (12th Gen Intel Core i3) with Intel Graphics only.
Dell G15
After overcoming some issues with the Wi-Fi driver, I completed a successful installation. Everything was going well; the installed drm-kmod (Intel) loaded properly, and Xorg was working fine. However, when running KDE Plasma following the default procedures explained in the Handbook, I faced an issue after the login screen. KDE was running, but it was extremely sluggish. I tried several tweaks, but nothing worked. Initially, I thought the problem was caused by both graphics cards working together, but I later discovered that I was wrong.
Dell Inspiron
With FreeBSD running on the G15, I tried the same approach on the Inspiron. I followed the Handbook guide and installed KDE, only to face the EXACT SAME PROBLEM.
I tested the environment using both X11 (Xorg) and Wayland, but KDE was lagging heavily on both display servers. Refusing to give up, I tried a different approach and installed XFCE instead. Guess what? It worked perfectly! Replicating this XFCE setup back on the G15 yielded the same successful result.
Conclusion
I have no idea what the root cause is, whether it stems from plasma components, Wayland/X11 integrations, or something similar, but KDE appears to be struggling with recent Intel Graphics generations (12th and 13th Gen). My question to the community is: Is this happening only with Dell laptops, or are most people experiencing the same issue on other devices with newer Intel graphics?
Dell G15
After overcoming some issues with the Wi-Fi driver, I completed a successful installation. Everything was going well; the installed drm-kmod (Intel) loaded properly, and Xorg was working fine. However, when running KDE Plasma following the default procedures explained in the Handbook, I faced an issue after the login screen. KDE was running, but it was extremely sluggish. I tried several tweaks, but nothing worked. Initially, I thought the problem was caused by both graphics cards working together, but I later discovered that I was wrong.
Dell Inspiron
With FreeBSD running on the G15, I tried the same approach on the Inspiron. I followed the Handbook guide and installed KDE, only to face the EXACT SAME PROBLEM.
I tested the environment using both X11 (Xorg) and Wayland, but KDE was lagging heavily on both display servers. Refusing to give up, I tried a different approach and installed XFCE instead. Guess what? It worked perfectly! Replicating this XFCE setup back on the G15 yielded the same successful result.
Conclusion
I have no idea what the root cause is, whether it stems from plasma components, Wayland/X11 integrations, or something similar, but KDE appears to be struggling with recent Intel Graphics generations (12th and 13th Gen). My question to the community is: Is this happening only with Dell laptops, or are most people experiencing the same issue on other devices with newer Intel graphics?