Solved System76 Meerkat support

Anil-G

Anil-G

I guess everyone probably asks does FreeBSD support hardware X. I'm waiting on System76 support to list chipsets used in their Meerkat so I can check but I'm wondering perhaps someone knows this hardware already and can confirm?

I'm not even sure if the listed amd64 support includes 5th gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7?

At the risk of making this two questions I am also comparing an Intel NUC Core i3 barebone, so I'll be checking the hardware support for that, but specifically want to know if FreeBSD will support an NVMe SSD (is that also a PCIe SSD?) like the Samsung 950 Pro Series 256GB M.2 SSD (instead of a SATA SSD) or is that a non-question?

Thanks very much.
 
SirDice said:
The CPUs themselves shouldn't be a problem. It may be an issue getting their GPU working though.
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Aargh! Thanks for the warning SirDice. Does that mean GPU will not work, or is there a chance I can get it to work? I'm willing to try. Will a non-functioning GPU just cripple the machine (or just the graphics - still ok as headless?) or will it stop it?
 
Thanks again SirDice I can see the situation. FreeBSD graphics team are working on 4th generation Haswell graphics. The System 76 Meerkat is Broadwell 5th Gen i3/i5/i7. I could at least get console up and I'm wondering if I could contribute to the development and testing.

I'm also looking at 6th Gen Skylake i3/i5/i7 in an Intel NUC because it offers good value processing power, but that's yet another step away. I'm wondering if hardware support has to be developed incrementally or whether I could still start the development and testing of Skylake before Broadwell is finished.

But I read that Skylake "retires VGA support". None of these boxes offers a VGA DSUB connector but if the chipset retires VGA does that mean I won't even get console up?

I'm going to contact FreeBSD-X11 list.
 
Anil-G said:
But I read that Skylake "retires VGA support". None of these boxes offers a VGA DSUB connector but if the chipset retires VGA does that mean I won't even get console up?
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It should work fine regardless if the connector is VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort. Only the electronic signals change, not the way a "screen" is presented to the OS.
 
"VGA" has multiple meanings. It can be the physical connector, the hardware device implementing VGA compatible graphics or the software level API that is used to program the hardware. I'm sure the retirement concerns only the physical connector.
 
Thanks SirDice. I'm now in touch with FreeBSD-X11 list with several helpful responses.

For the record, they gave me the following advice on VGA support. I was never worried about the cabling since I've had console up through HDMI routinely but it seems that when "chipset retires support for VGA" this still only means with respect to the DSUB connector.

I _think_ that only refers to removing support for analog output via a VGA connector, or any other connector for that matter. I.e. not removing support for the classic VGA-compatible graphic modes, but going to digital output only.
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This appears to mean that the chipset does not directly support a VGA connector. An external adapter can be used, and some vendors are adding one on their motherboards. Neither should affect the ability of the system to display a text-mode console. That said, I have not tested them.
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