The PERFECT Laptop for FreeBSD

[cracauer@]

The thing that pisses me off about Thinkpads is that sometimes-often the Wifi chips are BIOS locked and can't be exchanged with an Intel M.2 card you get on Amazon.

 

[blackbird9]

The thing that pisses me off about Thinkpads is that sometimes-often the Wifi chips are BIOS locked and can't be exchanged with an Intel M.2 card you get on Amazon.

So you need to install the middleton bios, one of the things that (usually) does is to remove the wifi whitelist. It depends on the thinkpad model what the modded bios actually buys you, there is a table here.

Middleton's BIOS - ThinkWiki

www.thinkwiki.org

and here

BIOS Upgrade - ThinkWiki

www.thinkwiki.org

Or just accept the slower wifi speed and plug in an ethernet cable, or get the docking station. I usually use my machines on cable network anyway, I haven't bothered to flash my X220 yet.

 

[cracauer@]

Thanks for those links.

Or just accept the slower wifi speed and plug in an ethernet cable, or get the docking station. I usually use my machines on cable network anyway.

My T14s AMD has a wifi chip that even Windows 11 doesn't have a built-in driver for It's not a speed issue.

 

[blackbird9]

Thanks for those links.



My T14s AMD has a wifi chip that even Windows 11 doesn't have a built-in driver for It's not a speed issue.

Hmm, well you'd have to search around to see if anyone has written a custom bios for it. There's a pretty good hacking (in the good sense) community on thinkpads so there's probably a reasonable chance one has been made or will become available.

 

[blackbird9]

I came across this article during random browsing this evening, on lenovo laptop wifi whitelist removal. It looks like a rather complicated procedure. Not sure if that helps with the T14s AMD, but posting anyway for interest's sake.

https://medium.com/@p0358/removing-wlan-wwan-bios-whitelist-on-a-lenovo-laptop-to-use-a-custom-wi-fi-card-f6033a5a5e5a

Installing a middleton bios, which I've done in the past on 2 or 3 different thinkpads, is a much simpler procedure.

 

[gomadtroll]

I use Lenovo laptops, I used Linux still do. The responsibility for hardware compatability was on me. I am using VM,s to get to know Freebsd, its not the same as bare metal,good to learn.

 

[whyur]

The last "perfect" laptop in my hands was Thinkpad T60. Even Solaris would install and run everything out of the box. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

[FPndrS29]

I recently decided to try out FreeBSD. After getting a newer laptop, I set aside my older ASUS K53E from 2012, specifically for experimenting with it. It was my first time using FreeBSD, and it actually worked.

At this point, everything is functioning: WiFi, audio, graphics, and even suspend and resume. I am able to watch FullHD YouTube videos, just about smoothly, and overall performance is comparable to Linux on this hardware.

I've created Wiki page:

Laptops/ASUS_K53E - FreeBSD Wiki

Guides on how to install and configure FreeBSD on the XXXXXXXXXX.

wiki.freebsd.org

Hardware specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-2520M (upgraded from i3)
• Graphics: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
• Memory: 16 GiB DDR3 1333 MT/s (upgraded)
• Screen: 1366x768~60Hz
• Storage: SATA SSD (upgraded)
• Ethernet: Qualcomm Atheros AR8151
• Wireless: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter

If you ever encounter this laptop, rest assured it works fine with FreeBSD.