Thinkpad x220 with FreeBSD

K

knightron

Gday guys,

bsd FreeBSD noob here. I'm interested in trying out freebsd FreeBSD. I grew interested a long time ago, bought the soft cover handbook; but was inexperienced with unix like operating systems and couldn't pull it off. I've used GNU/Linux for almost a year now, jumping from distro to distro, remaining mostly with Slackware and Debian. I've grown interested in freebsd FreeBSD again and want to give it a shot. I've limited bandwidth so have not downloaded freebsd FreeBSD 9 (yet). I am using my old freebsd FreeBSD 8.2 DVD 32bit first before I commit to the download.

My computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad x220; which doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, so I have to use a USB-connected external CD/DVD drive.

I've done a search and people seem to be confronted with the same issue I'm having; attempting to start the install, the system freezes before it can even start sysinstall. Other people seem to have got around this issue, but it isn't clear how they managed to. I've been suggested to disable UEFI, but don't know how to start the install media after doing so.

So guys, thanks for reading all my first post, and thanks for any help received.
 
From FreeBSD 9.0 Release Announce
memstick

This can be written to an USB memory stick (flash drive) and used to do an install on machines capable of booting off USB drives. It also supports booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode. There are no pre-built packages.

As one example of how to use the memstick image, assuming the USB drive appears as /dev/da0 on your machine something like this should work:

# dd if=FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=10240 conv=sync

Be careful to make sure you get the target (of=) correct.
Click to expand...

As far as I remember, the Thinkpad X220 is i386-based. You will need FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img instead of FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.

Download FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img here.

and use the following command:

[cmd=]# dd if=FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=10240 conv=sync[/cmd]
 
That command keeps reappearing. It's... kind of odd. conv=sync is really not something desirable with binary images, and the buffer size comes from the days when bit miners spent 16 hours a day in the pitch blackness of the bit mines, laboriously prying individual bits from the billion-year-old rock. A more current and probably faster version is
# dd if=FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=64k
 
That laptop certainly works with AMD64 version of FreeBSD, it has a Core i7 CPU. I don't remember exactly but starting with at least Core2 CPUs they all support 64-bit mode (EMT64 instruction set extensions).
 
For laptops, core2duo, yes. Desktops, Pentium dual-cores have 64bit support as well.

I am also looking into a X220, but my major concern is the intel driver still in dev. We will see how that goes.
 
Regarding the X220, since I'm looking to get one, and don't want to open new thread:

1. Which wireless has better support?

ThinkPad 11b/g/n Wireless (Realtek RTL8192SE / RTL8188CE)
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000

2. I've read bad reviews about webcam having poor quality on GNU/Linux, so I would assume it will be the same on FreeBSD with webcamd and not worth the $30? (which also frees up space for 3x3 antenna)

3. Any disadvantages in usage for turning off the UEFI?

4. How far is the AMD64 kernel suspend/resume?
 
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