Toshiba NetBook/FreeBSD 8 Release install...

D

dbuckhal

I just picked up the Toshiba NB305-N310 to use for school. This model came with XP Home installed on a 167GB drive. I have moved aside about 50GB worth of space to install... something. I started looking at what Ubuntu had to offer, since I do like their easy install, Gnome desktop, and I've had good success with how their product "just works" for the most part when I used a laptop for work. They have their NetBook Remix version which has the revised Gnome desktop for smaller screens, and it isn't too bad, actually. But, after trying the Live CD... er, USB boot a few times, I got bored with it. So, I am currently installing FreeBSD 8 Release as a dualboot option with XP.

The initial install gave me the same error I had posted in thread regarding another fresh FBSD 8 install. Once it newfs'd the drive it would popup with a "mount floppy" error of some sort. (sorry to be a lacking specifics...) But, I was able to get past this with the laptop by going into the BIOS and chooing "SATA Compatible" mode, rather than the default "Performance" mode. That seemed to work. So, it completed a small, base installation and I am currently installing more ports. I will be using Xorg 7.4 with Gnome-Lite.

The internal Ethernet was found no problem during the installation, but I will probably have the play with the Atheros wifi soon enough. To be honst, I kind of enjoy getting "the unknown" to work sometimes with FreeBSD, rather than just having a "Ubuntu" make it all so easy.

Anyway, just wanted to share a few with yous. If I remember this thread, I'll post more of my experience with this Netbook/FreeBSD 8 install.

Derrick
 
Ok, Toshiba netbook project on hold...

This unit includes the Intel GMA 3150 which is not supported, so no X, yet. I don't believe Xorg 7.5 will include support yet, either.

I saw these two threads and wondered if I could use this method to try to get this adaptor recognized:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=9990
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=9606

But, I do not know much about patching, but I do know how to tweak and rebuild a kernel a little bit. If I can capture my hardware string through the pciconf command, could I adjust the driver's header files to get X to work?

Currently, the agp and Intel's i915 modules are verified in the kernel (kldstat lists them), but the X log error states AGPGART is not available, or not supported.

Thanks for any insight into this.
 
>This unit includes the Intel GMA 3150 which is not supported, so no X, yet. I don't believe Xorg 7.5 will include support yet, either.

Yeah bad luck. There is no GEM, KMS etc. in FreeBSD to allow any Intel driver above v2.7.1. Apart from that we need some patch for DRM in kernel to allow agp. AFAIK there is some patch for DRM and some patched Intel driver (v2.9.1) but without DRI. Maybe better than VESA, but hardly usable in my opinion.
 
Well, at least I feel I purchased "modern equipment"! :P

Any idea as to why when I set the SATA controller on this laptop to "AHCI Mode", it does not recognize the hard drive? I have to set it to "Compatibility" mode in order for FreeBSD 8, as well as that Ubuntu Netbook Remix, to work. This caused a problem while trying to install FreeBSD 8, but it did install in Compatibility mode.

Thanks,
 
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