Experience of running FreeBSD on the new X1 Carbon

K

I am seriously considering investing in the new X1 Carbon (released a few weeks ago), and wanted to check if anyone experienced any major problems running FreeBSD on it.

Googling a bit I could see that the 2012 X1 Carbon seems to run OK with FreeBSD (except for a few suspend/resume issues), but so far no info on the web (as far as I can tell) of running FreeBSD on the 2014 model.

wblock@

Developer

Apr 22, 2014

#2

The 2014 Thinkpad X1 Carbon is a Haswell ultrabook. Support for the Haswell graphics is not available yet, although there is work on it.

OP

K

kazLSE

Apr 22, 2014

Thread Starter
#3

Thanks for the info, maybe a silly question,but does this imply that I won't be able to make the most of the graphics power on X1, or is it a complete deal-breaker?

Second question, where can I follow for any updates on Haswell support (is there a ticket I can look-up)? I tried googling but can't seem to find a main page.

wblock@

Developer

Apr 22, 2014

#4

At present, it means that Haswell graphics don't work at all. It would run in console mode, but that's not enough for most users.

The wiki shows the current state of graphics support: https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics, https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/Update i915 GPU driver to Linux 3.8.

The best way to keep track or ask about it is probably on the freebsd-x11 mailing list.

trh411

Apr 23, 2014

#5

The FreeBSD 2014 Q1 Status Report identifes the project as the Intel GPU Driver Update, but the project has not published any milestones to date. It does not appear that much if any progress on the project was made since the FreeBSD 2013 Q4 Status Report. The status reports could provide another means of tracking the progress.

OP

K

kazLSE

Apr 23, 2014

Thread Starter
#6

Great thanks for the links. How long does it usually take for a GPU driver to be implemented?

I can hold off buying the X1 for a few months until it is implemented, but if it is unrealistic to expect it would be implemented anytime soon I will start considering other ultrabooks.