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FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

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Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#11

Post by filmgirlcw »

easton wrote: post #4
sdfjkl wrote: post #2

> wifibox essentially spins up an Alpine Linux VM using FreeBSD's bhyve virtualization technology, and allows you to passthrough your machine's wireless card Jesus christ.

It's easier than writing a driver for FreeBSD yourself, I suppose, although I'd probably just get a USB Wi-Fi dongle instead of worry about walking into a meeting and my Wi-Fi driver VM crashing :) (or, just run Linux and run FreeBSD in a VM, but that's no way to support a niche operating system...)

I think the problem is that there aren’t many modern wireless cards with official FreeBSD support, so you’re stuck using a specialized dongle or Ethernet if you want to use FreeBSD on a laptop.

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#12

Post by cowtools »

dark-star wrote: post #7

Man, FreeBSD really needs some driver love... * No Suspend/Resume? Linux has solved this for years, I have not come across a laptop in the last 10 years that had trouble with s2r or s2d (but I guess that there might be a few that don't fully support it, I mainly tested Dell laptops) * WiFi driver and Ethernet over USB-C both highly unstable? That's an Intel chipset, those are usually the more stable ones (at least on…

if FreeBSD had a copyleft license, maybe companies would have a reason to publish their drivers, or you could port drivers from Linux.

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#13

Post by filmgirlcw »

felixg3 wrote: post #5
NegativeLatency wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds sub-optimal, I'm thinkng back to linux wifi support on random laptops 10+ years ago and it was also quite bad.

I think it mostly depended on the vendor, like today, where Broadcom and Realtek suck a lot, Mediatek and Qualcomm a little and Intel/Atheros work just fine. I remember using Ubuntu 6.10 or so with an Intel card out of the box.

I’m sure it is but the status I see shows that there isn’t much support for anything newer than 802.11n cards period, so if you’re using anything from the last 5 or 6 years, you may have a problem.

That’s a it different from the various Broadcom or whatever issues the Linux kernel was dealing with in the early Ubuntu eras (where Ubuntu also I think accepted some blobs/drivers that weren’t in the kernel at the time).

The problem here seems to be no support for certain stuff, regardless of chipset maker, rather than having to pick a certain one, unless you’re able to go really far back (which may have issues on some networks at this point).

As always, the best option for less-mainstream operating systems is to use Ethernet when possible.

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#15

Post by craftkiller »

easton wrote: post #4
sdfjkl wrote: post #2

> wifibox essentially spins up an Alpine Linux VM using FreeBSD's bhyve virtualization technology, and allows you to passthrough your machine's wireless card Jesus christ.

It's easier than writing a driver for FreeBSD yourself, I suppose, although I'd probably just get a USB Wi-Fi dongle instead of worry about walking into a meeting and my Wi-Fi driver VM crashing :) (or, just run Linux and run FreeBSD in a VM, but that's no way to support a niche operating system...)

You don't need a dongle, just purchase a supported wifi card. I put a supported atheros card in my framework laptop and the wifi works flawlessly, natively. The framework laptop is designed to be opened and have the parts replaced, so its the perfect laptop for doing hardware changes like this.

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#17

Post by ploxiln »

sdfjkl wrote: post #2

> wifibox essentially spins up an Alpine Linux VM using FreeBSD's bhyve virtualization technology, and allows you to passthrough your machine's wireless card Jesus christ.

That is my initial reaction, but ... a minimal linux VM in a minimal hypervisor, might not be that bad, for a network adapter. Perhaps -40MB- 128MB of memory? Double the context switching? Sounds kinda like a micro-kernel driver.

Have you ever tried to install a minimal driver for a printer in windows, and then watched in horror as it automatically started downloading 600MB of HP junk?

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#18

Post by keewee7 »

cowtools wrote: post #12
dark-star wrote: post #7

Man, FreeBSD really needs some driver love... * No Suspend/Resume? Linux has solved this for years, I have not come across a laptop in the last 10 years that had trouble with s2r or s2d (but I guess that there might be a few that don't fully support it, I mainly tested Dell laptops) * WiFi driver and Ethernet over USB-C both highly unstable? That's an Intel chipset, those are usually the more stable ones (at least on…

if FreeBSD had a copyleft license, maybe companies would have a reason to publish their drivers, or you could port drivers from Linux.

Aren't most Linux drivers closed source binary blobs?

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#19

Post by doubled112 »

ploxiln wrote: post #17
sdfjkl wrote: post #2

> wifibox essentially spins up an Alpine Linux VM using FreeBSD's bhyve virtualization technology, and allows you to passthrough your machine's wireless card Jesus christ.

That is my initial reaction, but ... a minimal linux VM in a minimal hypervisor, might not be that bad, for a network adapter. Perhaps -40MB- 128MB of memory? Double the context switching? Sounds kinda like a micro-kernel driver. Have you ever tried to install a minimal driver for a printer in windows, and then watched in horror as it automatically started downloading 600MB of HP junk?

I just stay away from HP junk. Life is too short.

Re: FreeBSD on the Framework Laptop

#20

Post by ruslan »

This is nice. Couple of days ago I published 80 pages work describing my experience installing FreeBSD on Lenovo Ideapad 3 Gaming laptop and making it to work. The article is in Russian, but I think it can be easily read through Google Translate, here's the link: https://habr-com.translate.goog/en/post/683702/?_x_tr_sl=ru&...

My experience was pretty similar to that of the owner of Framework laptop, except some extra topics: headless NVIDIA GPU, Touchpad issues, bootloader hangs.

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