[LDWG][FBSD_LDWG] Foundation update - December 2025

[Duplicated email for people who filter based on LDWG prefixes].

Hi Everyone,

I'm pleased to share the monthly update from the FreeBSD Foundation's
Laptop Support and Usability Project.

https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/blob/main/monthly-updates/2025-12.md
Note: this repo also contains all previous month's updates.

We welcome your help in sharing the update wherever possible.

Thanks,

Alice.

P. S. I had a request to share the entire content of the report in this
email to reduce friction. The downside of this is that it will not be
updated with any potential corrections. However, corrections are rare, so I
have included the report below.

Please read on with the understanding that you will need to visit the repo
for the canonical content.
-----------------------------
# FreeBSD Foundation Laptop Update - December 2025
NOTE: For more details on any item, please visit the GitHub links provided,
these contain more detail and links to relevant materials such as code
commits.

Some extra resources for you to check out this month:
* Blog post: [FreeBSD Closes the Laptop Gap: Year One Project Update](
https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/freebsd-closes-the-laptop-gap-year-one-project-update/
)
* Roadmap: [Q4 update to Laptop Project Roadmap](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/blob/main/monthly-updates/Q4-2025-roadmap.pdf
)
* Scope updates: [Newly added issues on the GitHub repo](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20created%3A%3E2025-12-01
)

## In Review
#### S0i3 Modern Standby
Some ongoing improvements and bugfixing to the S0i3 Modern Standby
functionality were worked on this month. This includes S2idle (suspend to
idle mechanism) and SPMC (System Power Management Controller) functionality.

GitHub issue [#32](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/32)


## In Progress

### Installation
#### KDE Desktop Installer Option
A desktop environment option for the FreeBSD installer is in progress. We
aim to have it ready for 15.1. This month we have refactored the code and
added an NVIDIA GPU selection menu, with plans to test this, add VirtualBox
and VMware compatibility, and integrate everything into bsdinstall.

GitHub issue: [#25](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/25)


### Power
#### S4 hibernation
The team is working on an iterative approach to the S4 solution as we are
expecting unknown elements to emerge along the way.

Development work has started on saving the computer's state into an S4
image so we can move on from using a dummy image.

Tooling that creates a dummy S4 image and reboots FreeBSD from it is
complete and CI pipelines are being added for it.

GitHub issue: [#29](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/29)


#### Debugging tools for low power states
Three different USB-based debugging approaches are in progress.

##### USB Debug capability (DbC)

*No update this month.*

We now have a working proof of concept for USB-C debugging between two
laptops. Testing revealed that a USB3 debug cable combined with two
USB-C/USB3 adapters successfully establishes an xHCI debug connection. This
configuration has shown us the specific pin connections needed to create a
custom USB-C cable adapter. Once we have this adapter, it will make
debugging significantly more accessible for developers, eliminating the
need for specialized cables that are both difficult to source and expensive.

##### Hardware debugging tool

We have been testing the custom circuit board that activates the UART
communication feature on newer Framework Laptops' main processor and it
works successfully with the laptop's embedded controller. We got it working
as a boot console so we can see what's happening during the computer's
startup sequence. This means we can diagnose problems that occur during
early boot-up, when the laptop wakes from sleep, or when issues prevent the
normal screen display from working. Right now, there's a bug in the test
laptop's firmware that's causing problems, and we're working on a fix to
get everything running properly.


##### USB serial debugging
*No update this month.*

As in previous reports, support is functional in all FreeBSD releases with
some caveats. Further work is postponed while other debugging methods are
developed.

We will publish documentation for all debugging solutions in the FreeBSD
handbook chapter once the work is complete.

GitHub issues: [#38](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/38) and [#90](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/90)

### Wi-Fi

#### Support for RealTek Wi-Fi cards
Work continues on Wi-Fi 5 support for rtw88 and rtw89 drivers. Currently,
the rtw89 driver can successfully receive data and handle Block
Acknowledgement (a feature for efficient data transfer), but transmission
speeds remain stuck at the slowest basic rates and won't increase. We are
being cautious with fixes because the changes affect core systems shared
with other drivers (e.g. the iwlwifi driver), so improvements are being
rolled out gradually in smaller pieces to avoid breaking existing
functionality.

GitHub issue: [#99](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/99)

#### Support for MediaTek Wi-Fi cards
Work on mt76 driver (which will support MT7921/7922 chipsets) for Wi-Fi 4/5
support is progressing alongside the RealTek development, with much of the
work applicable to both. Some improvements to LinuxKPI infrastructure
(specifically `struct page` handling) have been completed. Progress remains
blocked by pending additional LinuxKPI infrastructure work, specifically
page pool implementation and drm-kmod integration requirements.

GitHub issue: [#66](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/66)

### Graphics
#### Port of Linux 6.11 Graphics Drivers
Work on porting the Linux 6.11 graphics driver has started with work on
drm-kmod.

GitHub issue: [#52](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/52)

### System management
#### Making pkgbasify safer to use
Development work continued on pkgbasify, a tool designed to convert
existing non-pkgbase FreeBSD installations to use pkgbase with minimal
risk. The focus shifted toward implementing a safer conversion approach
using package registration rather than file overwriting. The approach
involves implementing support for `pkg install --register-only`, which
allows registering packages in the pkg database without modifying
filesystem files.

GitHub issue: [#91](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/91)

### Integration testing

#### Holistic testing for laptop project functionality
Our testing project is starting in January, please see the dedicated GitHub
repo for more details:

https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/freebsd-laptop-testing

## Acknowledgements

The FreeBSD Foundation would like to extend its thanks to everyone who has
contributed to this project, both this month and previously.

Thanks go out to:
* Our developers
  * Alfonso Siciliano
  * Aymeric Wibo
  * Bjoern Zeeb
  * Christos Margiolis
  * Isaac Freund
  * Jean-Sebastien Pedron
  * Li-Wen Hsu
  * Mitchell Horne
  * Olivier Certner
  * Siva Mahadevan
  * Tom Jones
* The project team:
  * Deb Goodkin
  * Ed Maste
  * Joe Mingrone
  * Alice Sowerby
* The Laptop and Desktop Working Group
  * Chris Moerz
  * All attendees
* The FreeBSD Project
* Quantum Leap Research
* AMD, who have helped in troubleshooting sleep issues.
* Dell, who have donated the UVC kernel driver.
* Future Crew, who provided the iwx
driver source code.
* Netflix, who have been testing our scheduler patchsets

Please refer to the [README](
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/README.md) for more
information about the FreeBSD Foundation's Laptop Project.

----------------------------

-- 
Alice Sowerby
Part-time Technical Program Manager
M +44 7787 953393