freebsd on netbook

Gonzalo Nemmi gnemmi at gmail.com
Thu May 20 05:56:56 UTC 2010


On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 1:16 AM, Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 20 May 2010, Anh Ky Huynh wrote:
>
>> I intend to buy a netbook for convenience (for many remote jobs, a netbook
>> seems to be enough) whose cost is around $400. I'd like have freebsd on that
>> netbook (oh, no linux, no windows, please :-) but it's hard to choose a
>> right one that works fine (even with Ubuntu. See
>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks.)
>
> http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html has a lot of user-supplied
> information.
>
> I've used FreeBSD on Acer Aspire One models AOA150 and D250.  Most of the
> basic hardware is the same on all brands: Atom processor, Intel chipset.
>  Potential problem areas are card readers, wireless, and even wired
> Ethernet.
>
> Watch out for the Poulsbo/GMA500 video in newer netbooks.  Sounds like xorg
> is questionable on them so far.

Keep an eye on the ethernet and wireless cards too. Be sure _not_ to
buy anything that comes with Broadcom chipsets (be it ethernet or
wireless) specially if you are buying from Dell.

Best advice I could give you is:

- Set a top price: How much will you spent on it.

- Based on that number, look for the netbook you like the most (given
that they all pack almost the same hardware ... looks and probably
keyboard are what make the difference... at least until AMD/ATI
netbooks start to show up)

- Once you have a candidate, use google to try and get the output of
"lspci -vv" (that's 2 v, and not  1 w) from somebody running linux on
the netbook you have chosen. ( the output of "pciconf -lbcv" will
probably be harder to get .. )

- Make sure all the hardware ( or at least the parts you care about )
are fully supported under FreeBSD. Specially: suspend/resume as we are
talking on a netbook in here and hence .. full suspend/resume support
is vital.

- With all that info in your hands, come back, post it to the list and
ask if somebody owns the netbook you'd like to buy .. what problems
they've run into (if any) and how was their experience running FreeBSD
under that particular netboook.

- Having done that, and knowing in advanced what you are about to get
into ... just decide whether to spend your hard earned money on it or
not =)

My take?
I decided to wait (for the last 4 months with the money on my wallet)
until Dell released the new version of the Dell Latitude 2100 .. and
then the Latitude 2110 showed up a week or so ago .. After seeing they
went with the lackluster Atom N470 and it's crappy video chipset
instead of going with the new AMD/ATI combo, that they only offer
"Dell Wireless cards" (which AFAIK are all based on Broadcom chips)
with no option to pick an intel 5100, and knowing they use soldered
Broadcom ethernet chips, I decided not to spend my money on it and
spend it in something that works for me, instead of spending it on
something that only works for them =)

Tips:
- Do not buy anything with Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M ethernet cards.
- Do not buy anything with Broadcom Corporation chips
- Do not buy anything with Broadcom Corporation components
- Do not buy anything that has the word Broadcom written on it or in
its packaging, manuals or documentation.
- Always look for harware from manufacturers that make their chipsets
documentation available to the public, or at least, to the devels of
different Open Source (specially BSD) projects.
- Even if it's not my cup of tea and I am in no way recommending you
to even consider them, _do_ take a look in here as it has a lot of
information: http://wiki.freebsd.org/AsusEee

Hope that helped =)
Best luck on your buy
Gonzalo Nemmi


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