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+---
+title: "FreeBSD on a Thinkpad Extreme G2"
+category: "software"
+abstract: it works, but there are some drawbacks
+date: 2023-02-25T06:06:18+01:00
+year: 2023
+draft: false
+tags: 
+- Freebsd
+- thinkpad
+- nvidia
+- ax200
+---
+
+My wife got a new computer, so I can easily break my laptop whenever I want - so it's time for FreeBSD!
+
+*All this applies to FreeBSD 13.1 at the time of publishing. I'll add links to any additions and errata in the future*
+
+### Installation
+
+The installation process is great. It's more involved than something like Fedora, and some concepts were foreign to me. [Handbook's chapter on installation](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/) guided me through every step, so there were no problems. Within 15 mins of booting from the USB Drive, I had a working hardened system running on an encrypted ZFS drive with wireless networking and essential services configured.
+
+{{<img-center "freebsd-setup-fs.png" "Partitioning" "https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/">}}
+
+Many things worked out of the box, but not all of them.
+
+### Hardware
+
+Setting X-Org was a breeze. Nvidia drivers are [available and ready to go](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/x11/#x-configuration-nvidia); no additional configuration is necessary.
+
+Sound, of all things, work out of the box. Unfortunately, it doesn't auto-switch to headphone output, but there is [a known way to do this](https://freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd-project/resourcesold/audio-on-freebsd/) via device hints.
+
+The integrated camera also works after running `webcamd -d ugen0.2 -i 0 -v 0`. Tested via `pwcview.`
+
+My laptop uses AX200 wireless card, which is [not yet fully supported by the system](https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=244261). It is recognized and works only up to WiFi 3 (g). I'd be ok with WiFi 4(n), but the driver is not ready, and WiFi 5 (AC) [is not supported by the OS](https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi/80211ac) at all. Funny enough, it [seems to be supported by OpenBD](https://man.openbsd.org/man4/iwx.4). I have yet to learn how different BSDs intertwine and different. FreeBSD is supposed to be more user-friendly, but it seems not to be the case here. Work on [fully supporting](https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi/Iwlwifi)  the card is already planned, but I have no idea when I can expect results. From what I've learned, the team can't reuse code from Linux due to licensing incompatibilities between [GPL](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html) and [BSD license](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/license-guide/). 
+{{<img-pull-right "freebsd-beastie.png" "FreeBSD Bestie">}}
+
+This is one of the few instances when I am rethinking my life choices, and I would love to be able to help with C code. Also, Bluetooth on this card is not supported, and there is no work done to address it - but luckily, I am already de-wirelessing my life.
+
+USB devices are detected automatically and mostly work. However, my monitor (Dell P2723QE) has an integrated base1000 ethernet connection, but on FreeBSD, only base100 worked.
+
+Another problem is Suspend/Resume. I can easily [suspend](https://wiki.freebsd.org/SuspendResume) the device, but after resuming it, the screen is still black. This seems to be a known problem across different OSes for this laptop and has some [known warkarounds](https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_display_remaining_black_after_resume#Solution_for_ThinkPads_with_Intel_Extreme_Graphics_2) for Linux, but I have no idea how to apply them to BSD. 
+
+The biggest problem here is battery drain. I have `power` enabled, but `acpinfo` reports about over 1% per minute. I was getting about the same drain on Arch Linux, but Manajaro acted much better.
+
+I have not tested the fingerprint reader as I've never used it.
+
+### Conclusion
+
+My ThinkPad is far from being a brick under FreeBSD. It is, however, severely hindered. I plan to fix the memory drain and allow for a resume after suspension. This will make it a proper laptop again, as there are always USB dongles when faster WiFi is needed. Dongle town, however, is not what I want in the long term, and I'll need to follow the progress of the driver implementation closely.
+
+It seems that for a desktop computer everything would work.
+
+I'm falling in love with the system and its simplicity and logic. So even if I fail at fixing the above, I'll try to stick with it. Guess I just love junky things, like IRC and blogging :-). And even if I get fed up with the state of hardware support, I'll keep FreeBSD as a secondary system.
+
+For personal servers, however, I see no way of abandoning BSD.