+++
title = "FreeBSD: Review of Thinkpad Extreme G2"
author = ["Michał Sapka"]
date = 2023-02-25T22:30:00+01:00
categories = ["bsd"]
draft = false
weight = 3002
primary_menu = "bsd"
image_dir = "bsd"
image_max_width = 600
abstract = "it works, but there are drawbacks"
[menu]
  [menu.bsd-thinkpad]
    weight = 3002
    identifier = "freebsd-review-of-thinkpad-extreme-g2"
    name = "Impressions, Instalation and problems"
+++

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 {#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.

{{< image source="https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/" class="centered" alt="White, all caps &quot;Run BSD&quot; over black background" file="freebsd-setup-fs.png" >}}
Partitioning
{{< /image >}}

Many things worked out of the box, but not all of them.


## Hardware {#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.
(update: I was wrong, but it is fixed now)

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, but 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/) [update: there are more problems].

{{< image transparency="yes" src="https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/" forced_width="150" class="pull-right" alt="White, all caps &quot;Run BSD&quot; over black background" file="freebsd-beastie.png" >}}
FreeBSD Beastie
{{< /image >}}

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 1000Base-T ethernet connection, but on FreeBSD, only 100Base-T 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. [update: there is a fix working]

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 {#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.
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.


## Updates {#updates}

-   2023-02-27: [Fixing resume due to graphic drivers](/2023/fixing-resume-on-thinkpad-x1-extreme-g2-on-freebsd)
-   2023-02-04: [Configuring NVIDIA](/2023/freebsd-configuring-nvidia-and-xorg-on-thinkpad-x1-extreme-g2).
-   2023-03-15: [Problems with WiFi after resume](/2023/freebsd-on-modern-intel-wifi-cards-and-resume)