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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, 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/).
{{<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 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](#updates)*)
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. 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
- 2023-02-27: [Fixing resume](/2023/fixing-resume-on-thinkpad-x1-extreme-g2-on-freebsd/)
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