# FreeBSD 9.0 on ThinkPad X220



## HonestAbe (Mar 21, 2012)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I attempted to install FreeBSD on an mSATA drive in my X220 - or rather, I did install but ran into some problems. 

As stated, I installed 9.0 on an mSATA drive in my X220. No other OS was installed on this drive and I used the automated partitioning scheme supplied in the installer. The installation went without issue but when I attempted to boot from the fresh install the system just hung (as if no bootable drive were available). I guessed that perhaps there was some issue with FreeBSD playing nice with mSATA in the X220 so I then went through the same installation on my main SATA SSD but to my dismay the same issue arose.

I searched and could only find reference to UEFI or the boot agent FreeBSD uses as the culprit. Disabling UEFI had no effect. Should I install GRUB and add FreeBSD to the GRUB file?

I really appreciate any suggestions you might have. Ideally, I would have FreeBSD 9.0 taking the whole of my Intel 310 (80GB) on the mSATA but if I need to add FreeBSD among my OpenBSD and Linux partitions on my Intel 320 (160GB) SSD then I shall happily do so.

Thanks again.


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## grigorovl (Mar 22, 2012)

You need to do legacy style MBR booting. This has been discussed in a couple of places. You can also see this topic:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-acpi/2012-March/007463.html

Also read through this topic for further information:
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.freebsd.current/135827

I ordered my X220, but I know it will be some configuration to get FreeBSD to work as I want it once it comes. Basically right now resume and brightness are problematic.

For future references, the mailing lists, specifically freebsd-mobile and freebsd-acpi will get you more accurate and quicker responses.


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