# Fresh install



## Rod Myers (Apr 9, 2016)

Purchased a refurbished Lenovo X61 to install and get used to the FreeBSD way of things, currently using PC-BSD, previously Debian.

Had issues getting a flash drive install of FreeBSD 11.0 working. resorted to purchasing a USB CD-ROM drive to get FreeBSD installed.

Had to install twice, who needs directions ;-)

The second time, have the FreeBSD handbook opened on a second computer, and following along with single-page version.

Only at the compiling of Xorg presently, but I think I'll like the end result.

Kudos to the entire FreeBSD team


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## SirDice (Apr 11, 2016)

Note about 11.0 aka -CURRENT: Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions


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## Rod Myers (Apr 11, 2016)

Thank you


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## wblock@ (Apr 12, 2016)

11.0 is not as scary as people think.  It is actually used in production for most of the FreeBSD cluster.  Problems occur, but are fixed quickly.

I'm starting to wonder if it should be removed from the "we don't support it here" list.  The biggest issue is building a kernel with WITNESS disabled to get better performance.


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## Rod Myers (Apr 17, 2016)

Revamped the install, and did the 10.3 install.

Found a couple of other how-to, other than the handbook.

I finally have a fresh install with xfce running. missing some things concerning networking. But that's why I the lenovo to figure things out.

Very  tedious, but worth the effort


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## PacketMan (Apr 17, 2016)

Rod Myers said:


> Very  tedious, but worth the effort



Only at first, then becomes 2nd nature.


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## Rod Myers (Apr 18, 2016)

thats's what I'm finding. Finally got the USB install figured out, wrong image.

Now trying to get lumina working similar to my pcBSD laptop (this one) so I can migrate it over. That  a network gui program, would be awesome


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## scottro (Apr 18, 2016)

I don't know which Lenovo you have, but I've found that FreeBSD frequently doesn't support their wireless, even on the older ones, like the L420.  However you can easy buy a cheap Edimax (and no doubt, others), http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY that are supported. You will have to add a line into /boot/loader.conf  that reads

```
legal.realtek.license_ack=1
```

That goes  for CURRENT too, last time I checked (but only on my rather old L420 and a newer, but not super new, Yoga2 pro (which has a graphics card later than the supported versions of the Intel cards.)


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## Rod Myers (Apr 18, 2016)

bought a refurbished X61, and the WiFi works out of the box.

Thank you for the link above. will keep that bookmarked

Now a question. I have Lumina installed, but not all of the helper programs. It there a way to add the pcBSD repositories as well?


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## raycherng (Apr 22, 2016)

wblock@ said:


> 11.0 is not as scary as people think.  It is actually used in production for most of the FreeBSD cluster.  Problems occur, but are fixed quickly.
> 
> I'm starting to wonder if it should be removed from the "we don't support it here" list.  The biggest issue is building a kernel with WITNESS disabled to get better performance.



I agree. If people using CURRENT could get support here, they will be willing to use the CURRENT. There will be more testing  engineers! It helps the developers to find problems before STABLE release.


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## zirias@ (Apr 25, 2016)

raycherng said:


> I agree. If people using CURRENT could get support here, they will be willing to use the CURRENT.


No doubts about that, but just "more users" isn't the goal and "support" is definitely the wrong word -- you can't really support something that's still in development. What could be done is have some discussion and help even if the base system is -CURRENT. But of course, if things seem to be caused by base system bugs, they should go to the mailing list.



raycherng said:


> There will be more testing  engineers! It helps the developers to find problems before STABLE release.


While it could be helpful in some cases, often you would need some debugging aids (like the already mentioned WITNESS, or the extra malloc() debugging in libc) for helpful information, that most users would turn off for performance (and wouldn't know how to use, anyways). So, the help for developers you're talking about would be very very limited.

Still I agree with wblock@ because it would be just more convenient for casual users that try out -CURRENT e.g. to get an early look at some new features. Having problems with a -CURRENT installation doesn't necessarily mean problems in -CURRENT. So you could talk about something like "limited support" here and let the pointer to the mailing list alive.


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