# FreeBSD on a MBP retina mid 2014



## xoryo (May 27, 2015)

I'm thinking about install FreeBSD on a MBP retina mid 2014 (MacBook Pro 11,2), but I can't find anything about it on the internet. I found some information on older models but not for the newer once. Does someone know how the hardware support is? And does someone have some advice for me where I can find information about this?

Thanks in advance!


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## good-beastie (May 28, 2015)

xoryo said:


> I'm thinking about install FreeBSD on a MBP retina mid 2014 (MacBook Pro 11,2), but I can't find anything about it on the internet. I found some information on older models but not for the newer once. Does someone know how the hardware support is? And does someone have some advice for me where I can find information about this?
> 
> Thanks in advance!


Hi, Some of that hardware may be supported. See link: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/341...-retina-review-specifications-and-performance, and http://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/hardware.html. Do you plan on server or desktop for configuration, and do you have a way to back up or restore original Apple software? More info here as of 2014-07-18: FreeBSD Wiki Link: https://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacbook.

Update: Member dch has installed FreeBSD 10-STABLE amd64 on a 2014 Macbook Pro 15 Retina. See: Thread 51590


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## xoryo (May 28, 2015)

good-beastie said:


> Hi, Some of that hardware may be supported. See link: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/341...-retina-review-specifications-and-performance, and http://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/hardware.html. Do you plan on server or desktop for configuration, and do you have a way to back up or restore original Apple software? More info here as of 2014-07-18: FreeBSD Wiki Link: https://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacbook.
> 
> Update: Member dch has installed FreeBSD 10-STABLE amd64 on a 2014 Macbook Pro 15 Retina. See: Thread 51590



Hi, I'm plan on doing a desktop configuration, I will try to contact dch and ask him for some details. Also I'm planning on dual booting OSX and FreeBSD.

Thanks for the information and the links!


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## xoryo (May 28, 2015)

After sending some PM's we decided to continue here. 

For more details about my model check: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP704


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## dch (May 28, 2015)

that's exactly the same model as mine (sadly). The install works fine, ZFS is awesome, but I couldn't get the console to cover anything other than ~ 2/3 of the screen, nor get anything at all working under X. So not very functional. I'd be happy with running tmux in a console if 100% of the screen could be used, and if the font FreeBSD is using as EFI boot time would stay on the screen, but it doesn't. Short of donating to the FreeBSD Foundation and waiting a few years I don't see much hope here. Sadly installed linux mint this week to get some work done :-(.  A possible alternative *might* be to set up Xen or bhyve, and see if some sort of PCI pass through to a compatible guest is possible, a la http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-11/msg00231.html and https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/pci_passthru which believe has only been used for network devices so far... if a more experienced person would advise whether this is feasible that would be really cool.


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## xoryo (May 28, 2015)

dch said:


> that's exactly the same model as mine (sadly). The install works fine, ZFS is awesome, but I couldn't get the console to cover anything other than ~ 2/3 of the screen, nor get anything at all working under X. So not very functional. I'd be happy with running tmux in a console if 100% of the screen could be used, and if the font FreeBSD is using as EFI boot time would stay on the screen, but it doesn't. Short of donating to the FreeBSD Foundation and waiting a few years I don't see much hope here. Sadly installed linux mint this week to get some work done :-(.  A possible alternative *might* be to set up Xen or bhyve, and see if some sort of PCI pass through to a compatible guest is possible, a la http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-11/msg00231.html and https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/pci_passthru which believe has only been used for network devices so far... if a more experienced person would advise whether this is feasible that would be really cool.



When I launched the Live CD I had the same problem as you with my screen, also my LAN didn't work ( could be the cable don't know for sure). I'll pick a nice GNU+Linux distro then. Thanks for the help, and if there is any more progress in the development for this specific hardware please share it with me, I'll do the same!

About the PCI pass through it sounds nice, but that would be a lot of work (I think)  and at some point you'll be limited (I think).


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## dch (May 6, 2016)

Hey, good news. I have FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT running, full disk boot to zfs, using minimal X config with scfb driver, graphical performance is fine for my usage. LAN wise I am using a minimal USB dongle (fits in the slot so very low profile). It's perfect. I haven't gotten sound working, though, and cut / paste to urxvt is not working yet but that's my inexperience as opposed to breakage.


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## aragats (May 6, 2016)

dch said:


> cut / paste to urxvt is not working yet


You need a perl extension like this or similar:
https://github.com/muennich/urxvt-perls


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## bcomputerguy (Sep 1, 2016)

dch said:


> Hey, good news. I have FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT running, full disk boot to zfs, using minimal X config with scfb driver, graphical performance is fine for my usage. LAN wise I am using a minimal USB dongle (fits in the slot so very low profile). It's perfect. I haven't gotten sound working, though, and cut / paste to urxvt is not working yet but that's my inexperience as opposed to breakage.





Did you ever get the sound working? I have a macbook pro 11,3 and freeBSD 10.3 installs just fine and once I setup i3wm, urvxt terminal and firefox things work pretty well. I would just like to get my sound working but nothing.

I've tried vlc and firefox and neither works.... Here's a thread about it : https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/57473/


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## dch (Sep 5, 2016)

11.0-RC2 runs very nicely now, and the EDIMAX wifi thumb USB supports 2G wifi well now https://www.alternate.at/Edimax/EW-7811Un-Wi-Fi-adapter/html/product/154657?lk=4746 although the internal Apple/Broadcom one is unlikely ever to be supported I guess. This runs in scfb mode https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=scfb or if you want to use the latest Intel drivers,  and are up to compiling your own kernel + ports, the FreeBSD Desktop wiki https://github.com/freebsddesktop/freebsd-base-graphics/wiki has more details on how to set this up. I've got HDMI video & sound support working through the 4.7 driver, although power consumption is a lot higher for the moment, and I don't have enough Xorg expertise to organise the tiling & sizing of the desktops correctly. I also don't have a need for suspend/resume but if somebody else wants to share how this is set up I am happy to try that out too.


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## dch (Sep 5, 2016)

bcomputerguy said:


> Did you ever get the sound working? I have a macbook pro 11,3 and freeBSD 10.3 installs just fine and once I setup i3wm, urvxt terminal and firefox things work pretty well. I would just like to get my sound working but nothing.
> 
> I've tried vlc and firefox and neither works.... Here's a thread about it : https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/57473/



wrt sound, I have headphone sound OK but haven't succeeded getting internal speakers to work. The "pin stuff" mentioned in FreeBSD sound docs has me completely confused, I have no idea where to start with it. Pointers welcomed.


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## bcomputerguy (Sep 6, 2016)

I actually just ran into another problem that's not sound related but graphics related. I'll make another thread about it. I'll start another thread about that in a second.

Here's a thread where I'm being helped by another forum user to fix the problems : https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/57473/page-2#post-328059


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## pwdr (Oct 20, 2016)

I'm going to bump/hijack here, apologies but it is related!

MacBook Pro 13" Retina (Intel Iris Graphics 6100) trying to boot into PC-BSD Live USB key. The boot goes fine except that xorg won't launch (as expected, given the above conversation).

It seems dch is having luck using scfb but I can't get it to work. I followed directions the FreeBSD Wiki directions at https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/SCFB but can't install pkg as no active repositories are configured. The Answer at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40080493/no-active-remote-repositories-configured suggests configuring /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf, which I have done. The last line was 
	
	



```
enabled: no
```
 so I amended it to read 
	
	



```
enabled: yes
```

mkdir goes fine but wget can't resolve http://geocoding.io/images/2016/02/pkg.freebsd.org.2013102301

I've tried installing scfb as per the Wiki but again, repos can't be found (pkgs can't be updated).

First question: is this a wild goose chase I'm on or is this going to get scfb working?
Second question: how do I resolve the geocoding link?
Third question: I assume when I shutdown these settings will be lost? If so, how can I make them stick so I can reuse the Live USB?

Thanks!


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## dch (Oct 20, 2016)

@


pwdr said:


> I'm going to bump/hijack here, apologies but it is related!
> 
> Thanks!



Given this is about PCBSD/TrueOS please move it to another thread - e.g. your issue of the repo being disabled is required for TrueOS as it has different binary dependencies, best to keep things separate. I also suspect your onboard Macbook network adapter isn't being recognised by FreeBSD, so no wonder you can't download packages... Anyway It makes future searches simpler when things stay on topic.

In the spirit of this existing thread, f you install FreeBSD 11.0R amd64, and set up scfb does that work?


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## pwdr (Oct 20, 2016)

dch said:


> In the spirit of this existing thread, f you install FreeBSD 11.0R amd64, and set up scfb does that work?



Not sure, will give it a try and report back.


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## pwdr (Oct 21, 2016)

dch said:


> @
> In the spirit of this existing thread, f you install FreeBSD 11.0R amd64, and set up scfb does that work?



I've installed FreeBSD11 to a USB key (proper install, not Live) and the base installation went fine (except no ipv4 options). I haven't got as far as initiating xorg yet. I'm having wifi problems, as detailed in my thread here: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/58134/" href="/index.php?threads/https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/58134//">Thread https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/58134/
I considered the Edimax you suggested but found the Broadcom should be supported under FBSD11.


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## Atsuri (Oct 28, 2016)

dch said:


> wrt sound, I have headphone sound OK but haven't succeeded getting internal speakers to work. The "pin stuff" mentioned in FreeBSD sound docs has me completely confused, I have no idea where to start with it. Pointers welcomed.



This problem exists since the "legacy" MacBook and MacBook Pro mid-2009 devices. Sound is configured properly on software level, but the speakers are not getting any juice. That's why the headphones work perfectly fine. Below code was tested on mentioned mid-2009 devices and very much depends on the pinning of your speakers:

```
hint.hdaa.0.config="ovref"
hint.hdaa.0.gpio_config="0=set"
```
This provides power to the speakers again .


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## k3y5 (Jan 15, 2020)

I'm jumping in as I'm just getting started with FreeBSD. I'm trying to get a Macbook pro 2014 working with FreeBSD. I've got two graphics cards on the machine. Whenever I install the base Intel card first. The machine starts to reboot on a never ending loop. Not sure how to get DWM working correctly. Any pointers/tips?


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## SirDice (Jan 15, 2020)

Build graphics/drm-kmod from ports. The packages are still being built for 12.0, this is not a problem for 99% of the packages but kernel modules often fail and can crash the system when attempting to load them on 12.1.


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## ada (Feb 27, 2022)

k3y5 said:


> I'm jumping in as I'm just getting started with FreeBSD. I'm trying to get a Macbook pro 2014 working with FreeBSD. I've got two graphics cards on the machine. Whenever I install the base Intel card first. The machine starts to reboot on a never ending loop. Not sure how to get DWM working correctly. Any pointers/tips?


Were you ever able to get the Intel graphics working?

I'm having the same issue, and suspect it's because the Apple boot manager disables the integrated graphics by default when booting anything other than macOS or bootcamp installed Windows on devices with a dedicated GPU. On Linux there's a grub patch, or you can use rEFInd as a boot manager as it has implemented the same patch. Though you also need to set the proper bits in the nvram to swap over to the iGPU before restarting the computer, so using something like 0xbb/gpu-switch would probably prove beneficial. You really just need the bash script from it and then follow the Linux instructions.


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