# What laptop



## sk8harddiefast (Jun 28, 2010)

Hi. I want to buy one of this 3 laptop

http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.908657

http://www.plaisio.gr/Laptop-Netboo...PLE-MACBOOK-PRO-MC374GR-MC374GR-Z0J7000KC.htm

http://www.plaisio.gr/Laptop-Netboo...cbook-Air-Aluminum-Mc233Gr-A-APCMBMACANB1.htm

Witch of this 3 has better support for FBSD?
I had 2 laptops but none has support for lan or wireless for Freebsd.
The first of this 3 is the best solution for my wallet but i don't know if can see ethernet card


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## aragon (Jun 29, 2010)

I don't know about the Macbooks, but I suggest avoiding the Asus.  The Atom Z5xx hardware uses the GMA500 graphics controller which has terrible Xorg driver support, even in Linux.


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## sk8harddiefast (Jun 29, 2010)

Really i have very big problem with laptops & Unix. None don't want to see ethernet card, even wifi 
Also i am not a rich man. At this time i have not even job!
The best laptop for his price was acer timeline 3810t.
Very good design, slim, core2 solo, 4 giga ddr3 ram, 13,3'' ,hdmi ,320 giga hdd ,camera, etc 600 euro.
But never saw lan and now is dead and i want to buy another. None *with this possibilities on this price* 
I checked all
http://www.multirama.gr/products/category?catid=010200
http://www.e-shop.gr/PER_laptops.phtml
http://www.plaisio.gr/Laptop-Netbook-GPS.htm

Also i like this http://www.electroworld.gr/site/product.jsp?catid=10045501
But i have no idea if lan works, is not 13,3" and have Intel Graphics card


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## zeiz (Jun 29, 2010)

If you consider Macbooks I'd rather go for Lenovo.
Asus looks has GMA950 now, who knows... I would come to the store and just try Install FreeBSD right there with a salesman OR
ask him: is this laptop fully FreeBSD compatible? (with written guarantee to return it if it's not 
My wife's VAIO is not compatible with FreeBSD. Depends on a model perhaps. Also Sony has incompetent and untruthful customer service (I was surprised).


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## kpedersen (Jun 29, 2010)

Hmm, I stay away from Apple hardware..

You would think that due to OSX being unix-based, it would use pretty compatible hardware.

I bought an intel mac mini under this pretense but it has been a nightmare!

- Cdrom drive is so weak, it cannot really read burnt cds
- No usb pen drive booting either due to eeprom rather than "real" bios.
- Apple Keyboard not recognised before the operating system loads
- When FreeBSD shuts down, the mac keeps running (never actually powers off) (acpi?)
- It runs really hot with FreeBSD, Linux and Win32

+ Its wireless and wired hardware works quite well now 

However IBM/Lenovo will give you a lot less headaches (I also tend to prefer the look lol)

For the price of an Apple laptop, get yourself two different lenovo thinkpads. Then you are more likely to end up with a compatible laptop (two if your lucky)


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## sk8harddiefast (Jun 29, 2010)

I like Sony Vaio too much but they are expensive 
So you suggests me to buy a lenovo Thinkpad?
It will be compatible with freebsd. Right?
Well, this i like http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.907088
or http://www.e-shop.gr/show_per.phtml?id=PER.907152
And is ~ for my wallet.
Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card is easy to configure xorg? :OOO
What about lan? :OOO


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## klanger (Jun 29, 2010)

You can run FBSD on Macbook in VirtualBox or VMWare Fusion etc.
If you want free software for Mac OS X you can install MacPorts.
Plain FBSD install on a macbook is a pain (and it doesn't support usb-boot, you can use cd to boot macbook from usb though). 

Asus eeepc 900 has excellent support for linux/bsd - the only issue is suspend (i don't use it).
I've tried Asus 1000HE (Atom 1.66) and the only problem (a side suspend) was lack of wlan, but now it should be supported as there is rt driver.

Look in to google for freebsd compatibility laptop list, but as i recall all previous post about laptops&bsd Lenovo/Dell are the winners.


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## vermaden (Jun 29, 2010)

sk8harddiefast said:
			
		

> Witch of this 3 has better support for FBSD?


Get an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad X* T* W* series or Dell Latitude/Precision series laptop [*].

[*] But remember to omit the newer ones like E6410 OR T410 cause FreeBSD does not currently have a working graphics driver for them because of GEM/TTM/KMS stuff not pulled yet from Linux kernel.


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## sk8harddiefast (Jun 29, 2010)

> "If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened." Linus Torvalds


Check on my new site: http://unixsystems.dyndns.org/ 

i like this http://www1.euro.dell.com/gr/el/bus.../pd.aspx?refid=latitude-13&s=bsd&cs=RC1078530 too much.
If i take it as i want i must to pay ~ 1000 euro.
Is a little expensive but if do my job and i can install Freebsd without problems (i want to work everything. Ethernet, wifi, camera, sound, graphics card etc), well i am thinking to buy it!


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## vermaden (Jun 29, 2010)

sk8harddiefast said:
			
		

> If i take it as i want i must to pay ~ 1000 euro.


I was able to get Lenovo ThinkPad X300 for about $600, do not buy new ones, take the used one, its like cars, its just do not pay off to take the new ones.


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## klanger (Jun 29, 2010)

OK, an update!

It seems, that freebsd 7.2 (desktopbsd as live-DVD) works quite good on white macbook.

WiFi works with wpa_supplicant.conf added to /etc and with 
	
	



```
ifconfig_ath0="WPA DHCP"
```
 added to /etc/rc.conf

The keymap is set OK, so I have non-english keys with alt-gr.

After loading coretemp.ko into kernel you can see macbooks temp with 
	
	



```
sysctl dev.cpu.0.temperature dev.cpu.1.temperature
```
 which was with live-DVD at 63 oC.

Well touchpad works in 50% - no multitouch at the moment in 7.2 and 8.

Volume and brightness keyboard adjusting isn't working OTB, but it should be fixable.

As a conclusion, I wouldn't buy a macbook for freebsd, but you can for sure use this OS for most tasks on this machine. 

PS. I've posted this from my macbook, running desktopbsd live-DVD with working wpa wifi


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## sk8harddiefast (Jun 29, 2010)

One silly question. Mac OS have BSD kernel. Right?
Freebsd shouldn't run just fine on a Mac laptop?


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 29, 2010)

> Mac OS have BSD kernel. Right?


No.


```
Kernel type	Hybrid based on the Mach microkernel
```


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## sk8harddiefast (Jun 30, 2010)

A. Ok.
2 Years now i was thinking that


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