# Thinkpad X220 and FreeBSD? Or maybe Haswell?



## cracauer@ (Feb 19, 2014)

I bought a system76 gazelle 15", intending to replace Linux with FreeBSD. Things do not work out with that hardware (unrelated to OSes) and I need to find something else for FreeBSD.  Since I will keep the Gazelle for light duty I have 15" covered and want something smaller.

For used 12-14" compacts, is a Thinkpad X220 my best option for FreeBSD?  I must have a solid keyboard. I am willing to use USB sound, USB wireless if that is what it takes.


Now, having said that.  I can say that I would really like to have Haswell. The performance of the Haswell i7 in the Gazelle is just top notch and even the 4600 graphics are surprisingly usable. My benchmarking also indicated that the Turbo works a lot better than on older i7s, it seems to kick in much smoother and give things like compilation an extra boost not expressed on the GHz rating of the boost (what I'm saying is the pause to wait for the disk causes Turbo to drop out and then Haswell is better at getting back in gear).

What would it take to have a FreeBSD friendly Haswell 12-14"?


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## jrm@ (Feb 19, 2014)

*Re: Thinkpad X220 (new versions) and FreeBSD? Want Haswell.*

Can you even get a used X220 with Haswell?  The Thinkpad X series is up to X240 now.


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## cracauer@ (Feb 19, 2014)

*Re: Thinkpad X220 (new versions) and FreeBSD? Want Haswell.*



			
				jrm said:
			
		

> Can you even get a used X220 with Haswell?  The Thinkpad X series is up to X240 now.



Yeah, re-reading what I wrote I think I mixed up two questions:

1. question: does whatever you can get in a x220 work?

2. question: if I wanted haswell, what would I have to buy and does it do well in FreeBSD?

I'll edit to clarify


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## jrm@ (Feb 19, 2014)

*Re: Thinkpad X220 (new versions) and FreeBSD? Want Haswell.*



			
				cracauer@ said:
			
		

> 1. question: does whatever you can get in a x220 work?



Yes, very well, but with a few (soon to be fixed) quirks.  GPT and legacy boot don't play nice together for some reason (this is also a problem with GNU/Linux), so you'll have to stick with an MBR partition scheme until UEFI boot is supported in FreeBSD.  Until newcons is ready, once you start Xorg, you can't go back to the console.  This also means the resume part of suspend/resume is not currently functional.  Both UEFI and newcons are baking in the oven.  Everything else works very well.  Oh, make sure you get the Intel wireless card and not the other option (RealTek?).


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## wblock@ (Feb 19, 2014)

Haswell KMS video support is not available yet.


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## cracauer@ (Feb 19, 2014)

*Re: Thinkpad X220 (new versions) and FreeBSD? Want Haswell.*



			
				jrm said:
			
		

> cracauer@ said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Is there no suspend/resume support at all or just the to-disk part?

What do you guys think about Linux self-made suspend-to-disk? I used it on a previous laptop and it was very handy. A hack. But a very useful one. Screw BIOS support.


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