# Chromebook Keyboard + Touch-pad not working.



## Roald (Jun 19, 2019)

Hello, i got a question regarding Intel CPU speed and compiling ports software.

I noticed that the Intel i7-8565U got:

Processor Base Frequency1.80 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency4.60 GHz
And i would like to know, when compiling ports, will the CPU speed be 1.80 GHz or 4.60 Ghz?

What i also would like to know, but might be off-topic, is it possible to update the bios/uefi on MacBook (air) without having Apple OSX installed?

I searched the WWW about these two questions, but did not found a clear answer, any clarification would be welcome.

[edit]
Let me be more clear, i'm looking to buy a new laptop that would run FreeBSD for basic net browsing with Firefox and maybe play some Minetest.
I did not do enough investigation yet about the new laptop, but my choices right now are:
1. Lenovo Thinkpad E585 Ryzen 5 - 8GB - 256 GB SSD
2.  Asus ZenBook UX433FA-A5046T
3. Apple MacBook Air 13,3" (2017) MQD32N/A

Which one of those 3, would be most compatible with FreeBSD, in terms of hardware support?


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## ralphbsz (Jun 20, 2019)

Roald said:


> And i would like to know, when compiling ports, will the CPU speed be 1.80 GHz or 4.60 Ghz?


With today's CPUs, most compile operations are actually IO limited, not CPU limited. To get your CPU to stay in full-power full-speed mode for extended periods, you will need to use parallel compiles, and a really good IO and file system. That in turn requires a significant amount of memory, to keep all the intermediate files and products of the compile in RAM cache. Compilers and linkers also create an IO workload that is particularly difficult for file systems and disks. I would probably recommend using a good SSD (which is pretty much automatic on a laptop). And even then, on a laptop you are probably not going to be able to keep the CPU in full power mode for extended periods, due to lack of cooling. Laptops are not designed to be servers, much less compute servers.

But there is another even more fundamental question: Why do you want to compile ports? Just installing pre-compiled versions from packages is much more convenient. And the performance gain from re-compiling for your specific CPU tends to be very small in most cases. There are rare cases where recompile makes sense (some software can't be distributed in binary form due to license restrictions, you may need unusual options that are not enabled in the precompiled package, and you may need to get the last 10% of performance out of your CPU), but that's not common.



> ... update the bios/uefi on MacBook (air) without having Apple OSX installed?
> ... Which one of those 3, would be most compatible with FreeBSD, in terms of hardware support?


No idea. For the last >10 years, the only laptops I have used have been MacBooks running MacOS.


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## Roald (Jun 21, 2019)

ralphbsz said:


> Why do you want to compile ports? Just installing pre-compiled versions from packages is much more convenient.


When i install some ports packages with # pkg install, then after a while i need to upgrade them to the latest version, so i use # portmaster -a, and that seems to compile the newer ports packages?
Is there another way to just update the ports packages to the latest versions without compiling them with portmaster? I have no idea.

I also like the hardened bsd project, there it seems i need to compile from the /usr/ports/ directory to install new ports.

Today i might actually buy a new MacBook Air, that will be running FreeBSD, or TrueOS, or HardenedBSD, i just have to see which one runs the best.. Only thing i'm worried about is if the 4k retina screen on the MacBook Air will cause any problems.

On my current Chromebook that also uses 4k screen i can't seem to get FreeBSD and TrueOS to work, because TrueOS won't launch the graphical installer.
The fact TrueOS won't launch the refind graphical installer on Chromebook Acer Edgar 14 might be caused by the Coreboot Bios, but after 1 week trying to make TrueOS launch i gave up.
And FreeBSD installs o.k on the Chromebook Acer Edgar 14, but then again, when in the TTY or in X, typing is really sluggish, and is having some delay: so if i type "hey how are ..y...oo..uu.."

I did not yet found a fix to the sluggish typing in consoles, so until i solve that, i'm stuck with Linux that does not have the delay when typing on the Chromebook.

[edit]
i'm adding $ sysctl and $ dmesg from:
[antergos@ant-19.4 ~]$ uname -a
Linux ant-19.4 5.0.5-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 27 17:53:10 UTC 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Maybe someone can help me solve the delay/lag when typing in FreeBSD at the console or TTY on that Chromebook Acer Edgar 14.


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## ralphbsz (Jun 21, 2019)

Roald said:


> When i install some ports packages with # pkg install, then after a while i need to upgrade them to the latest version, so i use # portmaster -a, and that seems to compile the newer ports packages?
> Is there another way to just update the ports packages to the latest versions without compiling them with portmaster? I have no idea.


Just "pkg upgrade"; read "man pkg". I bet there is also a handbook chapter for it, but I'm in a hurry this morning, so only a short answer.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with compiling yourself from ports ... but it is a lot of extra time and work, and if the pre-compiled packages work for you, that saves a lot of effort.


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## Maxnix (Jun 21, 2019)

Roald said:


> When i install some ports packages with # pkg install, then after a while i need to upgrade them to the latest version, so i use # portmaster -a, and that seems to compile the newer ports packages?
> Is there another way to just update the ports packages to the latest versions without compiling them with portmaster? I have no idea.
> 
> I also like the hardened bsd project, there it seems i need to compile from the /usr/ports/ directory to install new ports.


You are getting really confused. Both FreeBSD and HardenedBSD (a FreeBSD fork) have two ways to install/upgrade/remove third part software:

Through the ports collection (the bunch of directories and files you find in /usr/ports). You can manage them with tools like ports-mgmt/portmaster.
Through pre-compiled binary packages stored in a repository (by default the FreeBSD project's one) with pkg(8).
So if you installed you programs with pkg(8), you don't need to use ports to upgrade them. Just follow ralphbsz advice, and moreover read the 4th chapter of the Handbook.

Oh, an advice: just use binary packages or compile ports. Don't mix them.


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## Roald (Jun 21, 2019)

Hey *ralphbsz *and *Maxnix, *yes compiling software packages takes a lot of time, so i really would prefer binary packages.

What i don't understand, is when i install with [# pkg install node] it installs www/node-12.2.0
Then when i do [# pkg upgrade] it tells me everything is up to date.
But if i do [# portmaster -a] it tells me it want to upgrade to www/node-12.4.0 (and portmaster compiles the newer version)

Also for HBSD some hardening options must be set on the packages, and it's not clear to me, when installing binaries (i really would prefer binaries yes) if the hardening options (like pie flags) are included in the binaries.

Sorry for my lack of reading manuals, i will dive into them now. Thanks the for help nevertheless.


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## Maxnix (Jun 22, 2019)

Roald said:


> What i don't understand, is when i install with [# pkg install node] it installs www/node-12.2.0
> Then when i do [# pkg upgrade] it tells me everything is up to date.
> But if i do [# portmaster -a] it tells me it want to upgrade to www/node-12.4.0 (and portmaster compiles the newer version)


The FreeBSD project offers two repositories: _latest_ and _quarterly_.

The _latest_ repository receives updates for new software every week IIRC, and new version of 3rd part software lands there more rapidly. Those packages are built from the HEAD branch of ports.
The _quarterly_ repository receives updates for new software every quarter, just security patches lands there in the meantime. Its packages are built from a quarterly branch of ports (frozen form HEAD and named Q1, Q2, ... respectively).
By default the quarterly repo is used  by pkg(8).


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## Roald (Jun 22, 2019)

Oh hey, Thanks, *Maxnix *for clearing that up.
In the future i will use # pkg upgrade, that will actually save me a lot of time !

Another thing, i did not want to double post, my question about the Acer Edgar 14 Chromebook with sluggish delay when typing in console.
I will edit this thread title to suit my question, if that is fine to the Forum Moderators.

I discovered, that when i plug in external usb keyboard into the Acer Edgar 14 Chromebook the sluggish, delay, lag, typing in consoles is gone.
So the lag-typing must be related to the integrated Chromebook keyboard, also on side-note, the Touchpad also does not work.

On bleeding edge software Linux distributions like Arch, the Keyboard and Touchpad work o.k out of the box, without any configuration needed.
However on Gentoo GNU/Linux, the Chromebook Keyboard and Touchpad, does need some kernel modules build into the kernel to make them work. (i forgot which modules, i can look them up)

What do you think my chances are to get the Chromebook Acer Edgar 14, Keyboard + Touchpad to work on FreeBSD?


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## Maxnix (Jun 22, 2019)

Seem that's not supported: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2018-June/069644.html. Don't know about the keyboard.


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