# FreeBSD wiki and x86 mini PCs?



## xchris (Jan 10, 2018)

I recently got a HP Pavilion Mini (i3-5005u) and its just today that I managed to 
play with this... 
The FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT fits like a glove there -don't ask me why I did not install the 11.1, obvious reason: its a Broadwell CPU (HD Graphics 5500). 
Anyway, I have to say it was a bit of risky buy from me as I had no idea how compatible the  system would be with FreeBSD. I did search the wiki but the only info I could find was for the NUCs. I think a "x86 mini PCs" section would be nice there, what do you think guys (admins) ?


----------



## k.jacker (Jan 11, 2018)

That's not really needed. All that information allready is in the wiki you mention and in the Hardware Notes.
A lot of hardware devices have to be compatible with FreeBSD to make a mini-PC (or whatever type of computer) compatible as a whole.
The hardest part is mostly finding precise information about the used components in a computer, to check it against the above sources.
Hardware support in FreeBSD has constantly become better and better over the years and today you'll hardly find stuff that's not supported.
I started out on FreeBSD 4.3 and at that time there was a lot more hardware that wasn't supported.
Most unsupported devices today, in my eyes, are wireless.
Other issues with FreeBSD not working (good) on some hardware is very often related to bad BIOS/UEFi implementations, ACPI issues and the like.
That's not FreeBSD's fault.


----------



## SirDice (Jan 12, 2018)

k.jacker said:


> Hardware support in FreeBSD has constantly become better and better over the years and today you'll hardly find stuff that's not supported.
> I started out on FreeBSD 4.3 and at that time there was a lot more hardware that wasn't supported.


Yeah, hardware support was quite bad. Well, not really bad, but you did have to take care what you bought. Today this isn't so much the case. Unless it's some exotic piece of kit there's a good chance it'll work.


> Most unsupported devices today, in my eyes, are wireless.


Some network devices are still somewhat problematic (Realtek comes to mind). It doesn't help if some manufactures keep changing their designs without changing the type/identification of the chips themselves. So you can have two cards both of type XY, one works and the other doesn't. That's truly annoying.


----------



## balanga (Jan 12, 2018)

xchris said:


> I think a "x86 mini PCs" section would be nice there, what do you think guys (admins) ?



That sounds like a good idea to me. I think that Mini PCs will be 'the next big thing' and would be nice to have a reference point for what works and what doesn't.

I bought a Z83 Mini PC recently and had a hard time getting FreeBSD to run on it - X.org still won't run, but initially it wouldn't even boot up to a login prompt. Fortunately Terry_Kennedy Thread 60224 suggested that I needed to add:-

```
hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
hint.uart.1.disabled="1"
```
to /boot/device.hints...

I would never have got it to boot without his advice.

Before long everyone will have an HTPC connected to their TV and it looks like Linux will be the only viable alternative to Windows, unless there is sufficient information on how to get FreeBSD working on one.


----------

