# Apple MacBook support?



## dndlnx (Aug 14, 2018)

Considered dual-booting Mac OS and FreeBSD rather than a virtual machine, if possible. Hardware is a late 2013 MacBook Pro “Retina”.

When booted into FreeBSD, should I expect some stuff not to work? How compatible is it with Apple hardware?


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## drhowarddrfine (Aug 14, 2018)

I read a lot of people run FreeBSD on Macs. OSX contains a lot of FreeBSD userland software, too.


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## alexseitsinger (Aug 15, 2018)

I installed FreeBSD (10.4-RELEASE, 11.2-RELEASE) on a 2012 Non-retina Macbook Pro, and it didn't support the wireless card (BCM4331). I would check to see if the card in your laptop is supported or not. If not, you will have to either replace it (if its possible) or dedicate one of your USB ports to a wifi dongle (that is supported).


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## dndlnx (Aug 17, 2018)

That would be a bummer since it’s kind of a crucial requirement for a laptop. I guess there’s always buying a cheap one like an older ThinkPad.

I just wanted some place to run FreeBSD when my file server is down, so I can  access my UFS formatted backup. Maybe I should be looking into a way to read UFS from a Mac? Or even switching the format of my backup?


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## alexseitsinger (Aug 17, 2018)

dndlnx said:


> That would be a bummer since it’s kind of a crucial requirement for a laptop. I guess there’s always buying a cheap one like an older ThinkPad.
> 
> I just wanted some place to run FreeBSD when my file server is down, so I can  access my UFS formatted backup. Maybe I should be looking into a way to read UFS from a Mac? Or even switching the format of my backup?



Agreed. It definitely stinks to not have wifi on a laptop. I have sadly had to resort to an alternative OS on that laptop. The thinkpads come highly recommended from what I've read. I did some googling (apple) and found a post that mentioned Mac OSX using big endian UFS (UFS2). According to the wikipedia, UFS support was dropped completely since Mac OSX Lion. Regardless, I would try to see if you can mount a UFS formatted flash drive on your Mac, and if it does, then your hard drive should work as well.


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## dndlnx (Aug 17, 2018)

I came across “OSXFUSE” but who knows how reliable that is? It supposedly works for UFS. I have actually plugged a UFS thumb drive I keep around, into my laptop. The Mac OS said unrecognized format, or something to that effect. And yeah, I’m way past Lion at this point.


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## Beastie7 (Aug 17, 2018)

alexseitsinger said:


> I installed FreeBSD (10.4-RELEASE, 11.2-RELEASE) on a 2012 Non-retina Macbook Pro, and it didn't support the wireless card (BCM4331)



Is this simply an issue with no driver support, or is this some sort of result of how locked down their devices are? If one were to develop drivers for the chipset; would it be feasible to use it?

Other than the Thinkpad lineup, I do like the keyboard layout and feel of the 2nd and 3rd Gen MacBook Pro. It'd be nice to turn my MacBook into a BeastieBook. 

(corny.. i know. Don't judge me)


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## alexseitsinger (Aug 17, 2018)

Beastie7 said:


> Is this simply an issue with no driver support, or is this some sort of result of how locked down their devices are? If one were to develop drivers for the chipset; would it be feasible to use it?
> 
> Other than the Thinkpad lineup, I do like the keyboard layout and feel of the 2nd and 3rd Gen MacBook Pro. It'd be nice to turn my MacBook into a BeastieBook.
> 
> (corny.. i know. Don't judge me)



It's a driver support issue. The wireless card works fine in linux (though it only works on 2.5GHz and lacks 5GHz support). I agree, the chicklet keyboard is solid. BeastieBook sounds like a good name .


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## dndlnx (Aug 20, 2018)

This is my wireless card:

```
Card Type:    AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x112)
  Firmware Version:    Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.37.31.1a9)
```

Wish it was more specific on the "xx", but since bwi(4) and bwn(4)  don't mention anything beyond "g" wireless anyway... probably a no go?


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## trev (Aug 21, 2018)

pciconf -lv should provide you with more specificity like:


```
none6@pci0:3:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x0090106b chip=0x432814e4 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries'
    device     = 'BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n'
    class      = network
```


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