# What's the point of the PINE64 download of FreeBSD?



## Samuel Venable (Aug 22, 2020)

I've been told up front that FreeBSD doesn't and won't work on a PineBook Pro. I've also read it won't run on a PinePhone. That being the case, I doubt it will run on a PineTab or regular PineBook either.

What is the PINE64 version of FreeBSD actually any good for?


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## Phishfry (Aug 22, 2020)

Samuel Venable said:


> What is the PINE64 version of FreeBSD actually any good for?


For Pine64 SBC's


			arm/pine64 - FreeBSD Wiki
		


For Pinebook Pro:








						FreeBSD Desktop for RK3399 SBC
					

Hello to all !  I want to share the news. After the release of U-Boot 2020.07, HDMI video works. It can be seen.  Links to test boot images.  XFCE Desktop  FreeBSD-aarch64-13.0-DESKTOP-Pinebook-Pro-20210101.img.xz  Live VIDEO  update 2021.01.04




					forums.freebsd.org


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## George (Aug 22, 2020)

Last time I checked, FreeBSD did run on a pinebook (but without the mali GPU, without wlan).
It booted on a pinebook pro.

You'd need to read the arm-mailing list to find out which hardware components are working and which aren't.

I saw someone on twitter booting FreeBSD on a pinephone. But of course it's highly experimental..


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## 20-100-2fe (Aug 22, 2020)

NetBSD users are more lucky, but there are still issues with the battery.
It looks like Linux is the only viable option on ARM64 machines for the moment.


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## kpedersen (Aug 23, 2020)

20-100-2fe said:


> It looks like Linux is the only viable option on ARM64 machines for the moment.



Its a bit of an annoying continuous cycle. Lets say it takes FreeBSD ~5 more years to get perfect support on this Pine64 device (i.e working wifi, graphics, etc). The average lifespan of this kind of hardware means that it will no longer be manufactured by then and something new will be on sale instead so incentive to finish driver support is greatly diminished.

Unfortunately with ARM, currently very little is standardised, so what will be on the market then will be something *completely* different and very little of the Pine64 code can be of use on the new hardware. So the developers dutifully start on writing brand new code for the new device and ... 5 years later the cycle continues.

It is sad because what we end up with in the future is lots of half-finished driver support for a number of obsolete niche devices.

Linux only manages because the hardware developers generally write the support for Linux directly. Luckily this support doesn't tend to rot once the original company loses interest or drops support. So long story short, I agree with 20-100-2fe that Linux is currently the best choice for this kind of stuff.


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## rigoletto@ (Aug 23, 2020)

20-100-2fe said:


> NetBSD users are more lucky, but there are still issues with the battery.
> It looks like Linux is the only viable option on ARM64 machines for the moment.



No true if the hardware is a Cavium/Marvell ThunderX board, and Ampere is likely to have good support now.


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## kpedersen (Aug 23, 2020)

rigoletto@ said:


> Cavium/Marvell ThunderX board, and Ampere is likely to have good support now.



These are a little different to the cheap <£100 hobbyist SoCs though


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